After audiobook

This book is phenomenal. Whether you are a person of faith or one who doesn’t believe in an afterlife, this book breaks down the concept of how our brains and minds can be separate entities. Weaving together science with NDE anecdotes the author paints a portrait of how this can be in a way readers can easily understand.He allows room for one to decide for themselves what they believe and is never defensive. I do have a faith and found great comfort and hope for what each of us will face at some final point. Thank you Dr Greyson for being brave enough to pursue a study which can run against the grain of both religion and science.

After is a very interesting book on a topic that is little discussed and even less understood. Bruce Greyson has been investigating in this area for some 40 years, ever since he first encountered unusual behaviors in an unconscious patient early in his career as a psychiatrist. This book helps all who might be interested learn what his and many others’ years of research have revealed about those who have near death experiences (NDEs), how they may occur and some characteristics.As it happens, there is evidence for NDEs in historical and literary records going back hundreds to thousands of years (the Greeks). There are mentions of injured people seeming to be dead, then being alive and reporting strange visions or experiences. It appears to occur in about 10 to 20% of those who come close to death.Dr. Greyson presents extensive detail as he has set up a format to move methodically from the existence of NDEs, through the physiology of the brain, theories of brain vs mind, comparison of life pre and post an NDE, etc. There is an international association dedicated to this work now, one in which Dr. Greyson has been very important. While absolute answers may never be possible, there are very intriguing results found here, such as specific information a person may bring back from an NDE that they didn’t know at the time of their illness/injury. This leads to questions about the possible existence of the mind without the brain. As I said, intriguing.I do recommend this book to all who have any interest in this area. A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This book is absolutely amazing. After the first chapter alone it had already made its way to the top of my favorites list. I couldn't put it down. Dr. Greyson effortlessly weaves together anecdotes of near-death experiences from the patients that he works with and the research and scientific studies that he has done as he tries to make sense of his research findings. I truly appreciate how he did not argue for one specific interpretation of his findings, but instead left you with all of his research and his thoughts and let you decide for yourself how to interpret the information. This book was life-changing and I have already recommended it to everyone I know. I'm sure I will be re-reading it again and again...and again.

4.5 stars. Dr. Greyson has studied "near-death experiences" (NDEs) for 50 years, collecting over 1000 cases, and he culminates his findings in this book. This is a topic I find particularly fascinating, as well as comforting, inspiring, and faith-promoting, so I loved hearing these stories that corroborate each other. He approaches his research (and this book) from a skeptics perspective, as he has no religious background. Since I am a believer, I didn't need all the exploration of side theories disproved, but I did appreciate the process of science and spirituality coming together for the discovery of truth. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in this topic or wonders about life after death. -People with NDEs report: ability to think and understand clearer and faster, to understand based on impressions more than words, a recollection of life events with a greater clarity and understanding, the feeling of timelessness, the heightening of senses, colors, light, beauty, feelings of peace and love, interactions from loved ones who have passed away, interactions with God, a feeling of truth remembered but long forgotten, these experiences are more real to them than their earthly/physical ones, experiencing the pain you caused others from their point of view, the feeling that mortal words can't begin to describe the beauty and vastness of experience-Transformative power of NDEs: life-changing, they come back more compassionate, altruistic, and connected to others, don't fear death (restful, peaceful, loving place), their life now has more meaning, purpose, and they feel more alive, less worldly, they come back feeling more loved and more loving, feeling of interconnectedness, a feeling of the good they need to do, wanting to enjoy life and live it to its fullness-*I feel like everyone could use an NDE at some point in their life as a wake up call and reminder. -The personal experiences were the best part of the book for me. Here are a couple: "I felt embraced by such a feeling of bliss that there are no words to describe the feeling. The nearest I can come to it in human terms is to recall the rapture of being in love, the emotion one feels when one's first born is put into one's arms for the first time, the transcendence of spirit that can sometimes occur when one is at a concert of classical music, the peace and grandeur of mountains, forests, and lakes or other beauties of nature that can move one to tears of joy. Put all these together and magnify a thousand times and you will get a glimpse of the state of being one is in when the restriction to one's true heritage is partially removed."-"It wasn't scary moving through the black, I was just watching. Then there was this light at the end. It wasn't just a light like a transparent color, it was intense love. When you are in it it doesn't just surround you like water does when you jump into a pool. It was like sun going through a piece of glass. It went completely through every spot on your body and everywhere else. It was warm and comforting. It was like warmth, comforting, a peaceful silence, and love surrounding everything and within. There were no walls or boundaries or anything solid, just light and beings. The light was like a magnet too. You just cannot be apart from it, you want to be with it more than anything you have ever wanted. Everyone loved each other more than can be comprehended here because of what we were, not who we were. We are limited but they are not. I don't know how to explain how we talked. We didn't talk like we do here, we just knew." Later when he woke from his accident: "As long as I am on earth I will never be able to comprehend it, because I only have a human brain. Here we can really think about only one thing at a time and there you know, really know, everything. You can't compare it to earth things. Talking about it or trying to draw it diminishes it entirely. It would be like trying to talk to an infant about DNA or some kind of medical technology in space. An infant couldn't even speak the language and he definitely couldn't even understand the idea. He could know about things only on his level like we do. We are just like babies and contrary to what a lot of people think, we know nothing. I will never be able to feel what I felt there while I am here because I am back in this human body again. It is way beyond superior, bigger than anything a human brain can comprehend, and more wonderful too."

