Customer Reviews

Death: Beginning or End?: Methods for Immortality

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Dr. Mumford has certainly shed light on the difference between Death And Dying and the associated myths. Some people live, some folks exist whereupon they die a daily death. The concepts in this book are succinctly educational. I have broadened my awareness and understanding on a wholistic east-west level about the very matter that confronts each individual when we come to our mortal ends. A soul-broadening experience and a jolly good read. The grim-reaper is not to be feared!

Death: Beginning or End is worth the price for its meditation instruction alone. I'm an experienced meditator, and the Gayatri So Hum is among the most powerful techniques I've encountered because it incorporates breath, movement and visualization in a way that must profoundly affect the brain. The other exercises in the book will be of value, even to the most hardened skeptic. In addition, Jonn Mumford has an extraordinary ability to explain complex Eastern philosophical concepts in a simple and direct manner.

This amazing book should be required reading. It's an important book. Science has turned us into skeptical creatures. Believing in God is not so much an act of will as a state of grace. And what happens if we are not fortunate enough to attain this state of grace? Dr. Mumford from his vast esoteric knowledge of both the Eastern and Western traditions helps the reader to move in the direction of that state of grace. In this book he gives us detailed instructions on how to prepare for death, that one certain event in our lives. The result is a more relaxed and happier life. I wish I had read this book before my husband died.

Dr. Jonn Mumford is a man who lives in two worlds. Having first begun studying in India while he was practically a child, he eventually became a Swami in one of the most respected and ancient religious orders on earth. But Mumford is not Indian. He was born and raised in the United States and Australia. Eventually returning to the west, Mumford took up that most respected of western professions--he is a physician. This puts him in a very unusual position--he is steeped in the esoteric lore of two very deep traditions, Indian yoga and western medicine. But Mumford's understanding of yoga goes far beyond books--he is a highly accomplished yoga master who has proved his bona fides in western laboratories by displaying control over his heart and brain waves that, a few decades ago, was believed impossible by western medicine. In his new book, "Death: Beginning or End" he addresses the one area that is the terror of all people and all cultures, death. For the first time, westerners who practice yoga meditation are openly taught a way to prepare for death that is accessible but also very powerful. He discusses such issues as how meditators should view the use of morphine when the end comes (as it will for all of us). These people (the Saraswati order of Swamis) understand the mind and they understand the body. ( Let anyone who doubts buy this book and learn their method for drastically deepening your meditation by lifting one finger synchronized with your breathing!) St. Paul wrote, "Death, where is thy sting." This book should help take at least some of the sting from death for those wise enough to practice what it so clearly teaches.

This is not the appropriate place to debate religion. You should realise that your views may be extremely offensive to practically anyone who is not a *Christian*. We are all free (a gift from God if you like) to find our own path to the light. If you are having trouble with this concept, try reading C.S. Lewis rather than your censored, edited, translated and re-edited bible.

Dr. Jonn Mumford brings us a most thought-provoking book which brings to the forefront a subject we all seek to the answer to: What is beyond death... Death: Beginning or End? was born from lectures he has given. Learn why what we do today, in this lifetime, will have an impact on our life after death. Give your mind a refuge with a wonderful Hindu meditation. Learn and practice a mantra that can free you from blind incarnations to learn who you really are, for only then can you break the cycle and guide yourself to a better journey.

With beautiful meditations and exercises, along with quotes and poetry from around the world on death. Death: the Beginning or End? will bring you on a journey of self-discovery.

M.L. Benton, Publisher, Echoed Voices.
Copyright © December 2001

Dr. Jonn Mumford has done it again. He has taken the mystery and complexity out of the eastern teachings and offers it in a simple concise manner that westerners can appreciate. This is the only book that offers readers a graded system of meditation for living in the here and now. Readers who are fortunate enough to be lead towards Dr. mumfors books are in for a real treat. He is a born teacher and derives his formal training from both eatern yogic schools as well as the western mystic orders. This book is sure to please both the neophyte seeker as well as those advanced in their search for truth. The book also contains the best collection of memorial quotes of comfort, courtesy of the Theosophical Society in Australia. An easy to read literary gem. Five stars.

I have lost my entire family through diabetes. For someone who have loved and lost, this book has brought a lot of comfort and enlightenment about Death. Dr. Mumford has produced a valuable publication that will transcend all books of books on the subject. It brings to us a practical method of meditation that is priceless.

This is a fine book explicating the philosophical views of the Hindu Yoga system of philosophy.

Reading Dr. Jonn Mumford books, is always an experience of feeling at ease. Whatever the subject is, Dr. Mumforsd makes it easy, but not only, he gives you the sensation of it. His book, Death: Begining or End, brings original explanations and marvelous meditation method. I would like to share a little story with you: a true story about a woman in her sixtyes . Her husband, one night left her: he sneaked away, silently and so fast that the woman only realised it early in the morning . Her husband was not there anymore, but he had left a stiff and cold body; he had had an heart attack. A very sad, but a very important event of life. A funeral had to be organised, and a grave had to be chosen. The woman had to face it, she had to cope with her husband Death. A very strange shop; it was just beside the cemetery, but it looked like another cemetery, and in fact it was a fake cemetery; was a graves shop. The fresh widow was confused, for the first time, after very many years, she had to take a decision with out her husband. In the fake cemetery a young fleshy lady of round shapes, wearing a very short skirt , was helping the new widow to chose the grave for the body of her dead husband. "...hem! Would you like, in the future, to lye down beside your husband?" asked the young lady, with learned pragmatism. The widow answered <Yes, I do>, "...well, " said the young lady, "... when we have to take an important decision for something that its certain than, an investment is worth while. We always think about the future, the future, but... what is an investment that stays here, that does not leave and last for the future?" (The widow bought a family grave.) Human beings have life to make use of it, they have an End but life goes on Begining, all the time. We carry a genetic combination, that has to be left, when Death comes. Lucrezio, the latin poet ( 98-55 BC), wrote : < Life-birth renews / from one thing to another/ and to no one life/ is given as a property/ but to everyone it is given to make use use of it My friend Dr. Fausto Colombo, from Milano, has a comment about the book, Death: Begining or End : <Please, enjoy your death, before you die, because if this is your last incarnation...this is also your last death!>