Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing

I read this book immediately after "Proof of Heaven" by Dr. Eben Alexander. I found that the two books complemented and supported each other's message beautifully. These are amazing books, for those with open hearts, and eyes to see. I rank them all the way up there with the best spiritual classics I have ever read, such as the amazing "Ramakrishna and his disciples". What is the central message of each of these books? Learn to live in the Eternal "Now", which exists beyond our human conceptions of time and space. After all, "past" and future" have no intrinsic reality and are mere concepts in our consciousness. It is unnecessary to die or wait for a better life tomorrow, or after death. As Father Anthony De Mello SJ writes in his book "Awareness", it is always those who are most afraid to live right now who are most concerned with whether there is a life after this one. Nobody seems to understand the importance of: "Is there a life before death?" It is pretty clear to me, from the deeply personal accounts of these two authors during and after their NDE's, that they both experienced a spiritual awakening which was the substance of their NDE's. This explains their profound post-NDE interest in living fully now, and their enhanced ability to do so, after their respective illnesses. Only someone who is unafraid of living fully now, loses their morbid interest in a life after this one. They also provide interesting clues of how to do this: They echo each other in trying to convey how crucially important total self-acceptance is. This means no matter who you are, you must learn to accept yourself in totality, both the allegedly good as well as the allegedly evil parts. No matter how "bad" you think you are, or how "depraved", you need to learn to approve of yourself and to love yourself, including the "evil" bits, unconditionally. That opens the door and allows you to be healed. This, I think, is also the central message in the Bible: Despite being sinners, we can be saved. But a precondition is that we must stop judging ourselves and stop rejecting the parts of ourselves that we think are evil. As we succeed, we discover that only we were judging ourselves. The door to awakening is always an open door. Nobody, not God, nor any person, stands in the way of all this joy, the unconditional love and immutable bliss which can be ours right now, except our own unwise self-judgements. Some readers on this website were very critical of the touted concepts of unconditional self-love and unconditional self-approval, suggesting that these are very dangerous doctrines. They seem to interpret this as meaning "do as you please". However, doing just what you like, presumably at the expense of others, does not lead to personal liberty, or direct access to the present. Just the opposite. Further, having unconditional love for the worst criminals, doesn't mean that they should not be contained or restrained. As the great Ramakrishna is quoted as saying in his wonderful book "The Gospel of Ramakrishna" (also available from Amazon), "being love" doesn't mean you should not hiss like a snake. It only means not to inject your venom in your "victims". In other words, this world would be so much a better place if only we stopped being afraid, stopped judging, stopped our hatred, stopped worrying so much! Dr Alexander postulates that consciousness is a field that pervades all of space-time, and is in fact the very fabric of space-time. The human body is a filter or valve that limits that experience and confines it to a bodily experience, both authors write. Both authors however make it quite clear, based on their own direct experience of life in the Here and Now, that it is quite possible to experience the unity and non-duality of consciousness, pervading the entire Universe, right now. This experience is accessible to every person, saint and sinner alike. To begin accessing it directly only means that you must learn to get out of your own way. Well-established ways of doing so is through prayer, by awakening faith, and / or daily meditative practice. Besides the human body acting as a filter or a valve which restricts consciousness, language is the only other filter. We can't do anything about the former, but we can vastly expand our own direct experience and understanding of life, and its true meaning for each of us, by gaining insights into the terribly restrictive and distorting filter which language creates in each of us. The only barrier between us and our direct appreciation of the Eternal Now is our own language. The purpose of language is obviously to communicate, but we misuse and abuse it by killing ourselves, our neighbours and earth. How? Through self-judgement. By the same yardstick by which we measure ourselves, we unconsciously mete out judgement and our version of what we imagine to be "justice" on others and in fact our entire world. Therefore our journey to true freedom, if that is what we really want, must begin and end with ourselves. Insight into the afore-said is not an intellectual process. No traction can be gained by simply reading about this, although this can be an important first step. This is also the message we find in these two amazing auto-biographical books. In this regard, many readers were incredibly disappointed, and sceptical, because they found the accounts of each of the NDE's to be so brief, sketchy, and seemingly lacking in cohesion. However, what these two writers learnt directly, is that reality, instead of the distortion most people experience as reality, is unfathomable and inconceivable. It is beyond telling. No words can ever approach the Almighty. In Genesis in the Bible we find in the centre of the Garden of Eden the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. The former is the man-made ego, developed from an early age using language as the means, and the latter is our eternal selves, to which we should make wise efforts to awaken to. As we succeed, we realize we were always in Eden, from the very beginning, always are, and always will be. How specifically is language a filter? Consciousness is an impartial mirror, which reflects anything and everything that appears within it. There is no "me" in that mirror. The mirror is the entire Universe. But we artificially create the "me" by picking from the mirroring what we like, and pushing away what we dislike. The only tool for doing so is our learnt language. Therefore, when we look at a tree, or a beautiful sunset, we don't simply see a tree or a sunset. Our thoughts, which includes our worries and fears, are superimposed on our perception, killing our joy and all that beauty that is ours, right here and now. So I think the true message of each of these books is not an attempt to convince the reader about a nicer life after this one. The true message for each of us is to do the necessary work, on ourselves, and in our lives, here and now, to awaken here and now. To the extent that we succeed, and know this immeasurable and unknowable Unity directly, we gain all the "Proof of Heaven" that we need to have. No scientist and no sceptic can ever take away that personal certainty. JP

