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If any one person can claim to be an authority on near-death experiences (NDEs) without having had one, that person must surely be Kenneth Ring. After Raymond Moody sowed the seeds of modern near-death research by coining the term "NDE" in his 1975 Life After Life, it was Ken who watered and nurtured them till they grew into a self-sustaining phenomenon. It was Ken who was the first president of that band of scattered researchers who formed the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) 20 years ago. It was Ken's office at the University of Connecticut that housed the organizations volunteers, phones, and growing archives for its precarious first decade. And it was Ken who founded the only scholarly journal for near-death studies and organized symposia on NDEs at annual meetings of mainstream academic societies. If anyone has interviewed more NDErs than Ken — and I dont know that anyone has — then surely no one has done it with the depth, open-mindedness, and insight as he. For many years, Ken's home was known to experiencers across the country as " The Near-Death Hotel," where itinerant NDErs trying to rediscover their place in this world could and did "drop by" and end up staying however long it took. And each one to whom Ken opened his home in return opened his or her heart and added to Ken's growing comprehension of the true essence of the NDE. No other researcher has been able to meld the large-scale controlled study with the passionate friendships, the philosophical theories with the intuitive understandings, the command of the scholarly literature with the personal stories. And more importantly, no other researcher has been able to transmit to the rest of us the true meaning and impact of near-death phenomena for our planet. In 1980, when America was beginning to question the validity of five years of near-death anecdotes, Ken came to our rescue with the first legitimate scientific study of NDEs in his Life At Death. Then after four more years of debates as to whether there might be no more to these remarkable phenomena than just a fleeting, if beautiful, hallucination, it was Ken again who, in his Heading Toward Omega, produced the first comprehensive study of its aftereffects, the profound and long-lasting changes it wreaks on the lives of experiencers. Now, after a quarter century of Amazing Stories From the Brink of Death, after so many talk-show panels and sitcom parodies and neurochemical "explanations" that even Hollywood studios and paperback publishers are getting sated, we find ourselves asking about NDEs, "So what?" And once again it is Ken Ring who guides us toward the answer. And the answer this social scientist has come up with is a message of meaning, of purpose, and of love — more what one might expect from a theologian than from a scientist. Ken dares to write frankly in these pages about the meaning of NDEs, inferring teleological conclusions from his empirical studies. In violating the scientistic taboo against mentioning such concepts as meaning and purpose, Ken honestly confronts a topic most scientists pretend plays no role in their thinking. As the biologist Ernest William von Bruck put it more than a hundred years ago, "Teleology is a lady without whom no biologist can live. Yet he is ashamed to show himself with her in public." In raising these issues, Ken also makes us question the proper role of science and scientists in the exploration of the universe — and of the proper role of romance in the practice of science. Do scientists ply their trade just to enhance our ability to mold or control our environment, or is it to help us unravel the questions of meaning and purpose in the universe? The autobiographical writings of our greatest scientists make it clear that what motivates them to do science is in fact the quest for meaning. While Ken's previous books focused on NDErs, this one speaks to the non-experiencer, to those of us who feel our lives and our society could be enhanced by sharing in the fruits of the NDE. Ken presents practical lessons he has learned from NDErs and guides the reader through experiential exercises in straightforward language, with ample support both from evidence from NDErs' lives and from the scholarly literature. The consistent psychological changes that he had previously documented in NDErs, he argues here, are reachable by all of us. Indeed, he argues, the true test of the value of whatever wisdom NDErs acquire is in its translation into everyday life. Most of us are familiar with the truisms of the NDE, and many of us give lip service to them: that death is not fearsome, that life continues beyond, that love is more important than material possessions, that everything happens for a reason. But what would we be like, what would the world be like, if we all really lived according to these precepts, if they were not mere bromides for us but living truths? Can reading this book possibly help? Can readers really acquire the fruits of the NDE without actually experiencing one? Ken argues persuasively that they can and he supports that belief with evidence from the classes he taught on NDEs at the University of Connecticut, and from the late Charles Flynn's "Love Project" for his students at Miami University of Ohio. As Ken has documented, learning about NDEs and their effects can indeed inspire similar changes in others. He writes of these effects as a "benign virus" that one can catch from NDErs -- or from others similarly infected. I have met some of his students, and can attest to the fact they had indeed caught the NDE virus and were profoundly and permanently changed by it. But for you, the readers, this book is proof in itself that one can be transformed by learning about NDEs. This book is Ken's testament to his own transformation; it is his selfless gift to humanity. Since catching the benign virus