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What Happens When We Die?: A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "I was a very curious child and used to spend hours trying to "make" things that "worked..." (more)
Key Phrases: seeing deceased relatives, scientific entity, dying brain, Peter Fenwick, Life After Life, New York (more...)

2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

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Just what does happen when we die? That question has long begged an answer and has nagged at British near-death expert Parnia since his youth. It motivated him to become a physician and inspired him to begin conducting experiments that made the evening news even before he completed medical certification. One could say his entire life has been devoted to the pursuit of an answer to this question. The closest he has come to an answer lies in what he has learned from interviewing hundreds who have had near-death experiences and from exhaustive research on the character, origin, and extent of consciousness. The scope of his analysis has taken him through the realms of science, medicine, psychology, religion, and philosophy. If his research, findings, and conclusions to date don't offer conclusive answers to the age-old question, they do present enough up-to-the-minute data and theory to at least whet, if not satisfy, the appetite of more-than-mildly-curious readers. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

Dr. Sam Parnia faces death every day. Through his work as a critical-care doctor in a hospital emergency room, he became very interested in some of his patients’ accounts of the experiences that they had while clinically dead. He started to collect these stories and read all the latest research on the subject, and then he decided to conduct his own experiments. That work has culminated in this extraordinary book, which picks up where Raymond Moody’s Life After Life left off.

Written in a scientific, balanced, and engaging style, this is powerful and compelling reading.

This fascinating and controversial book will change the way you look at death and dying. . . .

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Product Details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Hay House (January 30, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1401907105
ISBN-13: 978-1401907105
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #618,282 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
I was a very curious child and used to spend hours trying to "make" things that "worked." Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
seeing deceased relatives, scientific entity, dying brain

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Peter Fenwick, Life After Life, New York, Professor Chamberlain, Resuscitation Council, Van Lommel, Professor Greenfield

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 26 books:

Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon--Survival of Bodily Death by Raymond Moody on 5 pages
The Truth in the Light: Investigation of Over 300 Near Death Experiences by Peter Fenwick on page 4, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
The Self and Its Brain: An Argument for Interactionism by Karl Popper on page 124, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Cardiac Arrest: The Science and Practice of Resuscitation Medicine by Norman A., M.D. Paradis in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Clinical Neurology (Vol 1 & 2) by Michael Swash in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

See all 26 books this book cites

1 book cites this book:

Your Immortal Reality: How to Break the Cycle of Birth and Death by Gary Renard in Front Matter

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	85% buy the item featured on this page: What Happens When We Die?: A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death 2.9 out of 5 stars (18) $15.96
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75 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars At The Very End, March 12, 2006

By	Fernando Melendez "fermed" (San Diego, California USA) - See all my reviews

This book should be read by anyone who expects to die sometime. Others have no need for it. We do not know when, or how, but no sane person denies the inevitability of their eventual demise. We are (probably) the only species to posses this bit of information about our collective future. Knowledge of death comes in bits and pieces when we are children. It undergoes a period of stout denial in adolescence and young adulthood, when we are well aware that others might die, but not necessarily us. For millennia governments have sent people in such a state of denial to fight to the death against other youth, from other countries, who are equally or more deluded that their own youngsters. Ever so slowly the idea of our own death makes an occasional appearance into our consciousness as young people, and then such appearances accelerate in frequency as we age, to the point that old people think about death on a daily, or even hourly, basis; and yet we know little about the process itself, and even less about what happens afterwards, if anything. This book does not have all the answers, but it certainly poses these questions very nicely.

