Hello From Heaven!
AUTHORS: Bill Guggenheim & Judy Guggenheim
PUBLISHED: 1995
MY COMMENTS:
Grieving a loved one and desperate to know if they carry on? Feeling down, in need of reassurance there is more to this life than we know? Or maybe just super interested in the possibility of being able to communicate after death.
Whatever your reason, here’s a book to put on your nightstand …
This is yet another of the “iconic” books I’ve resisted acquiring because, you know, it was published so long ago. But once again, I’m reminded there’s a reason a book earns the reputation of being “iconic.”
This book holds an amazing and extensive collection of after-death communication experiences.
Yes, you read that correctly. I’m talking about communication with loved ones who have “died,” but who have a different take on what that really means … big surprise … and want to share it with those of us left behind.
In this book are many, many such accounts … people of diverse backgrounds, having lost loved ones of all ages, reporting their “absolutely-no-doubt” experiences of these departed loved ones reaching out to them.
The healing from these experiences is remarkable and is reflected in accounts throughout the book. In fact, one of the world’s recognized authorities on near-death experiences, Kenneth Ring PhD, recently heralded “Hello from Heaven!” as “a major contribution to bereavement studies.” (Lessons from the Light, pg. 266)
Many may scoff at the idea of after-death communication, but if you’ve been travelling this journey with me, you’ll realize I’m quite serious. As are the authors.
And just who are these authors?
In the late 1980’s, Bill Guggenheim and Judy Guggenheim were the unlikely instigators and collaborators of this groundbreaking piece of work.
For years, Bill Guggenheim, a Wall Street stockbroker and securities analyst, had described himself as an agnostic guided by “rational materialism.” You may recognize the attitude … once you’re dead, you’re dead, no ifs, ands, or buts. Ouch.
However, in 1980, he had an extraordinary after-death communication from his late father …
Extraordinary not just because it came from, you know, his dead father, but extraordinary because it literally saved the life of his two-year-old son. (Guggenheim describes this experience in his bio.)
Eight years later, Bill “heard” from his late father once more, encouraging him to “do your own research and write a book.”
Though he and Judy were no longer married (and as a result, prefer not to be referred to as “the Guggenheims,” so I’ll use “G&G”), the two of them teamed up to embark on this ambitious, never-before-done, in-depth research project into communication from deceased loved ones.
How did they approach this challenge?
The only way G&G knew to tackle this project was to find people who’d had these sorts of experiences and interview them. They wanted the research to be rigorous and credible, so they devised a meticulous methodology they would follow to collect, document, and analyze these accounts.
They had no idea how many people would risk potential ridicule by raising their hands to say, “Um, psst, over here … uh yeah, I’ve heard from my dead uncle,” but they hoped they could reach the lofty goal of 500 interviews.
And how did they do … ?
After seven years of painstaking work, G&G had interviewed 2,000 people … of diverse social, economic, educational, and occupational backgrounds … across the US and Canada … ranging in age from 8 to 92.
And through the process they gathered 3,300 first-hand accounts.
Let me say again … THIRTY-THREE HUNDRED accounts.
Wow. Apparently these experiences are actually happening a lot!
In fact, get this … based on their research, the authors estimate that about 20% of the US population has had at least one ADC. Um, if my math is correct, that represents about 69,000,000 people … double-wow.
But wait, that’s just in the U.S. G&G add that “ADCs are very common in other parts of the world, where they are socially accepted as real communications from deceased loved ones.” (pg. 21)
So, it was from this overwhelming response to their requests for first-hand accounts that they produced “Hello from Heaven!” It was the first book of its kind … one which founded a new field of research, which the authors dubbed “After-Death Communication.”
Okay, tell me about the book
So, yes, a lot of people are having ADCs, but here’s the thing … people who do are often left wondering, “Was that real or, c’mon now, surely it was just my imagination, right?” In fact, you may be one of them.
The beauty of this book is it describes so many experiences (over 350) of such variety that most readers will find themselves reflected somewhere in it. And knowing we’re not alone in our experience can make all the difference.
What qualified as an ADC for their research?
Let me clarify one thing …
Although the term “after-death communication” was actually coined by G&G, when they embarked on this project years ago, they settled on a much narrower definition than is used today.
You may recall in my series of posts last year, I discussed four different types of ADCs based on a book from research scientist Julie Beischel PhD, “Love and the Afterlife.” Beischel labelled these ADC types as Spontaneous, Facilitated, Assisted, and Requested.
When G&G devised this research project, their focus was exclusively on what Beischel defines as the “Spontaneous” type of ADC, as we can see from G&G’s definition (my emphasis) …
“An after-death communication or ADC is a spiritual experience that occurs when someone is contacted directly and spontaneously by a deceased family member or friend.” (pg. 16)
In other words, ADCs in which there was no attempt on the part of those still living to elicit communication … it simply came out of the blue.
G&G explain they limited their definition out of respect for the religious traditions that specifically warn against “summoning spirits.” Apparently, within these belief systems, it’s okay to have your deceased loved ones reach out to you on their own, but it’s taboo for you to ask them to.
Sidenote: The idea of actively requesting communication from departed loved ones is still considered taboo in some circles, apparently being viewed as having some sort of “evil” overtones. Sorry, but I don’t get it. This view is NOT supported by anyone involved in this work, nor by emerging scientific discoveries, such as Beischel’s. But I digress ….
The point is, G&G’s overwhelming number of accounts and estimates of occurrences are based on this single type of spontaneous ADC. Though to be fair, it is a huge category and they did delve deeply into it.
So, what did their investigation reveal?
Their deep dive was fascinating, not only because of the specific accounts it turned up, but because of what it revealed in terms of the breadth and variety of ADCs experienced.
G&G identified TWELVE major types or forms of after-death communication from their research, such as, sensing a presence, hearing a voice, feeling a touch, or smelling a fragrance.
There are many examples involving sight … partial and full visual appearances of deceased loved ones, or images appearing in 2D, like a movie.
There are encounters that were had falling asleep or waking up, or in dreams. There are experiences involving physical phenomena … a phone being particularly popular. Several ADCs involve symbolic communication. Accounts even include out-of-body experiences.
The research also explored ADC experiences from all sorts of angles … accounts that are fearful, encounters that happened years after the person died, ADCs that occurred before even knowing the person had died. (Yikes!)
There are ADCs which reveal previously unknown information, ADCs shared by more than one person, ADCs intended to protect the living person, including communications to prevent suicide.
Whew! All-in-all, an amazing collection of experiences, told by those who had them. In fact, the authors decided to share only first-hand accounts, and to limit their own commentary. They wanted to allow the reader to evaluate for themselves the accounts’ credibility and conclusions to be drawn.
Bottom line
By the end of reading “Hello From Heaven!” I was left wondering how anyone could still doubt that life carries on after bodily death. Seriously. The evidence just in this book alone is substantial. Sure, it’s “anecdotal,” but as they say … “the plural of anecdotes is data.”
However, as always, check it out for yourself and make up your own mind.
Postscript
One last point of interest … “Hello From Heaven!” was mentioned in this CNN article about ADCs. It’s an article written in 2021 that is worth reading for its own sake. It highlighted the ADC phenomenon at a time when so many people had lost loved ones through the pandemic and needed the healing ADCs can provide.
Let’s Share
As we’ve been discussing in recent posts, there are many ways to have after-death communication with your departed loves ones. What have you experienced? Feel free to share in the Comments below.
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