Near Death Experiences Books

Hi Pat

I am a Message Board Monitor for a couple of the folders in the Christianity Online Area. This means I look through every messages posted within my particular folders to make sure they fall within AOL's guidelines.

It was either July or August when you posted a message regarding your sister's book in one of the folders in the Women's Health Issues area. This message stood out to me because my Mom had just passed away on July the 5th after a two and one half year fight with breast cancer.

I went to the link you placed in there because I knew this was a book I wanted to read. I saved it on my favorite places with the intentions of buying it in the near future.

In the meantime, my Dad was under attack with cancer (he and my Mom were diagnosed 5 days apart) so I pulled myself by the bootstraps and began the ritual all over again.

Dear Daddy entered into Glory on Feb. 10, 2000 and I was there for his send-off. How I wished I was able to peer into the Spiritual Realm as you and your family did , but I knew within what was happening even though I didn't actually see it with these eyes. I am a Christian who truly believe God's Word and promises to those who believe.

I ordered your sister's book last week, received it a few days later.....began reading it a 6:oo pm on Tuesday and was finished by 9:00 pm. It was as if I relived it all over again. So many things I read about your Mom reminded me of my Mom. LOL Trying to get her to eat and her snapping as us for trying to force her to. Watching her be so strong during the Chemo and radiation treatments so we wouldn't realize how much she was suffering. My Mom had the deepest dimples in the world and smile that could light up a sky at midnight. Whenever I walked into the door, sher'd flash me a smile knowing that's all I needed to see. I'd say, "Hi Toots" and she'd say, "Hi Sweet Sweet." I'd say, How do you feel Mom?" and she'd say, "Pretty good." She could have been feeling like poop and she'd still tell me pretty good. What a gem she was.

When I turned the page and saw your Mom, I felt the tears forming in my eyes. She reminded me so much of my precious Mom. Isn't it something?

I do appreciate you and your family taking the time to write the book. I told my sister about it and she wants to read it asap.

How I wish I could have seen what you did.

God Bless you and your family.

Toni .

While I don't deny the conviction in the author's voice there is something very distracting throughout this book. The grammer, punctuation and sentence structure is so poor in places that it is hard to follow the story as you would a regular book. Clearly this book is either self-published or published by a very small publishing company. No major publisher would print a book with such blatant errors. When the author is trying to make a point, the typestyle, which is much larger than necessary to begin with, often changes to all capitals. Sentences are ended with several exclamation points, I assume for effect. In reality this just comes across as BEING SHOUTED AT BY THE AUTHOR! (See what I mean?) I understand the author wanting to preserve her original feelings and impressions about the events she describes but this book would have been much more helpful if it look more polished and professional. As is, it's hard to take it seriously.

I was drawn into this story( written in the first person by the author)and could not put it down until it was finished.The book takes you through her families experience of dealing with their Mother's terminal illness, and the care and compassion they gave their mother until her death.The incredible journey they took to the other side gives me comfort that there is a wonderful place we go on to.I feel the family held their mother's spirit here, even though in their hearts they were ready to let her go. The miraculous experience she shared with them made them realize that it was time for her to cross over.This book helped me deal with my own Father's death by me giving him permission to leave and letting him know that I would be ok. I recommend this book to everyone who has or will lose someone close to them. I hope to see this book and author on Oprah!

This family was very blessed in so many ways. They were able to say their last good-bys to their mother. They were able to take care of their Mother in such a loving way,and in a home surrounding environment. The Miracle they witnessed, let them know without a doubt,that their Mother lives on in the spirit. God moves in mysterious ways. WONDERFUL BOOK

A true testmony of a life experience. Ned shares with us , with great sensibility, his learning experience on the after death. He gives us a good opportunity to rethink our lives and why we are here.

