Customer Reviews

Conversations Beyond the Light: Communication With Departed Friends & Colleagues by Electronic Means

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is completely documented and able to convince you that there is such a place as a heaven, a beautiful existence after this life. I would recommend it to those who question their current life values here, whether they believe in a God or a higher self it does not matter. It is most revealing and very informative to your soul and is made for your mind to comprehend too. Highly recommend it as a prerequisite to this life journey here.

Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) is a bizarre field where researchers purportedly communicate with nonhuman and human spirits using electronic devices, including telephones, tvs, computers, etc... Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The authors present their firsthand exposure to the evidence as well as evidence from other researchers; however, they apparently fail to realize that most readers are going to be scratching their heads incredulously as they turn each page. This is a major weakness of the book and makes it utterly unconvincing. The book would be infinitely better if the authors took the stance of an open, but critical investigative journalist or, at least, an academic where they try to address the justifiable skepticism of the reader. Instead, they give us an account of a strange field without a sensitivity to needs of the typical reader. I wasn't convinced by the book. The contents may very well be true, but the authors don't present their case well. This is too bad because the evidence is so fascinating.

The authors (and the publisher) should have divided this work into two separate books: one focusing entirely upon instrumental transcommunication (ITC), and another devoted to more metaphysical topics, such as what life after death is like, where it is lived, the afterlife's conditions, etc. Instead, these topics are jumbled together in a single work, and it weakens the authors' presentation of ITC research.

Open-minded, yet critical, readers will find that the metaphysical discussions tax their "willingness to suspend disbelief," as psychologists say. Even the most sympathetic reader will exclaim, "Oh, come on!" while reading the discussions of afterlife conditions purportedly provided by disincarnate spirits. One is left incredulous when reading about spirits living on the planet Marduk, with fantastic landscapes that sound like pure science fiction. It may all be true, but it is impossible for the reader to tell. Extreme skeptics, who typically refuse to believe anything, will find it easy to attack the book as speculative. This would be unfair. There is no reason to doubt the authors' integrity and honesty, but critical, open-minded readers will expect better evidence to be persuaded.

Those readers interested in the authors' metaphysical treatment should find chapters 2-7 quite interesting; however, readers interested in an examination of the ITC research (and electronic voice phenomena [EVP] generally) may wish to bypass these chapters and focus upon chapters 8-11. (One should read the introduction, prologue, and first chapter for general background.) The photographs are quite intriguing, but readers needed a more complete textual presentation of the research to be convinced. The bibliography provides many excellent titles that one should also read.

This reviewer was most interested in a discussion of the scientific aspects of ITC research, and in this, the authors provided too little information. Even if one were only to discuss the research since 1986 (and anyone familiar with the subject will know that the research has been ongoing for a much longer time period), there must be sufficient material to fill a 200-page book. Instead, the authors barely reach 50 pages of substantive discussion.

The book, while disappointing on the ITC research presentation, is still recommended as an overview of this exciting field of survival research.

I'm pretty open minded about most things. I am even willing to believe that the dead are trying to communicate with us through machines like tapes, tvs, and phones. So I bought this book hoping to find out more about the this new science that is working to find a way to communicate with "the other side". But the book isn't very well written, and it sort of goes between talking about the science of communicating with the dead, and what its like for people after they die. Ok, I was willing to muddle through those.

But the thing that really pissed me off and makes me believe this guy is putting us on is this: He says that people on the other side are all telepathic and therefore, they don't have vocal chords (cuz they don't need them). And so when they call by phone, their voice sounds weird cuz they have to figure out ways to make a voice using white noise, etc.

But in another chapter he talks about how a deceased person called a living person on the phone. And the deceased person is someone who takes care of children who have died. The author says in the background the person who received the call could hear the deceased children laughing and having fun. But wait! I thought dead people didn't have vocal chords?

I stopped reading at that point and haven't been able to pick it up since.

In other words, not only is this book poorly written and unfocused, but the author can't even keep his "facts" straight.

I have an large number of books about the afterlife, but this little book trumps them all. Don't miss it.