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AFTER LIFE: Dr. Raymond Moody comes to town to talk about shared death experience.
An Interview with Dr. RaymondMoody
By Victoria Woodard Harvey
There is no doubt that Dr. Raymond Moody has changed the way many people look at dying. In his 1975 best-selling book Life After Life, Moody introduced the concept of the near-death experience (NDE), which has become a common phenomenon with the advances of medical resuscitation. The ongoing debate about the possibility of an afterlife has gained momentum since his 2010 book, Glimpses of Eternity, in which he describes the shared death experience, where those sitting with the dying person also experience out-of-bodysensations.
The son of a harshly cynical surgeon, military officer, and medic in WWII, Moody himself is a medical doctor, a doctor of philosophy, a counselor, and a prison psychologist, as well as the best-selling author of 12 books. He is the ultimate rationalist, and conversations with him inevitably veer back to his favorite subjects: the philosophy of language, the reasoning of ancient Greek philosopher Democritus and Platos The Republic, and his family, which includes his older children, a grandson, and two teens (13 and 15) still at home with him and his wife in ruralAlabama.
When Life After Life was published in 1975, had you any idea you were opening a national conversation on death and dying? No, I did not! The books first printing was 19,000, and I just hoped some would sell and get into the hands of some medical doctors and psychologists. [The book has since been translated into a dozen foreign languages and sold more than 14 millioncopies.]
You knew at the time thered be resistance to these ideas from skeptics, scientists, and clergymen. Has that dynamic changed in 40 years? There are still people who are holdouts to ideology. People into hard sciences, neurophysiology, often ignore a core philosophical question: What is the relationship between our unique, inner experience of conscious awareness and material substance? The answer is: We dont know, and some people are so terrified to say, I dontknow.
What are you afraid of? I have a fear of driving, and pain. [Laughs] But Im not afraid of death atall.
How would you describe your personal religion? I have never been religious. I talk to God every day, but hes never said a word to me about religion! I think the most powerful prayer issurrender.
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