Raymond Moody biography. Raymond Moody: “Those who experience clinical death are changed forever

Longing for the deceased is the most painful human suffering. Sometimes the bitterness of loss is so unbearable that the survivor himself dreams of death. Is it possible to change the situation and return the joy of life to a person? Yes, says the famous Dr. Moody. He wrote his new book “All about meetings after death” about this.

WORKSHOP ON WORKING WITH DEATH

American resuscitator Raymond Moody knows everything about the afterlife and the light at the end of the tunnel. He wrote a book about this twenty years ago. "Life after life" which is still sold around the world in huge quantities.

But since then he has not stopped his research. He retired to a mansion in Alabama and began to conduct some experiments in a unique laboratory hidden from prying eyes. The doctor doesn't even have neighbors, but knowledgeable people They say that from time to time unfortunate people who have lost loved ones come to visit him. And he, as part of the experiment he is conducting, organizes meetings for them with the deceased. After sessions of communicating with the dead, the living leave Dr. Moody cheerful and ready to move on with their lives.

This is hard to believe, but it is the pure truth. And what Dr. Moody does is called grief therapy. He conceived this project back in the 1990s. Then he bought an old mill far from people and civilization and converted it into a “workshop for working with death.”

WORLD THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

As an exception, the doctor allowed filmmakers into his mansion who were filming about him documentary. Having barely crossed the threshold of a strange dwelling, the television crew found themselves in the world of Through the Looking Glass: absolute darkness, hundreds of mirrors of the most different forms and sizes... In such conditions, a person loses the sense of time and the reality of what is happening. This is exactly the result, according to the doctor, that he sought.

How does Dr. Moody work? He spends half a day asking an inconsolable client about his lost relative, learning a lot of details and details, and along the way studying his interlocutor and figuring out how to help him. After all, we are all different, and each requires a different approach.

Then the doctor takes the patient into a windowless room (Moody calls it a “psychomanteum”) and sits him in a chair in front of a huge mirror. Incredibly, after some time the inconsolable sufferer begins to feel the presence of the deceased. He hears his voice, smells his perfume, feels his touch.

How does the doctor do this? It's incredible! “Very likely,” he replies. -The ancient Greeks were engaged in similar experiments. I just borrowed their idea."

ENTRANCE TO THE OTHER WORLD

Statistics say that 65% of widows see the ghosts of their deceased husbands, 75% of parents who have lost a child maintain contact with him (visual, auditory, etc.) throughout the year. This brings relief to both those who find themselves in the realm of grief. However, for a long time it was believed that such meetings with the dead occur involuntarily and cannot be organized by order, and that they cannot be observed and studied in laboratory conditions.

In previous books, Moody wrote about the memories of people who experienced clinical death. Very often, while doctors were fighting for the lives of patients, they made unusual astral journeys in which they met their deceased relatives and friends. As a result, they ceased to be afraid of death, having become convinced from their own experience that this was only a transition to another, happier life.

However, this zone into which the “travelers” found themselves has its own clear boundary, beyond which a person cannot advance, otherwise he will die completely and irrevocably. Moody called it the middle region - the crossroads of the physical and other worlds. Unexpectedly for himself, the scientist discovered that in fact, meetings with deceased relatives can take place not only in the middle region and not necessarily during clinical death.

A special technique of looking into a mirror, according to Moody, allows people to see the spirits of deceased relatives at almost any time they wish...

“The ability to see images of deceased relatives is of great benefit,” the scientist believes. - After all, the grief of some people who have lost loved ones knows no bounds. And my magic mirrors allow them to console themselves and get rid of their suffering.”

ORACLES OF THE DEAD

The ancient Greeks, for example, had “psychomanteums,” or oracles of the dead, to meet with the dead. A similar place, according to the ancient Greek geographer Strabo, was located in Western Greece in the city of Ether. Those who controlled the oracles settled in underground mud houses connected by tunnels. They never came to the surface during the day; they left their caves only at night.