Vitally Important to KnowI first discovered NDE'S between Christmas 1976 and New Year's 1977. My husband had an explosion of an aneurysm in the major artery of his brain Christmas evening. All day he had been saying odd things about death to me - odd, like the hair on the back of my head stood up. As I sat outside intensive care, I picked up a Reader's Digest someone had left there. Raymond Moody's article introduced me to the concept. I bought his book and poured over it. On New Year's early morning I was awakened by him, along with his "deceased" parents standing before me. They blew me kisses, turned and faded as they walked away. I knew he was gone from here. At one o'clock in the afternoon on New Year's Day, they turned off all the machinery that kept his body "alive." He made himself known during the next year with things like candles flying across a room, sliding glass doors opening and closing by themselves, lights turning on, etc. It was all aimed at getting my attention that our son was about to get into trouble. I know it sounds strange, but it did happen. I am a highly educated women and not prone to superstitions or falsehoods. I do know for many reasons that life continues, and also did not begin with birth here. It is exciting and comforting.

In "After", an esteemed medical doctor and researcher "Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond". Near-Death experiences probably puzzle, baffle and certainly interest most of us. In this non-fiction book, the author Dr. Bruce Greyson provides us with a clear, kind and compelling look at the science of Near-Death Experiences. This book is as fascinating as you can imagine. "After" is well-written, and the scientific explorations and research that Dr. Greyson conducted for over half a century will teach you about what makes life meaningful, what you think about death and what you know about yourself.Are Near-Death Experiences (NDE's) "real"? After reading the book, they certainly seem to be. They are common and can happen to anyone. Near-Death Experiences may lead to profound and long-lasting life changes. Surprisingly to me, NDE's may reduce the fear of death and cause those who have experienced them to be more fully present in their lives after the event.The book presents a number of patient histories and their recollections and descriptions of their NDE's. Many people had out-of-body experiences and saw themselves, from above, as they were being treated in the hospital. Many also described the experience as incredibly real, perhaps the most real experience they had ever had. Beautiful colors, lights, a sense of a loving deity and interactions with those that had previously died were also noted.Dr. Greyson also presents many of his research studies. One that really interested me involved re-intervewing people about their NDE, many years after it had happened. Remarkably, their recounting of the experience did not vary at all. For many, it was still the most amazing thing that had ever happened them.How do our minds and brains work together? This informative and rather amazing book will discuss and answer many of the questions about life and death that you may have pondered. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance review copy. This is my honest review.

