Starting in 2006 up to now (2022), I have read many books and other materials which have expanded my worldview. Reality is so much more than what we can see and touch in this realm. Why are we here and why do we keep coming back? And what is it that we have to do here?
In my search for answers, I felt drawn to channeled material and also to real-life stories of real people. Not the study of ancient religious texts or dogma or theoretical essays. Neither poems, nor greeting card wisdom. No fictional experiences by fictional people, but real-life experiences shared by actual people. So, these materials below contain mostly case studies or autobiographies, sometimes in combination with channelings.
Here is a list of which websites, books, videos, and podcasts have influenced my understanding along with what the key takeaways were.
Please note that I mention only my personal key takeaways. There is much more in these books which would be worth writing about. But I want to offer a short, condensed list here and therefore restrict myself to just one or two short statements about each author.
The materials are sorted in the order in which I encountered them.
Jeffrey and Jody Long: The collection of exceptional near-death experiences at nderf.org
Consciousness can exists without a body. Coming from a scientific, materialistic worldview, that was a huge shift for me.
During the life review, people experience the emotions of everyone else who was involved in an event.
What matters are the little things. Kindness to a stranger can matter more than worldly achievements or than donating money.
These NDE accounts helped me to let go of the attachment to my day job. Because from my soul’s point of view, my career is not what really matters.
Michael Newton: Journey of Souls; Destiny of Souls
Michael Newton regressed people hypnotically not just into past lives, but into life between lives.
We reincarnate over and over again. And in between lifetimes, we review our past life and plan our next life.
For me, this sparked several questions: What did I plan before I incarnated? What were my past lives? Do I have any recurring (dysfunctional) patterns in my incarnations? And how can I get out of having to reincarnate over and over again?
Bernadette Roberts: The Path to No-Self; The Experience of No-Self
An autobiography of the journey to enlightenment.
On the spiritual journey, beyond the unitive stage (where the personality acts in alignment with the soul), the experience of being a separate ‘I’ ( or of being a self or having a self) can fall away, not just temporarily like in a spiritual peak experience, but permanently. Isn’t that mind-boggling? Our usual experience of a ‘me’ being in this body and a wall over there as a ‘not-me’ – this subject-object relationship which we take for granted – can collapse into just being a bubble of experience without a sense of a separate ‘I’ in there.
For me, this provided a map for my journey and gave me like a bird’s-eye view on where I am located on this map (i.e. probably at the mere beginning of the unitive stage, I guess).
Gary Renard: The Disappearance of the Universe
Gary Renard’s spirit guides appeared to him in his living room and taught him about the book A Course in Miracles (ACIM).
Gary’s book acted as a tin can opener for the difficult to read ACIM.
The key message for me was that forgiveness is very important (but can be very hard to do).
Worldview shattering book with spirit guides who suddenly materialize and more mind-blowing stories.
Robert Schwartz: Your Soul’s Plan; Your Soul’s Gift
Channeled insight into the pre-incarnation planning sessions of people with challenging biographies.
Before the incarnation, we plan challenging or even traumatic life events in order to grow.
This encouraged me to make peace with the challenging events in my own life.
Jurgen Ziewe: Multidimensional Man; Vistas of Infinity; youtube uploads (in English and German)
Jurgen is an out-of-body traveler who travels into different astrals realms (from hellish to heavenly) where he meets various beings. He reports his experiences and insights. On his youtube channel, he also shares artwork which depicts several astral realms.
The key messages for me were that not only do we take our emotional baggage with us into the afterlife, but thoughts and emotions manifest much faster in the afterlife than in our realm and thus the outer becomes an immediate reflection of the inner.
This encouraged me to make peace with my life and learn to manage thoughts and emotions better (- which is still work in progress, though).
Dolores Cannon: The Custodians; The Convoluted Universe: Book One to Book Five; The Three Waves of Volunteers and the New Earth
Dolores Cannon puts people into hypnotic regression where they go into past lives.
Contrary to what I had learned before, life forms on planet Earth are not a random development, but we have been seeded.
And this experiment of separation and free will here on earth was on the brink of going into a bad direction. Interference to help us from the outside was forbidden, but as a workaround, volunteers incarnated here to help us to get back on track.
I thought I was done with the worldview shifts when I had accepted that consciousness can exist without a body, but nope, there is always more mind-blowing stuff to digest.
Cash Peters: Soul Crossings (youtube)
Cash Peters channels pictures of the transitions of famous people from life to the afterlife.
What makes a transition hard and what makes it easy?
Attachments and wrong views make a transition hard and need to be let go of.
Success and fame in the world do not mean that life was lived in alignment with the soul.
Guy Needler: The Anne Dialogues
Guy Needler has a channeled conversation with his deceased wife Anne about what happens during the process of dying until the next reincarnation.
If you read this, I would recommend to make use of the glossary because of the many unknown terms.
I found it interesting to see how much effort by how many different beings goes not only into the planning of a life, but also into the life review.
Wendy Garrett: Wendy’s Coffeehouse (podcasts); Blog talkingtonightlights.wordpress.com
Wendy Garrett had several paranormal experiences of various kinds, among which are experiences with guides who made her nightlights flicker to initiate and facilitate communication which she shared in her book Talking to Nightlights 2.
In her podcasts, she interviews people who have experienced extraordinary things (for example, UFOs, alien encounters, near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, fairies, miracle healings, crop circles, ghosts, Bigfoot/Sasquatch, remote viewing, etc.).
The key message for me was that there is so much more out there that I was not aware of yet. After listening to her podcasts, I have ended up with many books on my list which I plan to read in the future.
And finally, a big thank you to all my fellow WordPress bloggers and others who have pointed me into the direction of some of these materials, either directly or across several stepping stones! Without you, I would not have come across these wonderful, worldview-expanding books and websites.
Spiritual Awakening 