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Words at the threshold : what we say as we're nearing death / Lisa Smartt ; foreword by Raymond Moody, Jr.

by Smartt, Lisa.

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New World Library, 2017.

Near-death experiences.

9781608684601 (pbk.)

xii, 195 p. ; 22 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-186) and index.

Transcribing the mystery: following the sacred path of final words -- No words for it: language changes as we approach the threshold -- Metaphors of the momentous: before we die, we announce a big event -- I leave you with these words: travel metaphors speak of a coming voyage -- Repetition, repetition, repetition: intensified language in our last days -- Nonsense or a new sense?: making meaning out of unintelligible language at end of life -- Words between the worlds: descriptions of visions and visitations before dying -- Lullabies & goodbyes: is our first and final language unspoken? -- I'll call you when i get there: after-death communication -- Hearing is healing: a few final words.

"A person's end-of-life words often take on an eerie significance, giving tantalizing clues about the ultimate fate of the human soul. Until now, however, no author has systematically studied end-of-life communication by using examples from ordinary people. When her father became terminally ill with cancer, author Lisa Smartt began transcribing his conversations and noticed that his personality underwent inexplicable changes. Smartt's father, once a skeptical man with a secular worldview, developed a deeply spiritual outlook in his final days - a change reflected in his language. Baffled and intrigued, Smartt began to investigate what other people have said while nearing death, collecting more than one hundred case studies through interviews and transcripts. In this groundbreaking and insightful book, Smartt shows how the language of the dying can point the way to a transcendent world beyond our own."--From publisher.

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