FINISHED READING - The Wisdom of Near Death Experiences by Dr Penny Sartori

The book begins by explaining how Dr Penny Sartori, as a registered nurse, came to be interested in Near Death Experiences. Eventually setting up a research project that this book summarises. Most of the book gives you plenty of examples of NDE's and Out Of Body experiences. How these differ or are the same in other cultures. And how the nature of NDE's, the transformative effect they have on patients, the clear way they are described is so different to the scientific explanations. Which all fall short of the mark. 

NDE's are not like hallucinations, nor drug induced, malfunctions of the brain or due to lack of oxygen. They share some characteristics of these explanations,  but essentially the results of these do not produce the NDE's experience of deep love, compassion, interconnectedness or feelings of being at peace with one self and the world. NDE's change peoples attitudes to their life and death, not just for the patient but for those who listen to their recounting of the experience. 

And yet our health professionals dismiss them still as little more than fantasies. Dr Satori believes this originates from a particular scientific view of what consciousness is. The traditional view is that consciousness is a function of the mind, the brain, and from this view NDE's can only be some form of malfunction. Whereas her view is that NDE's can be more coherently understood if we view consciousness as being managed by our mind and brain, but is not fundamentally of it. That consciousness is something we share and is interconnected with everyone and everything else. The NDE's give a person an experience of this interconnectedness which is why it is so life enhancing and deeply transformative in its effect.

The beginning of the book is very thorough, though I found it a bit heavy going wading through pages and pages of testimony. The final chapters where she draws her provisional conclusions are what really capture the imagination. The parallels that her findings make with spiritual teachings, such as the Tibetan Book of the Dead etc, are illuminating. She also advocates for the need in our death averse culture to write a fresh Book about Death. Because in our rush to save life or prevent suffering, we can ruin the process of death. Sometimes only prolonging the agony of death or make the process of death an ignominiously poorer and painful experience for all involved in it. Preventing the dying person from saying goodbye to their loved ones, because they are too drugged or sedated to the eyeballs. 

CARROT REVIEW - 5/8