Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife by Raymond Moody and Paul Perry

Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife by Raymond Moody and Paul Perry is the story of Raymond Moody’s life into the paranormal. This is the man who coined the term “near death experience” and his life is without a doubt, highly interesting.


Book Description
“From the bestselling author of Life After Life and pioneer researcher and leading authority on near-death experiences comes Paranormal, an intimate look at a lifetime spent fearlessly wrestling with humankind’s most important and perplexing question:

What happens when we die?

Paranormal begins with a harrowing account of Moody’s suicide attempt—due to an undiagnosed illness that led him into depression—and proceeds to explore his lifelong fascination with life beyond our bodies. Moody traces the roots of his obsession with the point of death and how, at age twenty-three, he launched the entirely new medical field of near-death studies. He went on to explore the world of past lives and possible reincarnation before stumbling into the fascinating realm of facilitated visions. Moody’s rural research center, Theater of the Mind, dramatically advances paranormal research by melding ancient and modern techniques to arouse many of the transformative elements of the near-death experience in people who are still living.

After more than four decades of studying death and the possibility of an afterlife, Moody still sees endless promise in the fringes of psychological sciences, where he continues to seek answers to what happens to our souls after death.” – Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife




My Thoughts
Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife is an exceptional read for anyone interested in the paranormal, especially concerning “near death experiences” and past lives. Even though it doesn’t go into too much detail about either subject (he has other books for that), enough is given for anyone to grasp the ideas if they haven’t learned much about them.

The journey Moody takes us on in this book is on his own life. He describes how he was raised as a boy and shows how that influenced his beliefs as an adult. As a young adult, he was interested in philosophy and astronomy, and eventually became interested in medicine as well. The paranormal field has been improved greatly thanks to this interest because he was able to link together the phenomena of “near death experiences” into something that happens to people when they have a near death experience. Catchy phrase, huh?

I especially enjoyed reading the parts of the book about past lives. This book is about Moody’s journey, so naturally he also described some of his past lives that he has delved into from hypnotic regressions. Most people just have “ordinary” past lives, and as he puts it, we can’t all be Cleopatra or Napoleon. His may not have been to that height, but still quite fascinating reading about.

As someone who has read a very large amount of books on the paranormal, this is one that I really think stands out. I highly recommend it for everyone interested in the paranormal to read.


* Thank you to the publisher of Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife, Harper One, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.