In August, 2007, I was asked, telepathically through a spiritual connection, to write a fallen Vietnam War soldier's story (a novel). Several factors have come into play since this "request" was initially relayed to me: 1) I had to first "accept" his mission; 2) I needed to learn to "listen" faithfully to my spirit guides AND him; and 3) I had to cast off fears that this couldn't (or shouldn't) be done. In April, 2008, as I began to utilize the time, money, and resources that had been provided to me to complete this novel, I "stumbled(?)" onto this book by author, Ned Dougherty. Finding this book, which contained a factual and inspirational recollection of Ned Dougherty's friend's passing in South Vietnam in '69, was no fluke! Thank you Lieutenant McCampbell and Mr. Dougherty for sharing your experiences of the afterlife!!

I wholehearted agree with the other earlier review shown here.
The author says about his account:
"I would usually awake before dawn and immediately begin to write. The writing seemed to come to me automatically--totally by inspiration."
"The financial and banking institutions will collapse due in large part to the failure of the insurance companies as a result of the natural disasters. The United States will be thrown into political, economic, and social chaos."

"The United States government will fail to meet its financial obligations as a result of its staggering national debt and will collapse. As a result of the destruction of U.S. military bases from natural disasters, the United States will lose its ability to wage war or defend itself, leaving the country vulnerable to invasion by foreign troops, particularly by China's 'army of two hundred million.'"
He also talks about a pole shift, earthquakes, eruptions, tidal waves that will bring geophysical and geopolitical changes.
He was also told, "None of these events in the future need to take place if mankind begins to recognize and work with God's plan."
The author left New York and now lives in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He encourages prayer and meditation.
"The future of the world rests in our hands. The right choice is obvious. If each and every individual aspires to lead a life of love of God, self, and neighbor, collectively mankind has the ability to determine the future of the world and to choose our destiny as a civilization."

Ned Dougherty's Fast Lane to Heaven, is an incredible tale of one man's transformation after his near death experience. Similar to Betty Eadie's and Dannion Brinkley's vivid recalls of their NDEs, Dougherty is also able to recall with vivid clarity his journey and all that was shown to him.

Dougherty was living the hedonistic, fast lane of life, with homes in both The Hamptons, and West Palm Beach, driving expensive cars, having many expensive toys, and operating two thriving nightclubs. Alcohol was his admitted drug of choice, and cocaine use was intermittently part of his lifestyle, as were meaningless relationships with meaningless beautiful women.

After suffering an apparent heart attack, Dougherty realized that he was no longer "in his body", and was met by a former friend who "died" in Vietnam. Dougherty recalls in stunning detail his life review, future life events, future world events, including the 9-11 attacks on New York and Washington, his meetings with The Lady of The Light, God, and other spiritual beings. Because Dougherty's life's mission is not yet completed on earth, he is told he must go back.

Needless to say, Dougherty's life is forever transformed after his heavenly encounters, and amazingly, the doctors could not find anything physically wrong with him - all of his medical tests were normal. Yet Dougherty knew that he had died, but all of the doctors could not find anything indicating a heart attack.

As foretold to Dougherty, he indeed turned his life around, and is no longer living a hedonistic, fast lifestyle, but a more spiritual, contemplative one, which includes hospice volunteering, as well as forming his Angels of Mercy organization which provides miracles to those in need. He is still visited by The Lady of The Light and his devotion and faith in God has deepened greatly.

I found this book truly amazing, and I have read all the NDE books that I can, and this account is one of the best. His honesty and admittances of his former lifestyle helped to portray him as he truly was/is. He was not portrayed as someone without any flaws, or perfect. I am sure that all readers can relate to his imperfections in one way or another. The reader can only "try" to relate to his struggles and difficulties in "trying" to live an earthly existence, after seeing and experiencing all that he had with his celestial encounters. Synchronistic encounters reaffirmed to Dougherty that all that happened did indeed happen. Events shown to him that would occur in his life happened not according to Dougherty's "trying" to make them happen, but instead they happened according to God's plan.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in NDEs. There is a most startling message in the book from Archangel Michael that was given to Dougherty, that is worth reading several times over. Indeed, a wake-up message for us all.

