In 1975 Raymond Moody, a medical doctor, published a book entitled Life After Life.   It chronicled the experiences of 150 people who died, or were near-death and then came back.  Moody was the first to use the expression "near death experience" and he tells how these experiences forever changed the lives of the people who had them.  In some cases, as death approached, individuals had flashbacks, going back to childhood.  In some cases, they saw Jesus standing in the shadows.  Some saw light—a brilliant, vivid light which they believed was God—at the end of a long, dark tunnel.  But no matter how the experiences differed, their lives changed.  They became "more altruistic, less materialistic, and more loving."