Books like Droplets of God

I found Tyler Henry’s story helpful as it relates to the presence of those who have passed on. As an 8-year-old, I saw my cousin Ben in my thoughts. He was standing by a lake. A moment later my mother received a call that he had drowned. Tyler Henry had a near-death experience at 10 and later received a message from his dead grandmother. That was the beginning of his journey. He considered becoming a hospice nurse but accepted that his gifts might be better utilized to bring closure to those who have lost a loved one. His messages are not faith-based but come from a knowing that feels divinely guided.

This book leaves you feeling close to your loved ones on ‘the other side of the veil,’ as if they are but a breath away.

Sherrie Dillard is a psychic medium with an amazing ability to connect with people who have died. Her stories show how love is stronger than death and that an entire world is going on that we’re unaware of. She describes how important it is to know that our loved ones still communicate with us. She also has exercises and meditations to help you continue with your own soul’s journey.

I have had many “visitations” from passed-on loved ones, including cherished pets, so am always interested in a professional's take on connecting with those on the other side. This detailed guide by a nationally recognized medium covers effective strategies and fascinating stories of relating across the divide. It is also a well-explained basic orientation to the concept of meditation and an intriguing portrait of what the afterlife may be like for us all.

I’ve been enamored with the history of spiritualism and supernatural flimflam for years, but this book was the first account I read by an insider. Keene’s explanations of how phony mediums operate are fascinating, as are his incisive musings on the nature of belief.

But I found Keene himself the most intriguing aspect of the book. I got the impression of a bright, insightful, and deeply conflicted man—in some ways, as much of an elusive trickster as ever. His descriptions of his antics as a spiritualist charlatan are bombastic and glib, but there’s an underlying poignancy.

I was left with a clearer picture of how the spiritualist con game worked but more questions than answers about Keene and his motives for leaving it behind. 

In October 2004, I tuned the television to the series, Unsolved Mysteries, to provide background noise while I had lunch.

When George Anderson’s story was featured, I was riveted, and ordered We Don’t Die as soon as the show ended. That led me to a myriad of other metaphysical books and experiences, and a fascination that has not waned in the nearly two decades since I first heard of George and his ability to speak with those who have passed from physical life.

As I have learned over the years, it was not by accident that I saw that TV show. It was a soul signal that I’d set for myself before birth, to guide me to a new phase of my life.

This book is chock full of more advanced lessons for improving your gifts of psychic abilities.

It was my crew's second "textbook." The Sanders program guide laid a good foundation to build upon, and this book expanded on those lessons. Vanden Eynden calls it a down-to-earth guide, and it is. It has a different slant, more into meditation to get in touch with your spirit guides. But she has a wealth of other information.

The SRT crew enjoyed her lessons and found their gifts growing even more. We use these abilities in our investigations, which are becoming geared to helping homeowners with problematic or malevolent ghosts.

I was deeply moved by Poor Your Soul, Mira Ptacin’s beautifully-wrought memoir about the grief of losing first her brother, and then her unborn child. So I knew I was in good hands when I opened her engaging, compassionate portrait of the denizens of Camp Etna, the once-famous epicenter of the American Spiritualist movement. Shifting seamlessly between the settlement’s grand history in the late 1800s and its more modest 21st-century existence, Ptacin profiles psychics and mediums of all stripes, and reports on her own experiences of the paranormal with humor, intelligence, and grace. 

As part of my metaphysical quest, I had several readings through a medium my sister-in-law recommended.

In the second reading, my late husband came through loud and clear, and I was given a recommendation to read Echoes of the Soul. When I read it, it was as if I remembered it, rather than reading it for the first time. I understand this book, too, was a soul signal I set before birth that kept me moving toward my destiny.

My wife and I had the opportunity several years later to attend a seminar Echo Bodine conducted in Atlanta, and Echo was as impressive in person as on the pages of Echoes of the Soul.

This book is the OG of academic Spiritualism books. Braude was groundbreaking when she linked Spiritualism and the early women’s rights movement. At a time when women were barred, for the most part, from speaking in public or in the church, Spiritualism offered them a means to channel their spirit and speak in front of large audiences.

This paved the way for more women’s rights advocates to demand more space and attention in the realm of political rights. I’ve read this book so many times I’ve lost count. One, because it’s awesome. Two, because I learn something new every time I open it up. 

Although Herman Melville is considered the most canonical US writer today, after the muddled reception of Moby-Dick (1851) his critical and commercial acclaim had waned. In response, he wrote the much-maligned Pierre, a sensational gothic novel about a young man discovering his half-sister and endeavoring to rescue her from poverty. Both sublime and ridiculous, this overly-wrought novel features spiritualism, incest, and diatribes against the literary marketplace, but most pressingly it probes the roles and responsibilities of young independent men in the mid-19th century. If you can find it, the 1995 Kraken edition features bold and brilliant illustrations by Maurice Sendak.