Rating: 
Summary: Documented personal experience and research
Review: Intriguing work which has great meaning and significance in the life of the author. Rather than trust exclusively in what the media filters out for us on a topic such as Near Death Experiences, Rawlings invites all to turn to the real source: God's Word. Although many might want to discern the reality of such experiences from reported incidents, we all would do well to understand our own reality in Biblical terms. Additionally, Rawlings has a fine section on other "out-of-body experiences.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is a rambling mess.
Review: Rawlings displays a complete inability to make a point and stick with it. Page after page of rambling is not a characteristic of someone who knows what he's talking about. If you're not put off by that and plunge forward through the book, wondering just what he's on about, eventually you will discover that it's just another fundamentalist Christian rant, demanding that the reader have a belief in Satan.
The book could be summarized very briefly:
New Age is bad, m'kay?
NDEs are bad, m'kay?
OBEs are bad, m'kay?
New Age and Star Wars are bad, m'kay?
Stick to the Bible or Satan will get you, m'kay?
And did I say New Age is bad?
A total waste of paper and any reader's time. Rawlings dosn't display the slightest clue about anything he's written about.
Rating: 
Summary: A truly great book (it proves hell is real).
Review: To Hell and Back is not a religious book, even though it is about life after death. Dr. Rawlings (the author) is not a theologian or a pastor, but a cardiologist. Dr. Rawlings writes of the experiences of his own patients brought back to life. Here are some excerpts from his book. With the advent of new resuscitation techniques people can now be brought back to life after being dead several minutes. Just what happens after death. Eleven million Americans have reported near death, or out of body experiences. The typical description involves a beautiful light at the end of a tunnel. Many Christians are convinced that the light is Jesus Christ, because they often saw a figure on a cross. Some others perceive a heaven conforming to their own particular faith. Remarkably, others see the bright light turn into a ring of fire (pg 10). Among the resuscitees who claim to have had a spiritual experience, the experience becomes so real that the victim is transfixed by every detail. While there are many positive experiences, there are also, as we shall soon see, many negative experiences (pg 32). WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE SEE LIGHT? Why do people almost always report seeing a light and feeling only peace & serenity after a near death experience? Many religions associate their leader with light, and as mentioned in the Christian faith, both God and Lucifer claim to be light. It is crucial in near death experiences to identify this source of light -- whether the light is a true representative of God, or a luring mirage of evil that imitates God as an all forgiving force (pg 59). Christians often perceive the light as Jesus, while a Jewish person might perceive the light as a representative of Johva God, yet a Hindu might envision Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiva, etc... (pg 61). But misrepresentations do in fact occur. One day I (Dr. Rawlings) performed CPR on a man who had been shot in the chest during a bank robbery. During CPR this man told me that he had an out-of-body experience, during this time he said he encountered the heavenly light, he was surprised at what surrounded him. There was no ridicule or rejection, the sordid parts of his life were not examined, and no mention was made of the couple he had killed three years before during a robbery. (pg 61). I (keith mason) think that many of the experiences which seem to be positive, are positive only because it is a trick from Satan himself tricking people into believing that there only is peace and serenity after death (regardless if a person is Christian, Moslem, Atheist, Hindu, Jewish, or whatever); in this way people of all faiths are tricked into believing that there is no accountability, or no judgment. The book is full of people who have had near death experiences, (both positive and negative). Skeptics dismiss these near death experiences as the result of a oxygen-depraved mind, while Theologians think that often these people are seeing none other than Satan himself... (pg 47). NOT EVERYONE SEES LIGHT. Not everyone sees light and reports peace and serenity. Dr. Rawlings explains it this way: As a general rule people remember that which is good, and forget that which is bad, and so if the interview is delayed just a little bit -- much less days, weeks, or months after the fact only the positive experiences will be found (pg 33). Case in point. As stated earlier, many people see this tunnel of light turn into a ring of fire. Here are a couple of examples: I (Dr. Rawlings) was watching a monitor to guide a pacemaker into my patients heart when it happened: his heart stopped. This is the story. The patient recounts his story in this