Glimpsing Heaven: The Stories and Science of Life After Death Paperback – September 2, 2014

Judy Bachrach is a journalist who is an excellent writer and story teller. I found that she paid attention to details that make the recollections in this book so vivid. There is nothing quite so riveting as a well told near-death experience story. Who in their right mind would not be eager to know what happens after death? So in the respect I found this book to be captivating.Some of the things I learned that I really didn't know before was that people who have a near-death experiences sometimes come back with the ability to hear other people's thoughts. I know this can happen to others because it has happened to me a few times and I didn't even have to die to get the gift. But apparently this can be a disturbing gift if you don't know how to handle it.While most of the book was positive I questioned two of the near-death experiences. Firstly a girl who claims to be an atheist lands up in a nice place while a Christian ends up in a horrifying position. The trick here is that the first girl is still a child when she has her experience and technically I believe all children go to heaven. The Christian woman may have perhaps only been religious and may not have put her total faith in Jesus. So it is a little confusing for the Christian to wade through these two experiences. To be honest I think this book will scare Christians in places. Let me just say I've only read one other negative near-death experience that was recorded by a Christian who was not living a good life.Otherwise I felt Judy Bachrach is an insightful writer. Although she draws some pretty big conclusions based off limited data. It is not helpful to tell all people that they will all be fine when they die. Near death experiences point to another reality. You could end up in heaven or hell. So yes, there is something to worry about. Belief in Jesus will allow you access to heaven. Please do more research on this and don't take the authors casual observations lightly. Your soul's eternal destination is very important and you choose that destination in this life.Jung's description of his near-death experience sounded to me more like a dream. I'd have to read far more descriptions of his type of NDE to know if it really was true or not.Since so many of us experiences a universal fear of death it is good to read books about what could possibly happen after you die. For me it has set my mind at ease.So read this book with careful judgment and read many other books on this subject to to get a more well-rounded view of near-death experiences. From what I've read most are pleasant. If the negative experiences scare you, read the Bible and find out more about hell and heaven.~The Rebecca Review

Being a senior I find it comforting to think we could meet our friends and relatives once again in another life time.

I've read just over half this book, so far.The book is poorly written. However, the basic content, ideas, and narrative are critical reading to cultivate an informed mind and life, and to develop an understanding of, and action plan for, the eventual death of your loved one, or those otherwise around you. When the 911 ambulance crew categorically pronounced my parent dead thirty days ago yesterday, had I known then about resuscitation what I know now simply by having read half of this book, I would have rejected its declaration and insisted that they attempt to revive my parent, or get them to the hospital and let the Emergency Department do it.That did not happen, however. My general ignorance resulted in my family having now lost a key member, and I don't think they're coming back.More to come after I've completed this book. Don't wait, however. Start reading it right now.Update, June 13, 2015: I finished the book about two months ago. It's a decent general introduction to this kind of material, but I'd actually recommend seeking out primary source material, for example "Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death," by Sam Parnia, M.D.With a parent now apparently gone, I find myself inclined for the first time in my life to seriously consider assertions of life-after-death, and the idea that I will, indeed, see my beloved parent, again. Yet, I continue to feel the hard, skeptical stare of the hardcore rationalist and empiricist in me. While making a distinction between varying theories and bodies of argument concerning death, we can examine their possible intersection. One line of thought, for example, claims out-of-body experiences and permanent life-after-death, ala' writers such as Roberta Grimes; Ms. Grimes categorically asserts that when we die we actually don't die at all, but simply move from one plane of existence to another, to continue living albeit in a far better way. An apparently different subject altogether is the concern of researchers like Sam Parnia, who assert that upon clinical death the brain continues functioning silently, powered by its own energy source apart from the heart, and thus purportedly "dead" people can be revived. Though both address death, and each area is its own self-contained subject, there may be an intersection: perhaps the reason, way, or vehicle for an out-of-body experience is that though the heart has ceased all function and all standard indicators of death are in place, the brain, hence the mind in some form continues to exist.I'm going to continue reading and thinking. We'll see what happens.

There is some interesting content but it’s spread out and the writing style is slow, ponderous and wanders around. After a while it’s a chore to read. It doesn’t add much (if anything) to the body of work on the subject and there are much better books on the topic.

I enjoyed the book very much, but found much of it was taken up by the author saying the same thing over and over about how "travellers" we're not believed by other people about their experience etc. I thought there would be more examples, and they would be more recent, but there seem to only be a handful. I got the feeling that other NDE were perhaps part of other studies or other books and thus the author did not have the "rights" to tell more stories. And thus had to really stretch the ones she did have the "rights" to tell into a book. Also, I would have been interested to hear of accounts where there was a difference in people's experiences if they had lived cruel and evil lives versus generally good lives. She only touches on non believer versus believer experiences (which don't differ) and on generally "good" people's experiences. Also I note, no mention of recent worldwide challenges faced by our race such as fanaticism religion and the spate of recently exposed child abuse cases - has this never come up in any of the NDE's "questions to be answered by the other side" (not that I expect a book of NDE to cover any particular religion in any depth, but key beliefs of many of the other mainstream religions are touched on in the book through the people she interviewed. I was curious as to whether the author just never came into contact with anyone of the Muslim faith who had had an NDE (or was willing to talk about it?). With regard to current affairs - I am not suggesting that this book should have covered current affairs topics, but when you see statements such as "Everything is as it should be", has any NDE traveller not probed a little deeper into this topic with the other side with regard to the horrific things we are doing to each other and the earth? On the whole a good, interesting read, but I would have preferred more examples and accounts of experiences.

The book although interesting didn't go into enough detail. I wanted detailed descriptions of heaven or the so called after life.Really opened my eyes to the subject, and has got my feet wet, so to speak, to look more I'm depth on this fascinating subject, which really isn't taken seriously enough

From an unbiased point of view, the author examines very touching, personal accounts of near-death experiences, and other phenomena. I really enjoyed it. If you've lost someone close to you, if you're curious about what happens after death, or you think that you may be dying soon, then this book is for you.

Very interesting.