A Remarkable Book

I recently read a strange book by the British writer Peter Fenwick called The Art of Dying. It’s a collection of anecdotal evidence about people having deathbed visionary experiences in which their dead relatives come to collect them. It also describes incidents in which caregivers or family members see odd phenomena at the time of death, including strange behavior in animals. I found the book both fascinating and comforting. It suggested that the mind is not limited to the brain, and may survive its bodily death. The evidence for this is anecdotal, but a look at the 19th Century’s Society for Psychical Research shows that it’s also quite abundant, even vast. Interested readers (including those experiencing grief and bereavement) can consult the superb Irreducible Mind, an 800-page behemoth from 2007 edited by Edward Kelly of the University of Virginia. For a briefer and more approachable reading experience, consider After by Bruce Greyson.