I felt like this book was about two completely different subjects, ones that certainly overlap, but could still have their own books respectively.

The book starts by diving into the topic of resuscitation science and current state of our knowledge about what happens when someone goes into cardiac arrest. This portion of the book was the best part in my opinion. It explores the need for a new set of standards in cardiac arrest care and offers suggestions on how we can implement such standards. In the process it also goes into the details the expose how what we thought was the life/death boundary has had the goal markers moved, and how they may move further in the future.

The second portion of the book starts to dip into the area of NDEs, or near death experiences, and the definition of a soul. At this point I began to fear that this book was going to stop being about science and start going into paranormal subject matter. Thankfully, the author did not go down that rabbit hole and kept the discussion within the realm of scientific investigation and his involvement in the AWARE study. The downside of this was that there was nothing truly new to report on the subject, just a rehash of long debated ideas. As such, I felt it's inclusion in the book didn't really add anything.

So, in the end I am unable to give this book more than 3 stars. It's worth a read to learn about the latest science in resuscitation, it left me discovering nothing new in the arena of NDEs, consciousness, and the soul. ( )