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Passage by Connie Willis - 600-page SF novel taking place some years hence in and around Mercy General Hospital in Denver, Colorado and featuring a pair of pronounced SF elements: 1) there's another new hard drug on the street that makes users crazy and violent, and 2) there's also a new medical procedure that uses specific chemicals to simulate an NDE (Near Death Experience). It's this second SF element at the heart of Ms. Willis' gripping novel.

Passage is a doorstop (the audio book is nearly 30 hours long) but what will keep a reader turning those pages is not only the discoveries revolving around the NDEs but also our coming to care about more than a dozen men and women in the unfolding drama. Herein lies Ms. Willis' magic: as we're reading her novel, we feel as if we're living through the joys, sorrow and challenges of her characters. Remarkable literary accomplishment.

What is a Near Death Experience? Two critical question the folks at Mercy General pose: what causes such an experience and what does it mean? At one end of the spectrum we have Maurice Mandrake, author of the bestseller, The Light at the End of the Tunnel, claiming the NDE proves there is a heaven complete with glowing angels and one's loved ones waiting for us at the pearly gates. At the other end of the spectrum Dr. Richard Wright sets out to prove an NDE results from overstimulation within particular areas of the brain.

Stated simply, Dr. Mandrake claims the NDE is an entirely spiritual experience whereas Dr. Wright looks to neuroscience to explain the phenomenon. Between these two poles we have our main character, Dr. Joanna Lander, a young, attractive, exceedingly bright cognitive psychologist. Dr. Lander knows, via her many interviews with individuals having NDEs, that the world they experienced during a Near Death Experience was real, every bit as real as their everyday waking lives. And when she eventually undergoes the procedure to simulate her own NDE, her findings are confirmed firsthand.

If what I've written above sounds intriguing, I urge you to pick up a copy of Passage (or listen to the audio book). I can assure you that you will not be disappointed. Many readers will also enjoy the references to the disaster of the Titanic (both the actual sinking in 1911 and the 1997 blockbuster film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio). But enough with specifics.

Shifting to the philosophic, it's worth noting all references in the novel to the spiritual side of the Near Death Experience are made within a Christian framework. The author's approach is curious considering a number of other traditions place great emphasis on alternate states of consciousness. Brief comments on several -

Shamanic Journeying - For many indigenous peoples and tribal cultures, from Siberia to the Amazon rainforest, from the North American plains to the jungles of Africa, hallucinatory drugs and/or drumming are frequently used to transport the tribe's shaman to the Lower World or the Higher World. The passage is facilitated by what anthropologist Michael Harner terms the Shamanic State of Consciousness. For anyone interested, I'd recommend Michael Harner's The Way of the Shaman.

Yoga Nidra - One of the yogic techniques to simulate death within the yoga tradition is Yoga Nidra, that is, the ability to maintain conscious awareness in dreamless deep sleep. Yoga Nidra is an advanced practice since, unlike our waking state or our dreaming, there are no forms; rather, there is no sense of individual self - all that exists is an unbounded ocean of blissful consciousness.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol) is perhaps the most well-known text on the passage from life to death. Much detail is provided on all the stages one will experience in the dying process. The book I'd recommend: Preparing to Die - Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition by Andrew Holecek.

Lucid Dreaming - One of the leading teachers of lucid dreaming in the West is Stephen LaBerge. Scores of Westerners have learned how to become lucid while dreaming following the advice given in his book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. While reading Connie Willis' novel, I couldn't help thinking of how a background in lucid dreaming might have had an impact on her character's Near Death Experiences.

I cite the above in the spirit of sharing an entire spectrum and range of backgrounds we can bring to reading Passage. Connie Willis has written a terrific novel. A work not to be missed.


American author Connie Willis