This is a book that will leave you different after. It's a paradigm-shattering work that will challenge you whether you believe in "the afterlife" or not. This is the first credibly science-based, real world applicable book I've read or even heard of that's about near-death experiences. What ARE they, really? What do they mean? What do they do? How are they relevant to our lives and to medicine and psychiatry now? I have very little to say about this other than to present quotes from it. Please see below...The brain is a device for the mind to act more effectively on the physical body and to focus our thoughts on the physical world. It is the organ of attention to life...The mind can be a function of the brain the way the keys of an organ make music, by opening the various pipes to let the wind escape in various ways. The organ does not produce the wind or the music -- it removes the obstacle holding the wind back...Your brain may function like a cell phone. It receives the thoughts and feelings and converts them into electrical and chemical signals that the body can understand and use.It is consistent with what we know of our neurobiology that, if our thoughts and feelings come from outside the body, the brain would act to filter out those that are not essential to our physical survival, just as other parts of our nervous system filter out nonessential information coming from the outside. Hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and psilocybin suppress brain activity. (!) [Does this reduce the filtering, thus giving us additional access to mystical experiences?] We are conscious not because of the brain but in spite of it.Those who are exposed to NDE information have a greater appreciation for life, greater spirituality, and a more positive attitude toward death; and they had less anxiety about material possessions and achievement.We may well find ourselves somewhere else after we die, but we are here now.We may eventually come up with another explanation, but until then, some form of continued consciousness after death seems to be the most plausible working model.What you do with this information is up to you. It's comforting to think that death is not necessarily the end of consciousness, not when just about everyone who's returned from death claims it's absolute bliss on the other side. What are we here to do in the meantime?

A brilliant novel that challenges both medicine and religion. This novel explored the two separate entities that are the mind and the brain; and how they play a factor in near-death experiences (NDEs). Whether you are a person of faith or an atheist, going through an NDE would forever alter the way you look at life. After explores numerous interviews and reports of individuals with varying backgrounds who have seen and experienced an unearthly moment during their NDEs. Some report seeing “guides”, some openly say they went to heaven or hell, and an overwhelming majority report an “out of body” experience where they saw themselves from an outside perspective. More so, some describe meeting deceased individuals, seeing the future, or seeing their "life review", which is when the time would infinitely slow down and they would review their various instances of their lives. This was incredibly interesting to read about. I loved reading about Bruce’s thoughts, connections, and inferences of all the reports he presented. He presented the reports in a manner that allowed his readers to question and ponder varying thoughts and ideas. The pacing, structure, and writing were brilliant. I never lost interest, I just want to keep reading! In the end, I was left with peace and hope for the future, because the “afterlife” or death is something I never really thought about, but hearing about it throughout this novel, it's not something I feel ambiguity about anymore.

Definitely the best book on NDE's that I've read. I wouldn't describe this as a "new age/feel good" type of book as many (or most) books about NDEs are. Greyson takes a very clinical approach based on his 40 years of study, which sometimes makes for slow reading. Slow not meaning boring, but slow to make sure you're following the information he provides. In the end, I feel the most important thing in the book, and what resonates with me the most, is that he provides a theory of the hierarchy behind the relationship between our physical brain and our metaphysical mind that is by far the best I have ever seen.