This book is just another confirmation to us all that there is nothing to fear in dying, that we all are constantly guided and loved, and that we only have to ask for help from above. There is so much more to life than "toys" or material possessions and Dougherty proves that point very well.

This book's message is incredibly timely for what we are living though now and thank you Ned Dougherty for sharing your wonderful incredible experiences for us all.

This book melted my heart and made me long for our real home. I am an avid reader of NDE stories, both LDS and non-LDS, and this is one of the most beautiful and sacred stories ever published about the eternal world. It testifies that personal revelations of great extension are also available to ordinary people and they are sometimes permited to be shared. "Heavy" LDS content: non LDS readers may find it slightly unconfortable unless it is a really open minded person. I strongly recommend its sequel "The Window of Life".

I have read several "near-death" books over the years, but this is the first one in a long time to leave me feeling happy and hopeful. I appreciated the message that I don't have to be a prophet or do something spectacular to gain a place in heaven. I really liked the description of Jesus Christ in this book, who serves as the author's guide during her journey to the other side. Jesus is shown as very friendly, loving, and understanding of our mortal frailties. I also loved the fact that mothers are honored in heaven, which is a concept our world seems to be quickly forgetting. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to be spiritually uplifted.

I wish someone had stated that this is a Mormon perspective of Heaven! I would have saved my money. The book is nicely written and has a beautiful message but the sheer Mormonism of it makes me doubt the story...that is unless we have spiritual experiences based on our belief system, then it would make sense. I applaud Suzanne for sharing her story - despite the Mormon perspective, it is a lovely one.

This is the best "Near-Death experience" book I've read ever and I've read 6!!! Suzanne Freeman brings hope, joy, peace and happiness into her spiritual journey. This is a book for all those who are any doubts about a loving savior and loving departed loved ones and not seeing them and living with them again. This is the book for those seeking answers to spiritual truths and to learn why we came to earth and the wonderment of being reunited with our loved ones when we have finished our earthly mission. Truly a remarkable journey!!!! I highly RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!!!!

In an age such as ours, dominated by pop-manifestos writing about the temporal "buy now, think later," Woiwode's "A Step From Death" is a sobering necessity. I say sobering because it deals - in moving verse whose poetry I only begin to see in my third or fourth reading of the lines - life, love, marriage, children, and, of course (as its title indicates) death.

And Woiwode has some convincing experiences with it, writing this work after a near death encounter with a tractor. (Would-be farmers beware, farming is not for the faint -- or careless.) But this work is not really about Woiwode's individual existence, per se, instead its about existence as existence -- in other words, how does an individual make sense of this world? Or, as Woiwode, I think, gives beautiful shape to -- the one we create.

Above all though, I'd say that the work is a searing journey into the emotional interior of what makes live worth living: other people; mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, and friends -- and of how we deal when we lose them. It's also about navigating life -- the policies of stupidity and incompetence, drafted by legislatures, lawyers, and wannabes of those varieties, all the while returning to a spiritual understanding of the beauty and emotional integrity of living a life of value and meaning.

That makes sense, because the book is addressed to Woiwode's son, Joseph (now serving in the military) -- and seems to me, to be a story designed to give his son the benefit of his, Woiwode's, experience. (Throughout the book Woiwode suggests reading to his son Joseph, the books that have given the meaning, and fabric of logic and narrative qualities to his life -- and reading them in the context that Woiwode delivers them, makes me want to read them.) More fundamentally though, the book expresses frustrations at errors made as a father and husband, but more importantly, in an almost poetically uncanny way, it shows how, in the end, those errors are subsumed beneath a real spiritual awareness, grounded in the rivers, fields, and sky that is his, Woiwode's, chosen ecological landscape.

