CONTACTING YOUR SPIRIT GUIDE, by Sylvia Browne

This was a little purple book, easy to read, easy to follow. I find Sylvia's books are usually an easy read, with a very conversational style, almost taking away from their authenticity. Yet what she shares is profound to the very core. In this book, Sylvia's aim is to give us better understanding and appreciation for the entities we term "Spirit Guides." According to Sylvia (and most mainstream new age thinkers btw) we all have a spirit guide, some of us several, whose job it is to help us, comfort us and support us at all times through all tribulations. The spirit guides cannot be seen to the naked eye, of course, and communicate with us in whatever way they can to get through to our mind. Some hear a quiet voice or feel a burst of creativity or simply a strong hunch, an intuition. These are all examples of how spirit guides communicate with us to help us on a daily basis. I liked this book. Even though much of it was familiar material, I found the descriptions of the spirit world to be interesting, with a discussion of how souls' relationship to time is completely different once out of the physical plane. There are some exercises in the end of the book meant to help readers develop a regular meditation practice through which better to connect with our spirit guidance. Some readers may find these exercises useful. In all, the book was pleasant, informative and very easy to follow. For those with less prior exposure to the concept of spirit guidance, this might be a mind-blowing little book.

JOURNEY OF SOULS, by Michael Newton, Ph.D.

As the book title implies, this is a book that attempts to establish some truth about what happens to our souls before, after, during, and in between physical lives. The author presents his theories based on information gleaned from subjects under hypnosis, where they share facts available to their super-conscious. What is presented to the reader in a nutshell is this - souls' natural dwelling place is in a spirit world where they hang out between lives, have camaraderie, mentorship, reflection, and guidance and face un unceasing quest toward enlightenment. Life in the physical is used for learning, hardships and most key relationships are pre-arranged by the soul before it re-incarnates and very little in life is accidental, though we do have free will. In all, the book's premises jive with much of the other literature that has been published in the last 20-30 years about the spirit world and the book might be a curiosity or a revelation for some. I found it to tread on old topics and a bit uninspiring in that the author himself is a little over-earnest and a little humorless. If you haven't read other good books on the topic of life between lives, go for it - otherwise I would not put this on my MUST READ list.