God Loves You As You Are!July 19, 2006 9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Howard Storm writes an honest and beautifully revealing account of his experiences after his near death episode. He reveals a God infinitely more complex, holy, and loving than the one taught to us in Sunday school. Our spiritual growth continues after death. Life here on earth is solely to do God's will and learn to love God and each other as Christ showed us in the Bible. What happens when we die? Is your religion the 'right' one? Does hell relly exist? Are there other worlds in the universe? These and many more questions are answered in Dr. Storms' riveting account. You won't put it down and then you'll read it again. A great gift to others on the search for truth.
A Different Kind of NDEJuly 19, 2006 7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book is about Howard Storm's near death experience. The thing that makes it different is that he was an atheist when he "died". Although an accomplished artist and teacher(and a law abiding citizen), Howard learned in his experience that he was actually a very bad person. I dare you to put this book down once you pick it up. It is well written, to the point and I for one, felt that he writes directly from his heart. After his experience Howard became a Christian Minister, quite a journey from the intellectual snob that he started out as! Read about why he made that change in his life. This book could change your life just as much as the experience changed Howard's.
Spendid and InterestingJuly 12, 2006 12 out of 22 found this review helpful
Those of us who have sought alternate, non-traditional paths in our spiritual awakening towards Who We Are, do not normally find a religiously based traditional book such as this, mixed with strong elements of the non-traditional, in the "Metaphysics" or "New Age" section of a bookstore. Any book which departs from religious dogma and conformism usually is relegated to these two sections.
This book is a curious mixture of both the traditional religious response to exposure with extroardinary (extra-ordinary...and who knows what "ordinary" is?)spiritual moments, and non-"religious" knowledge of spiritualist perceptions.
And when I say "spiritualist," I mean a non-religious (man-made structural dogma) approach to God and Who We Are.
There is no doubt of Mr. Storm's sincerity or his NDE experience. And anyone who has not studied metaphysics and spiritualism (I despise the term "New Age" which is used by religionists to castigate anyone else's freedom of thought which opposes their own dogmatic inflexible belief system) would not know these sincere elements as Mr. Storm does. What I am saying is, if Mr. Storm did not do his homework by study and research into non-traditional spiritual knowledge, then he must have gotten it from a true experience that really happened to him. In essence, I believe that Mr. Storm had a true spiritual experience and has responded to it by taking a traditionaist (religious) response to it.
There is nothing wrong with this approach, since all paths lead to God, both traditional and non-traditional approaches. A spiritualist understands this. A conformist religionist usually does not and would not agree with my assessment. To them, only their way is the only possible way to God.
I would think that most traditional religionists would find Mr. Storm's book to boarder on "blasphemy," or any of the other typical hysterical responses they normally take in castigating any experience which contradicts their own. However, I find this approach, of mixing the two, refreshing in itself. Because, in fact, I do not separate religion from metaphysics. If I had my way, all books on all paths to God, no matter what they contain, would be included in one section in the bookstore.
We always must look more closely and think more deeply about the purpose of every spiritual experience than what it merely appears to be from our limited human perspective. Indeed, there is a real need to bring about a change in our social values of categorizing paths into "acceptable" (religious) and "unacceptable" (non-religious) knowledge. For by separating the two, we in fact, are making these value judgements conciously, saying one opinion is "right" and the other is "wrong." Such value judgements do disservice to us all, including God. I think this book has special merit, because it does what should be done, bringing together the best of both. And that indeed, may be the actual purpose of it's existence. A higher, more cultured world, more flexible in nature and more developed in it's acceptance would bring all such paths together as one unified approach with many Ways, all of which are equally acceptable.
There must come a point in the evolution of human thinking, when the witch hunting and the finger pointing ceases...when the vilification of one approach to God and the glorification of ownership of some other approach to God is rejected as an exclusionay method and a control mechanism of human thought.
And so here we are with Mr. Storm's book. It belongs as much in the section of the bookstore in the Christianity Section as it does in the Metaphysics Section. It is a Christian response to non-Christian thinking. It is, the direction we need to be taking if we ever want to advance ourselves beyond the current state of self-appointed rightism.
Two-Thirds of the way throught he book, Mr. Storm admits he was raised in the very church in which he eventually again found himself in. So his thinking and belief system are traditional to begin with when it comes to perception. What I am saying is, what he expected to experience is what he actually experienced. Since he was taught there is a heaven and a hell, he experienced a heaven and a hell. Since he experienced "hell," I would say, that is where he really thought he should be, because professing to be an aetheist violated his concience in regard to what he was taught. In fact, he says in the book, that when he was taken to heaven by Jesus, that he insisted "I do not belong here." The response to this was, "Yes you do belong here." In fact, if he did not belong in heaven, he never would have been rescued. So the point is, no matter how "bad" we have been, we are always worthy in the eyes of God. This is why he was rescued...because he was worthy to begin with although he believed he was not and it was that belief which caused him to experience the hell he experienced. It was, in fact, Mr. Storm who via his concience, relegated himself to condemnation. But something in him said "Pray to God," and when he did, in an instant, he was rescued. Something inside him said, "I am worthy of being saved." Even that tiny bit of belief restored him to his rightful place.