Anybody reading this book should be prepared for a tremendous story that covers a vast range of territory -- i.e. life -- and be prepared to meditate on certain lines, the way they're structured and written, to see the poetic qualities inherent in the language. (Woiwode, in the work, also confesses to a love of language, and after all, language is truly the heart of our individual lives.) Mostly though, as I mentioned earlier, in an age that seems dominated by the immediate, the sensory-perceptive, the "stuff" that just, really, doesn't "cut" it, this is a really thoughtful -- almost, like Gary Snyder's (one of the new Counterpoint's owners) qualitative Zen thoughtfulness -- well-written, beautiful, moving travel through an individual life, that in some way, through his experience or thoughts, relates to us all.

In searching for more information about Woiwode, I came across a review written by the famed, and for some reason I can't quite discern, revered writer, and counselor to writers, John Gardner, on Woiwode's "Beyond the Bedroom Wall," -- which he also talks about, under the moniker "IT" in this memoir -- where he said, "it seems to me that nothing more moving has been written in years." While I'm not a reviewer for the New York Times, I can say, as someone who likes books, that this is one of the most beautifully and honestly written book on love, relationships, and the inevitable end that comes to us all, that I have read in a long time. And, I am certain it will continue to move for years to come.

Larry Woiwode and I go way back. But had my brother not sent me a review of "A Step From Death" I may not have ever learned of this marvelous book.
In 1940s Sykeston ND (pop. 250 soaking wet), our young lives intersected for four or so years, as did the lives of our parents. Larry once told me that I was perhaps "the tallest boy in the lower grades" in The Street, from his novel Beyond the Bedroom Wall.
The years since 1950 we've taken different paths. Only twice in those 58 years have we, as my Dad would have said, actually had a 'face-off', and those occasions occurred about 30 years ago.
I found A Step From Death to be a powerful book, reflective, written by (in no particular order) an author, husband, father, poet, farmer, son, neighbor....
I knew the bare basics of Larry's life, but A Step From Death, from it's first chapter, came not to be about his life, but about my own. Every page caused me to reflect on my own 68 years as a son; 44 as a father; almost 22 as a Grandpa, and on and on and on.
Did it make a difference if he went back from his front steps into his home to get a jacket? (The second sentence of the book). Of course it did.
But to me that vignette and all of the other snips from an abundant life drew me back into a review of my own life, now living as an "orphan" (both parents long departed), "on deck" in the natural order of things, moving towards my own inevitable end of life, now (and always) at my own "Step from Death".
Written as a long letter from father to son, A Step From Death might be seen as a man's book. I think not. "Care", Larry's spouse, and their daughters, are always present and integral, in all the roles family members play in each others lives.
I'll reread A Step from Death, next time slowly, only a single chapter at a sitting. It will be my Father's Day gift to my own son, now 44, and of the next generation.
Thank you, Larry.

Larry Woiwode's A Step From Death is a wisdom-laden work of extraordinary quality. Woven throughout are engaging historical literary references and allusions, which tie a writer's life to the lives of others engaged in this worthy pursuit. Beautifully described are the spiritual and religious thoughts of a man in search of the right way to live with self, family, community, and the Almighty. As Woiwode addresses his son in a voice both fatherly and philosophical, he is drawing the reader toward the physical place where he resides, North Dakota, and toward a deeper understanding of family relations, faith, survival, death, and the afterlife. His thinking outloud about death is touching, thought-provoking, and faith inspiring. Within Woiwode's memoir lies a self-help path on this subject for any who are perceptive enough to grasp it.

There are writers who have to write and those who want to write. Woiwode is clearly in the latter group. You know the type: all they talk about, or in this case, write about, is how much they write, what pencil they use, where and when they write, how many books they are writing and just have to get finished, etc. Great writers have to write because they have something unique inside that is fighting to get expressed. Woiwode-types have nothing to say but so desire to be impressed with themselves by getting published that they will utter fatuous remarks such as, "I had to make a decision most writers sooner or later must make - whether my family was equal to or of greater importance than the writing" (p.79).
Judging by this slight, tiresome bore of a book, his family shouldn't have much to worry about.