At the end of the 50s of the 20th century, the Greek archaeologist Sotir Dakar discovered this place and began excavations. The oracle turned out to be a complex underground complex of cells and labyrinths, converging on a large cave, where meetings with ghosts took place. In it, Dakar found the remains of a giant bronze cauldron. Once upon a time, its inner surface was polished to a shine and ghosts could be seen on the surface of the water that filled it. The large sizes created huge, life-size visions.

It should be noted that visitors to the oracle were carefully prepared for the sacrament. They stayed underground for a month, then they were led through dark corridors and cells, and only then did they find themselves in a cave.

LOST IN TIME

“After studying the experience of the Greeks,” Moody writes, “I decided to try to reproduce... meetings with the dead in the Greek manner... I turned the top floor of my old mill in Alabama into a modern psychomanteum... I hung a giant mirror on the wall, placed it next to comfortable armchair. And he draped it all with a black velvet curtain so that it looked like a dark chamber.” Indeed, Dr. Moody's mirror reflects only darkness. Behind the chair there is a single light source - a small colored glass lamp with a 15-watt bulb.

Moody asks experiment participants to bring some mementos that belonged to the deceased. Then he spends half a day with them, taking a leisurely walk in nature and finding out the reasons why the person wanted to meet the deceased.

Some time later, having gained experience, the scientist realized that preparation for the meeting plays a very important role. It facilitates the transition to an altered state of consciousness, in which only such dates are possible. To help the subjects “get lost” in time, Moody forces them to take off their watches and also removes all the mechanisms hanging in the house. The large library, furnished with antique furniture, creates the atmosphere of bygone times.

DATES IN THE MIRROR

Moody openly admits that he doesn't know how the technique of looking in a mirror works. He simply took an ancient idea and ran with it. The scientific explanation for all this has yet to be developed.

“I have been conducting research... since 1990 and... examined more than 300 people. The discoveries made were truly amazing. Many patients did not see the dead they wanted to meet. And there were quite a few of them - about 25%. Meetings with ghosts did not always take place in the mirror itself. In approximately every tenth case, the ghost came out of it. Subjects often said that ghosts touched them or that they felt their proximity. It also happened the other way around - about 10% of patients reported that they themselves went into the mirror and there they had an encounter with the dead.”

WOW!

And of course, Moody's book is filled with numerous amazing stories, like all his previous works.

One man, for example, came with an obsession: his mother was sick a lot during her life, and he really wanted to know if she was doing well after death. In the evening, Raymond took him to the vision room, explained everything necessary and left him alone. About an hour later, the patient appeared in the doctor's office - smiling and crying at the same time. He saw his mother! She looked healthy and happy. The man told her, “It’s good to see you again.” - “I’m glad too.” - “How are you, mom?” “Everything is fine with me,” she answered and disappeared. The fact that his mother was no longer suffering as she did before her death reassured the man, and he left, feeling like a heavy burden had been lifted from his heart.

Here's another example. “A woman came on a date with her deceased grandfather,” says the scientist. “She had a photo album with her, and she told me about her love for her grandfather, showed me pictures. She went into the room with the mirror in the hope of seeing her grandfather, but no one was prepared for what happened. She not only saw, but also talked to him...

When the woman began to cry, he came out of the mirror and began to calm her down, hugging her and stroking her back. The patient perfectly remembered the touch of his hands and the words that he was happy where he was.”

Raymond Moody.