However, I think Mr. Storm did not and has not seen it this way. In a number of places in his book, he insists that we are unworthy, sinful, etc...he has not gotten the message.
Here are some samples of what I am saying:
"...it is impossible to love ourselves because every human being is aware of their flawed nature and sinfulness (page 50).
"...we have all failed to be and to live the way God created us (page 51)"
"...Christ took upon himself all of our failings so that we can become complete, whole and perfect...(page 56)"
"...we know deep inside we are not ready...(page 57)"
"...acquiring the wholeness we lack and relieving ourselves of our doubts and deficiencies (page 58)"
"...we have no basis for knowing unconditional love (page 61)"
"...To think we are self-sufficent is what separates us from God. This delusion of independence is pride, and pride is the source of all sin...(page 61)"
"...since we are finite creatures..." (page 61).
"The bad calim they are good and the good think they are bad..(page 64).
"No one is good enought to go to heaven...(page 64)."
"God's love willl allow the greatest sinner in the world to choose heaven (page 64)."
"Heaven is a gift from God we don't deserve...(page 64)."
"No one ever born was good enough to go to heaven. (page 66).
I could go on with these examples, there are more in the book. What I am pointing out here is that Mr. Storm DID NOT get the message. If God thinks we are good enough to go to heaven, why does Mr. Storm think otherwise? Even when he, himself, was there...despite his intense insistence he wasn't worthy of being there?
This dogmatic approach to self-deprication by professing unworthiness indeed is the biggest problem with the Christian religion in general. We bemoan our unworthiness in the face of God who insists that we are, indeed worthy! When are we ever going to get over this?
I think that a much more constructive approach is to see that we all are worthy. This allows us to get beyond this inhibitory state of self-denial of worth which disallows us from seeking a higher understanding of ourselves and our true relationship with divinity. God spends a lot of time and energy and effort in trying to convince us that we are worthy. The process of absement via guilt must cease at some point in our spiritual growth. In other words...Get Over It!
On the other hand, there are many things in this book which confirm what many of us who are spiritualists already know or believe to be true. Mr. Storm, in referring to the angels with Jesus, said that they referred to God as "The ONE" most often. This is the key to the highest truth I have known. Mr. Storm discovers the truth about One-ness, but he does not see how that One-Ness extends to all of us in terms of relationship. He cannot see it, until he understands that One-Ness means "There is ONLY ONE OF US." He needs to make that next step in realization. When the individual consciousness finally sees that One and All of Us mean the same thing, then one can move on to the next step in spiritual evolution. At that moment, we finally SEE what it is that we are being told. We give up the abasement, the feelings and belief of sinfullness and unworthiness, of failure and denial because when we are At ONE with God, we are totally the opposite of failure.
I think, there is a part of the consciousness of God which is in the process of becoming whole. We are the expression of that part of God-Consciousness which is in the process of healing itself and becoming whole. We are Be-Coming. That is the purpose and reason for our experience here. Through the process of Be-Coming we are returning back to a higher state of God-Conciousness which is evolving and that is what I mean by healing...to something which is grander and more blessed than anything which it has been in the past. Part of that healing process is the process of giving up the concept of sin and being unworthy. It is an impediment buried deep within many of us and persists through the collective consciousness. There is no reason to atone or feel self unworthy when we truely understand just Who It Is We Are. The FEAR of finding that out and Real-Izing it, is categorized as "Pride" by those who are not yet ready to accept a higher truth of who they are.
So in summation of this book, there are elements of deep universal spiritual truth and there are elements of deep doubt by the author. I see the book as a bridge from traditionalist thinking to the possibility of a higher reality in which many have already made the transition. We need more bridges such as this.
My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at LifeJuly 6, 2006 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a very powerful story affirming life after death. Howard Storm's story also confirms a belief that our loved ones remain a vital part of our everyday lives in spirit. I lost my husband recently and finding this book at my local library is what got me "off the floor" in my grief. After reading about Howard Storm's encounter with Jesus and the many wonderful messages that his experience afforded him, I felt like I could breathe again. I buy this book in quantity and give it to my very special friends, asking readers to pass it on and on and on. It is my prayer that Howard Storm's message will be spread far and wide.
born againJune 30, 2006 7 out of 16 found this review helpful
the first couple of chapters were great and held my interest, then it turned into a "born again" type of story. Not what I was looking for.