Sam Parnia belongs to a group of physicians who have studied the reports made by patients after having been technically dead, but who have recovered and told takes of wondrous events that took place during that apparent period of no oxygen, no heartbeat, and no life: many patients report floating above the frantic medics who are trying to resuscitate them, they tell about conversations that happened while they we unconscious, and speak about experiencing a great calm as they float through a tunnel towards a marvelous light; they mention being greeted by long dead relatives, and then about being informed that it is not yet their time, that they must go back. They suddenly awake in a hospital bed, reluctant to tell about their adventures lest they be called crazy. These experiences were first studied methodically by Dr. Ray Moody, who published a book about them in the late 70's. Dr. Parnia acknowledges Dr. Moody's contributions, but takes his studies further; after all, medical technology has advanced dramatically since then, and at present there are machines that detect brain activities as a functions of oxygen usage or glucose consumption. Visualization of the brain, a rarity in the 70's, is commonplace with new computerized scanning devices.

Dr. Parnia is a modest but extremely well informed man, and his book contains both dramatic anecdotes of people in Near Death Experiences (NDE), and meticulous accounts of the anatomical and neurological changes that take place during the process of dying. As a good scientist he is neutral about the religious implications of possible continued existence following the physical death of the body; his interest is trying to study methodically the questions raised by NDE. Surely lack of nutrients and oxygen will result in the death of neurons and consequent brain damage. Yet he narrates the case of a young man was declared dead after a long period of resuscitation attempts by a hospital team. His brain and heart monitors showed flat lines, indicative of no activity and ultimately of death. He remained in this dead state for about fifteen minutes while the doctor wrote his chart notes in the nursing station; but unsure of the total number of vials of adrenaline that had been used, he returned to the man's room and found him to be slightly pinker than when he had left him. He called the resuscitation team back, and they managed to bring the patient to normal functions and to stabilize him. Surely, they all believed, this person would have suffered massive brain damage after such a long deprivation of brain oxygen; but on the contrary, when the man returned a week later to thank the staff he was fully recovered and not obviously damaged in any way.

The book is written in simple language that will not stump an averagely intelligent reader. It is free from intellectually insulting logical faults, such as those offered by religions. It loses one star for not having a unified bibliography, but rather offers its references on a chapter by chapter basis: an unnecessary (an uncomfortable for the reader) way of presenting source material in these days of computers. The substance of this book is important to all of us, and therefore WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE is highly recommended.

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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book , April 6, 2006

By	Jennifer Riley "jennifer" (Boston, USA) - See all my reviews

I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who has ever thought about the ultimate question of what happens when we die... Especially those who want answers based upon the objectivity of science.

Ever since he was a medical student, Parnia MD, PhD was fascinated by what it is that makes us all unique as individuals, in other words what is the relation between the mind and the brain? Later he was touched by the experience of seeing his patients' die and was left with the question of what happens to the human mind and consciousness at the end of life? Disappointed that science had not seriously tried to study this question, he developed a scientific model i.e. cardiac arrest and started research into this field. This was almost 10 years ago...

This book starts with a review of the subject based upon the literature. Although, this is generally where all other books on the subject stop, he however, goes further by describing how novel research was set up and taking us along with answers obtained from the first ever published scientific study to test the different theories of causation of near death experiences. Parnia's study which was published in the medical journal 'Resuscitaton' has been followed by three other independent studies carried out in the US and Holland and published in top journals such as 'The Lancet'. All these researchers including Parnia have concluded (rather significantly) that the occurrence of "lucid well structured thought processes together with reasoning and memory formation when the brain ceases functioning and the clinical criteria of death are met, suggest that the human mind and
consciousness may continue to function at the end of life...!" In this book Parnia then explains how this finding relates to the problem of human consciousness, brain function as well as modern physics.

I have read the other reviews on this site, in which some have been disappointed suggesting there is no study or only a small study in this book and I was frankly very surprised!!! Perhaps they did not read the book very thoroughly or perhaps they were looking for something that is not yet out there. As well as a review of the subject that is based on over one hundred published studies, there are also results from the four newly published scientific studies, including Parnia's own detailed above.

This is a great book and arguably the most complete book examining what happens when we die from a scientific angle. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone with an interest in this area. Moreover it is an easy and enjoyable read and although in parts it is serious in others it is quite light hearted. I can't wait to get the results of the larger multi center study that he has now started...!

