Dancing Past the Dark: Distressing Near-Death Experiences

by Nancy Evans Bush, Bruce Greyson (Foreword)

Almost one in five near-death experiences are not peaceful suggestions of heaven. In a wide-ranging and far from gloomy look at the other near-death experience, Nancy Evans Bush gives the first comprehensive look at a fascinating but neglected topic: NDEs and deathbed visions of fear, emptiness, and even hell. A wonderfully readable book, grounded in thirty years of experience and research, Dancing is packed with first-person accounts, engrossing discussion and factual answers to a myriad of questions, both religious and secular, with practical suggestions for integrating such an experience or encountering one as a caregiver. Here are ways of thinking about the subject that will be new to many readers. What becomes evident is that to see these only as a terrible threat about death is largely to miss their point. absolutely enthralling literary, adventurous, incisive, informative and smart one of the strongest, most thought-provoking books on the paranormal I've ever seen. Steve Volk Fringe-ology The book is an outstanding piece of work. It is a wonderfully comprehensive and rich history of what can be known and what might be considered about NDEs [and] bursts with anecdote and commentary, reinforcing for the reader that there is always another way to see things. Wayne Rollins, MDiv, PhD Soul and Psyche, Jung and the Bible, and other titles Dancing Past the Dark is what we have all been waiting for a must for any experiencer of any type of encounter with the numinous. P. M. H. Atwater, LHD Near-Death Experiences: The Rest of the Story A valuable contribution to the NDE literature and engagingly written. It needs to be seen and read by the wider public. J. Harold Ellens, MDiv, PhD Nancy Evans Bush holds a Masters Degree in Pastoral Ministry and Spirituality from St. Joseph University, Connecticut. She was Executive Director and later President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies and a member of its Board of Directors for many years. She is considered the world expert on distressing NDEs.

Genres: Spirituality, Paranormal

332 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 9, 2012

Reviews

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book sounded very interesting at first. But the further I got into it, the more I wanted to put it down. It contains a lot of opinions, theories, and very choppy accounts of people's NDEs that on the surface, seem to fit the descriptions of many other NDEs but were only frightening to the person having the experience because it wasn't what they expected. I'm sure it might be frightening to nearly die but there was nothing in this book that I haven't heard before. Not really what it claims to be. I would not recommend this book.

[Aelys]

Bush writes about an NDE she had during pregnancy. She was pulled into a void and entities that looked like yin yangs were telling her the evil secrets of the world. Kind of a Holden Caulfield trip where she was a phony. Her mom was a phony. The whole world is fake . The void is the only thing that's real and she has always been there.
It was awful . I understand.
What I don't get is how does an educated woman not know what a yin yang symbol is.how does some body her age not know this?!
Everybody knows this. Why does not she?
How can this be?

I'M more scared of the lack of basic education of the public than I am of a bad trip or nde. People like her vote. They raise children . But their education is horribly deficient.

I had NDEs too. One was like hers. I was in teh same void. I realized the beings i was seeing were hyperdimensional alien entities who liked to scare newly deceased humans. They read our minds. They shape shift into forms from our deepest fears. They tell us what will scare us the most. They feed off our terror.

I laughed at them and they went away.

I lied. It was scary and I didnt laugh. I prayed. Then they went away and I went to a nicer place.

Reading the book gives some insight into her personality. A calvinist. Shre is grim as a car crash. Joyless as a heart attack. No f&&&ing wonder she had a bad experience.


Good book and all, but how do you not know this stuff ?
She didn’t realize it was a Chinese symbole for years.
Does she never pick up a book and try to broad en her mind? And she’s considered highly educated compared to average people.
This makes me lose hope for humanity. We're doomed.

[Cristael Bengtson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most original and thought-provoking books I have read on the NDE. As an experiencer, who went through an experience of the dark, and then through the tunnel on into the Light, I thought I had a good understanding of my NDE. Yet, Nancy Evans Bush's book has deepened my understanding of the disturbing part of my NDE, bringing me to a whole new space where I can personally begin to see the dark and its terrifying inhabitants as an initiatory experience. Something to be understood rather than feared.

I am reminded of Dr. Viktor Frankl's saying, We do not ask life to tell us the meaning of life. Life asks you, what is the meaning of your life, and life demands your answer. Nancy Evans Bush examines the distressing NDE, one facet after the next. She does not give us answers. Rather, she asks the questions that make us ponder and explore the dark side. And she asks in ways that are balanced and carefully reasoned.

After reading this book I could perceive the darkness as a place where I can take up my own palette, where I can wrestle with creating my own hard-realized meanings.

[Jdo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

This book serves as an excellent explanation for negative NDE’s. I enjoyed it enough that I will purchase the remaining two books on this topic that the author penned. This book is helpful for those of us who do not buy into the childish “hell,” narrative promulgated in Sunday School, but who are curious as to what may be behind negative NDE’s.

[Vanessa Castano]

Review

Wonderful and helpful book full of contextual and historical insights. Recommend this author, her books and blog for anyone with any interest NDE's.

[John Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked up this book on Near Death Experiences that dealt with horrifying or dreadful feelings rather than the rosy headed into the bright light, greeted by loving relatives, as I was somewhat surprised that this topic had even been researched. I expected some anecdotal tales and was surprised at the level of effort and research that had been applied to this perhaps not quite so popular or reassuring view. I found this book to be well done although I may not agree with all of its conclusions,. Afterall any NDE that is reported by someone brought back to life is by its own definition not the full real death experience. Well worth reading as it is thought provoking and not the typical NDE book where someone reports their own NDE and a few paragraphs of what they experienced on the “other side” followed by hundreds of pages of the cause of their illness or accident and then blow by blow details of their recovery.