I am sometimes asked if I myself believe in what I write about life after death. I answer that I believe, and now I know even more.

Such questions upset me. I am not upset for myself, but for the one who asks. It is possible and necessary to believe or not to believe in anything, without submitting to authority, without accepting someone's opinion, but independently, with one's own understanding, and nothing else. And in order not to make a mistake, you need to know the facts and only after that come to some conclusion. This is always important, but especially when it comes to something new, unusual and not yet mastered.

Therefore, while working on the book, I tried not to express my opinion anywhere, not to confirm or deny it, but simply to cite facts or what looks like undoubtedly existing. An exception to this rule is made only in Chapter 6, where materialist theories about the essence of life and death are criticized. However, even here it is not so much a criticism as a description of those new data and works of world scientists about which materialist writers do not write. They do not criticize, but simply hush up those facts that are known and reliable. but contradict materialistic dogmas. Materialists dominated the minds of several generations, and in order to dispel the fog, it was necessary to cite a number of quotations from the Holy Scriptures and the works of philosophers-theologians and leading scientists.

Many books and articles have been written on the topic of what death does to a person, whether there is any existence after the death of the body, and if so, what kind of existence. Among the serious thoughts, there are fantasies and completely ridiculous fictions. Sometimes there is a desire to embellish facts in order to interest the reader more and amaze his imagination.

This approach does not give a correct understanding. Therefore, I have tried to give only what is serious and true, leaving aside everything that has not been proven, no matter how sensational it may be. Science lifted the veil only over the very first hours, perhaps the days of man's posthumous fate; There is no accurate, objectively verified data yet.

In one of the reviews of my book, I was reproached for limiting my topic so much, but the author of the review understood my approach to the problem well. He said: "Perhaps the book lacks the testimony of the resurrection. That would mean talking about... restoration of the whole person. However, the author consciously outlines the description with the horizon that appears to the soul in a state of clinical death." I wanted to compare the experience of resuscitation medicine with the works of Christian theologians and leading modern scientists and try to better understand the true meaning of the new knowledge that has entered the world.

The first edition of "Transition" was published abroad. The book was received with interest and evoked many responses in both the spiritual and secular press. There were many private letters and questions to the author.

The current edition comes out with very few, insignificant changes in the text. In the first edition, I expressed my gratitude to those medical scientists who allowed me to describe their clinical cases of temporary death. Now I have collected enough such cases. I hardly mention them in this edition because in my observations the perceptions are basically similar to the previous ones, and there is no point in increasing the number of unambiguous descriptions.

Russia is now entering a bright period in its history. There is a growing interest in the spiritual side of life, and I hope that the book will be able to help its readers in some way.

In conclusion, a little advice to my future readers: do not read too much at once. One chapter, well, two. Perhaps it is best to read in the evening, before going to bed, so as not to immediately obscure what you have read with the usual thoughts of the day.

Pyotr Kalinovsky.