of the NDE, Ken has become one of those scientists who are no longer ashamed to show themselves in public with their mistress. He argues here that the lessons from the light are not meant for NDErs alone, but are given to experiencers so that they can come back and infect others with this virus. Ken's thesis has not been as warmly received as one might expect, even from theologians for whom it should be a familiar one. Some of his critics have warned that the allure of NDEs is that they compete with Biblical religion, that they point the way toward a moral code and spirituality more consistent than our Judaeo-Christian tradition is with America's New Age mentality. But a funny thing happened on the way to the New Age: The road took a subtle turn that led us back home to our roots, to the Golden Rule that "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them" (Matthew 7:12), and to Jesus' admonition that "inasmuch as ye have done it unto to least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40). Some theologians have argued that because NDEs tend to replace the Grim Reaper with the Being of Light as the embodiment of death — a Being of Light that seems to love born-again Christians, practicing Buddhists, and atheistic sinners unconditionally — their alluring visions must be Satanic rather than divine. How can we discern whether NDErs are truly blessed by divine light or deceived by the Prince of Darkness? No less an authority than Jesus gave us the methodology when he said, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20). As Ken shows us so eloquently in this book, the fruits of the NDE are compassion, humility, honesty, altruism, and love even for those who appear unlovable. But if NDEs merely reinforce Biblical precepts, why do we need them? What do they — and this book — add to the message of the Gospels? Quite simply, it is the difference between hearing the word and experiencing it first-hand. For NDErs, the Golden Rule is no longer just a commandment one is taught to obey, but rather an indisputable law of nature, as inevitable as gravity. They know it is the way the universe works because they have experienced it first-hand in suffering directly the effects of their actions upon others. Though they do not feel punished or judged for their prior misdeeds, they do receive back as part of their life review everything they have ever given out, measure for measure. Theologians of a different stripe have decried NDEs for holding out the false promise of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship called "cheap grace," the unconditional foregiveness of sins without any required contrition. "Cheap grace," wrote Bonhoeffer, "is the deadly enemy of the Church." But is that in fact what NDEs promise, or is that a misreading of their message? The promise of "cheap grace" may well be part of what has attracted to the NDE much of the public fascination with the phenomenon, but in reality the grace that is bestowed upon NDErs comes hand in hand with a very costly discipleship. The unconditional love NDErs report in their experiences does not by any means gloss over their sins or excuse their future behavior. Quite to the contrary, NDErs experience first-hand in their NDEs the painful consequences of their sinful behavior, and return to earthly life as confirmed disciples, who understand from their own experience that their behavior does indeed matter far more than they could have imagined. NDErs do not come back with a sense that they are perfect beings as they are now, but rather with the first-hand knowledge of how they must act to work toward perfection. They return not to bask in the reflected glory of amazing grace, but committed to living the Golden Rule and carrying out the work of a higher power, often at great emotional as well as material sacrifice. There is nothing cheap about this grace. It is, indeed, the costly grace that Bonhoeffer wrote is inseparable from discipleship. Far from encouraging indiscriminate behavior, the unconditional love NDErs experience confers on them the self-esteem, courage, and self-knowledge to bring about the kind of life changes demanded of disciples. But if NDEs do not sell cheap grace, then does this book? Reading this book may be less hazardous than coming close to death or inducing a cardiac arrest, as the medical students did in the movie "Flatliner," but is not without danger. Its purpose is to change you, and to inspire you to change your world; and those are neither easy nor safe endeavors. Bonhoeffer was right that true grace cannot come cheaply. What Ken offers in this book is not an easy road to grace but rather a map of discipleship, a plot of the course we must follow to work toward grace. Whether you choose to take that course is up to you, and it is not by any means an easy one. But as Ken shows in these pages, it comes highly recommended. Ken might have stopped after his three descriptive books on NDEs, and still be acknowledged as our foremost scientific authority on the subject. But he did not stop there, because that would have been failing to fulfill his responsibility. The purpose of his scientific explorations of NDEs — indeed, the purpose of all scientific exploration — is to lay the groundwork for plausible speculation about meaning and purpose. Ken, having been infected by his benign virus and having become what he calls a "near-death experiencer, once removed," was driven to discipleship. As surely as his NDEr friends and research subjects were given a great gift in their experiences, and as surely as they in turn gave a great gift to Ken, so too does Ken now give to you what he has received. This book is his contribution to the work of a higher power. It is Ken's hope, and mine, that every reader of this book will become similarly infected. Bruce Greyson, M.D.
Lessons from the Light
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