Earlier this week I mentioned an upcoming book release, The Handbook of Near Death Experiences. I’ve just received further information from the book’s senior editor, Jan Holden, about the book and some related free content on the web:
In 2005, I was president of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), and Debbie James, a nurse educator at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, was the IANDS conference director. I realized it was the 30th anniversary of the publication of Raymond Moody’s book Life After Life that opened the field of near-death studies. I approached Debbie about making our 2006 conference a 30-year retrospective of the field and learned she had been thinking of hosting a conference at M. D. Anderson. This seemed like the perfect marriage of ideas.
IANDS did hold the conference in the fall of 2006…I invited the leading NDE researchers from around the world to present comprehensive, critical reviews of all research to date on these topics; their presentations comprised the first two days of the four-day conference. DVDs of those presentations are available for sale at the IANDS website. Most of the chapters from The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences derived from those 2006 conference paper presentations. Bruce Greyson, the leading active NDE researcher, was a shoe-in to serve as second editor, and Debbie James, 2006 conference director, as third editor. Veteran NDE researcher Ken Ring, now retired from the field of near-death studies, wrote the Foreword to The Handbook.
For your additional information, anyone interested in a 1 hour, 15 minute online introduction to NDEs may access such a program at no cost at http://www.iands.org/education/educational_credits/ceu-course-home.html The program first reviews the field of near-death studies (addressed in Chapter 1 of The Handbook), then addresses the topic of the contents of pleasurable Western adult NDEs, the most researched subtopic in the field (the topic of Chapter 2 of The Handbook), including audio and video clips of NDErs describing their experiences. Right now, Texas mental health professionals can earn CE credit for viewing the program and passing a quiz; we’re in the process of becoming able to offer CE credit to a larger range of health professionals. This program is the perfect accompaniment to The Handbook.
The book is scheduled for release later this month, and is available for preorder from Amazon. Contributors include Bruce Greyson, Peter Fenwick, and Carlos Alvarado. Sounds like a definite for my bookshelf.
