Table Of ContentSpirituality/ConSCiouSneSS StudieS $ 1 4 .95 u.s.
$17.95 Can. C
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“At last, summary of NDE research and phenomena from someone on the front line a
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of life and death, an intensive care physician. This book is fascinating and scientifically b
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sound while also being easy to read, personable, and humorous. It should become n
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a classic.” e
Manjir SaManta-laughton, M.d., award-winning international speaker r
and author of Punk Science and The Genius Groove
Over the course of his 25-year career as an anesthesiologist and intensive care physi-
cian, Jean Jacques Charbonier, M.D., gathered hundreds of accounts of patients who
returned from clinical death. Across all of these accounts—from patients with vastly
different backgrounds—Dr. Charbonier found striking similarities as well as indisputable
proof that these experiences were more than hallucinations. He surveyed other physi-
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cians, nurses, and professional caregivers and discovered that their patients described
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the same experiences as well as exhibited the same positive life transformations after-
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ward. Igniting a scientific quest to learn more, he collected more accounts of near-death a
experiences as well as out-of-body experiences, attended dozens of sessions with medi- s
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ums, experimented successfully with electronic communication with the deceased (EVP), n
interviewed hundreds of people who have cared for the dying, and gathered countless s
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inexplicable stories of “signs” from the afterlife. With each experience he studied, he o
found himself more firmly believing in the survival of consciousness beyond death. B
Dr. Charbonier distills his findings into 7 reasons to believe in the afterlife, begin- e
l
ning with the more than 60 million people worldwide who have reported a transcendent i
e
afterlife experience. He refutes the standard objections of doubters and materialists v
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point by point, citing scientific research on NDEs and the work of pioneers in the field
i
of consciousness studies such as Raymond Moody and Pim van Lommel. n
Drawing on meticulously recorded and hospital-verified cases, Dr. Charbonier
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explains that we should not fear death for ourselves or our loved ones. By releasing
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our fear of death, we can properly prepare for “the final journey.” As those who have
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returned from death reveal, death is simply a transition and its lessons enable us to
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live more fully, peacefully, and happily in the now. t
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r
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JEAN JACquEs CHARBONIER, M.D., is a writer and lecturer whose 25 years as f
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an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician led him to investigate near-death
experience and the survival of consciousness after death. He lives in France.
INNER TRADITIONs
Cover design by Peri Swan
ROCHEsTER, VERMONT
Cover image courtesy of IngImage.com
www.InnerTraditions.com
This book supports the
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Reasons
to
Believe
in the
Afterlife
“Dr. Charbonier teaches us that the brain is the link between
the soul and the physical body and that it represents a set of
structures optimized to create, record, and/or change patterns.
When your brain dies your consciousness continues. Death is
a transition to another life not an end in itself. When you are
‘supposedly’ dead; you are more alive than before!”
The Rev. Karen E. Herrick, Ph.D., president of the
Academy of Spirituality and Consciousness Studies
and author of You’re Not Finished Yet
“It is very refreshing to see such an important subject as NDEs
and end-of-life experiences being taken seriously by a very expe-
rienced intensive care doctor. This is an interesting book that
highlights the need to acknowledge and incorporate spiritual
aspects of life into patient care as well as the need for a new
understanding of consciousness.”
Penny Sartori, Ph.D., author of
The Wisdom of Near- Death Experiences
SeReBe.indd 1 2/6/15 11:44 AM
“7 Reasons to Believe in the Afterlife presents seven perfect rea-
sons to believe and to know that you are more than your body.
Charbonier’s book should be compulsory reading for every poor
skeptic who still believes that he disappears when his brain
stops.”
Ervin Laszlo, author of
The Immortal Mind and Science and the Akashic Field
“This wonderful book provides detailed accounts of a wide
variety of diverse phenomena that all point in one direction—
toward the survival of the mind, with its personality and mem-
ories intact, after the change called death.”
Chris Carter, author of
Science and the Afterlife Experience
“As a researcher in the field of near-death studies since 1978,
I can say without hesitation that 7 Reasons to Believe in the
Afterlife is exceptional. There is nothing else in the field quite
like it.”
P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D., author of 11 books on her
research findings, including Near-Death Experiences:
The Rest of The Story, Future Memory, Dying to Know You:
Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience
SeReBe.indd 2 2/6/15 11:44 AM
Reasons
to
Believe
in the
Afterlife
A Doctor reviews the cAse
for consciousness
After DeAth
JeAn JAcques chArbonier, M.D.
TranslaTed by Jack cain
Inner Traditions
Rochester, Vermont • Toronto, Canada
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Inner Traditions
One Park Street
Rochester, Vermont 05767
www.InnerTraditions.com
Copyright © 2012 by Guy Trédaniel Éditeur
English translation copyright © 2015 by Inner Traditions International
Originally published in French under the title Les 7 bonnes raisons de croire à
l’au-delà by Guy Trédaniel Éditeur
First U.S. edition published in 2015 by Inner Traditions
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Charbonier, Jean Jacques.
[7 bonnes raisons de croire à l’au-delà. English]
7 reasons to believe in the afterlife : a doctor reviews the case for
consciousness after death / Jean Jacques Charbonier, M.D. — First U.S.
edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62055-380-0 (pbk.) — ISBN 978-1-62055-381-7 (e-book)
1. Future life. 2. Near-death experiences. 3. Spiritualism. I. Title. II. Title:
Seven reasons to believe in the afterlife.
BL535.C514413 2015
129—dc23
2014038337
Text design and layout by Virginia Scott Bowman
This book was typeset in Garamond Premier Pro, Gill Sans, and Legacy Sans
with Helvetica Neue and Novarese used as display typefaces
SeReBe.indd 4 2/6/15 11:44 AM
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword by Olivier Chambon, M.D. ix
Preface xiii
1 The First Good Reason
Sixty Million People Who Came Back
from the Dead 1
2 The Second Good Reason
A Case That Is Hard to Argue Against 18
3 The Third Good Reason
Death’s Threshold 26
4 The Fourth Good Reason
A Mind Outside the Body 38
5 The Fifth Good Reason
Perceptions Connected to Death 56
6 The Sixth Good Reason
Channeling 65
7 The Seventh Good Reason
Signs from the Hereafter 74
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Conclusion 97
Appendix Psychomatter—From Quanta to the Hereafter
by Emmanuel Ransford 107
•
Notes 128
Bibliography 132
Index 140
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Acknowledgments
Many thanks to my wife, Corinne, who had the patience to accept
all those moments taken up by my work as an intensive-care physi-
cian and also by my time-consuming activity as a writer and lecturer.
“He who is right twenty-four hours before the others is consid-
ered crazy for twenty-four hours only.” Today we have arrived at the
twenty-third hour and with all my heart I thank the scientists who
dared to compromise their reputations by supporting my ideas. Dr.
Olivier Chambon and Emmanuel Ransford had that courage. For
that, I offer them my infinite gratitude.
As well, I would like to thank all of the “Leos” who inspired
the drafting of this book. Without them, it would not have come to
be. I would also like to thank all of the “Gabriels” (who most often
were—as was I at the time I was finishing my studies in medicine—
repentant former “Leos”).
vii
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