At the Edge of Knowing

What happens in the moments when life hangs by a thread? At the Edge of Knowing takes readers into intensive care units, neuroscience labs, and the lived accounts of survivors to explore one of humanity’s oldest questions: what, if anything, lingers when the body shuts down.Drawing on decades of research-from cardiac arrest studies and EEG recordings at the brink of death, to laboratory-induced out-of-body illusions and the parallels with anesthesia and psychedelics-this book separates fact from folklore. With clarity and warmth, it unpacks the best evidence we have about near-death and out-of-body experiences, explains the methods behind the findings, and shows why definitions of death matter more than we think.Neither credulous nor dismissive, At the Edge of Knowing offers a balanced, page-turning tour through science at its most intimate frontier. Whether the data ultimately favor brain-based models or point to something beyond, the journey itself reshapes how we think about self, compassion, and what it means to die well.