Like a sequel to the beautiful "Led by the Hand of Christ" this book testifies of the fact that great personal revelations are for all who qualify, not just clergy. While we are warned to keep this type of experience private, sometimes the Lord allow and encourage us to share them as it seems to be this case. It should be read like a parable to help us prepare for diring days and to lead our lives, not as something that will certainly or necessarily happen exactly like it is written. Prophet Jeremiah for instance taught that sometimes blessings, promises and curses from the Lord are conditional and may be called off depending on how people use their free agency. There are many beautiful passages and although coming from an LDS background its perspective is really "friendly and palatable" to most Christian religions.

Though I have a fairly open thought processing capability, I had a hard time following her story line and making it make sense. Sorta like looking through a gauze curtain at a fuzzy panorama. Not well written. I didn't catch any excitement nor revelation.

As a student of the scriptures, the gospel and the eternities I found this book, as well as its companion book "Led By the Hand of Christ" to be quite intriguing and uplifting.

I read a very negative review about Suzanne's books and was startled at the harshness with which the individual attacked Suzanne Freeman personally. Not only senseless, but indeed very incorrect.

I found "Through the Window of Life" to be a wonderfully upbeat book about the days leading up to the second coming. Powerful lessons are taught of faith, hope, the power and indeed, life-saving skill of sharing. Indeed, as the brethren have beseeched us from the pulpit to develop spiritual gifts, so to does Suzanne's experience help us to understand that we must master the spiritual gift of prayer and the spiritual gift of listening if we hope to survive, and even triumph over the trials which await us.

I can, without hesitation, recommend this book to any who wish to prepare for the last days. "Through the Window of Life" is a must have for every LDS library, even every library of every human being across the face of the planet.

If you want a book to clarify some of the things you've heard about the last days, by putting them in a chronological story, then you will be delighted with this book.

I know some people hesitate to read things not put out officially by the Church, but I felt the Holy Ghost and a great sense of peace when I read it.

I've studied many quotes from church memberes and prophets over the years and of course, studied the scriptures and this book is consistent with what I already know. It is not a complete description, covering everything going on with the church, but more information in some areas than I've heard elsewhere.

If you are wanting a doctrinal detailed thesis-type book, then this isn't the one for you. But if you want to find hope in the typically scary period of the last days, you will find it here. I definitely left the book with the feeling "I can do this!"

I rated the book based on these good points, but I do wish there could be even more visual descriptions in the book and possibly scriptural references to help further study.

Thanks for publishing this book! I am tied between passing it on for others to read it and keeping it for me to read again later (which I know I will do.) And it's a short read.

Anne Rice has mezmorized me once again with her captivating ability to write with such fine detail and with such thought provoking ways. I absolutely adore the way that she ties religion in with her story, she has me wondering in what I should beleive. Her Lestat is a witty, charismatic man, that steals the spotlight from any other character she has wrote about. I love all of her books, but by far this is my favorite. Take the time to read it, you will fall in love with it also!

This is a good introduction book to the "Egyptian Book of the Dead". The book is somewhat like a commentary to the original text, and is a good source for those not aquatinted with the original. However the book does not cover the original text in great detail, and therefore falls a little short.

BZ-Bravo Zulu means "Well Done" in Navy speak.

I can't anymore than the previous reviews.So I will just say Bravo Zulu!

Hutch

Getting the knowledge of THIS book into your hands IS THE PLOT of this "fictional" tale. One gets the impression that this is only classified as fiction out of courtesy (to whom?). Sure, there are villains and heroes, and even a little chase scene, but most of this book is monologue by Wise Ones, explaining their knowledge to the layperson who is about to release it to the world, and why he shouldn't do so. So, by virtue of the fact that you get to read their explanations, you are privy to their knowledge, and that you're reading is its announcement to the world. Full of interesting facts, quotes, & suppositions, that is great reading for anyone interested in religious history, the military-industrial complex, the dysfunctional society, and ancient arts & sciences. Now that you have the knowledge, what's the next step?

A more radical and convincing speculative work than The Da Vinci Code. Plausible explanations and scientific evidence uncover the earth's cataclysmic past (& future), an ancient global civilization, and the mythical origin of religion. Other excellent books: Secret Destiny of America, The Christ Conspiracy and Golden Thread of Time.

Having myself had an 'NDE' in 1975 without any actual outer danger to threaten my life, and being on a spiritual path since 1972 without belonging anymore to any religion, I have been especially happy to find this book, which has the widest perspective among the many others I have read on this topic. I have also been very happy to 'meet' Mrs Atwater through her book, for her delightful sense of humour and her down-to-earth simplicity about it all are quite refreshing and encouraging for those who, like me, are trying to be honest and sincere researchers, without being stuck into sterile 'scientific' intellectuality. I would be most happy to be able to communicate with her personally, even though I could not yet get copies of her subsequent books on the same topic.

I can't say I intensely enjoyed reading this book but then I've never had a near death experience.

However it does stay consistent with the title. This book is not about describing near death experiences although some are described, mainly the author's. It's about understanding the experience and making recommendations about how to deal with the affects of the experience. There's quite a bit of material about philosophy and making correlations between main stream religious or philosophical ideas and the near death experience.

I would say a near death experience is consistent with the belief systems of most religions including Christian religions. The individual's entire life flashes before them instantly and they understand how everything they did affected any other person.

The author came close to dying several times I think and describes her experiences and tells how she attempted to deal with and understand these experiences.

She also tries to find similarities with others who have had similar experiences. These experiences are much more common today than in the past due to the ability of doctors to revive people who are almost dead. I believe nowadays for some delicate medical procedures people are almost put into a death state to greatly reduce blood flow.

I'm inserting a product link for the book by Howard Storm where he talks about going to hell for a time.

The author suspected that sometimes people don't often talk about going down there. Going to hell is an indication that a person's life has truly been a failure and that the person is bad.

This book is mainly positive. The author believes in God.

My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at Life

Same Soul, Many Bodies: Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives through Progression Therapy

The Essential Edgar Cayce

Lives of the Master: The Rest of the Jesus Story

The Lives of Edgar Cayce

I very much enjoyed this book because it validated my own experience that happened due to a medical problem when I was young. The whole profile really fit me. It also presented other ideas to spark one's curiosity on the subject. This is one of those things that you almost can't fully appreciate unless it's happened to you, and that's one of the reasons why the scientific community hasn't treated it with alot of credibility. If you, or someone you know has experienced a NDE then this is a must-read.

This is meaningful work in a genre that has, for the most part, ignored our gay and lesbian experience. I hope the author will continue to research this subject area and publish her results. I believe there is a big demand for more information about gay and lesbian near death experiences, both scientific and anecdotal.

Subtitled "Twenty-One Authors Discuss the Gay Near-Death Experience as Spiritual Transformation," this book concerns an absolutely fascinating and compelling phenomenon. What a great idea! Obviously gay people die too. We must have interrupted experiences of dying just like the people who are written about in books like Life After Life or depicted in movies like Resurrection. And with so many people hospitalized with life-threatening conditions resulting from AIDS, maybe we have even more such NDEs in our population.

Liz Dale, a research psychologist in San Francisco, set out to investigate this topic after hearing a speaker at the 1996 convention of the International Association for Near-Death Studies mention that there was no research on this phenomenon in the gay community. Over a couple of years, she gathered a group of about thirty gay men and lesbians. It was a liberating experience, she reports, for them being able to talk about their NDEs without fear of dismissal, ridicule, or bafflement. She has collected twenty-one of the stories for publication.

In some ways, the research did not result in the findings Dale was probably expecting. That is, most of the accounts end with the subjects' answer to a couple of questions about how their sexual orientation affected their NDE and how their NDE might have affected their attitudes toward their sexual orientation. Since the subtitle suggests the gay Near-Death Experience is a spiritual transformation, one would expect the subjects to report positive changes in these attitudes. But, in fact, almost every account ends with the subject saying their sexual orientation had NO effect and their attitudes toward it were unaffected.

Nonetheless, the accounts themselves are wonderful, moving, and even inspiring. What they seem to describe isn't so much about death, but about the mystical component of the subjects' lives. While most of the accounts are of true NDEs, that is, experiences of leaving the body following a medical emergency, like an automobile accident, several are of more generalized mystical phenomena and several are of drug-induced states (often suicidal overdoses).

The book is less important for arriving at scientific findings than for offering examples of how to think about and prepare for dying.

The NDE phenomenon seems to demonstrate that "afterlife" happens in the process of dying. The brain's shut-down procedures can be experienced as timeless and eternal and infinitely meaningful and blissful. It really doesn't matter what happens next. We can never know since truly no one comes back from having fully died. (Interestingly, even Jesus whose great saving act was dying and rising again never reported what was on the "other side." Did the Apostles just forget to ask? Maybe there is no intelligible answer.)

But if dying can provide a mystical experience of entering into bliss and reunion with all the love in one's life, then it'd be a good-and necessary-thing to prepare for it by creating some self-fulfilling prophecies for how you're going to react when you realize the time has come and you're about to die.
That's the beauty and importance of this book. It offers templates. It promises to get you thinking. It might inspire you to plan your dying.

I'd have liked this book to report that the gay people who had NDEs all said there were gay pride banners adorning the tunnel of light and that the glimpse into heaven relieved them all of any fears or misgivings about their sexuality. Well, it didn't. But it certainly got me obsessed for days about how I want to die when the time comes and inspired my meditations with positive expectations. Clearly, one of the functions of meditation should be to routinely remind ourselves of our mortality and to prepare for how we'll react when mortality is realized.

"You do not know the time nor the hour," said Jesus. "Be prepared." Liz Dale's research could have truly salvific consequences in your life-and death.

Reviewed by Toby Johnson
in the Winter 2003 issue of White Crane
A Journal of Gay Spirituality

This book examines what happens to homosexuals and lesbians after they die. This is the first (and, as of 2001, the only) book to examine the Near-Death Experiences of [homosexuals]. Other than the preface, the stories are told by the experiencers themselves. Contrary to what some fundamentalist Christians would have you believe, God and angels are not against homosexuality. One homosexual who died and was later revived asked some angels, "It it OK to be [a homosexual]?". They laughed, and said, "Who do you think created [homosexuals]?", meaning God. One [homosexual] was told by his friend who died of AIDS when he met him in heaven, "I should openly celebrate and honor my sexuality as a gift from God. This was a startling revelation to me, especially after a lifetime of secrecy, fear, and guilt." This groundbreaking research shows that [homosexuals]' ultimate fate is no different from most straight NDEs.

I didn't give it 5 stars, since the Discussion chapter was missing, although listed in the table of contents, and there were a number of misprints, especially in the appendices. Still, it is a must for those interested in NDEs or homosexuality.

[the g-word was edited from my review, even though it appears on this Web page]

John Long provides you with everything you need to pass the time on a rain day and even inspire you to think up some adventures of your own. The stories about Yosemite back in the day are really great because you can feel he lived them, which always makes for a better read. Excellent collection and entertaining.

At first I began reading these short stories and was laughing so hard my sides hurt and I was embarassing myself at work...I thought, "This is the best book I've read in a long time"....I knew I was going to give it 5 stars....

However, some of the stories got a little wierd and seemed fictional. I started to look around the front of the book where a disclaimer reads that indeed, some of the stories are fictional...

This really let me down...kinda deflated my impression a bit...

However, overall the book is excellent and (most) of the stories are extremely entertaining to read...John Long has a unique style that is very captivating and enthralling...I do recommend this book to all who enjoy adventure reading...

John Krakauer? Give me a bucket! This is as good as adventure story telling gets. Take it or leave it that simple. Somehow you have made it to this remote corner of the Amazon, to discover this gem. Buy this book, and you will be transported to unimagineable places and adventures. Among Long's books, the most recent and therefore the best. Unbelievably, ROCK JOCKS is out of print. Get LONG ON ADVENTURE while you can!