The work of modern resuscitators has allowed us to look beyond the limits of earthly life and learn a little more than we have known before. The first chapters of the book will be about this.

Christianity teaches that the soul is immortal and that after the death of the body it passes into other conditions of reality and continues to exist consciously. You could believe in it or not. Happy are those who could believe simply and deeply, without entering into any thoughts. Their lives were brighter and better. But not everyone has such a faith. Modern man, even those who are close to faith in God, are accustomed to thinking, searching, and looking for confirmation. There is nothing wrong with that. One of the paths to faith leads through searching, through knowledge. Unbelief is never the result of knowledge. Anyone who claims that knowledge destroys faith is deceiving.

I am deeply grateful to Drs. Sabom, Moody, Kübler-Ross, and others, whose work has helped me to strengthen the beginnings of my faith and to understand a little better what is really important in life.

Dying can be very difficult, but it can be as easy as the transition from waking to dreaming. Death is to be expected and met in such a way that dying is dignified and not very difficult. Chapters on dying illness and dying are devoted to this.

Not much will be said about the afterlife and life in it in the book. In our time, science has lifted the veil on this mystery, but we will touch only on what seems really reliable. Chapter 9 is an attempt to consider the latest scientific evidence in the light of Christian teaching on the other world.

Chapter 14 is about the last illness and what can help the patient in the last months of his life.

Chapters 18 and 19 contain some advice to the patient's relatives on how and how to alleviate the suffering of him and himself. Most of these tips are old and true, but now forgotten. There are also several new ones, the effectiveness of which has been tested by scientists who study death.

I would like to express my personal gratitude to Dr. M. Sabom for his moral support and permission to use the rich materials of his book. I also thank everyone who helped me write, process and publish this book.

In our homeland, after a long night, a process of spiritual rebirth has begun. I know that there are many shortcomings in my book, but I decided to publish it in the hope that a book in Russian on this topic could now be useful.

«Feci quod potii, feciunt meliore potentes». ("I did what I could, whoever can do better, let him do it").

Prelude

Before our eyes, during one or two generations, life on earth takes on a new look. Our material successes surpass any imagination, but at the same time there is a fading of spiritual life. Material enrichment with impoverishment of the spirit. The growth of knowledge with the loss of wisdom. The main reason for the new way of life is the loss of faith in everything spiritual. The Crisis of European Christian Culture. Is there hope?

This book is about the modern understanding of death. It has long been known that in order for a major scientific discovery to become the property of the broad masses of people, at least two or three generations must change. This, of course, does not refer to any small technical improvement. But if today one of the bright minds of mankind has seen and understood something new, important for the revision of our entire worldview and our way of life, then only our grandchildren or great-grandchildren will be able to master the meaning and significance of this new.