Never-before-released research proves the dead communicate with us As a former hospice worker and director of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Center, Dianne Arcangel was certain that visitations from beyond death provided comfort and hope for loved ones still grappling with their loss. As a researcher, however, she was unable to find specific data to measure that comfort and hope. To remedy this lack of information, she created the Afterlife Encounters Survey, a five-year, international survival study. Afterlife Encounters reveals the results of this landmark study and, for the first-time, offers a systematic categorization of such encounters, explaining when these encounters are most likely to occur and what type of apparition is likely to appear. Afterlife Encounters presents not only the data, but also the stories beyond the numbers, as friends and family members relate their visitation experiences in their own words. Included are amazing stories of the dead returning to tell loved ones that they had been murdered and who it was that killed them; apparitions revealing where family treasure was buried; even one spirit who provided a remarkable account of the tragedies of 9/11—weeks before those events occurred. The stats and stories that Arcangel shares are certain to stay with you for a long time, as will her eye-opening conclusion: afterlife encounters provide real, lasting comfort and hope to an astounding 97 percent of those loved ones who experience them.

An award-winning writer explores the patchwork American cultural history of grieving the departed. One family inters their matriarch’s ashes on the floor of the ocean. Another holds a memorial weenie roast each year at a green-burial cemetery. An 1898 ad for embalming fluid promises, “You can make mummies with it!” while a leading contemporary burial vault is touted as impervious to the elements. A grieving mother, 150 years ago, might spend her days tending a garden at her daughter’s grave. Today, she might tend the roadside memorial she erected where her daughter was killed. One mother wears a locket containing her daughter’s hair; the other, a necklace containing her ashes. What happens after someone dies depends on our personal stories and on where those stories fall in a larger tale―that of death in America. It’s a powerful tale that we usually keep hidden from our everyday lives until we have to face it. American Afterlife by Kate Sweeney reveals this world through a collective portrait of Americans past and present who are personally involved with death: obit writers in the desert, an Atlantic funeral voyage, a fourth-generation funeral director―even a midwestern museum that shows us our death-obsessed Victorian progenitors. Each story illuminates details in another, revealing a landscape that feels at once strange and familiar, one that’s by turns odd, tragic, poignant, and sometimes even funny. “Sweeney’s quest for the “why” behind mourning rituals has given us a book in the best tradition of narrative journalism.”—Jessica Handler, author of Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing about Grief and Loss

What happens when we die? What is heaven really like? How do spiritual beings--angels and demons--interact with us here and in the hereafter? Real-life, credible stories of near-death experiences and spiritual encounters gathered by the authors of Heaven and the Afterlife paint a clearer, fuller picture of exactly what readers can expect when it's their turn to "cross over." These gripping true stories--written from a solidly biblical perspective but accessible to seekers--provide fascinating glimpses into the spiritual world around us and the one that awaits us.

How a doctor's glimpses of eternity confirmed everything he believed about God, suffering, life on earth, and what happens after death.Dr. Chauncey Crandall knows his patients well. When they are dying, he sits at the bedside with them and holds their hands. He prays with them. Sometimes he can feel what they feel and see what they see. At other times his patients have near-death experiences and "come back" with astonishing descriptions of the afterlife. In TOUCHING HEAVEN, Dr. Crandall reveals how what he has seen and heard has convinced him that God is real, that we are created for a divine purpose, that death is not the end, that we will see our departed loved ones again, and that we are closer to the next world than we think.

A Journey to Hell, Heaven, and Back In 1978, Ivan Tuttle was living a carefree life, going from one party to the next, from one high to anotherwhen his fun, free life was interrupted by a pain in his leg. Doctors told him he had a dangerous blood clot in his legbut Ivan didnt pay much attention to that. He was 26 and felt fine; blood clots were a problem for his grandfather, not him. Until the clock ran out. Ivan Tuttle suddenly found himself dragged down to hell for a horrifying lesson in the reality of eternity. He was spared and even saw Heaven before being sent back to earth with quite a story to tell.

From earliest times, people have speculated about what happens when they and their loved ones die. Their views vary from certainty about life after death to utter disbelief. Scientist, Erlendur Haraldsson, a native of Iceland, sought an answer to his question, Have you ever been aware of the presence of a deceased person?

In Amazing Stories of Life After Death, Liz Gwyn shares her experiences along with real-life stories from medical field professionals and first responders that will inspire your own personal and spiritual growth.

Reminders of death were everywhere in the New World, from the epidemics that devastated Indian populations and the mortality of slaves working the Caribbean sugar cane fields to the unfamiliar diseases that afflicted Europeans in the Chesapeake and West Indies. According to historian Erik R. Seeman, when Indians, Africans, and Europeans encountered one another, they could not ignore the similarities in their approaches to death. All of these groups believed in an afterlife to which the soul or spirit traveled after death. As a result all felt that corpses—the earthly vessels for the soul or spirit—should be treated with respect, and all mourned the dead with commemorative rituals. Seeman argues that deathways facilitated communication among peoples otherwise divided by language and custom. They observed, asked questions about, and sometimes even participated in their counterparts' rituals. At the same time, insofar as New World interactions were largely exploitative, the communication facilitated by parallel deathways was often used to influence or gain advantage over one's rivals. In Virginia, for example, John Smith used his knowledge of Powhatan deathways to impress the local Indians with his abilities as a healer as part of his campaign to demonstrate the superiority of English culture. Likewise, in the 1610-1614 war between Indians and English, the Powhatans mutilated English corpses because they knew this act would horrify their enemies. Told in a series of engrossing narratives, Death in the New World is a landmark study that offers a fresh perspective on the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters and their larger ramifications in the Atlantic world.

“Then I felt his body leaning over mine and his fingers holding my nostrils shut. I could not breathe. My teeth were clenched. His fingers remained sealing my nose, when suddenly my mouth and jaw opened up and I gasped for air. Startled, he released his grip on my nose and left the room, leaving me paralyzed, naked, and curled up on the floor.” A few years ago, Ana Christina was left for dead. Despite the horrific circumstances, it was a blessing in disguise - the Lord delivered her from the hands of her perpetrator. “Ana Christina shares in such a vulnerable way that she takes her readers on a journey. Her incredible path leaves one with the realization that the human soul is unconquerable. Her honest, open way of revealing herself literally gives her readers the permission and courage to get real with themselves, experiencing a journey of self discovery, self disclosure and eventually the uncovering of self immortality.” - Jeffery Olsen, Author of KNOWING and WHERE ARE YOU?

Where is God when my suffering seems never-ending? Can I really find joy in this fallen world? This powerful book confronts these questions with stories of the author's near-death experience, a daughter's suicide attempt, mental illness, and numerous other gripping stories that demonstrate not only that God is present when we need him, but that through our trials we can find true intimacy with him. Author Randy Kay recounts how, as a former devout agnostic, he survived a near-fatal accident while searching for the truth--and when he met the One he sought to disprove, his journey changed from a life of extreme trials into one of genuine joy. In these pages, Kay offers his testimony to show readers how God uses suffering and brokenness to build an intimate and indestructible relationship with him, while breaking down barriers and ushering the reader into an authentic relationship with the Author of love.