As a journalist, I'm driven to find stories that have not been covered before and to make clear the incomprehensible. I like people, and I like asking questions. I've covered wars and disasters, and on any given day, I could expect to see people at their very worst and at their very best. With my book about comas, I've met some of the finest people of my career, doctors, nurses, and other clinicians who are fighting the system, and coma survivors who are simply fighting to get through each and every day. This is the story I am now driven to tell.
I wrote...
Coma and Near-Death Experience: The Beautiful, Disturbing, and Dangerous World of the Unconscious
What happens when a person is placed into a medically-induced coma? The brain might be flatlining, but the mind is far from inactive: experiencing alternate lives rich in every detail that span decades, visiting realms of stunning and majestic beauty, or plummeting to the very depths of Hell while defying all medical and scientific understanding.
Everything you think you know about coma is wrong. Doctors call it 'sleeping' when in reality, many are trapped on a hamster wheel of brain-damaging, nightmarish events that scar those that survive for life. Others are left to question whether they touched levels of existence previously confined to fantasy or whether they teetered on the brink of this life and the next. Coma is not what you think.
I loved this book for the sheer joy of reading it.
The Flip is when the penny drops, and you suddenly see the world in a whole new light. This is an exploration, a quest, and a call to arms for a bridge to be built between the humanities and the sciences and a serious exploration of the non-physical realms to begin.
This is also a hopeful book that makes me think I might just be living in an age when change is possible. I felt compelled to tell friends and family about this one, frequently stopping and reading passages out loud for either the sheer joy of Jeff's chosen words or the clarity of his thoughts. Be warned: this book may induce "Flips" in readers.
"One of the most provocative new books of the year, and, for me, mindblowing." -Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind
"Kripal makes many sympathetic points about the present spiritual state of America. . . . [He] continues to believe that spirituality and science should not contradict each other." -New York Times Book Review
"Kripal prompts us to reflect on our personal assumptions, as well as the shared assumptions that create and maintain our institutions. . . . [His] work will likely become more and more relevant to more and more areas of inquiry…
This book simply blew me away. I sat down to speed-read through it when researching my coma book and became instantly hooked and took my time.
Dr. van Lommel takes us on a journey of discovery into the mysterious world of consciousness and its multiple levels and turns current understanding on its head. I loved the way the author steered me with ease into the realms of neuroscience and quantum mechanics without leaving me scratching my head.
This is so much more than a book about consciousness. This is a fantastic read for anyone wanting to know who we really are.
Dr. Pim van Lommel, a renowned cardiologist, was so inspired by the stories his patients told of their Near Death Experiences (NDEs) that he became the first medical practitioner to risk his reputation with a full, systematic trial into the phenomenon. He interviewed 344 heart patients at his hospital who had all clinically died, some for five minutes or longer, before being resuscitated. Of these, 62 - or 18 per cent - reported some ongoing experience after the medical monitors had pronounced them to be dead. Van Lommel claims these are authentic experiences which cannot be reduced to the imagination,…
Hold on tight! If we ever wanted proof of other dimensions and the reality of otherworldly entities, this is a must-read, assuming one accepts eyewitness accounts of realities way beyond the understanding of modern science. No space ships required just the ability to tap into other levels of consciousness, in this case with N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), the active ingredient in the Amazonian mystic brew ayahuasca.
Strassman's account of his groundbreaking trials left me stunned and wishing others would pick up where he left off. Forget Star Trek and Doctor Who; other realities are much closer to hand.
From 1990 to 1995 Dr. Rick Strassman conducted U.S. Government-approved and funded clinical research at the University of New Mexico in which he injected sixty volunteers with DMT, one of the most powerful psychedelics known. His detailed account of those sessions is an extraordinarily riveting inquiry into the nature of the human mind and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. DMT, a plant-derived chemical found in the psychedelic Amazon brew, ayahuasca, is also manufactured by the human brain. In Strassman's volunteers, it consistently produced near-death and mystical experiences. Many reported convincing encounters with intelligent nonhuman presences, aliens, angels, and spirits. Nearly…
I am so glad I found this book. Now, when my mind won't ever seem to shut up, I know where to find the off-switch.
