Reunions: Visionary Encounters With Departed Loved Ones 
Product Description: - A collection of the experiences of men and women who have communicated with the dead using the easy-to-learn techniques developed by Dr. Raymond Moody. As proof of life after death, these stunning testimonials promise to launch even more research and give comfort to people around the world.
Customer Ratings: - A Bit on the Strange Side. Eek! When I originally got this book, I assumed it would be a sequel to Dr. Moody s excellent first book, Life After Life, only this time, instead of concentrating on all aspects of the near-death experience, he was going to focus on the part of the NDE where the person who has died meets their loved ones or a loving religious figure after traversing the tunnel.
But no, this book is not about the experience of meeting with loved ones after dying . . . and then being brought back to life with modern technology to tell all the rest of us who haven t had a near-death-experience about meeting those loved ones. No! This book is about meeting with those who have passed on without having to go through the messy difficult-to-control-business of a near-death-experience.
Exactly! It s a book about meeting with the dead! Dr. Moody has invented a method of contacting our dearly departed by gazing into a mirror, a procedure he calls facilitated apparitions.
Sounds very ouija board to me. But didn t Nostradamus see into the future by gazing into a mirror?
In any case, mirror gazing was a bit on the spooky side for me. I think I d rather learn how to understand my dreams because those who have passed on often contact us while we re out of out bodies while dreaming. Or while meditating. Anyway, it s happened to me.
On the other hand, Dr. Moody assures us that contacting the dearly departed helps us to not only assuage our grief over their passing, but also helps us to deal with our own fears of death. He also believes that mirror gazing can put us in touch with that intriguing part of our minds known as the unconscious from which pours our creative abilities. He insists that such creative giants as Thomas Edison, Charles Dickens, and Rene Descartes (I think, therefore I am) used similar techniques to plumb the treasures in their own unconscious minds. There s also the ability for researchers, such as Dr. Moody, to control such a spontaneous paranormal experience as seeing a ghost. Finally, he assures us that mirror gazing has been used by humans throughout time and that it can make accessible to all of us the fascinating world of the supernatural.
Come to think of it, I d love to contact the Virgin Mary without having to travel half-way around the world to see her--see my book, Blessed, for the story.
OK, I have a deep respect for Dr. Moody and feel grateful for his wonderful work with near-death experiences. I trust him. Life After Life did so much to assure me of my own immortality. Maybe one of these days, I ll work up the nerve to create my own psychomanteum.
Carole Chapman is the author of When We Were Gods, which is the revised updated version of The Golden Ones: From Atlantis to a New World, and Blessed: A Quest for Atlantis in Egypt Leads to Apparitions of the Virgin Mary.
- visionary encounters with departed loved ones. I was disappointed with Dr Moody s work in this book. I found that he was departing from his usual scientific approach and perspective to something more like a sci-fi description of events that may have been nothing at all to begin with. For readers interested in the topic, I would instead recommend Hello from Heaven.
- Calling Forth Visions. This must be the third time that I ve read this remarkable book since its first publication. Every time I ve read it, I have been compelled to read it cover to cover as soon as possible. It is difficult to put down- for so much else that I might be occupied with seems trivial by comparison.
Essentially this is a book on calling up waking visions. To do so is to tap into our unconscious minds while still awake. The remarkable part is the claim that this can be done on a predictable, controllable basis that might even provide the rigid standards of repeatability required for traditional laboratory study. Of course I find this concession to science less significant than the fact that it actually works. This is demonstrated by multiple brief case studies conducted by the author- as well as detailed instructions on how to repeat the results on your own. Indeed an alternate title to this book could have been A How to Guide to Building and Operating your own Psychomanteum. That s a refreshing attitude, that the innate ability to delve into our unconscious lies within all of us without the need of a mediator....
One of the primary motivations for seeking such visions is evidence that we survive death. In this regard apparitions of the deceased (whether spontaneous or incubated) rank with near death experiences and shamanic voyages. They all provide access to the Middle Realm.
