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This article is an excerpt from"The Magic of Our Universe" Kent Davis Moberg Life Beyond Death and ReincarnationDefinitionsLife Beyond Death: A proposed state of consciousness that occurs after physical death, which can be experienced during a near-death experience (NDE); the living spirit of humans; the next phase of existence after physical death in a series of existential phases. Reincarnation: The process after physical death where the soul of a human, animal, or other form returns to Earth to live out another life in another physical form. The Eastern religion of Hinduism suggests that reincarnation occurs in either higher or lower forms depending on how the previous life was lived. The word reincarnation was formed in English around 1860 from the Latin prefix re meaning "again", combined with incarnation, derived from the Late Lain incarnate meaning "to make into flesh." StatisticsAs of 1998, there were 410 books in print regarding life after death and reincarnation. One is in print from 1930, 1 in 1947, 6 in the 1960s, 21 in the 1970s, 74 in the 1980s, and a whopping 286 in the 1990s. One hundred twenty-eight of the 286 were published within the last four years. This astonishing recent output of books suggests a tremendous surge in both interest and activity in the afterlife (Numbers obtained from R.R. Bowker's Books in Print, the 1998 list). In 1997 there were approximately four hours of documentaries aired on life after death and reincarnation. In 1998 there were around twenty-eight hours of documentaries again suggesting a great increase in interest (Numbers derived from Gissen, Jayed., The Cable Guide, 1997,1998). Notable author P.M.H. Atwater claims that at least eight million Americans have died and lived to describe the details of their experience, and that ninety percent of these experiences are positive. ("The Near Death Experience," Life After Death, 22 Dec.1997). A consensus between a recent Gallup poll and near-death researchers puts the adult NDE figure closer to thirteen million Americans and suggests the worldwide numbers of all age groups is likely much larger (Frequently Asked Questions about NDEs, The International Association of Near Death Studies, Forty-two percent of all Americans report some contact with the dead (Greely, Reverend Andrew, Sociologist, "The Near Death Experience," Life After Death, 22 Dec. 1997.) Ascent of the Blessed, painted by Hieronymus Bosch in the fifteenth century, depicts light beings or angels escorting the spirits of humans to the light at the end of the tunnel (Moody, Dr. Raymond A., Life After Life, video cassette, 1992). An Oxford University study revealed that sixty-six percent of nurses in England have reported mystical events triggered by near-death experiences of patients ("The Near Death Experience," Life After Death, 22 Dec. 1997). The overwhelming majority of Earth's inhabitants believe in life after death. A sizable portion believe in reincarnation, and déjà vu may be an indication of the reality of this belief ("Beyond the Grave: The Afterlife," In Search of History, 10 Aug. 1998). Artist Gustave Dore depicted the tunnel of light in his nineteenth-century engraving (Moody, Dr. Raymond A., Life After Life, video cassette, 1992). |
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