It seems we all do it all of the time, and yet the incessant chatter inside our heads that runs on a loop throughout the day and goes largely unnoticed is actually making us ill. Laura calls this seriously annoying habit 'motor minding,' the root of so much self-generated stress and anxiety, a pure hallmark of the modern world.
Reading this was like a full-on revelation. Once we learn to shut out the noise, we really can attain higher levels of consciousness. This is what the gurus and mystics have seen seeking all along.
Ready to transform stress and worry for good? When you are stressed and worried, looking for lasting stress relief can be overwhelming. There is so much information it's hard to know where to start and what to do. Conscious Calm makes it simple. This book focuses on the internal patterns of stress that often go unnoticed, and shows you how to undo those patterns so that lasting calm becomes possible. Conscious Calm reveals 9 Stress Secrets that can keep you stuck in stress, and 9 Conscious Calm Keys to experiencing stress relief and peace of mind. Integrating science and wisdom…
Okay, this one isn't about Consciousness, although it does form a key part of the story. But this is such a beautiful read, especially so for anyone touched by critical illness, that I couldn't not mention it in a list of inspirational books.
This isn't a medical book, as such. It's ultimately about us as people, about compassion and love. It's a journey of exploration and awakening from the stark realization that by employing a standard medical procedure, the young Dr. Ely was actually harming patients and likely killing others.
Compassion just pours off the pages. I'm left haunted by a number of the stories he tells of patients who were done such serious harm, with only the best of intentions, and of his quest to bring a new humanity to critical care medicine. Wonderfully uplifting.
Winner of a Christopher Award—now with a discussion guide
“Perhaps one lesson to draw from the pandemic, with help from books like this one, is that the ICU experience can be changed for the better” (The Washington Post) for both patients and their families. You will learn how in this timely, urgent, and compassionate work by a world-renowned critical care doctor.
In this rich blend of science, medical history, profoundly humane patient stories, and personal reflection, Dr. Wes Ely describes his mission to prevent ICU patients from being harmed by the technology that is keeping them alive. Readers will experience…
As a trauma therapist and dedicated researcher, I love uncovering valuable insights within lesser-known books. There are hidden gems, free from the pressure of commercial success, crafted by authors deeply committed to research, understanding, and the art of writing itself. Their dedication resonates with me, as I believe in the profound value of information and the power of critical thinking. Through my own book, Traumatization and Its Aftermath, I aim to emphasize that psychological concepts often lose their depth in translation and my mission is spreading awareness and fostering a deeper understanding of trauma and its intricate facets. With that idea in mind, I chose these five titles.
A fresh take on the difference between trauma and hardship in order to help accurately spot the difference and avoid over-generalizations.
The book integrates the latest findings in brain science, child development, psycho-social context, theory, and clinical experiences to make the case that trauma is much more than a cluster of symptoms to be tamed, but instead best understood as development gone off course, away from growth and towards (only) survival.
This book prompts a profound shift in perception, inviting to view trauma as an intricate and diverse experience, a point of view that ultimately leads to sharper treatment and, hopefully, more healing. It encourages a transition from asking, "What happened to you?" to the deeper question, "What is your relationship with what happened to you?"
Traumatization and Its Aftermath: A Systemic Approach to Understanding and Treating Trauma Disorders
The book is comprehensive, bold, and practical-a much-needed resource for the assessment and treatment of trauma. Instead of the traditional focus on the overall importance of healing, Traumatization and its Aftermath decodes why some people don't heal as easily as others, analyzes the various failures of diagnosis, and explains how to make therapeutic interventions truly effective.
This book offers a systemic deep dive into traumatization that clarifies myths and misinformation about the entire spectrum of trauma and provides both clinicians and non-clinicians with the right level of validation, preventive measures, conceptualization methodology, assessment tools, and healing facts that have not…