Raymond Moody is a famous American psychoanalyst, practicing physician and author of best-selling books that reveal his unique discoveries in such areas as clinical death and near-clinical experiences, the other world and communication with it, hypnosis and past life regression. Back in the 80s, Raymond, working as a resuscitator, became interested in unusual cases encountered in practice: some patients who experienced clinical death spoke about the experiences they experienced during an unconscious state. Some saw themselves and the doctors surrounding their own body, fighting for his life, and described the smallest details of the manipulations carried out by the medical staff, others recalled strange visions or communication with deceased loved ones. Moody became seriously interested in such cases and began to study in depth near-death experiences. He met and consulted with other doctors on this matter, analyzed materials obtained after numerous conversations with various patients, and in 1975 he published the first book, Life After Life, which collected about 150 cases describing the various experiences of patients who had clinical death. His first “medical diary” attracted everyone's attention and caused a flurry of various emotions not only among the scientific intelligentsia, but also among the common population. Moody received a flood of letters from people who claimed that the events described in the book had happened to them. Many new, previously unexplored questions related to death began to appear, and therefore, in 1978, the International Association for the Study of Near-Death Experiences appeared. Meanwhile, Raymond continued to master various methods of medical research and human psychodiagnostics. He studied philosophy extensively and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia, but not stopping there, he subsequently acquired master's degrees in philosophy, doctor of psychology and medicine from Georgia Western College, where he later became a professor. In the late 90s, Raymond conducted a number of studies at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, and worked for several years as a forensic psychiatrist in a Georgia prison hospital. Continuing to study the range of different experiences of a person at the time of his clinical death and discovering new facts associated with death, Moody developed the theme that captured him in his subsequent books: “Reflections on Life After Life”, “The Light Beyond”, “Life After Death”, “ Post-mortem experience or a flash of experience" and many other essays that reveal the boundaries of the generally accepted concept of "death". “Near-death experiences” later led Raymond to study the phenomenon associated with the continuation of the life of the soul after the physical body dies. He conducted a lot of scientific experiments with patients by immersing them in hypnosis, which gave incredible results - people in a hypnotic trance talked about their past lives, about communicating with those who had long been dead. Thus arose a wave of research studying past life regression and giving birth to his new books: “Reunion. Communication with the other world”, “All about meetings after death”, “Life before life”, “Each of us has already lived several lives” and others.

Dr. Moody currently resides in Alabama. He still conducts a medical practice and conducts psychological consultations both by telephone and in person by appointment. Raymond has developed many video techniques that allow you to look at the loss of a loved one, the death of a pet, or your own death from a different angle. His scientific works help people cope with serious emotional stress, treat many different phobias using past life regressions, and give people faith that their lives have a deeper meaning. Raymond Moody is a unique scientist; to this day he openly conducts clinical experiments, reveals new, amazing “near-death discoveries” in his books, and who knows, maybe he will be able to provide society with irrefutable proof of the immortality of the soul, which, undoubtedly, will not not only a breakthrough in the world of medicine, but also a complete revolution in the entire worldview of mankind.

Margarita Strizh. Rostov-on-Don

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Raymond Moody

Life after life

Study of the phenomenon of continuation of life after the death of the body.

PREFACE

I had the privilege of reading Dr. Moody's book, Life After Life, before it was published. I admire that this young scientist had the courage to take this direction for his work and at the same time make this area of research accessible to the general public.

Since I began my work with hopelessly ill patients, which has been going on for 20 years, I have been increasingly concerned with the problem of the phenomenon of death. We know quite a lot about the processes associated with dying, but there is still much that is unclear about the moment of death and the experiences of our patients at the time when they are considered clinically dead.

Studies like those described in Dr. Moody's book provide us with new insights and confirm what we have been taught for two millennia—that there is life after death. Despite the fact that the author himself does not claim to study death itself, it is clear from his materials that dying patients continue to be clearly aware of what is happening around them even after they are considered clinically dead. This is all very much in keeping with my own research into reports from patients who have died and then been brought back to life. These messages were completely unexpected and often amazed experienced, famous and certainly competent doctors.

All of these patients experienced an exit from their physical body, accompanied by a feeling of extraordinary peace and completeness. Many of them testify to communication with other persons who helped them in the transition to another plane of existence. Most were met by people who had once loved them and had died previously, or by religious figures to whom they attached serious importance during their lifetime and who naturally corresponded to their religious beliefs. It was very gratifying to read Dr. Moody's book at a time when I was ready to publish my own research.

Dr. Moody must be prepared for a lot of criticism, mostly from two sides. Firstly, on the part of the clergy, who will of course be concerned that someone would dare to conduct research in an area that is considered taboo. Some representatives of a number of religious groups have already expressed their critical attitude towards this type of research. One priest, for example, described them as “the pursuit of cheap fame.” Many believe that the question of life after death should remain a matter of blind faith and should not be tested by anyone. Another group of people from whom Dr. Moody might expect to react to his book are scientists and physicians who would consider this type of research unscientific.