A book review should concentrate on the book, not the reviewer, but in this case I think it would be appropriate to say a few things about myself at the outset - things that make me, if not unique, then at least rare among the other reviewers of this book. First of all, I have been researching and writing about near-death experiences (NDEs) since 1977. During that time, I have personally interviewed or talked extensively with hundreds of near-death experiencers and have dozens of autobiographical accounts of such persons in my own library. I have also written a number of books on NDEs and scores of articles on the subject. In addition, I have had the pleasure, and indeed the privilege, of spending several hours with the author, Anita Moorjani, of the book under review here. So I think I know something about the subject of NDEs. That said, I am prepared to say that Dying to be Me is perhaps the most compelling, insightful and deeply moving rendering of an NDE I have encountered over the past 35 years. It is a book that not only tells an incredibly gripping story of an NDE and the healing from a disease that seemed destined to be fatal, but one that also offers a great deal of spiritual and practical wisdom that the author derived from her experience during her otherworldly sojourn. I haven't read any of the sixty of so reviews of this book (though I noticed that they are overwhelmingly of the 5-star variety), but I'm sure many of them must already inform the reader of the book's contents. I have no need to be redundant on that score here, but for the record, Moorjani, a woman of Indian heritage, grew up in the multi-cultural setting of Hong Kong, eventually contracted cancer, suffered with it for four years and by February, 2006, was taken to a hospital and given no chance to survive the night. However, when she was on the brink of death, she had an extraordinarily powerful NDE, which she recounts with impressive articulateness, and knew in the moment of her experience that she would be healed. Indeed, that she would be completely cured. As in fact she was, to the stupefaction of her oncologists. (All is this documented in the book.) Her life has not been the same since. Eventually, her story came to the attention of the well-known author, Wayne Dyer, who was so riveted by Anita's account that he spared no effort to track her down and once he did, he told her that she must write a book about her story and he would see to it that it would get published. He did and it did and within a month of its publication, it had deservedly become a best seller. What more do I need to say? Anita Moorjani is the real deal. Her book is destined to become not only the best seller it already is but a classic among books on NDEs. It will inspire you, thrill you, bring you comfort and bring you joy. You will be deeply touched in so many ways by this book. What are you waiting for?

Very good and easy to read

An interesting read of an amazing story.

Everyone should read this book to help them at least lessen their fear of death, let alone be kinder to themselves. Ive read this book many times as to gain more perspective from each read. Ive added a plethora of notes the more times I read it (or devoured it) i got so excited I wanted to highlight so much, I found I was nearly highlighting entire pages & chapters! I wanted to go back time & time again, then devour this life changing book with an excited relish that takes my breath away.

This book is very profound and truly resonated with me. It brought me some amazing new insights as well as a lot of recognition having been going through metastatic breast cancer, completely debilitated in a wheelchair an diapers, but came back from that. Having had that experience, books like this are important. To remind me of my inner power, of our power as human beings. So to not give up when doctors give you a very dark prognosis, no chance of survival. I felt trapped and did not see a way out but knew there had to be. And there is. There always is. But also our view of death needs to change. Its not something to fear and just as much part of life as being born. But I am not ready here. I am here because I want to be. Because I want to enjoy all of life's beauty. And after facing death, it truly is more intense and you see the beauty in all the small, but actually really big, things of life. Sometimes I get trapped in the fear again. Afraid it will come back and hurt me again. Then books like this remind me that I am my body and disease is just a consequence of our emotions. Then I let go of trying to control everything and let life unfold itself. Knowing that whatever happens, all is well and just part of a story. That we never truly die.

In this tale of her NDE the author in a very clear and get to the point manner explains what is to be expected from the other realm. Her message is sensible and comforting. She spreads Universal Love, compassion and being true and authentic as the tools to either getting better for those of us who are sick or to not fall sick for all those who are only curious to know what can happen once whe we are dead. For anyone who has lost a loved one, this book will enlighten your path towards a better understanding and thus a healthier way of seeing both your loss and your own surival. To finish, this was the first book I 've read about NDE and to me Anita Moorjani pretty much provides an answer to some questions that have been hanging around. After finishing this book, I feel stronger and readier to live life fully without turning back on regrets and long time sorrows.