The Five People You Meet in Heaven – Mitch Albom

This is a beautifully written book! It makes for a lovely NEW Year present!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This is the story of Eddie, who on his 83rd birthday “dies” in an accident and moves to the spiritual plane. Here, he is met by five people who “died” before him – some are those who he never “knew” in his lifetime. These meetings unfold the mysteries surrounding Eddie’s life, how he got to be the way he was when he was “alive”! These five people he meets guide him to basically understand how each of our lives is connected to the other without us even realizing it. “We move through places everyday that would never have been if not for those who came before us. Our work places, where we spend so much time – we often think they began with our arrival. That’s not true.”

They explain to him the events in his life. He comes to terms with the extreme anger that he still felt about the single event in his youth which changed the course of his life. “Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.” He also understands what it means to sacrifice and how not to think of it in terms of what one “loses”. He understands that no life is a waste, and the only time we waste, is the time we spend thinking we are alone.

His wife who died before him is also one of the five people he meets. The meeting with his wife is a very moving and special one. His wife is the only woman he loved in a way that she remained in his memories in all the 30 years he lived after her “death”. His love for her is explained to him – a quiet, giving love that is deeply felt by both for the other. He is then explained the reason for her early death: to give expression to a love that is beyond the physical, his wife testifies that she has always felt his deep, quiet, grateful love even after her “death”. This is a very joyous reunion for Eddie and he does not want her to leave again; they tell each other every little thing that they missed sharing with the other until it is time for her to go once more...

The book ends on the note – “Each affects the other and the other affects the next and world is full of stories, but the stories are all one.” This awareness inspires to watch what we utter and do – lest we do not cause harm to the other.

This book was a riveting read, very moving too and left me with a very comfortable feeling – the feeling of coming “home”, the comfort of a healing experience. With its simple articulation, the beautiful narrative touches the deepest chords in our consciousness – the part of us that wonders at times about the mysteries of our being and what we are here for.

(The book has been made into a film by the same name directed by Lloyd Kramer and produced by Howard Ellis with teleplay written by the author himself. Mitch Albom is the author of the International bestseller and award-winning book, “Tuesdays with Morrie”).

Life After Life – Raymond A. Moody

Life After Life, first published in 1975 is a classic bestseller written by parapsychologist, Raymond A. Moody. The book is based on Dr. Moody’s research on Near Death Experiences popularly known as NDEs. It has given a new direction to the understanding of “death” and inspired the first generation of researchers in the field to create a new science of near-death studies. What happens when we “die”, Is “death” the end of what we call life, What to make of it when our loved ones “pass away”… or do they just “pass on”, What is the basis of the “grief” we feel for our loved ones when they “die” are some of the questions hovering in our minds that find ample scope for an address through Dr. Moody’s path breaking research contained in this book.

The research is based on interviews of more than a 100 people who have been resuscitated after being pronounced clinically dead by their doctors, people who as a result of severe injury or illness have come close to physical death and people who have recounted their experiences as they “died”, to others. These recountings show that something very spiritual happens to us when we “die”. Unfortunately, there is collective denial about the spiritual basis of our existence. Those of us who have experienced NDEs fear being mocked at or dismissed as “mentally ill”. Many a times we do not believe our own selves. The book also mentions “scientific” grounding and the position of “science” on the phenomenon of NDEs which I leave to you to explore from the book. But what I would like to make a passing mention of is The International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) a body with many chapters worldwide, that was formed after Dr. Moody’s research and is dedicated to building global understanding on NDEs.

The narrations made by Dr. Moody’s subjects have among others, one thing in common and that is the awareness of the unique essence of life arising out of their NDEs and I would like to quote from the book, “When we die, our own lives are evaluated and interpreted not according to how much money we made or our statues and prestige but according to the love we shared with others throughout our life.” The other commonality between all is an emphatic positive shift in their lives marked by self-esteem, empathy for others, peace and wholeness. I quote a few more lines, “Our society suffers from our lack of connection to each other and our collective lack of meaning in our lives. Homelessness, depression, drug abuse, alcoholism, road rage and gun violence all have at their roots a lack of spiritual wisdom.” Life After Life has been described as having “reconnected us with a timeless wisdom about death”.

Do we really “die” is a question that has always intrigued me. I have never been able to contain thinking that everything about a person ends when the heart stops beating. What about the memories and the impressions the person leaves behind? Many of us make a conscious attempt to “forget” them; this motivated forgetting really has a lot to do with the way we look at life and “death”. This book has a therapeutic effect – for many its poses a challenge by laying open a subject that has been an explosive topic of debate and for others it gives new directions.

The book has a foreword by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, renowned psychiatrist who has worked extensively with terminally ill people and is the author of the landmark book, On Death and Dying. The preface contains an account of the interesting shifts over time towards looking at “death”. It is a must-read for anyone questing for an understanding, a book review hardly does any justice to what the complete research has to convey!