I think we've reached something of a transitional era. We must have the courage to open new doors and not exclude the possibility that modern scientific methods no longer correspond to new directions of research. I think this book will open such new doors for people with open minds and give them the confidence and courage to develop new problems. They will see that this publication by Dr. Moody is completely reliable, as it was written by a sincere and honest researcher. The findings are supported by my own research and the research of other well-respected scientists, researchers and clergy who have the courage to explore this new field in the hope of helping those who want to know and not just believe.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, doctor of medicine. Flossmoor, Illinois.

This book, essentially written about human existence, naturally reflects the basic views and beliefs of its author. Although I have tried to be as objective and honest as possible, certain facts about myself may be helpful in evaluating some of the unusual claims that appear in this book.

First of all, I myself have never been near death, so I cannot testify to the relevant experiences from my own experience, first-hand, so to speak. At the same time, I cannot defend my complete objectivity on this basis, since my own emotions were undoubtedly included in the overall structure of the book. Listening to so many people be captivated by the experiences described in this book, I felt like I was living their lives. I can only hope that such a position does not compromise the rationality and balance of my approach.

Secondly, I write as a person who has not thoroughly studied the vast literature on parapsychology and all kinds of occult phenomena. I say this not with the aim of discrediting this literature; on the contrary, I am even sure that a more thorough acquaintance with it could deepen the understanding of the phenomena that I observed.

Thirdly, my religious affiliation deserves mention. My family belonged to the Presbyterian Church, however, my parents never tried to impose their religious beliefs and views on their children. Basically, as I developed, they tried to encourage my own interests and create conditions for the favorable development of my inclinations. Thus, I grew up with religion not as a set of fixed doctrines, but rather as an area of spiritual and religious teachings, views, issues.

I believe that all the great religions of mankind have much truth to tell us, and I am sure that none of us is able to understand the depth of truth contained in each of them. Formally I belong to the Methodist Church.

Fourthly, my academic and professional education quite diverse, so that others might even call it scattered. I studied philosophy at the University of Virginia and received my doctorate in the subject in 1969. My areas of interest in philosophy are ethics, logic and philosophy of language. After teaching philosophy for three years at the University of California, I decided to enroll in medical school, after which I expected to become a psychiatrist and teach philosophy of medicine at the medical school. All these interests and acquired knowledge in one form or another helped me in carrying out this research.

I hope that this book will draw attention to a phenomenon that is both widespread and yet very little known, and help overcome public prejudice in this regard. For I am firmly convinced that this phenomenon is of great importance not only for theoretical and practical fields of study, especially for psychology, psychiatry, medicine, philosophy, theology and pastoral care, but also for our everyday way of life.

I will allow myself to say at the beginning, something for which detailed reasons will be given much later, namely, I do not seek to “show” that there is life after death. And I don’t think such “proof” is really possible at all. This is partly why I avoided identifying details in the stories given, while at the same time leaving their content unchanged. This was necessary both to avoid publicity about what concerned individuals, and to obtain permission to publish an account of the experience.

I think that many readers will find the claims made in this book incredible, and their first reaction will be to put it all out of their heads. I have no intention of blaming anyone for this. A few years ago I would have had exactly the same reaction. I do not ask that anyone believe everything that is written in this book and accept my point of view out of simple trust in me as the author. Indeed, as an impossibility or inability to object to an authoritative opinion, I especially ask you not to do so. The only thing I ask of those who don't believe what they read here is to just look around a little. I have made this appeal to my opponents more than once. And among those who accepted it, there were many people who, being initially skeptics, over time began to seriously think about such events with me.

On the other hand, I have no doubt that there will be many among my readers who, after reading this book, will be greatly relieved to find that they are not alone in what they have gone through. For those people - especially those who, as is the case in most cases, have not spoken about their experiences to anyone except a few trusted people - I can say one thing: I hope that my book will give you the courage to talk about it a little more freely , because this will shed more light on the most mysterious side of the life of the human soul.

THE PHENOMENON OF DEATH

What is death like? Humanity has been asking this question since its inception. Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to pose this question to a significant number of listeners. Among them were students of psychological, philosophical and sociological faculties, believers, television viewers, members of civic clubs and medical professionals. As a result, with some caution, I can say that this topic is perhaps the most serious for all people, regardless of their emotional type or membership in a particular social group.

