Can a single book really turn your life in a completely different direction? Could the writing contained in a single volume topple a belief system that had been taught, preached and ingrained for fifty years?

I didn’t think so either, until it happened to me. Having been raised in a Catholic home, educated in Catholic schools and even serving as a nun for 7 years, the Catholic belief system planted in my youth took root growing steadily as I practiced my Catholic faith for the first 50 years.

The Catholic religion served me well, seeing me through the normal challenges of everyday life. I could answer all the Baltimore Catechism questions, explaining how each situation in life could be neatly packaged and tied with the bow of “faith”. If I believed the doctrines, practiced the rituals and obeyed the rules, I would go directly to heaven.

On a fateful day in MT, while browsing through the books in Barnes and Noble, I came across a book on display. Having always been a spiritual seeker, I felt an immediate attraction to the title, “Life on the Other Side” by Sylvia Browne.

I had never heard of this acclaimed psychic, let alone read any of her books. Believing in such “voodoo” as a psychic, although not a written commandment was certainly taboo in the Catholic Church.

My previous readings had revolved around the Catholic religion with the understanding that it was to increase my Catholic faith. I even threw in a few books by the lenient Jesuits to make sure I rounded out my interpretations!

Scanning the first sentence, “I believe in The Other Side and the eternity of the soul”, I bought in immediately. I too, believed that. I wanted to know more.

The author then explained how she came to know what she knew drawing from her research and personal experiences. Learning of her Catholic upbringing and education set the “credibility ” hook even deeper.

When I got the book home I could not put it book down. Besides, tackling tough questions about religion and the other side, Sylvia Browne even described what the other side looked like, the landscape, weather and architecture. Wow!

She explained death, the process of leaving this earthly world for the next and what happens after the tunnel and arriving on the Other Side. The author even tells us who will be waiting for us on The Other Side!

She shared what the “locals” in heaven do to keep busy and how the work continues that we began here on earth. Further chapters detailed how our departed loved ones live, worship and even play.

The outlandish revelations, unbelievable assertions and far-fetched stories seemed well documented and credibly backed up by using her past experience, hypnotic sessions and research to illustrate her points. My astonishment ran the gamut from doubting to being totally amazed. I thought I knew most everything about my faith until the light dawned.

I found myself saying, “This makes so much sense, aligning with my deepest spiritual beliefs”, putting my traditional adherence to prescribed rites, rituals and rules aside. My traditional beliefs based on doctrines of faith paled in comparison to Sylvia’s well- researched findings.

Her comforting reassurances were well outside my normal range of doctrinal beliefs, but I experienced a strong feeling of hope for the beyond in Sylvia’s substantial statements.

Reading this book led to the journey of ingesting many more of Sylvia’s books. This was the book that acted as the launch pad for my journey from religion to spirituality for which I will be forever grateful. The memorized belief system from my parochial school days gave way to realizing that there REALLY is more than one right answer. This book propelled me on the unexpected and uncharted journey of a personal relationship with my Creator outside my traditional upbringing.

Don’t miss this book if you are interested in where you are going to spend eternity! Click here to get your copy of Life on the Other Side:: A Psychic’s Tour of the Afterlife

Do you have a book that has changed your life? Please share with us other moving books and comment on this one. Thanks for your honest sharing.