Light and Death

One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences

By: Michael Sabom

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Begun in 1994, The Atlanta Study is the first comprehensive investigation of its kind into near-death experiences (NDEs). The study's name hardly captures what lies behind it: life-and-death dramas played out in operating rooms and hospital beds--and simultaneous events unseen by medical personnel but reported with astonishing clarity and conviction by nearly 50 individuals who returned from death's door. Now the founder of The Atlanta Study, Dr. Michael Sabom reveals their impact on the people who have experienced them. From both medical and personal perspectives, he shares the electrifying stories of men and women from all walks of life and religious persuasions. He explores the clinical effect of the NDE on survival and healing and discloses surprising findings. He questions some common conclusions about NDEs. And he scrutinizes near-death experiences in the light of what the Bible has to say about death and dying, the realities of light and darkness, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Research

Hope to more clearly understand, will listen again, in that effort. Very interesting at the same time.

Strong Start

The book started out strong, but, to me, the author spent so much time routing out the bias in his and other NDE studies that he left the reader/listener behind. I found it hard to complete the work.

Build my faith

I listened to a lot of this on a plane... and like me, you probably have thoughts of "what if it crashes?" when you fly... well, I'm not ready for the great beyond, yet. But this book built my faith in the Lord and in Heaven.

It was also well narrated. That's very important to me in an audio book. When the narrator focuses too much on enunciation I can't focus on the story. I don't want to notice the narrator. I want to immerse myself in the story--which is easy to do with Tom. I think I will search for other books narrated by Tom Parks because I've heard two and I love his style.

good science until the end

the book presented good evidence based argument until the very end when the presuppositional position of the author came comes out. The author argues the veracity of NDE content based on Biblical coherence. If not coherent with Bible, then a a description from the devil. Though this is a good presuppositional argument, it does. it meet the evidential standards I look for.

Excessively Religious

I was hoping to read an open-minded, unbiased book about near death experiences. Unfortunately, Light and Death is a preachy, Christianity-biased book written by a man who clearly has a strong agenda. Sabom is a devout Christian, and he tries to debunk all data that conflicts with his belief system. There is a reason that his data is so skewed toward the idea of a purely Christian afterlife, unlike the vast majority of other NDE studies and findings our there, and that’s because of his own religious beliefs. Confirmation bias is a pernicious problem when strong beliefs are present in studies. I will not read another book by Michael Sabom. The bias is overwhelming.