Application of Impossible Things - My Near Death Experience in Iraq


Book Description

Natalie’s near death experience when her truck was hit with a roadside bomb in Iraq. She recalls the entire spirit side experience as they repair her body so she could live.







Grief 2 Growth


Book Description

Grief. We avoid talking about it. We avoid thinking about it. However, every one of us who lives long enough will experience it. Since you are reading this, you are likely experiencing grief at this moment. It is also likely you've given little thought as to how you were going to cope with grief when it came to you, and the pain caught you off guard.In Grief 2 Growth, Brian Smith explores what grief is, what you can expect while in grief, and how you can best cope with the universal human experience of grief. Grief is not an emotion. Grief is a container for a myriad of emotions that ebb and flow. Rather than a linear process, grief is more like a dance. Once Brian has explained what grief is and what you can expect from grief, Brian gives simple, practical methods for coping. You can do more than deal with grief. You can transform your pain into an opportunity for growth. When a great tragedy befalls us, we can see ourselves as either planted or buried. Being buried means we are done. Being planted means, we are in a position where growth is about to take place. Brian's approach to handling grief is rooted in a firm understanding of who we are as spiritual beings having a human experience.About The AuthorBrian became well acquainted with grief in 2015 after the sudden passing of his fifteen-year-old daughter Shayna. Brian first learned how to survive for the sake of his wife and surviving daughter. Brian studied in depth the nature of life and death and how to progress through grief. Currently, Brian does volunteer work with organizations dedicated to helping parents heal from the passing of a child. Brian also operates a life coaching and small business consulting practice. You can find Brian at www.grief2growth.com.iversal human experience of grief. Grief is not an emotion, grief is a container for a myriad of emotions that ebb and flow (credit to R. Glenn Kelly for this insight). Once he has explained what grief is and what you can expect from grief, Brian gives simple, practical methods you can use to not only cope with grief but to transform your grief into an opportunity for growth. When a great tragedy befalls us, we can see ourselves as either planted or buried. Brian's approach to handling grief is rooted in a firm understanding of who we are as spiritual beings having a human experience.About The AuthorBrian became well acquainted with grief in 2015 after the sudden passing of his fifteen-year-old daughter Shayna. After turning inward to learn how to survive for the sake of his wife and daughter, Brian turned outward. Brian studied in depth the nature of life and death and how to progress through grief. Turning outward, Brian does volunteer work with organizations dedicated to helping parents heal from the passing of a child and in a life coaching and small business consulting practice.




The Evil Hours


Book Description

“An essential book” on PTSD, an all-too-common condition in both military veterans and civilians (The New York Times Book Review). Post-traumatic stress disorder afflicts as many as 30 percent of those who have experienced twenty-first-century combat—but it is not confined to soldiers. Countless ordinary Americans also suffer from PTSD, following incidences of abuse, crime, natural disasters, accidents, or other trauma—yet in many cases their symptoms are still shrouded in mystery, secrecy, and shame. This “compulsively readable” study takes an in-depth look at the subject (Los Angeles Times). Written by a war correspondent and former Marine with firsthand experience of this disorder, and drawing on interviews with individuals living with PTSD, it forays into the scientific, literary, and cultural history of the illness. Using a rich blend of reporting and memoir, The Evil Hours is a moving work that will speak not only to those with the condition and to their loved ones, but also to all of us struggling to make sense of an anxious and uncertain time.




Mass Casualties


Book Description

From the Introduction:"Look around," the drill sergeant said. "In a few years, or even a few months, several of you will be dead. Some of you will be severely wounded or so badly mutilated that your own mother can't stand the sight of you. And for the real unlucky ones, you will come home so emotionally disfigured that you wish you had died over there." It was Week 7 of Basic Training . . . 18 years old and I was preparing myself to die. They say the Army makes a man out of you - but for 18-year-old SPC Michael Anthony, that fabled rite of passage proved a very dark journey. After soliciting his parents’ approval to enlist at only 17, Anthony began his journey with an unshakeable faith in the military born of his family's long tradition of service. But when thrust into a medical unit of misfits as lost as he was, SPC Anthony not only witnessed the unspeakable horror of war—but the undeniable misconduct of the military—firsthand. Everything he ever believed in dissolved, forcing Anthony to rethink his loyalties, and ultimately risk his career—and his freedom—to challenge the military he had so firmly believed in. This searing memoir chronicles the iconic experiences that changed one young soldier forever. A seasoned veteran before the age of twenty-one, he faced the truth about the war - and himself - in this shocking and unprecedented eyewitness account.




The Science of Near-Death Experiences


Book Description

What happens to consciousness during the act of dying? The most compelling answers come from people who almost die and later recall events that occurred while lifesaving resuscitation, emergency care, or surgery was performed. These events are now called near-death experiences (NDEs). As medical and surgical skills improve, innovative procedures can bring back patients who have traveled farther on the path to death than at any other time in history. Physicians and healthcare professionals must learn how to appropriately treat patients who report an NDE. It is estimated that more than 10 million people in the United States have experienced an NDE. Hagan and the contributors to this volume engage in evidence-based research on near-death experiences and include physicians who themselves have undergone a near-death experience. This book establishes a new paradigm for NDEs.




Final Salute


Book Description

Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheeler's unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final SaluteIs a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. "The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know," said Major Steve Beck. Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines. Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marine's name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark. In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Saluteis the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.




The Death of Expertise


Book Description

"In the early 1990s, a small group of "AIDS denialists," including a University of California professor named Peter Duesberg, argued against virtually the entire medical establishment's consensus that the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Science thrives on such counterintuitive challenges, but there was no evidence for Duesberg's beliefs, which turned out to be baseless. Once researchers found HIV, doctors and public health officials were able to save countless lives through measures aimed at preventing its transmission"--




A Table in the Presence


Book Description

On April 10th, 2003, the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, faced with the task of seizing the presidential palace in downtown Baghdad, ran headlong into what Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North called, "the worst day of fighting for U.S. Marines." Hiding in buildings and mosques, wearing civilian clothes, and spread out for over a mile, Saddam Hussein's militants rained down bullets and rocket propelled grenades on the 1st Battalion. But when the smoke of the eight-hour battle cleared, only one Marine had lost his life. Some said the 1st Battalion was incredibly lucky. But in the hearts and minds of the Marines who were there, there was no question. God had brought them miraculously through that battle. As the 1st Battalion's chaplain, Lieutenant Carey Cash had the unique privilege of seeing firsthand, from the beginning of the war to the end, how God miraculously delivered, and even transformed, the lives of the men of the 1st Battalion. Their regiment, the most highly decorated regiment in the history of the Marines, was the first ground force to cross the border into Iraq, the first to see one of their own killed in battle, and they were the unit to fight what most believe to have been the decisive battle of the war-April 10th in downtown Baghdad. Through it all, Carey Cash says, the presence of God was undeniable. Cash even had the privilege of baptizing fifty-seven new Christians-Marines and Sailors-during the war in Iraq. The men of the 1st Battalion came to discover what King David had discovered long ago--that God's presence could be richly experienced even in the presence of enemies. Here is the amazing story of their experience.




One Bullet Away


Book Description

An ex-Marine captain shares his story of fighting in a recon battalion in both Afghanistan and Iraq, beginning with his brutal training on Quantico Island and following his progress through various training sessions and, ultimately, conflict in the deadliest conflicts since the Vietnam War.