However, despite this interest, there is no doubt that for most of us it is very difficult to talk about death. This is due to at least two reasons. One of them is mainly psychological or cultural in nature. The very topic of death is taboo. We feel, at least subconsciously, that when faced with death in some form, even indirectly, we inevitably face the prospect of our own death, the picture of our death seems to come closer to us and becomes more real and conceivable. For example, many medical students, including myself, remember that even such an encounter with death, which everyone who crosses the threshold of an anatomical laboratory for the first time experiences Faculty of Medicine, causes a very disturbing feeling. The reason for my own unpleasant experiences now seems completely obvious to me. As I remember now, my experiences had almost nothing to do with those people whose remains I saw there, although, of course, to some extent I thought about them too. But what I saw on the table was for me mainly a symbol of my own death. Somehow, perhaps half-consciously, I must have thought, “This will happen to me.”

Thus, talking about death from a psychological point of view can be considered as an indirect approach to death, only on a different level. There is no doubt that many people perceive any talk about death as something that evokes such a real image of death in their minds that they begin to feel the proximity of their own death. To protect themselves from such psychological trauma, they decide to simply avoid such conversations as much as possible.

Another reason why it is difficult to talk about death is a little more complex, because it is rooted in the very nature of our language. Basically, the words that make up human language refer to things about which we gain knowledge through our physical senses, while death is something that lies beyond our conscious experience because most of us have never experienced it.

Thus, if we talk about death in general we must avoid both the social taboo and the linguistic dilemma that has its basis in our subconscious experience. We end up with euphemistic analogies. We compare death or dying with things that we are familiar with from our everyday experience and which seem very acceptable to us.

Probably one of this type of analogies is the comparison of death with sleep. Dying, we tell ourselves, is like falling asleep. Expressions of this kind occur in our everyday language and thinking, as well as in the literature of many centuries and cultures. Obviously, such expressions were common in Ancient Greece. For example, in the Iliad, Homer calls sleep “the brother of death,” and Plato, in his dialogue “Apology,” puts the following words into the mouth of his teacher Socrates, who was sentenced to death by the Athenian court: “And if death is the absence of all sensation, it is something like sleep , when the sleeper does not see any further dreams, then it would be surprisingly beneficial. In fact, I think that if someone had to choose a night on which he slept so much that he did not even dream and, comparing with this night all the other nights and days of his life, he would realize how many days and nights he lived It’s easy to count better and more pleasant in comparison with all other nights and days.

So, if death is like this, then I, at least, consider it beneficial, because all subsequent time (from the moment of death) turns out to be nothing more than one night.” (Translation taken from the “Collected Works of Plato.” St. Petersburg, Academy” 1823, vol. 1, p. 81).

The same analogy is used in our modern language. I mean the expression "put to sleep." If you bring your dog to the vet and ask him to put him to sleep, you usually have something very different in mind than when you ask the anesthesiologist to put your wife or husband to sleep. Other people prefer a different but similar analogy. Dying, they say, is like forgetting. When a person dies, he forgets all his sorrows, all painful and unpleasant memories disappear.

No matter how old and widespread these analogies are, both with “falling asleep” and with “forgetting,” they still cannot be considered completely satisfactory. Each of them makes the same statement in its own way. Although they say this in a slightly more pleasant way, they nevertheless both argue that death is actually simply the disappearance of our consciousness forever. If this is so, then death does not really have any of the attractive features of falling asleep or forgetting. Sleep is pleasant and desirable for us because it is followed by awakening. A night's sleep that gives us rest makes the waking hours that follow more pleasant and productive. If there was no awakening, all the benefits of sleep would simply not exist. Likewise, the annihilation of our conscious experience implies the disappearance not only of painful memories, but also of all pleasant ones. Thus, upon closer examination, neither analogy is sufficiently adequate to give us any real comfort or hope in the face of death.