Other than the motivation to contact the dead to personally confirm the survival of the personality, it may provide several other incredibly useful functions. Such controlled visions could greatly accelerate the speed, and increase the effectiveness, of psychotherapy. Of course the value of actually contacting deceased loved ones is obvious in grief consoling. Beyond this, since such visions have been known to transcend time (as well as space) there could be application to historical research. The author also points out that an incredible amount of our mythological and literary heritage seems to be the gift of such visions. Indeed, Plato s parable of the cave may very well parody the operation of the great psychomanteum at Ephyra.
My only question is why this book, and the Theater of the Mind, has not generated greater popular or scholarly interest?
- Surprisingly Informative!. I bought this book sight unseen, on the strength of one of Raymond Moody s previous books that I had read and loved, many years ago, Life After Life. I was hoping for more of the same, and was quite surprised to find that this book is not at all about reincarnation, but about mirror-gazing. This was not something I was initially interested in, but having liked his previous book so much, and having paid for this book, I decided to persevere. I m glad I did. It was a very worthwhile read.
Being new to this subject, I knew absolutely nothing about it before. More than half of the book is devoted to the HISTORY of mirror gazing in various cultures, throughout time. I didn t even know that there had been a history. One of the most fascinating parts was reading all about the ancient Greek oracles, and how they had worked. I had heard of the Oracles, but previously just imagined they had some kind of fortune-teller. Actually, it was quite complicated. People consulting the Oracles had to undergo a month of preparation, in near total darkness. Then there was a huge, underground metal mirror that they were taken to consult, in which they then had visions. Moody and his wife visited the remains of one of the Oracles, and he describes his trip there, and how he was able to find all the various parts of the oracle chambers.
Moody describes how mirror gazing was a well-accepted diversion during the Middle Ages, and before, in almost every culture, and how it went out with the rise of science, especially after 1900. Even the American Indians had a form of mirror gazing which they practiced. Different cultures had different ways of gazing to try to conjure spirits, including looking into water, looking at shiny silver cups or mugs, and gazing into crystal balls (mentioned only briefly).
The most fascinating historical information was a description of how the Xhosa (pronounded Khosa) people of South Africa, in 1856, after fighting many unsuccessful battles with the British, gazed into the river, and saw the spiritis of six dead ancestors. These ancestors convinced the whole tribe that if they would sacrifice all of their cattle to the ancestors, that the ancestors would come back to life, and lead them to a victory over the British. I asked someone I know from South Africa if they had ever heard of this, and they had not, but they suggested to me that I check on the internet. I did, and found MANY references to The Great Cattle Killing of 1856-1857, in which because of the visions seen in the river, they killed ALL of their cattle, AND did not plant their crops. Apparently, the British even tried to stop them. However, they didn t listen, and the subsequent year, 20,000 Xhosa starved to death.
After aquainting the reader with the complete history of mirror gazing, Moody tries to research the practice scientifically. He builds a chamber in which to mirror gaze, following the same methods he has researched from historical cultures. He chooses a number of people, who fit certain criteria-such as being professional, well-balanced, no belief in metaphysics, and lastly, having a relative or friend who has died that they would like to see again, if it were possible. He then has them follow a preparation procedure similar to what the ancients did-although he devised his chamber and preparation from a melange of historical research, synthesizing his own ritual to experiment with. Before he started, he was expecting a very low success ratio, if any success at all. To his surprise, about 50 percent of the subjects reported communication. A number of interesting case histories are included in the book.
Lastly, he gives the reader good directions, and suggestions, as to how they can pursue mirror gazing, if they are interested in trying it on their own.
I would not recommend this book to the average reader. However, if you are interested in mirror-gazing, or a person of a very open scientific mind, this book will interest you. I think Moody has done a careful, scientific study, and presented his findings.
- How to communicate with your departed loved ones!. This is a fascinating book! I could hardly put it down. It describes the use of mirror-gazing to reunite with loved ones who have crossed to The Other Side. Not only how to do it, but examples of others who have visited with their departed loved ones, and historical references. At times it is repetitive, but well worth reading. Highly-recommended.
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Reunions: Visionary Encounters With Departed Loved Ones (ID: 0804112355)
