The books listed below are available online through Barnes and Noble and Amazon, or they can be ordered at most local book stores.
CJ's List:
Belanger, Jeff.
Communicating with the Dead. Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press New Page Books, 2005. Explores various methods people use to communicate with the
other side by interviewing experts in each field of interest. Well-written and detailed, this book is a good overview of the
many ways people approach after-death communication.
DuBois, Allison. We Are Their Heaven: Why the Dead Never Leave Us. New York: Fireside Books Simon and Schuster, 2006.
From the woman who inspired the NBC TV show Medium.
Those who have crossed over continue to provide us with love, guidance, comfort and support, but the dead have a language
of their own. The author teaches us how to recognize, read and interpret signs from our loved ones on the other side. The
book is about life, death and the unbreakable connection of love. I found it comforting and believable. I most liked the author's
humility about her psychic gifts.
Edward, John. One Last Time: A Psychic Medium Speaks to Those We Have Loved and Lost. Berkley Trade, 1999.
From the publisher: It's easy to distrust those who claim to communicate with the
dead, to dismiss them as charlatans who take advantage of the bereaved. Psychic medium Edward himself urges readers to "be
skeptical, though not cynical." But it is not so easy to reject Edward's compelling tale of gradually accepting his psychic
abilities and acting as a messenger between spirits who have passed over to "the Other Side" and their loved ones
left behind.
With a college degree in public health and administration, and "rising within the ranks"
of a large hospital, he finally gave in to the "constant yanking feeling" he had experienced since he was a boy.
In several poignant stories of connecting people with their deceased family members, Edward tries "to demystify spirit
communication" by explaining exactly what he sees, hears and feels during a "reading."
The spirits,
he says, speak to him in voices, sounds, images, sensations, smells, tastes and feelings, mostly in symbolic form. Usually,
beyond identifying the senders in verifiable ways, the messages are simply that those who have passed on are all right and
that "they're still with us."
The author is a combination of James Van Praagh (Talking to Heaven) tempered with the down-to-earth appeal of Caroline Myss. Edward offers an intriguing collection of anecdotes that may not convince the cynical but that can both comfort and fascinate
the merely skeptical.
Also by John Edward:
Crossing Over. Jodere Group, 2001.
From the publisher: In Crossing Over—the book—John
brings his readers with him on the extraordinary journey that has been his life since his New York Times bestseller One
Last Time was published in 1998.
In the style of his TV show and personal appearances—poignant, funny,
and remarkably candid—John deals head-on with the controversial issues he has confronted on his voyage as a psychic
medium. Readers might be surprised to learn that it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. On the way to becoming an internationally
celebrated medium, John has had to learn his own lessons about the meaning of his work and about the motivations of some of
the people he has met on his path.
Afterlife: Answers from the Other Side. Princess Press, 2003.
From the publisher: In his fourth book, John Edward demonstrates once again
that grief, healing, and hope are eternally intertwined and universal. John answers your most often-asked questions about
how the mediumship process works on the “other side,” while taking you on the inside of his own personal
life as a husband and new father. He shares what he’s learned through his own recent, personal losses and demonstrates
that you’re never too late to forgive—and never too far away to love.
McEneaney, Bonnie. Messages: Signs, Visits, and Premonitions from Loved Ones Lost on 9/11. New York: William Morrow, An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010. Hardcover edition.
Edited
Product Description from Amazon.com: When Bonnie McEneaney's
husband, Eamon, died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, she thought she had lost him forever. And then something
unexpected happened that would shake her to the core and reassure her that her husband was still with her. As she reveals
in the book, the author began to have experiences that convinced her that her husband, in spirit, was sending her signs, indeed
messages, that he was still present and watching over his family. A
mother and former business executive, Bonnie was always the rational one, and quite skeptical of the spiritual world and all
that it represents, but after talking to a number of other families and friends of loved ones lost on 9/11, she realized she
was not alone.
Numerous others connected
to the tragedy—from financial executives to stay-at-home moms—described their own experiences: premonitions, signs,
dreams, visitations, and communications through mediums and psychics. Bonnie began recording their compelling stories in a
four-year-long project, illuminating the power of love and the unbreakable bond love creates. Now,
in Messages, she shares these spiritual stories while weaving in her own heartfelt message of comfort and hope for
all those who are searching for their own deeper connections, proving that love and relationships can continue after death.
Van Praagh, James. Healing Grief: Reclaiming Life After Any Loss. New York: New American Library, 2000.
James Van Praagh is a well-known medium and author
of the best-selling book Talking to Heaven. Here he shares spiritual messages from deceased loved ones, who shed new light
on grief and loss. The stories, along with his personal experiences of grief, help us view loss as part of our soul's evolving
spiritual journey--one that will move us beyond the devastating sorrow of grief to a life of renewed purpose.Besides the death of loved ones, the author looks at all types of loss, including divorce, aging, losing a home or job,
catastrophic illness, prenatal death, pet loss and mental illness. There is a question and answer section and a chapter on
how to heal after any loss with practical advice, activities and meditations. The writing is heartfelt, wise and compassionate.
I have one criticism of Mr. Van Praagh's writing:
He can be too in love with his own abilities at times and is very much a celebrity name-dropper. Still, his writing comforts
me and isn't that the greatest gift I can receive from anyone who writes about grief?
For a different perspective on grief, read The Truth About Grief: The Myth of Its Five Stages and the New Science of Loss by Ruth Davis Konigsberg. She writes on page 16, "Our grief culture
maintains that grief is unique, then offers a uniform set of instructions [on how to grieve]." From the back cover: "With
this book, I hope to offer you a means of escape from our habitual ways of thinking about grief."
Konigsberg's work is thought provoking and well researched. Click A Change of Heart for my review of the book.
One final thought about finding books: Use
any large online bookstore as a research tool. Type in key words such as afterlife, medium, spirits, after-death
communication or an author's name and see what turns up. Read descriptions and reviews. Search libraries. After-death communication
is usually found in the paranormal or "New Age" section. Trust that you will find what you need.
