Moody, Raymond A.

Moody, Raymond A. (Avery, Jr.)

(1944– ) psychiatrist; born in Porterdale, Ga. Educated in philosophy at the University of Virginia (B.A. 1966; M.A. 1967; Ph.D. 1969), he received his medical degree (M.D.) from the Medical College of Georgia (1976). He taught philosophy at Eastern Carolina University and the University of Virginia, and published several books of humanistic psychology for a popular audience, such as Laugh After Laugh: The Healing Power of Humor (1978). His greatest success, however, came from his Life After Life (1975), which, with its accounts of "near-death" experiences, launched the late-20th-century fascination with claims that people could experience bodily death and then return to life.