Heading toward omega : in search of the meaning of the near-death experience
Kenneth Ring
- 1st Quill ed.
- New York W. Morrow 1985, c1984
- 348 p. ill. ; 24 cm.
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