Just ordered "Tell Me About Heaven: A Firsthand Description of the Afterlife," by Suzanne Ward.

Just ordered "Tell Me About Heaven: A Firsthand Description of the Afterlife," by Suzanne Ward.  I'm listening to an interview of her on the brightside1 (I think that's what it's called) podcast; she strikes me as sincere and honest.

I haven't really taken to brightside1 in the past; the host has always seemed unprepared, even in this interview. But Ms. Ward's story is compelling and worth the listen.  I haven't found a reason yet to disbelieve her.

The material is "channeled," much like the direct-voice communication from "Princess Diana" that Hazel Courteney presents.  Speaking personally, I've never experienced anything remotely like channeling (except maybe once, and that is a unique story), but the process that Ms. Ward describes--thoughts running parallel to your own but distinct from your thought-stream--is something I have experienced, and the information I've gotten this way has proven very helpful.

Yes, I know that I start a bunch of books and read them in tandem and usually abandon them about half-way through.

BTW, George Knapp recently guested Paul Bannister on "Coast To Coast," and his interview stands out as the excellence that C2C is potentially capable of. Bannister was a fascinating guest, talking about his years with "The National Enquirer," which I read religiously in the early '70s; the rag is partly responsible for my interest in the paranormal.  It was, back then, an all-round compelling trashy read at a time when alternative journalism didn't exist. In any case, I was happy to hear Bannister confirm what we all already knew: the Enquirer's prophet, Jeane Dixon, had no psychic ability whatsoever, and most of her product was fabricated by staff writers. Why is this important? I never believed much of what she wrote at the time, but she was a significant disseminator of paranormal ideology for many Americans of the last century. As I've indicated by my broadsides on self-identified prophets, we should be very skeptical of public figures who claim to be able to see the future. There is market among the New Age for such people, and as we have all recently painfully learned, market forces will produce what consumers demand, often to our general detriment.