way: I blacked out and then you (Dr. Rawlings) hit me on the chest saying 'excuse me.' ... Somebody was yelling. Something crashed over my left shoulder, everybody went crazy. And then I was out of it. I was floating, pitch black, moving fast. The wind whistled by and I rushed toward this beautiful blazing light. As I moved past, the walls of the tunnel caught fire. Beyond the blazing tunnel a huge lake of fire was burning like an oil spill. Elongated shadows showed that people were moving aimlessly about like animals in a zoo enclosure. Down the hill I saw an old friend who had died -- the last I recall they were dragging the river for him, 'hi there Jim' I called out. He just looked at me, didn't even smile. They were taking him around the corner when he started screaming: I ran, but there was no way out. I kept saying 'Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord.' Suddenly I was back in my body, as you were putting in the stitches. (pg 72). Another account is found on page 75. It goes like this: I was guided to a place in the spirit world called Hell. This is a place of punishment for all those who reject Jesus Christ. I not only saw Hell, but felt the torment that all who go there experience. The darkness of Hell is so intense that it seems to have a pressure per square inch. It is an extremely black, dismal, desolate, pressurized, heavy, type of darkness. It gives the individual a despondent feeling of loneliness. The heat is a dry, dehydrating type: your eyeballs are so dry they feel like red hot coals in there sockets. Your tongue and lips are parched and cracked with intense heat. ... The loneliness of Hell cannot be expressed. (pg 75). Yet another story follows: I (Dr. Rawlings) was giving CPR to a patient when the following incident occurred. I inserted a pacemaker through the shoulder and guided it through the vain into Charlie's heart. His heart stopped so I began to pound on the his heart, but as I did blood spurted out, I stopped to adjust the pacemaker. And as I did, Charlie's eyes would roll back in his head, he would sputter, turn blue, and convulse. This happened several times. Once while I was stopped to adjust the pacemaker Charlie screamed, 'Don't stop, don't stop, I'm in Hell, I'm in Hell.' Hallucinations, I thought at first, but most victims say, 'Take your big hands off me, your breaking my ribs,' but he was saying the opposite 'For Gods sake don't stop! Don't you understand, every time you stop I'm in Hell. When he asked me to pray for him I felt downright insulted. I told him to shut up, I'm a doctor, not a minister or a psychiatrist. Then the nurse gave me that expectant look. What would you do? That's when I composed a make believe prayer. I made him repeat the prayer to keep him off my back. Say it! Jesus Christ son of God, Keep me out of Hell. And a very strange thing took place. He was no longer that wild-eyed screaming lunatic. It was then that I too (Dr. Rawlings) became a Christian (pg 37). As I said earlier, Dr. Rawlings is not a Theologian, or a Minister, rather an unbiased Doctor who has written the findings of the patients he has resuscitated.
Rating:
Summary: Destroys the All-Positive NDE view
Review: Trying to prove what actually happens in subjective experiences and Near Death Experiences (NDE) is inherrently a hard thing to do. Dr. Rawlings was personally affected by one of his patient's NDE which led him to document negative NDEs. It is abundantly clear that we cannot hold that all NDEs are bliss. This stinks for a lot of people because people want to live their lives with no consequences. So they go to two extremes. Either all go to bliss or there is no God. (I would suggest the book "If there is a God, why are there atheists?" for a Christian analysis of that or read Jean Paul-Sarte's No Exit for an atheist who expresses those emotions.) New Age authors who make money holding out fals hope will not welcome this. I leave off a few stars, because of all the non-NDE info in the book. It is interesting and worthwhile in its own right, but it seems to be a tangent to the main thrust of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Destroys the All-Positive NDE view
Review: Trying to prove what actually happens in subjective experiences and Near Death Experiences (NDE) is inherrently a hard thing to do. Dr. Rawlings was personally affected by one of his patient's NDE which led him to document negative NDEs. It is abundantly clear that we cannot hold that all NDEs are bliss. This stinks for a lot of people because people want to live their lives with no consequences. So they go to two extremes. Either all go to bliss or there is no God. (I would suggest the book "If there is a God, why are there atheists?" for a Christian analysis of that or read Jean Paul-Sarte's No Exit for an atheist who expresses those emotions.) New Age authors who make money holding out fals hope will not welcome this. I leave off a few stars, because of all the non-NDE info in the book. It is interesting and worthwhile in its own right, but it seems to be a tangent to the main thrust of the book.
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