Article reviewing Christopher Bache's perinatal account of near-death experiences (NDEs) and suggesting that it does not go far enough. The author then presents a new model, bliss/abyss, derived from the study of mysticism; shows that pleasant and frightening NDEs can be accommodated within the model; and discusses the predictions that can be drawn from the new theoretical framework.

Interview with Kenneth Poff, a Army WWII veteran from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, who served with the 1913th Engineer Aviation Battalion. Poff discusses his early life, being drafted and training, shipping out to Townsville, Australia, and landing on New Guinea, fighting attached to the 1st Marine Division for the Cape Gloucester and Hollandia campaigns, constructing and maintaining an airstrip, the Lingayan Gulf campaign in the Philippines, the atomic bomb and VJ-Day, and returning home.

Interview with Lloyd C. Cross, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences while aboard the submarines USS S-45 USS Sunfish, USS Spearfish, USS Pogy in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Pre-war duty aboard the USS California and the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes, 1935-39; Submarine School, New London, Connecticut, 1940; his responsibilities as a fireman; various patrols in the Sea of Japan.

Interview with Odis Taylor, a Navy veteran, concerning his experiences while aboard the submarine USS Sculpin in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Assignment to the Sculpin, 1941; his responsibilities as a radioman; various patrols off the Netherlands East Indies and in the South China Sea, 1942-44; lifeguard duty off Japan for downed airmen, 1944-45.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Raymond F. Higgins. Higgins joined the Navy in February 1941 as a commissioned officer. He trained with the Marines at Quantico and then with the Medical Corps at Paris Island. He also trained in tropical and aviation medicine and learned to fly N3N's at Pensacola. Higgins was transferred to the U.S. Naval Hospital at Pearl Harbor. He then transferred to islands in the southwest Pacific. He was in Fleet Air Wing 101, a flight patrol squadron based out of Australia. He returned to the United States for leave in 1944. He then is assigned to the USS Ranger (CV-4) and leaves from San Diego to the sea for training. After V-J Day, the Ranger went to New Orleans and then Norfolk. He remained in service until 1947.

The South Pacific Regional Environment Programme is to promote cooperation in the South Pacific islands region and to provide assistance in order to protect and improve the environment and to ensure sustainable development.