This week I am talking to Dr Bruce Greyson about his book ‘After: A Skeptical Scientist’s Journey to Understand Life, Death, and Beyond’.
In After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond, one of the world’s leading experts on near-death experiences shares the lessons he has learned over nearly a half century of studying near-death experiences.
Backed by decades of pioneering scientific research and captivating first-hand accounts, Dr. Greyson reveals the evidence that led him to rethink his understanding of the nature of life, death, and the continuity of consciousness. Although NDEs reveal a lot about dying and what might come after, they reveal as much about life and living, about the value of compassion and our interconnectedness with one another, and about what makes a life meaningful and fulfilling. After invites us to open our minds to these experiences, and in so doing, expand our understanding of what it means to be human.
Bruce Greyson is the Chester F. Carlson Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences and Director of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia Medical School. He graduated from Cornell University with a major in psychology in 1968, received his medical degree from the State University of New York Upstate Medical College in 1973, and subsequently completed his psychiatric residency at the University of Virginia. He held faculty appointments and taught psychiatry at the University of Michigan (1978-1984) and the University of Connecticut (1984-1995), where he was Clinical Chief of Psychiatry, before returning to the University of Virginia, where he has continued to teach and practice psychiatry and carry out research since 1995.
One of the founding members of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, Dr. Greyson served on its Board of Directors and as its President and Director of Research. For the past 26 years, he has edited the Journal of Near-Death Studies, and was the senior editor of The Near-Death Experience: Problems, Prospects, Perspectives (Charles C Thomas, 1984), co-author of Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007), and co-editor of the forthcoming The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation (Praeger, 2009). His near-death research for the past three decades has focused on the aftereffects of the experience, and have resulted in more than 75 presentations to national and international scientific conferences, 100 publications in academic medical and psychological journals, and several research grants and awards.