At Heaven's Door

What Shared Journeys to the Afterlife Teach About Dying Well and Living Better

By: William J. Peters

Narrated by: William J. Peters

A “brilliant and fascinating” (Eben Alexander, MD, author of Proof of Heaven) exploration—rich with powerful personal stories and convincing research—of the many ways the living can and do accompany the dying on their journey into the afterlife.

In 2000, end-of-life therapist William Peters was volunteering at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco when he had an extraordinary experience as he was reading aloud to a patient: he suddenly felt himself floating midair, completely out of his body. The patient, who was also aloft, looked at him and smiled. The next moment, Peters felt himself return to his body…but his patient never regained consciousness and died.

Perplexed and stunned by what had happened, Peters began searching for other people who’d shared similar experiences. He would spend the next twenty years gathering and meticulously categorizing their stories to identify key patterns and features of what is now known as the “shared crossing” experience. The similarities, which cut across continents and cultures and include awe-inspiring visual and sensory effects, and powerful emotional aftershocks.

The book is filled with “moving and tender” (Jack Kornfield, PhD, author of A Path with Heart) tales of spouses seeing their loved ones reach the other side after decades together and bereaved parents who share their children’s entry into the afterlife. Applying rigorous research, Peters digs into the effects of these shared crossing experiences impart—liberation at the sight of a loved one finding joy, a sense of reconciliation if the relationship was fraught—and explores questions like: What can explain these shared death experiences? How can we increase our likelihood of having one? What do these experiences tell us about what lies beyond? And, most importantly, how can they help take away the string of death and better prepare us for our own final moments? How can we have both a better life and a better death?

Affirmation and Preparation

When my loved one died in 1993, the term Shared Death Experience had not yet been coined. When I heard the term later, I did not think of my experience, with my late loved one as a shared death experience, because I was not physically present at the time of his death. However, the experiences related in this book affirm for me that my sense of his presence around the time of his passing was, in fact, a shared death experience, and that my experiences of many contacts from him over the years following coincide with experiences of many others. This book is also useful to me at this time of my life, as I prepare to support my very elderly parents in their approaching deaths. I want to be the best support I can be for them, and this book is useful in preparing me for that possible journey.

Excellent Presentation of Collected SDE Info

Thank you to William Peters for his exhaustive efforts to collect and present the information in this book in such an easy to integrate form. I enjoyed the book thoroughly in broadening my understanding of the SDE. The breadth of stories collected and shared was excellent. The analysis of the data collected and the presentation of the common characteristics experienced by Shared Death Experiencers provides a comprehensive framework of this profound phenomena. I very much appreciated the book and am now furthering my studies by doing the online course with William Peters and Raymond Moody. I highly recommend this book and their course for in-depth explorations of this topic.

There’s more beauty in death than we think

This book was so easy to listen to and the cases were well picked. It brought me to tears many times hearing about mothers who lost their child or multiple children and yet it was so inspiring to hear their shared death experiences and how this helped them cope. I love reading about near death experiences, but it’s important also to hear the experiences of loved ones who are not ill, not under medication and who still have these transformative and spiritual experiences. It’s truly giving us hope and putting more beauty and meaning into our loved one’s death. William has done amazing research and shares some data at the end. As an author, especially in the field of death and afterlife, I can highly recommend this book. It requires a bit of an open mind but is for all people really, since we all eventually may have to let go of someone dear. We can be more open and present to assist during the transition, as you’ll learn in this book. Thank you William!

Beautifully Comforting

This book came up next in my queue on the same morning that my friend's husband passed away after a long illness. Two days later my Godmother passed away unexpectedly. I have found this book to be beautifully comforting during this difficult time. I am encouraging my entire family to listen to it.

Moving Experience

This book truly moved me and helped improve a relationship with a friend who recently crossed over, after his crossing.

Awesome book!!!

As a medical doctor that trained at a prestigious medical institution, I highly value this collection of accounts. This book lets us know that there is more to life then meets the eye, and that life has no end. There is no true death. These shared transitions prove the aforesaid statement. Energy can neither be created or destroyed, only transferred. Our souls are light energy, and this books showcases the witnessing energy transference of loved ones. This is a must read for anyone that fears death!!!

Reframing Death

This book is a groundbreaking and eye-opening look at death, loss, grief and an altogether new way of thinking and embracing the inevitable losses we will all come to share.

Reverence for the special connections we all share

I appreciated the gentle acceptance of these life-changing phenomena and the open, non- judgmental approach to telling the stories.

Absolutely Wonderful 💯

This was my first time learning about SDE's. I have dealt with a lot of loss in my short time on this earth & have always been fascinated by NDE's & death. This book confirmed certain ideas I had, as well as gave me new perspectives in other areas. I can't recommend this book & Peter's work highly enough.

A Sigh of Relief

This book addresses a phenomenon that has likely existed since animals have had consciousness, has been described in a host of cultures for millennia, and yet has been documented only in the last 100 years. Yet this is a topic that we just don’t speak about in polite society. William J Peters opens this hidden topic to the light of day. I can almost imagine the readers of this book sharing a collective sigh of relief about what happens to the soul/spirit at that point of time that we label as “death.” For those of us who have had a Shared Death Experience it is destigmatizing, and for those of us who are psychotherapists, it provides us with a powerful tool in helping our clients process the grief of a lost loved one. Reading this book is a rewarding journey in itself.