Book Review: After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond, a book written by Bruce Greyson, M.D.
After, published by St. Martin’s Publishing Group in 2021, is not an ordinary book. It is partially a semi-biographical account of Bruce Greyson’s long career in near-death research, and partially an account of his observations and his conclusions about near-death experiences. Basically, this book is an insight into the thought-process and work of a scientists who spent over forty years studying near-death experiences.
As the loose title suggests, the word “after” has multiple meanings. First, it refers to a potential afterlife scenario. Greyson does not shy away from the fact that most of those people who had the experience are convinced that there is an afterlife. Second, the title also refers to the life people had after the experience. The after-effects of these experiences are remarkable and the author dedicates the last few chapters to their significance. Finally, the title also suggests that Greyson’s future still holds possibilities for future discoveries after this book. Hence, After is a well-chosen title that indicates the possibilities, significance and potential future discoveries about near-death experiences.
Greyson approaches the subject both as a human being who is filled with amazement about near-death experiences and as a scientist who is trained to be both open-minded and sceptical. He opens his book with a stunning example of a personal experience that he could not get over to this day (1-8). As a young psychiatrist working in a hospital, he receives a pager call to attend to a young woman who tried to die by suicide. His pager startles him while he is eating his meal and he spills his tomato sauce on his tie. He puts on his doctor’s coat and buttons it up to hide the stain and goes to see his patient. The patient is asleep but her friend is available to talk to him. The next morning, when the patient is awake, she give an account of the conversation Greyson had with her girlfriend and mentions that he had a tie on with a stain on it. Greyson is stunned. He cannot find an acceptable rational explanation to the woman’s knowledge about the content of the conversation and the stained tied he was wearing that night. As a human being, he could not let the experience go and as a scientist he wanted to have an explanation for it.
Greyson admits that it is difficult to accept the claim people who had a near-death experience make. As a psychiatrist he was taught to consider these experiences as a result of wishful thinking and the result of the confusion between fantasy and reality (22). So, he could not just take these people’s word for their claim that there is a life beyond death. However, his father also taught him to consider the fact that science is always a work in progress and, therefore, studies are needed to be done to pronounce a verdict on a phenomenon (20). For this reason, Greyson decided early on that careful study of the evidence was needed to pronounce a verdict on the nature of death and reality. In short, he was ready to embark on over a forty year long journey to follow the evidence and see what he could conclude about the nature of reality based on this evidence.
Greyson’s semi-biographical chapters include the examinations of many near-death features: the irregular time, life review, out-of-body experience, otherworldly travel. As it was mentioned before, some chapters are also dedicated to the after-effects of these experiences. While Greyson pushes on, he examines each topic with the most likely explanation for the evidence. He admits to his audience at each stage that science has made a tremendous progress in the understanding the brain, but he also recognizes that none of the existing material-based explanations seem to be sufficient to properly resolve the mystery of near-death experiences based on the available scientific evidence.
Greyson’s book is challenging since he does not try to convince the reader to take a particular position. He allows the reader to grapple with the topic without any help or lead from him. He takes a position on the topic only at the very end where he admits that he thinks that the mind and the brain are different and that this is the only explanation he can accept, even though he admittedly cannot demonstrate how this dualistic scenario could work.
This is a book that should be read by all those who are interested in near-death experiences, whether the reader is a beginner or a veteran on this field of research. Bruce Greyson’s knowledge and lifelong experience are irreplaceable. He is truly a giant in his field, as his nickname, Mr. Death, suggests.
