Secrets Of The Afterlife

Dr. Raymond Moody has dedicated his life to the afterlife. The 72-year old psychiatrist, philosopher and researcher is known as the dean of near-death-experience (NDE) studies, thanks to his groundbreaking 1975 bestseller, Life After Life. Mysterious Ways sat down with Dr. Moody to discuss the great beyond, the “nonsense of dying” and his own trip to the outskirts of eternity.

- Raymond Moody, M.D., Ph.D.

When did you first become fascinated by the afterlife?

When I was growing up, in Georgia, there were people all around me who believed in the afterlife. But my parents regarded religion with a certain amount of bemusement. They weren’t atheists, they were just not interested.

I went to the University of Virginia in 1962 and decided to study philosophy. A lot of the great early philosophers, like Plato, were interested in cases of people who had supposedly died and come back.

In 1965, I met Dr. George Ritchie, a professor of psychiatry who had once been pronounced dead from pneumonia. His heart wasn’t beating for at least nine minutes. During that time, he underwent this amazing experience in which he saw different levels of eternity with Christ. Whether his experience was real or not, George absolutely was convinced. His goodness and solidity just came through.

How do you define a near-death experience?

It’s a patterned experience people have after dying or almost dying. No two NDEs are exactly the same, but there are striking commonalities. Most people say they seem to leave their bodies and watch from above as their body is resuscitated. They pass down a dark tunnel and come out into a brilliant, warm and loving light. They meet deceased friends and loved ones in spirit form. And they undergo a panoramic or holographic review of their lives in which they witness everything they’ve done from an external point of view. Often, this life review happens in the presence of a being of love and light.

Couldn’t the similarities of NDEs be explained by cultural influences?

I’ve gone to China, India, Japan, Russia, Africa, North and South America, and everywhere people tell me the same basic things. The accounts aren’t different, just the religious imagery.