[Here are this month’s great recommendations from staff member Christopher Jennings Penders. Click on a title to place a hold. You can find previous Chris Picks through the “What to read” link at the bottom of this page or type “Chris Picks” into the search bar on our homepage.]
One piece of my worldview is that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I believe we all return. Here are a few books that helped me realize this for myself.
I don’t expect everyone to agree, but if you keep an open mind while reading these books, you may come away with a few more questions about what you believe.
Destiny of Souls is the follow-up to Journey of Souls, in which author Michael Newton, a certified hypnotherapist, puts clients under deep regression to reveal their previous lives. This compelling book will have you rethinking what happens after we pass.
Old Souls
Journalist Tom Shroder followed University of Virginia professor Ian Stevenson to India to research children who remember past lives. I found it fascinating that many of the children (ages 5-8) when shown pictures or brought to their “old” families, could pick out who they were close to in their last life. This is also the first place where I read that birthmarks are sometimes wounds that reveal how people died in their previous lifetime. Whether you believe it or not, these stories of children recalling their last life in great detail may have you reconsidering life and death.
Soul Survivor
“Plane on fire!” “Little man can’t get out!” These are the words of James Leininger, who, a bit after his second birthday, started having nightmares, and not just bad dreams but night terrors, in which the young boy would wake night after night screaming that phrase and others. This behavior continued for months with no resolution. When little James provides details about aircraft that he should not know, his parents become concerned, and then curious.
On Life After Death
Having had a near-death experience myself long before reading this book, and always having a sense that something beyond existed, this book gave me comfort in knowing that others felt the same way and were unashamed to discuss such events.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has been a master at explaining life and death for years and On Life After Death should live in the pantheon of “Life and Death” books (along with her groundbreaking On Death and Dying).
Raymond Moody scored big with his Life After Life book when it first appeared in 1975. I have since read many more of his books, and each one has deep meaning for me.
Reincarnation Blues: A Novel
All Milo wants is to stay with his lover, Suzie, who is also the one he refers to as “death.” The one who helps him cross over during each of his nine thousand-plus deaths. According to author Michael Poore, we each get ten thousand lives to prove we are worth moving into the great beyond.
Does Milo prove his worth? You’ll have to read the book to discover the answer.