Scientific and ReassuringI met Dr. Greyson at a conference about 1.5 years ago when this book had not yet been published. At the time, I was familiar w/ Ian Stevenson’s and Jim Tucker’s work on reincarnation—which I discovered by accident—but didn’t know much about NDEs. I had barely heard about them. I had not read Dr. Greyson’s work prior and looked forward to reading this book. It doesn’t disappoint, from its coherent and logical layout to the conclusions he draws. He does not write as a “true believer”, but as one who, having studied the evidence, is almost reluctantly drawn into his observations that there might be more to life than what we now know. One possibility, for instance, is that we may be connected to something larger than ourselves. As such, this is the best kind of “science writing.” When I discovered the initial JAMA article on Stevenson’s work years ago, I personally wasn’t in a good place, w/ two seriously ill children and a flagging career. In further exploring the topic, some hope did arise that there might be more than misery ahead for us. This book affirmed those thoughts—life might be more than a chancy jungle where the lucky and smart survive while the others (us) don’t. So, the book has achieved at least that one goal of its author, (for me) as well as the other goals he mentions. Some critics have dismissed this book as a review of known research (known to who? I might ask). I’m less familiar w/ NDE research, so perhaps the critics are correct. Big deal. It’s the coherency of the presentation of even supposedly known fact in this book that makes it helpful. Also, this book is not written for a scientific audience so assumptions about a purported reader’s prior knowledge of the topic cannot be made. That criticism and others I saw as the usual cat fighting among academics that is often based in envy. I was an academic, and I know more than I care to about this nasty behavior.It’s a good book. Read it if you are interested. And thank you, Dr. Greyson, for writing it. Sheila Wall, MD, MFA, CAc

Grayson is Emeritus Professor of psychiatry at University of Virginia. He has been doing scientific research on near death experience for many decades. He had pioneered research on NDEs and written many journal articles about the phenomenon. NDEs:1. Happen in 20% of people who had died and come back2. Mostly positive with feeling of love with a being filled with light3. Minority negative with darkness4. Sometimes associated with out of body experience at a vantage point above the body. Sometimes patients reported seeng and hearing things that they are not supposed to be able to know like the stain on a tie that happened to the author. 5. Often leads to positive life changing attitude. Patients who had NDE because of suicide would not want to milk themselves again despite having experienced the positive ‘After’.6. Research had shown that when we die brain activity stops. Also the NDEs are experienced to be more real than even real life, not a dream7. Temporal lobe stimulation does not lead to the same experience, in the rare instance that it causes an out of body experience (very scary and negative). 8. Together with Terminal lucidity, it may suggest that our brain is just a way for our mind/spirit to interact with this world. 9. As patients changed dramatically, focusing more on spiritual stuff, their spouse may feel they are not the same person any more, so 65% divorce rate. 10. A lot of health care professionals will refer them to psychiatrists, making them reluctant to share about the NDEs. Listening to them make them feel cared for.

Thanks to @stmartinspress for sending me this ARC of After by @brucegreysonmd . 4/5⭐️s Five things about After by Bruce Greyson. #1. Dr Greyson is the world’s leading expert on near death experiences. 2. This is his presentation of the knowledge he’s gleaned concerning the nature of life, death, and the continuation of consciousness after death - pointing toward a transition - not an end. 3. This book approaches these subjects from a completely scientific perspective. 4. I’ve read a lot of books and watched a lot of shows (and a cartoon...thanks Soul) exploring this great unknown. I love how familiar much of this information is but presented in such a supported manner. 5. This is not a speculative exploration. It’s a fully documented, scientific dive into the biggest question any and all of us can ask. Well written, well documented, and recommended.

This was my first exposure to NDEs. Working as a PA in Neurosurgery, I can recall a few stories that are similar to many he mentioned in this book. Dr. Greyson provides a thorough synopsis of his life’s work researching these strange phenomena. The separation of mind and brain is becoming much more accepted in recent years.This book was intriguing and kept my interest throughout. Dare I say I wish that I could experience an NDE?Although, I think most people, if they’re honest with themselves, would be able to “tell” what their NDE would show them moving forward through this life. Much food for thought!

I received a copy of After by Bruce Greyson in exchange for an honest review. I’ve always been skeptically curiously about near death experiences (NDE) and life after death. As a scientist and teacher, I need data and scientific processes. Greyson provides both in this engaging, readable book. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to be fascinated by After. I found myself reaching for this book every chance I got to read more and more about NDE. It was a thoroughly enjoyable book that is making me look at my our life differently.