A Matter of Life and Death: Remarkable True Stories of Hope and Healing

by Rosemary Altea

Spiritual medium and healer Rosemary Altea touched the lives of millions with her New York Times bestseller The Eagle and the Rose. In this classic work, Altea described how she discovered her gift, and recounted the miraculous experiences she had in her early years of connecting the living with the dead. In A Matter of Life and Death, she shares inspiring new stories of working with her spirit guide, Grey Eagle, to help sick and troubled people heal, to help people recognize their true path in life, or to help people find peace in reuniting with departed loved ones.Born and raised in England, from the time she was a young girl Rosemary Altea heard voices and had visions of people who had died. But feeling threatened by her mother, the young Rosemary kept silent about the strange, menacing faces she saw in the dark. In the 1970s, now in her mid-thirties with a ten-year-old daughter of her own, Rosemary was abandoned by her husband. Nearing rock bottom emotionally, she began to nurture her spiritual gifts. She claims it was her spirit guide Grey Eagle who advised her to publish her first book, The Eagle and the Rose. Even as the world has come to accept—even revere—people who have the ability to communicate with the dead, with various mediums gracing the bestseller list and with such television shows as The Medium and Ghost Whisperer high in the ratings, in recent years Rosemary Altea has had to struggle to realize the transformational power of her work. From defending her integrity as a medium in a vicious lawsuit to coping with the loss of a friend who was very close to her heart, now Altea brings us A Matter of Life and Death, detailing a new chapter in her rich personal history as she recounts story after story of remarkable encounters with the spirit world-encounters that will amaze and inspire Altea's millions of fans.

Genres: Spirituality

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good read, love her books and would love to meet her in person! Or go to one of her meetings.

[Maaike · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF: 28%
Not my cup of tea.

[La Coccinelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book by Rosemary Altea that I've read. Perhaps I should have read The Eagle and the Rose first, but I got the gist of who the author is (and who her spirit guide is) from this book.

I didn't find any of the stories really mind-blowing (although there were a few that were intriguing). And while I find Altea more credible than Sylvia Browne (comparisons are bound to be made between the two), I do find her just a little bit hypocritical. In one breath, she talks about how she is skeptical, always questioning everything. And yet, anything that Grey Eagle (her spirit guide) says seems to be taken as truth without much questioning at all.

I was also turned off by her talk of "Dark Souls". It's just too similar to the Sylvia Browne canon, and strikes me as a lazy way of looking at things... especially for a psychic.

I do question the value of these kinds of books for being able to help people with their grief. Reading about someone else's experience is not necessarily going to help you with your own, no matter how often you are told so by the author. For many, seeing (or personal experience) is believing.

Other than that, though, the book was interesting. I don't regret reading it. Taken as a collection of interesting (if a little disjointed) stories, it's a perfectly adequate summer read.

[Larissa]

This author/medium has a very christian outlook on her mediumship and healing. I was curious about how she works and she describes as best she probably can what this is like including the distress of living through the death of the spirits she contacts. Of course her purpose is to go beyond that and show there is life after death. It is a rather large book and some parts seem a little repetitive. She notes that there are stories of families in different places that are so similar as to be parallel lives. If you are looking for definitive proof of life after death, I don't think this book will convince you. If you want to know what a medium thinks about her life's work, it is interesting.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosemary Altea is one of my favorite authors on spirituality. I highly recommend this book.