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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars We all want to know..., March 26, 2006

By	Bonnie Neely - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

What Happens When We Die by SAM PARNIA, MD, is quite different from other books about near death experiences (NDE's.) Sam, as a young critical care doctor in Great Britain, decided to study cardiac arrest patients who survived, to learn if they had NDE's, or out of body experiences. He developed a strictly scientific study by which patients were asked simply if they remembered anything from the time they were in a coma. He compared results testing brain chemistry, brain waves, medications, and many other scientific conditions to see if there were any similarities which might induce the brain to create the experience. Convinced that there was no explainable cause for NDE's from these studies he delved more deeply than others writing about NDE's. This book not only cites various NDE's of patients who consistently found the light, benevolent beings, and a peaceful happy experience and returned to a life more benevolent, but the book also details his very thorough scientific studies from other approaches heretofore never considered. He has approached the question what happens when we die from the physiological aspects, the brain chemistry aspects, the patients' personal beliefs about death or religion, as well as considering it from scientific knowledge, quantum physics, psychology, and neuroscience. The book gets very technical in some chapters but gives easy to understand examples in non-medical terms. I found most fascinating that he considers the NDE's from the philosophical aspects of what do we consider real? And what is human consciousness? And where is the mind or consciousness located? His conclusions are fascinating, sticking to the scientific method, and proposing theories that may lead to future scientific discoveries that will forever alter our concepts of human life and science, just as discoveries by Newton, Galileo, Descartes, Einstein and others have changed mankind's knowledge forever. A really fascinating book and proposal for a larger study when it is funded in the future. He has concluded that human consciousness does travel outside the body and continues to exist when the brain is dead.This is a groundbreaking study into the nature of life and death

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars good resource book / hospice
As a hospice nurse, i felt that this was a good resource book for those friends or families that are on hospice. Read more

Published 5 months ago by janysd

3.0 out of 5 stars Lower your expectations to enjoy this book
It is unfortunate that the title of this book sets high expectations for the reader and may leave us disappointed. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Simple Thinker

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
I've read the book and was not impressed. Although there was great promise in the pretense of this book, the author never actually got around to conducting the 'large study' he... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Richard G. Veum

3.0 out of 5 stars Where's the study?
I have read most well-regarded NDE books and was very excited about reading Dr. Parnia's book since his claims to focus on a "groundbreaking study" that seeks to understand if... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Just Lovely

5.0 out of 5 stars Needs a Final Chapter
Sam Parnia wrote a book without an ending. That is because he was unable to complete his research due to a lack of funding into near-death experiences (NDEs). Read more

Published 11 months ago by Oannas

2.0 out of 5 stars Hope I wont have to read it again in my afterlife
The beginning is fine since he was telling the NDE experiences of patients who had cardiac arrest. After he ran of out experiences to talk about, he basically focused on his... Read more

Published 16 months ago by wanttea

1.0 out of 5 stars Guess what? Dr. Parnia doesn't know....
This has to be one of the most diappointing books I have read on this subject. Basically, it is a bunch of theories by other researchers that are tossed around in a disorganized... Read more

Published 19 months ago by AIM

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the Promised End
I have seldom been so disappointed with a book, which was good enough to read all the way through. Much of the text has as much to do with near death experiences as the ribbon... Read more

Published 22 months ago by J. Savani

1.0 out of 5 stars Very misleading and disappointing ...
The subtitle is "A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death". The only study in the book is hardly groundbreaking because it yielded no useful results due to... Read more

Published on December 17, 2006 by Toonfan

4.0 out of 5 stars Death Is A Pleasant Experience
Have you ever wondered what it is like to die? Have you ever wondered about "near death experiences" or "out of body experiences"? Then this is book is for you. Read more

Published on October 29, 2006 by Thomas M. Loarie

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