There is, however, another point of view that does not accept the statement that death is the disappearance of consciousness. According to this second, perhaps even more ancient concept, a certain part of the human being continues to live even after the physical body ceases to function and is completely destroyed. This constantly existing part has received many names - psyche, soul, mind, “I”, essence, consciousness. But no matter what it is called, the idea that a person passes into some other world after physical death is one of the most ancient human beliefs. In Turkey, for example, Neanderthal burials dating back about 100,000 years have been discovered. Fossilized prints found there allowed archaeologists to establish that these ancient people buried their dead on a bed of flowers. This suggests that they viewed death as a celebration of the deceased’s transition from this world to another. Indeed, from the most ancient times, burials in all countries of the world testify to the belief in the continued existence of a person after the death of his body.

Thus we are faced with opposing answers to our original question about the nature of death. They both have very ancient origin and yet both are widely used to this day. Some say that death is the disappearance of consciousness, while others argue, with the same confidence, that death is the transition of the soul or mind to another dimension of reality. In the narrative that follows, I do not in any way seek to dismiss any of these answers. I just want to report on a study that I personally conducted.

Over the past few years, I have met a large number of people who have had what I will call “near-death experiences.” I found them in different ways. At first it happened by accident. In 1965, when I was a graduate student in philosophy at the University of Virginia, I met a man who was a professor of psychiatry at the Medical School. I was struck by his friendliness, warmth and humor from the very beginning. I was very surprised when I later learned interesting details about him, namely that he was dead, not once, but twice, within 10 minutes of each other, and that he told absolutely fantastic things about what happened to him in this time. I later heard him tell his story to a small group of students. At that time it made a very great impression on me, but since I did not yet have sufficient experience to evaluate such cases, I “put it aside” both in my memory and in the form of a retyped summary of his story.

A few years later, after I received my PhD, I taught at North Carolina State University. In one of my courses, my students were required to read Plato's Phaedo, a work in which, among other issues, the problem of immortality is discussed. In my lecture, I focused on other provisions of Plato presented in this work and did not dwell on the discussion of the issue of life after death. One day after class, a student came up to me and asked if he could discuss the issue of immortality with me. He was interested in this problem because his grandmother “died” during the operation and later talked about very interesting impressions. I asked him to talk about it and, to my great amazement, he described the same events that I had heard about from our psychiatry professor several years earlier.

From that time on, my search for such cases became more active and I began to lecture in my philosophy courses on the problem of human life after death. However, I have been careful and careful not to mention these two death experiences in my lectures. I decided to wait and see. If such stories were not just a coincidence, I suggested, then perhaps I would learn more if I simply raised the question of immortality in a general form in philosophical seminars, showing a sympathetic attitude to the topic. To my amazement, I discovered that in almost every group of about thirty people, at least one student usually came up to me after class and told me about his own near-death experience, which he had heard about from loved ones or had himself.

From the moment I began to take an interest in this question, I was struck by this great similarity of sensations, despite the fact that they were received from people very different in their religious views, social status and education. By the time I entered medical school, I had already collected a significant number of such cases. I began mentioning the informal research I was doing to some of my medical friends. One day one of my friends persuaded me to give a presentation to a medical audience. Other offers of public speaking followed. Once again, I found that after each talk someone came up to me to tell me about an experience of this kind that he himself knew of.

As my interests became more widely known, doctors began to tell me about patients they had resuscitated who told me about their unusual sensations. After newspaper articles about my research appeared, many people began to send me letters with detailed stories of similar cases.

Currently, I know of approximately 150 cases in which these phenomena occurred. The cases I studied can be divided into three clear categories:

1. The experiences of people who were considered or declared clinically dead by doctors and who were resuscitated, 2. The experiences of people who, as a result of an accident or a dangerous injury or illness, were very close to the state of physical death, 3. The feelings of people who were near death and reported about them to other people nearby. From large quantity Of the factual material represented by these 150 cases, a selection was naturally made. On the one hand, it was deliberate. So, for example, although stories belonging to the third category complement and fit well with the stories of the first two categories, I generally did not consider them for two reasons. Firstly, it would reduce the number of cases to a level more suitable for comprehensive analysis and, secondly, it would allow me to stick to first-hand accounts as much as possible. So I interviewed 50 people in great detail whose experiences I can draw on. Of these, cases of the first type (those in which clinical death occurred) are significantly more eventful than cases of the second type (in which there was only an approach to death).

