Reaching to Heaven: A Spiritual Journey Through Life and Death - Hardcover

Van Praagh, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525944818 ISBN 13: 9780525944812

Publisher: Dutton, 1999

Synopsis

Tells how to develop one's spiritual core, and relates the stories of individuals who have found comfort in communications from their deceased loved ones

About this title

Review:

Professional medium James Van Praagh (Talking to Heaven) offers a guidebook for the living, which charts the course of the soul as it journeys through life, death, and rebirth. Beyond his psychic gifts, Van Praagh has a gift for simplifying complex spiritual ideas and writing about them in a conversational tone. Most appealing for Van Praagh fans are his detailed theories on death and the afterlife. For example, when people die sudden deaths, Van Praagh reports, spirits of the dead often linger over their bodies, unable to comprehend what has happened (but still able to see and hear everything that is being done and said around the corpse). This is why spirits of the already-deceased are so useful in helping the dead transition to the other side.

Speaking of the afterlife, or heaven, Van Praagh writes:

In the higher realms everyone is on the same level of spiritual understanding, like a symphony of beings in tune with one another. For some this may mean a reunion with members of their earth family. For others it could be a meeting with former friends and lovers from previous incarnations.

Finally, Van Praagh returns to his fascinating stories of channeling the deceased to illustrate how the living can stay on task with their raison d'être. If we want to help our souls along on their eternal journeys toward enlightenment, then we must remove the emotional obstacles that are blocking their paths, says Van Praagh, who devotes entire chapters to guilt, fear, forgiveness, and love. --Gail Hudson

About the Author:

James Van Praagh is a world-famous medium who is renowned for conveying messages and conversations between the physical and spiritual realms. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Reaching To Heaven and Talking To Heaven, which sold close to 600,000 copies in hardcover. Although he was raised a Roman Catholic and even entered a seminary at 14, he soon found that "spirituality" was more compelling than "religion." He graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in broadcasting and communication, then moved to Los Angeles, where at age 24, he met a medium who told him that within two years, he himself would become clairvoyant. Van Praagh's psychic sensitivity increased, and he began to receive messages from the beyond. He now lives in Southern California but travels throughout the country lecturing, giving demonstrations, and spreading the knowledge of life after death. In addition, he conducts specialized tours of spiritual centers around the world, including in Brazil, Egypt, and Mexico.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dutton
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0525944818
• ISBN 13: 9780525944812
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208