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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Life After Death
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A belief in the afterlife is common to almost every faith and culture around the world. Even people who don?t consider themselves ?spiritual? share a fascination in life after death. In this powerful guide, author and intuitive Diane Ahlquist shares her own knowledge of the subject, as well as the views of such religious and spiritual leaders as Edgar Cayce and the Dalai Lama.
A belief in the afterlife is common to almost every faith and culture around the world. Even people who don?t consider themselves ?spiritual? share a fascination in life after death. In this powerful guide, author and intuitive Diane Ahlquist shares her own knowledge of the subject, as well as the views of such religious and spiritual leaders as Edgar Cayce and the Dalai Lama.
336 pages, Paperback
First published July 3, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 24, 2023
Contents at variance with title.
‘The Complete Idiot's Guide to Life After Death’ is written like it’s meant to read as a researched nonfiction book. However, its contents were not what I was expecting from its title or blurb, which was a book that delved into experiences of people having NDEs, either from their accounts or those of expert others. After all, how could we mere humans know what life after death is like to give a “Complete Idiot's Guide” to this topic, right? We can only presume a guess – not a guide’s knowledge – via religious or philosophical beliefs, which humankind has been doing for millennia since setting foot on Earth.
This book instead delved right into those guesses, including 1) the beliefs of death and the soul from other religions cultures; and 2) communication with the dead via mediums or spirit-raising processes.
For matters on the raising of the dead, as someone who has no interest in the Tarot and believes that such practices have nothing to do with death or the soul, I was unnerved to find this covered in a NDE book. (I skipped that chapter). As I also have zero interest in awakening the dead, I found the scope of this book surprising, unscientific and less interesting than I had hoped.
For matters of other religions, as I fundamentally disagreed with the treatment by Diane Ahlquist of a religion with which I’m familiar, this part also didn’t set me alight. It mismatched the facts I am cognisant of. The author didn’t cite sources, so the book wasn’t put together as a researched volume. Therefore, though I did listen through to the end, it was with only partial, diminished interest through a majority of it.
The sections in many chapters on the sceptics’ beliefs were meant to sound objective, however, just became repetitive. You either believe in aspects like the Tarot or séances, or don’t. There’s nothing sceptical about not choosing to engage in these interests of the minority of people.
The good? There were some interesting stories and accounts strewn in there.
This review also appears in https://thereadersvault.blogspot.com/...
‘The Complete Idiot's Guide to Life After Death’ is written like it’s meant to read as a researched nonfiction book. However, its contents were not what I was expecting from its title or blurb, which was a book that delved into experiences of people having NDEs, either from their accounts or those of expert others. After all, how could we mere humans know what life after death is like to give a “Complete Idiot's Guide” to this topic, right? We can only presume a guess – not a guide’s knowledge – via religious or philosophical beliefs, which humankind has been doing for millennia since setting foot on Earth.
This book instead delved right into those guesses, including 1) the beliefs of death and the soul from other religions cultures; and 2) communication with the dead via mediums or spirit-raising processes.
For matters on the raising of the dead, as someone who has no interest in the Tarot and believes that such practices have nothing to do with death or the soul, I was unnerved to find this covered in a NDE book. (I skipped that chapter). As I also have zero interest in awakening the dead, I found the scope of this book surprising, unscientific and less interesting than I had hoped.
For matters of other religions, as I fundamentally disagreed with the treatment by Diane Ahlquist of a religion with which I’m familiar, this part also didn’t set me alight. It mismatched the facts I am cognisant of. The author didn’t cite sources, so the book wasn’t put together as a researched volume. Therefore, though I did listen through to the end, it was with only partial, diminished interest through a majority of it.
The sections in many chapters on the sceptics’ beliefs were meant to sound objective, however, just became repetitive. You either believe in aspects like the Tarot or séances, or don’t. There’s nothing sceptical about not choosing to engage in these interests of the minority of people.
The good? There were some interesting stories and accounts strewn in there.
This review also appears in https://thereadersvault.blogspot.com/...
July 31, 2018
Read this for research. Was specifically looking for concepts of the afterlife from various cultures but this dealt with more spiritualism and communication with dead or other spirit types. There wasn't any citing of the information or discussion of which belief system was being represented in the descriptions. I know this is a strange topic to begin with and it isn't a doctoral thesis but really wanted a stronger and more basic outline and understanding from a cultural standpoint which this doesn't provide.
April 19, 2021
I absolutely loved this book! I listened via audible and the narrator was wonderful! This book has given me peace regarding my passed loved ones, and hope that there is truly Life After Death! Whether you are a skeptic or a believer, I would recommend this read!
January 9, 2024
This book really covered a lot of topics concerning anything to do with life after death from ghosts to reincarnation. I would consider it more of an overview and a springboard to guide the reader to more in depth research into whatever subjects are of interest.
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June 8, 2020Can't rate this, DNF for one thing and it was really not what I was thinking it was. That was really my fault as I did no read anything about it, only the title before starting it.
March 17, 2015
Like all the books I've read in the 'complete idiots' series, this book is easy to read and understand.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews