In My Time of Dying

Told in two parts essentially, part one is a thought provoking exploration of author Sebastian Junger's close call with death, and either a unique glimpse into the afterlife, or the imaginings of his dying brain.

The second part describes Mr Junger's pursuit to understand what happened, what it might mean for each of us to be alive and then to not be alive, and how the universe accounts for it all. Spoiler: nothing is decided, but many interesting facts are explained that may impact that meaning. Food for thought.

Very approachable, interesting read. Book feels like nothing more than a real man sharing his real experiences. No present bias, just observation. Would definitely recommend.

In June of 2020, Sebastian Junger nearly dies. After finally making his way to the hospital, his blood pressure is at rock bottom, he has massive internal bleeding of an unknown origin, and doctors are trying to insert a catheter into the side of his neck. In the midst of this, a void appears to open up to him, and then above the void, his father – who is dead – also appears, and communicates to Sebastian that it's okay, he can go into the void.

The younger Junger does not die, though, and In My Time of Dying is the account of the author's near death experience and his subsequent obsession with the vision of his father. In exploring research and accounts of life review (think: “my life flashed before my eyes”) and near death apparitions, he stumbles into an existential crisis.

Junger's existential crisis eventually brings to bear fundamental questions about existence itself, and in keeping with his self-described atheistic, rational upbringing, these questions soon have him swimming in the deep, fraught waters of quantum physics. He throws an arm around the reader and pulls us along on this trip, an experience I found compelling, but also fear will lose the interest of many. Discussions of Plancks-lengths, quantum of action, and Schrodinger's cat are not the most digestible reading.

In My TIme of Dying captured my attention completely and rattled around my mind during breaks in reading. Junger's story and subsequent seeking are deeply personal, yet encompass timeless universal concerns. He seems to take great pains to shrink his own confirmation bias and trade it for a willingness to consider the potential origins, purposes, and meanings behind ideas and visions of an afterlife.

I enjoyed this small book, and rate it highly, though one issue keeps me from a full-throated five star review. Junger's conclusion, while scientific in nature, is not testable, repeatable, or observable. He knows this, and yet seemingly avoids or cannot bring himself to say the F-word...faith. While I have no issue with the author's adoption of an unobservable end-of-life belief, Junger misses the mark by presenting himself a rationalist, adopting an irrational conclusion, and making no admission of the leap of faith required to do so. I feel this is why the book ends rather abruptly. Junger's suspension of confirmation bias can only go so far. It's a gem of a book and recommended reading nonetheless.

I am an admirer of both Junger's War and Tribe so the chances to listen to him narrate his latest book was taken. In My Time of Dying is his story about his near-death experience (NDE) after a pancreatic vein burst that caused major internal bleeding.

He gives a detailed medical account of the actions of the medical staff that took him from his NDE to his survival of an event that generally take the life of the individual. During this medical emergency, he tells of his NDE meeting with his dead father. After full recovery, Junger looks at the NDE from both his journalistic eye and then that from his atheist view point with a reflective writing and telling on the physical and spiritual nature of the individual as he sees it.

Junger is a fine writer, and in this case narrator of his writing. It never felt like a matter of me agreeing or disagreeing with him, confirming one's bias is a futile exercise at the best of times anyway, but his ability to explain his NDE and added to the quality of his layman research makes for a very thoughtful telling and listening experience. My general realist attitude to all things makes me think that NDE is actually what Junger described and researched; the brain shutting down and making death palatable to the individual. What's beyond that? Not much in my opinion as no one has come back to tell the tale. What is beyond can never be known, Junger says as much, but his NDE has made him less sure of his future beyond death.

A very good read and recommended to those of us reaching the end of our days.

Not the book I was expecting, I'm afraid. Junger is a non-fiction writer I've followed for years but for me, this book had too much jargon, too much medical detail. I wanted more critical thinking about dying, the end of life, philosophical musings about the winter of our years. There was some but it was buried in all the minutiae about his particular situation, medical condition, details of the build-up to the near-fatal event and not enough examination of how his thinking, feeling, life changed as a result of this happening.