A groundbreaking, authoritative exploration--rich with powerful
personal stories and convincing research--of the many ways the living
can and do accompany the dying on their journey into the afterlife.
In 2000, end-of-life therapist William Peters was volunteering at the
Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco when he had an extraordinary
experience as he was reading aloud to a patient: he suddenly felt
himself floating in midair, completely out of his body. The patient, who
was also aloft, looked at him and smiled. The next moment, Peters felt
himself return to his body...but the patient never regained
consciousness and died.
Perplexed and stunned by what had happened, Peters began searching for
other people who'd shared similar experiences. He would spend the next
twenty years gathering and meticulously categorizing their stories to
identify key patterns and features of what is now known as the "shared
crossing" experience. The similarities, which cut across continents and
cultures and include awe-inspiring visual and sensory effects, and
powerful emotional after-effects, were impossible to ignore.
Long whispered about in the hospice and medical communities, these
extraordinary moments of final passage are openly discussed and
explained in At Heaven's Door. The book is filled with powerful tales
of spouses on departing this earth after decades together and bereaved
parents who share their children's entry into the afterlife. Applying
rigorous research, Peters digs into the effect these shared crossing
experiences impart--liberation at the sight of a loved one finding joy,
a sense of reconciliation if the relationship was fraught--and explores
questions like: What can explain these shared death experiences? How can
we increase our likelihood of having one? What do these experiences tell
us about what lies beyond? And, most importantly, how can they help take
away the sting of death and better prepare us for our own final moments?
How can we have both a better life and a better death?
