Life After Life (Moody book)

Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily Death
First edition
AuthorRaymond A. Moody
PublisherMockingbird Books
Publication date
1975
Media typePrint
Pages175
ISBN978-0-89176-037-5
OCLC12173853

Life After Life is a 1975 book written by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. It is a report on a qualitative study in which Moody interviewed 150 people who had undergone near-death experiences (NDEs). The book presents the author's composite account of what it is like to die, supplemented with individual accounts. On the basis of his collection of cases, Moody identified a common set of elements in NDEs:

  • (a) an overwhelming feeling of peace and well-being, including freedom from pain.
  • (b) the impression of being located outside one's physical body.
  • (c) floating or drifting through darkness, sometimes described as a tunnel.
  • (d) becoming aware of a golden light.
  • (e) encountering and perhaps communicating with a "being of light".
  • (f) having a rapid succession of visual images of one's past.
  • (g) experiencing another world of much beauty.

Life After Life sold more than 13 million copies, was translated into a dozen foreign languages and became an international best seller, which made the subject of NDEs popular and opened the way for many other studies.