No other researcher has been able to transmit to the rest of us the true meaning and impact of near-death phenomena for the planet.
--Bruce Greyson, MD, bestselling author of After

A major contribution that offers a wealth of case materials together with balanced and insightful commentary.
--Raymond A. Moody, PhD, bestselling author of Life After Life

While providing many remarkable accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs), Lessons from the Light is much more than an inspiring collection of NDEs. In clear language, the practical lessons for living and dying are to be found from the study of these experiences. Written by one of the foremost authorities on NDEs, Lessons from the Light is a book for those looking to gain knowledge and wisdom to enhance their own lives by incorporating the insights stemming from what many people have come to believe is the ultimate spiritual experience.

Although Lessons from the Light recounts many moving stories of NDEs, it is not just another book filled with inspiring testimonies--it includes helpful guidance and practical exercises concerning how readers can make use of this knowledge to live with greater self-insight, self-compassion and concern for others, as well as be better prepared for death, dying, and bereavement. Readers can easily apply what they have learned to their own lives and absorb and internalize these lessons from the Light in such a way as to lead to deep personal and spiritual transformation.

This edition replaces the previous edition (ISBN 978-1-930491-11-3) and contains a new postscript by the author.

Many books have dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the Israeli perspective. However, few reflect the Palestinian point of view. Letters from Palestine offers an American audience a rare opportunity to listen to actual Palestinian people as they describe what it is like to live in the occupied territories of the West Bank or Gaza, or to grow up as a Palestinian in the U.S. Their accounts are lively, poignant, searing, and tragic, yet often laced with touches of surreal humor. By showing Palestinians in all their humanity, Letters from Palestine enables American readers to see beyond the usual stereotypes.

About the Authors

Kenneth Ring, PhD, is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Connecticut. He has published five other books. Letters from Palestine is his first book on Palestinian issues, though he has written articles about contemporary events in Palestine.

Ghassan Abdullah studied mathematics and computing in England and lived in Syria, Lebanon, Italy, and Jordan before moving to Palestine in 1994. He worked at Birzeit University for nearly a decade. Ghassan is currently active in several Palestinian civil society NGOs concerned with heritage, human rights, development, and the arts.

Endorsements

The letters in this book will break your heart and they will make you laugh. I am excited to invite others to learn from them as I have. It is my hope that these Palestinian voices will inspire you, as they have inspired me, to believe that a peaceful and just future in Palestine is not only essential, but indeed possible. --Anna Baltzer, author of Witness in Palestine

A] powerful testimony to collective heartbreak and pain, but also a story of continued Palestinian determination and the endurance of their quest for justice. --Kathy Christison, author of Palestine in Pieces

Letters from Palestine is searching and powerful, remarkable and daring. It's a serious attempt at understanding what the media has missed, deliberately or otherwise, for many years. It must be read and recounted for years to come. --Ramzy Baroud, author of My Father Was a Freedom Fighter

During his many years researching the near-death experience (NDE), Dr. Kenneth Ring was concerned with answering the question, What is it like to die? In this book of fifteen sparkling and delightfully witty essays, his question becomes more personal, What is it like waiting to die? More specifically, what is it like for an octogenarian who has spent half his life studying and writing about NDEs to face his own mortality?

Laced with humor, these essays are not morbid or morose, but highly entertaining and edifying. They are not just full of an old man's droll complaints about his wayward bodily decay, but also contain serious reflections on life and insights from his work on death and a possible afterlife. In addition, Ring reflects on what other literary figures have written about death, and he delves into subjects like psychedelics and their possible use with the dying. All his essays trace his sometimes surprising, and occasionally antic, journey along the road whose terminus is certain but unknown. They let the reader glimpse into what it has been like for one elderly, but still lively, man waiting to die who has so far failed to reach his goal, though he is convinced he will get there in the end.

This book investigates the astonishing claim that blind persons, including those blind from birth, can actually see during near-death or out-of-body episodes. The authors present their findings in scrupulous detail, investigating case histories of blind persons who have actually reported visual experiences under these conditions.

There is fascinating evidence that the blind do see in these moments, but it is not sight as we think of it. Ring and Cooper suggest a kind of transcendental awareness they refer to as Mindsight. It involves seeing in detail, sometimes from all angles at once, with everything in focus, and a sense of knowing the subject, not just visually, but with multisensory knowledge.

Human beings may be more talented than we think, gifted with amazing abilities of perception. This book is an opportunity to assess the evidence for yourself.

In these lively and often witty essays, Dr. Kenneth Ring, best known for his pioneering work on near-death experiences, reveals his talents as a Kenny-come-lately humorist and would-be man of letters. Now in his mid-80s, this book shows he has lost none of his verve for writing on a range of subjects as diverse as they are entertaining.

But quite apart from his gift for the droll phrase, the reader will find that Ring also touches on and often goes into depth on serious topics, such as dealing with the COVID pandemic, the right-to-die movement, and the epidemic of loneliness. He also spends some time describing how he became interested in near-death experiences, his explorations with psychedelic drugs, and his one extraordinary and mind-blowing reading from a medium. A lifelong lover of classical music, Reflections in a Glass Eye contains three sparkling and hilarious essays on composers, musicians, and their patrons. The book ends with some touching and moving accounts of Ring's remarkable love life, which will give the reader a sense of how rich and wondrous has been the life of the author.

You are in for a treat with this book. Now read it.

This is Ken Ring's last book, and though he claims to spend most of his days whimpering, his farewell to writing, as his final essays will demonstrate, certainly goes out with a bang. As he veers unsteadily toward eighty-seven, Ring has lost none of his verve or literary panache. As always, his essays sparkle with his usual wit, but mainly reflect Ring's more serious concern to address some of the topics that have engaged him during this last phase of his life.

Still, the book begins in a more lighthearted way with his reminiscing about his early life with his absent father (my father, once removed, he calls him) and about some of the other things that shaped his character, such as the greatest movie ever made that few people have heard of. He also devotes several essays to largely unknown facets of Helen Keller's extraordinary career, including The Sex Life of a Saint. But most of the rest of the book is devoted to Ring's careful study of the lives of animals and considerations of animal welfare and the movement for animal rights. And it concludes, fittingly enough, with a number of essays that distill what Ring believes are the most important lessons that people should take from his many years of researching near-death experiences -- all of which was foreshadowed by that film he saw as a youth that changed his life and foretold his destiny.