Indeed, during my public lectures on this topic, cases of "death" always aroused much greater interest. Some of the reports that appeared in the press were written in such a way that one might think that I dealt only with cases of this kind.

However, in selecting the cases to be presented in this book, I have avoided the temptation to dwell only on those cases in which "death" took place, because, as will be seen later, cases of the second type are no different; but rather form a single whole with cases of the first type. In addition, although the near-death experience itself is similar, at the same time, both the circumstances surrounding it and the people describing it are very different. In this regard, I have tried to provide a sample of cases that adequately reflects this variability. With these premises in mind, let us now turn to consider those events which, so far as I have been able to ascertain, may occur when a person dies.

Raymond Moody is a man who managed to completely change the long-established opinion that a person is, first of all, a bodily shell. In traditional medicine, it is not customary to pay attention to the soul. However, this man managed not only to find out, but also to convey to the world the stories of people who had post- and near-death experiences. Raymond Moody collected these stories and used them as the basis for his scientific research in this area. At his instigation, the expression “Life after death” appeared in circulation; he also began to talk about post-death experiences that human consciousness faces in parallel world.

Raymond Moody (also spelled Raymond Moody or Raymond Moody) devoted his life to medicine and psychology. His work on near-death experiences and life after death brought him great popularity. He wrote several books on these topics.

The author of famous works was born in the state of Georgia in the city of Porterdale on June 30, 1944. Upon entering the University of Virginia, he began to actively study philosophy. There he received a bachelor's degree, then a master's degree, and then a doctor of philosophical sciences. Somewhat later, he received the title of professor in the field of psychology and philosophy.

He was also interested in medicine. Therefore, he began to study it. Raymond Moody received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1976.

He worked at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, where he successfully conducted a series of studies in 1998. After that, he worked in the state of Georgia in a maximum security prison hospital as a forensic psychiatrist.

Moody says he attempted suicide in 1991 and that's when he had his near-death experience. He told this story in his book. The reason for this action is also explained. The suicide attempt was preceded by an undiagnosed thyroid condition, which left his psychological well-being somewhat affected. In 1993, the author of books and psychologist admitted that for some time he even underwent inpatient treatment in a specialized institution.

This did not stop him from conducting research, writing scientific papers, living happy life and start a family. He was married three times. Today he lives with his family - his wife Cheryl and his adopted children Caroline and Carter - in Alabama.

For my scientific activity Raymond Moody pioneered research into the field of near-death experiences. To support his theories, he conducted surveys of hundreds of people who experienced clinical death. They shared their memories and experienced emotions with the psychologist, said what they saw and how they perceived it. The psychologist’s most famous book, which glorified him and told the world his theory, is the work “Life after Life.”

Raymond Moody: "Life After Life"

As Raymond Moody himself says, he was interested in the mysteries of life and death, he always wanted to find out what exactly was hidden behind the borders we know. At the age of 28, he began his medical studies and was extremely surprised when teachers responded enthusiastically to his research in a previously unknown field.

Over the years, he became one of the most popular students at the university. He was asked to give lectures on his scientific work. Over the years of study and work, he managed to collect a huge database of stories of people who encountered cases of near-death experiences - NDE (Near Death Experience).

This is how Raymond Moody's famous book, “Life After Life,” appeared. The purpose of this book is not to try to interpret everything that people saw in a parallel world, but to tell and describe these stories themselves in as much detail as possible. So questions arise by themselves. Did these people really die? What does the human brain encounter in such a situation? Why are all the stories heard and told so surprisingly similar to each other? And, probably, the most interesting question: does all this provide grounds for the assertion that after the death of the physical body human soul continues to live?

Raymond Moody: "Life After Death"

Raymond Moody at one time managed to attract the attention of the whole world to a long-known but not discussed phenomenon. In the seventies, the author and psychotherapist published a scientific book, which instantly became popular among the population. In our country, this publication is better known as Raymond Moody’s “Life after Death.”

