Includes index.

Preface
Preface to the paperback edition
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 NDEs on the road to omega
Chapter 2 NDEs: What we now know
Chapter 3 Core NDEs and spititual awakening
Chapter 4 NDEs and personal transformation
Chapter 5 Value changes induced by NDEs
Chapter 6 Religious and spiritual orientations following NDEs
Chapter 7 NDEs and psychic development
Chapter 8 Planetary visions of near-death experiencers
Chapter 9 The biological basis of NDEs
Chapter 10 NDEs and human evolution
Appendies
Notes
Bibliography
Index

"Heading Toward Omega breaks new ground in near-death studies by focusing on the meaning of the near-death experience for the survivor and for human evolution. A near-death experience or NDE--which an estimated eight million Americans have had--occurs when a person is clinically dead but then survives and reports such phenomena as floating out of the body entering a dark tunnel, reviewing a life panorama, and encountering a brilliant white light. Such accounts have been described in best sellers by Raymond A. Moody and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, and in Kenneth Ring's previous book, Life at Death, they were documented for the first time. Dr. Ring's intensive three-year search for the meaning of the near-death experience has been pursued through both scientifically designed questionnaires completed by hundreds of experiencers and wide-ranging interviews, many with persons who have reported unusually deep NDEs, from which he quotes frequently and copiously. From this study emerges a provocative pattern of very positive changes in outlook, values, and behavior following a near-death experience--often a complete transformation of personality. Dr. Ring also finds that NDEs are often powerful catalysts for spiritual awakening and psychic development. Moreover, deep NDEs frequently include strikingly similar visions of our planetary future. The depth and consistency of these life transformations--as well as the apparent widespread and increasing incidence of the NDE itself--lead Dr. Ring to a startling conclusion: Near-death experiences may be part of an evolutionary thrust toward higher consciousness for all humanity. Thus they may foreshadow the birth of a new planetary consciousness as we head toward Omega, the final goal of human evolution."--front and back flaps

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