Almost one in five near-death experiences are not peaceful suggestions of heaven. In a wide-ranging and far from gloomy look at “the other near-death experience,” Nancy Evans Bush gives the first comprehensive look at a fascinating but neglected topic: NDEs and deathbed visions of fear, emptiness, and even hell. A wonderfully readable book, grounded in thirty years of experience and research, Dancing is packed with first-person accounts, engrossing discussion and factual answers to a myriad of questions, both religious and secular, with practical suggestions for integrating such an experience or encountering one as a caregiver. Here are ways of thinking about the subject that will be new to many readers. What becomes evident is that to see these only as a terrible threat about death is largely to miss their point. “…absolutely enthralling—literary, adventurous, incisive, informative and smart… one of the strongest, most thought-provoking books on the paranormal I've ever seen.” ~Steve Volk Fringe-ology “The book is an outstanding piece of work. It is a wonderfully comprehensive and rich history of what can be known and what might be considered about NDEs [and] bursts with anecdote and commentary, reinforcing for the reader that there is always another way to see things.” ~ Wayne Rollins, MDiv, PhD Soul and Psyche, Jung and the Bible, and other titles “Dancing Past the Dark is what we have all been waiting for… a must for any experiencer of…any type of encounter with the numinous. ~ P. M. H. Atwater, LHD Near-Death Experiences: The Rest of the Story “A valuable contribution to the NDE literature and engagingly written. It needs to be seen and read by the wider public.” J. Harold Ellens, MDiv, PhD Nancy Evans Bush holds a Masters Degree in Pastoral Ministry and Spirituality from St. Joseph University, Connecticut. She was Executive Director and later President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies and a member of its Board of Directors for many years. She is considered the world expert on distressing NDEs.

The authors offer an insightful analysis of the symbiotic relationship between the popular entertainment industry and America's youth, suggest principles for evaluating popular art and entertainment, and propose strategies for rebuilding strong local cultures in the face of global media giants.

A cultural history of the 1930s explores the anxiety, despair, and optimism of the period, exploring how the period culture provided a dynamic lift to the country's morale.

He tossed her into the air as if she were weightless, and just for a moment she seemed suspended there, defying gravity. I couldn't take my eyes off her. I knew what she was feeling. It was in every movement of every limb. Here was a power I had never seen before, a kind of haunting loveliness I had never imagined. Seeing it made me long for something, I didn't know what . . . Ditty was born to dance, but she was also born Jewish. When her strictly religious parents won't let her take ballet lessons, Ditty starts to dance in secret. But for how long can she keep her two worlds apart? And at what cost? A dramatic and moving story about a girl who follows her dream, and finds herself questioning everything she believes in.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year From a genuine hero of the American short story comes a luminous collection that reveals the seams of hurt, courage, and tenderness that run through the bedrock of contemporary American life. In these fourteen stories, Dubus depicts ordinary men and women confronting injury and loneliness, the lack of love and the terror of actually having it. Out of his characters' struggles and small failures--and their unexpected moments of redemption--Dubus creates fiction that bears comparison to the short story's greatest creators--Chekhov, Raymond Carver, Flannery O'Connor.

Zarek's Point of View: Dark-Hunter: A soulless guardian who stands between mankind and those who would see mankind destroyed. Yeah, right. The only part of that Code of Honor I got was eternity and solitude. Insanity: A condition many say I suffer from after being alone for so long. But I don't suffer from my insanity-I enjoy every minute of it. Trust: I can't trust anyone...not even myself. The only thing I trust in is my ability to do the wrong thing in any situation and to hurt anyone who gets in my way. Truth: I endured a lifetime as a Roman slave, and 900 years as an exiled Dark-Hunter. Now I'm tired of enduring. I want the truth about what happened the night I was exiled-I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Astrid (Greek, meaning star): An exceptional woman who can see straight to the truth. Brave and strong, she is a point of light in the darkness. She touches me and I tremble. She smiles and my cold heart shatters. Zarek: They say even the most damned man can be forgiven. I never believed that until the night Astrid opened her door to me and made this feral beast want to be human again. Made me want to love and be loved. But how can an ex-slave whose soul is owned by a Greek goddess ever dream of touching, let alone holding, a fiery star?

A woman’s search for her identity leads her to confront a series of disturbing truths in this enthralling psychological mystery - Abandoned at the age of eleven by her beautiful, capricious mother, Theodora Cairns, twenty years on and with a painful divorce behind her, is still struggling to get over her childhood abandonment. With the urging of her new love interest, Fergus Costello, and a chance discovery, Theo becomes determined to find her mother and demand answers to the questions she should have asked years ago. Her search for answers leads her to Vermont, USA – but will she be able to handle the disturbing truth?

“The Buddha in hell! What kind of sense is that?” Near-death experiences which are frightening, alienating, and/or hellish are the hardest of all to understand. A veteran researcher of distressing NDEs, Nancy Evans Bush, MA, explores questions raised by the experiences which are typically seen as punishment or evidence of bad character, suggestive of the hell described by medieval Christianity. After seventeen hundred years, is that still all we have as explanation? Evans Bush says not. President Emerita of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, she brings straight talk and decades of study to a difficult subject, respecting both religion and science in this age of the Hubble universe. The book is not a collection of distressing NDE accounts but an exploration of finding meaning and purpose in them.

Beyond the Black Door is a young adult dark fantasy about unlocking the mysteries around and within us—no matter the cost... Everyone has a soul. Some are beautiful gardens, others are frightening dungeons. Soulwalkers—like Kamai and her mother—can journey into other people's souls while they sleep. But no matter where Kamai visits, she sees the black door. It follows her into every soul, and her mother has told her to never, ever open it. When Kamai touches the door, it is warm and beating, like it has a pulse. When she puts her ear to it, she hears her own name whispered from the other side. And when tragedy strikes, Kamai does the unthinkable: she opens the door. A.M. Strickland's imaginative dark fantasy features court intrigue and romance, a main character coming to terms with her asexuality, and twists and turns as a seductive mystery unfolds that endangers not just Kamai's own soul, but the entire kingdom ... An Imprint Book “I couldn’t put down this deliciously dark dream of a fantasy.” —New York Times bestselling author Lisa Maxwell “A dark delight, gorgeously written and as twisty and enigmatic as a labyrinth at twilight. I wanted to stay lost in its pages forever, wandering ever deeper into the maze of Strickland’s beguiling, intricately imagined world.” —Margaret Rogerson, New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens

Dr. Rommer explores the four types of frightening near-death experiences (NDEs) but shows that even the most horrifying NDEs eventually have a positive spiritual outcome.