Lisa Smartt - Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death

Praise for Words at the Threshold by Lisa Smartt

With Words at the Threshold, Lisa Smartt has given the world of near-death studies a fresh new path for research. Deeply moving and meticulously researched, this book offers a feast of fresh information about communications with the other side that may take place at the time of death. This is an insightful book worth reading.

Paul Perry, coauthor of Glimpses of Eternity

Rarely can we say a book has the ability to profoundly affect the way we live and think, but Words at the Threshold is truly such a book. The research is impeccable, and the insights that Lisa Smartt gives us into the realm of the threshold open doors of perception that help us understand what it is to be part of the human experience.

Michael Wayne, PhD, LAc, author of The Quantum Revolution
and producer and host of Interviews with the Leading Edge

Words at the Threshold is a treasure trove of experience and insight around the last words spoken by the dying, as revealed through the mind of a linguist, proposing that birth and death are different facets of the same process, that both are essential in the cycle of life, and that our soul connections do not end with death. The words of the dying provide some of the most salient clues as to how we can best live our lives on earth.

Eben Alexander, MD, neurosurgeon and author of
Proof of Heaven and The Map of Heaven

Words at the Threshold marks a new era in the understanding of the process of dying. Lisa Smartts work has profound psychological, spiritual, and clinical implications for the care of terminally ill patients and their families. And I believe that her work also opens unexplored pathways for the genuinely rational investigation of humankinds deepest mystery: the prospect of life after death.

from the foreword by Raymond Moody Jr., MD, PhD,
author of Life After Life

Lisa Smartt gently invites us to listen to the utterances of the dying with an inner ear attuned to another kind of reality. She charts how the dying use eerily familiar metaphors, symbols, time loops, and more to express their expanded, nonlinear experiences. In so doing, Smartt affords us a precious glimpse of their inner worlds as they linger at the threshold of death. Through her linguistic analysis of nonsense on the lips of the dying, the underlying creativity and purpose of final words are revealed. Words at the Threshold is a significant step toward transforming the current views of dying from a process of failure into a process of ever-deepening meaning and wonder.

Julia Assante, PhD, author of The Last Frontier

Copyright 2017 by Lisa Smartt

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

The material in this book is intended for education. Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Text design by Tracy Cunningham

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Smartt, Lisa, author.

Title: Words at the threshold : what we say as were nearing death / Lisa Smartt ; foreword by Raymond Moody, Jr., MD, PhD.

Description: Novato, California : New World Library, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016046063 (print) | LCCN 2017003617 (ebook) | ISBN 9781608684601 (alk. paper) | ISBN 9781608684618 (Ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Near-death experiences. | Last words. | Death. | Future life.

Classification: LCC BF1045.N4 S63 2017 (print) | LCC BF1045.N4 (ebook) | DDC 133.901/3dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046063

First printing, March 2017

ISBN 978-1-60868-460-1

Ebook ISBN 978-1-60868-461-8

Printed in Canada on 100% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my father, who continues to sing to me in an octave higher than grief

Contents

W ords at the Threshold marks a new era in the understanding of the process of dying. Lisa Smartts work has profound psychological, spiritual, and clinical implications for the care of terminally ill patients and their families. And I believe that her work also opens unexplored pathways for the genuinely rational investigation of humankinds deepest mystery: the prospect of life after death.

My main interest as a student and subsequently professor of philosophy had to do with the fascinating domains of language that exist beyond the literal. I studied figurative and unintelligible or nonsensical forms of language for their relevance to the solutions of important philosophical problems. Later on, as a medical doctor and psychiatrist, I was intrigued by the enigmatic language spoken by terminally ill and dying patients. Like many other clinicians, I was inspired and mystified by curious figures of speech and nonsensical expressions that people often utter as they are dying. In fact, the unintelligible language of dying patients is sometimes as eloquent as the nonsense of the great literary artists such as Lewis Carroll.

In shamanism, ancient magic, and the Western literary tradition, nonsense once signified the transition from this world to other dimensions of existence. I have long contended that the structure of nonsense holds the key to rational comprehension of the mysteries of the afterlife. A major rethinking of the meaning of puzzling language spoken by the terminally ill is long overdue. Lisa Smartts captivating analysis of this phenomenon will be the starting point of many future doctoral dissertations and clinical studies. Her trailblazing book will also comfort and enlighten many who have marveled at the enigmatic final words of their departed loved ones.

Raymond Moody Jr., MD, PhD, author of Life After Life

O ne day, if not today, you will sit at the bedside of someone you love and have a final conversation. That conversation will invite you into a unique territory the one that exists between living and dying. You may hear words expressing a desire for forgiveness, reconciliation, or the fulfillment of last requests. You may hear phrases that confuse you, like The circles say its time to complete the cycle.

There may be references to things you do not see or understand, such as The white butterflies are coming out of your mouth. They are beautiful. Or If you have passed the quiz. You have passed the quiz, havent you?

Your beloved may describe being visited by deceased family members, angels, or animals or speak of viewing lush landscapes, where in reality there are only white hospital walls. Trains, boats, or buses and tales of new travels may appear in the speech of the person who is dying. Your family member or friend may also speak of being afraid and seek your comfort as well as your guidance: I am stuck here between two countries. I am here but I want to be there. Your beloved may whisper in your ear, Help me, or, I am daring to die.