In this work, he carefully describes the stories that patients told him when they came face to face with death. The main idea of his works is to convey to the reader the idea that after the physical shell of a person - the body - dies, his soul continues to wander further, it encounters experiences and visions while in consciousness.

It is worth noting that similar exercises have already been conducted previously by people who were interested in this topic. The so-called “out-of-body experience” is not a new term at all. They just used it a little differently. By leaving the body we meant the usual process - sleep, which we experience every night. But with respect to clinical death and ordinary sleep, the exit occurs differently. In a dream it is smooth and natural, but in the event of death the exit is abrupt and uncontrollable.

From the stories of people it is clear that during clinical death they initially hear a hum, strange and inexplicable, then leave the body shell and then head into a dark tunnel. They realize what is happening and encounter a strange light. Their whole life floats before them, in moments, after which they return to the physical body again.

Raymond Moody's book “Life after Death” lifts the veil and shows the reader some aspects of personal knowledge. The near-death experience includes several stages. It is worth noting that they cannot be called permanent, since not everyone who has experienced such an experience goes through all the stages. Moody, focusing on people's stories and analyzing them, was able to identify nine sensations:

strange and inexplicable sounds similar to humming;
a feeling of complete peace and absolute absence of pain;
detachment from everything around you;
an indescribable journey along the tunnel;
sensations of soaring up into the heavens;
meeting with long-dead relatives;
meeting with a luminous image;
pop-up moments from life;
lack of desire to return to real life.

This book leaves an unforgettable impression. Everyone has thought at least once about what happens to the consciousness and soul after the end of life in the physical sense. This book contains many stories, each of which is a small study. The stories are different, but each of them echoes the others in one way or another. They all have common features, namely the sensations experienced by people who have experienced clinical death. The people telling the stories didn't know each other, but they said similar things. This book is unique in that all the stories in it are real, all the people actually experienced these situations.

Books by Raymond Moody

The scientist claims that every person who has experienced clinical death and personally experienced near-death experiences is forever changed. His consciousness will no longer return to his previous thinking, because he has been on the other side of life and seen what is not given to everyone.

During his entire career, the doctor, psychologist and writer published several unique books, each of which is whole life, this is a new and deep story that makes the reader think about life, death and what happens in different worlds.

"Life after death". The book opens up to the world the stories of people who have experienced clinical death and touches on questions of possible life in a parallel world.
"Life before life." This work describes how you can immerse yourself in a past life.
"All about meetings after death." The book talks about people who have had experience communicating with the ghosts of deceased relatives.
"Life after loss." The book tells how, despite the loss and grief experienced, to continue to live.
“Reunion. Uniting with the other world." Recommended for study by everyone who grieves for departed people.

Raymond Moody's books are special works that initiate the reader into the secrets of life after death.

American psychologist and physician. He is best known for his books about life after death and near-death experiences.

Biography

He studied philosophy at the University of Virginia, where he subsequently received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in this specialty.

He received his PhD in philosophy and psychology from Georgia Western College, where he later became a professor on the topic.

In 1976 he received his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from Medical College Georgia.

In 1998, Moody conducted research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and then worked as a forensic psychiatrist at the Georgia Maximum Security Prison Hospital.

Moody claims to have had a near-death experience in 1991 when he attempted suicide (which he recounts in one of his books). According to Moody, this was the result of an undiagnosed thyroid condition that affected his mental state. In an interview in 1993, R. Moody stated that he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

R. Moody was married three times. He currently lives in Alabama with his wife Cheryl and his adopted children Carter and Caroline.

Scientific activity

R. Moody was one of the first researchers of near-death experiences and described the experiences of approximately 150 people who experienced clinical death.

The term near-death experience was coined in 1975.

Moody's most popular book is Life After Life.

Bibliography

Reunion. Communication with the other world
Life Before Life: A Study of Past Life Regressions
Life after life
Life After Life: Light in the Distance
Life after life: A study of the phenomenon of "contact with death"
Life After Life and Further Thoughts on Life After Life
Life after life: Is there life after death?
Life after loss: How to cope with adversity and find hope
Glimpses of Eternity
All about meetings after death
Reunion: Communication with the Other World
Last laugh
Glimpses of Eternity: New Evidence of Life After Life