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My Ever After Chronicles
In her new inspirational book "My Ever After Chronicles" author Carol Lynn Vengroff relives her near-death experience for readers, offering them information about the afterlife and answering many of their profound questions about life and . . .heaven.
106 pages, Paperback
First published October 11, 2012
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April 10, 2013
My Ever After Chronicles is the story of Carol Lynn Vengroff’s near-death experience as a twelve-year-old in France in the early 1960’s. On one of the coldest nights in France’s history, Vengroff’s family had returned from a long trip to find their house with no heat, water, or electricity because their furnace had run out of coal. The family decided to tough it out and spend the night in their freezing house, bundling up the best they could. It was during the night that the author’s young body couldn’t cope with the cold, and she experienced a near-death experience.
It’s interesting to note that in the 1960’s near-death experiences were not as universally accepted as they are today. When she told people, her family, her pastor, what had happened to her, they all told her to not talk about this because people might think she was crazy. To help remember she wrote a note about the incident and hid it on the property. Although she put her near-death experience in the back of her mind, she continued to contemplate it for decades. It wasn’t until she was middle-aged that she finally decided to begin telling people of her experience and wrote this book.
This is the second book I have read recently about near-death or afterlife experiences. The other was Heaven is for Real, A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. This book, as you can tell from the title, is also about a child’s near-death experience. The boy’s father was an Evangelical pastor, so you might naturally assume that the boy’s family life would have had a big influence on his afterlife experience. Vengroff’s father was an Air Force pilot, and she doesn’t tell us about her religious background. Was her family religious? She mentions the Catholic Church and the Pope in her book. Yet what is her religion? She doesn’t tell us, and this was one thing I would have liked for her to elaborate more on. I also would have liked to read about her life today.
Her description of this experience seems quite plausible. Most of us quickly discard the notion of heaven as being a place with pearly gates, streets paved in gold, and having cherubic angels flying around playing harps. When we leave our body we will be in the spirit form, our soul, an energy form, and that is how the author describes her experience. There was no sensation of time or the earthly sensations of sight, taste, smell, touch, or hearing. This made sense to me because we wouldn’t be in a physical body. I agreed with a statement she made that “heaven is not a place at all, but a state of being.” I think there was a little bit of contradiction, however, when she described Jesus in very physical earthly terms. I also liked another statement she made that “I was not being judged by a higher power. I was the one who was my own judge and jury.”
An interesting fact about near-death experiences is that it is a world-wide phenomenon. Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and even practitioners of the more obscure religions have reported having these experiences. There has even been documentation of atheists and agnostics reporting near-death experiences. People seem to integrate their own beliefs into their individual near-death experiences. The topic is intriguing and many of them are similar: a tunnel, a bright light, a feeling of euphoria, a life review, and then being told it is not yet their time.
It is also interesting that the author believes we existed as souls before our time on earth and that we will return to this spirit form after our death. One thing I disagreed with was a statement she made that “Before we arrived, we chose the vessel that would house our soul, spirit, energy, and light. We chose the circumstances, and we set the stage.” Although, none of us really knows for certain, I personally don’t believe that we choose the body (vessel) that we come to earth in. There are hints in the book alluding to reincarnation; however, she never specifically uses this word. From the author’s bio on the back of the book, we read that she enjoys sailing, RV trips, and you get the feeling that she lives a financially comfortable life. I would say she picked a pretty good body to come to earth in rather than someone starving in a third world country. We do need to remember to be thankful for our living standards in the United States, and not forget those less fortunate.
After almost half a century, the author finally remembered what her ‘mission’ was upon returning to the physical world. I’m sure this insight has made her a more generous, giving person who takes some personal responsibility for those not as fortunate as herself. It isn’t just the mega-churches that need to be more compassionate. Yet I’m not suggesting that we all live as the ascetics in India who totally eschew material possessions and earthly pleasures.
My Ever After Chronicles was a short, quick read. I read it in two days, and I’m not a fast reader. To me the writing style seemed poetic. The message was uplifting, idealist. Even the placement of the words on the page at times stuck me also as poetic, artistic. Did this book positively tell me what heaven will be like for everyone? No, but it did tell me what the author personally experienced, and it was a believable experience.
It’s interesting to note that in the 1960’s near-death experiences were not as universally accepted as they are today. When she told people, her family, her pastor, what had happened to her, they all told her to not talk about this because people might think she was crazy. To help remember she wrote a note about the incident and hid it on the property. Although she put her near-death experience in the back of her mind, she continued to contemplate it for decades. It wasn’t until she was middle-aged that she finally decided to begin telling people of her experience and wrote this book.
This is the second book I have read recently about near-death or afterlife experiences. The other was Heaven is for Real, A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. This book, as you can tell from the title, is also about a child’s near-death experience. The boy’s father was an Evangelical pastor, so you might naturally assume that the boy’s family life would have had a big influence on his afterlife experience. Vengroff’s father was an Air Force pilot, and she doesn’t tell us about her religious background. Was her family religious? She mentions the Catholic Church and the Pope in her book. Yet what is her religion? She doesn’t tell us, and this was one thing I would have liked for her to elaborate more on. I also would have liked to read about her life today.
Her description of this experience seems quite plausible. Most of us quickly discard the notion of heaven as being a place with pearly gates, streets paved in gold, and having cherubic angels flying around playing harps. When we leave our body we will be in the spirit form, our soul, an energy form, and that is how the author describes her experience. There was no sensation of time or the earthly sensations of sight, taste, smell, touch, or hearing. This made sense to me because we wouldn’t be in a physical body. I agreed with a statement she made that “heaven is not a place at all, but a state of being.” I think there was a little bit of contradiction, however, when she described Jesus in very physical earthly terms. I also liked another statement she made that “I was not being judged by a higher power. I was the one who was my own judge and jury.”
An interesting fact about near-death experiences is that it is a world-wide phenomenon. Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and even practitioners of the more obscure religions have reported having these experiences. There has even been documentation of atheists and agnostics reporting near-death experiences. People seem to integrate their own beliefs into their individual near-death experiences. The topic is intriguing and many of them are similar: a tunnel, a bright light, a feeling of euphoria, a life review, and then being told it is not yet their time.
It is also interesting that the author believes we existed as souls before our time on earth and that we will return to this spirit form after our death. One thing I disagreed with was a statement she made that “Before we arrived, we chose the vessel that would house our soul, spirit, energy, and light. We chose the circumstances, and we set the stage.” Although, none of us really knows for certain, I personally don’t believe that we choose the body (vessel) that we come to earth in. There are hints in the book alluding to reincarnation; however, she never specifically uses this word. From the author’s bio on the back of the book, we read that she enjoys sailing, RV trips, and you get the feeling that she lives a financially comfortable life. I would say she picked a pretty good body to come to earth in rather than someone starving in a third world country. We do need to remember to be thankful for our living standards in the United States, and not forget those less fortunate.
After almost half a century, the author finally remembered what her ‘mission’ was upon returning to the physical world. I’m sure this insight has made her a more generous, giving person who takes some personal responsibility for those not as fortunate as herself. It isn’t just the mega-churches that need to be more compassionate. Yet I’m not suggesting that we all live as the ascetics in India who totally eschew material possessions and earthly pleasures.
My Ever After Chronicles was a short, quick read. I read it in two days, and I’m not a fast reader. To me the writing style seemed poetic. The message was uplifting, idealist. Even the placement of the words on the page at times stuck me also as poetic, artistic. Did this book positively tell me what heaven will be like for everyone? No, but it did tell me what the author personally experienced, and it was a believable experience.
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