Tina Proffitt is a former educator in love with writing romance novels, who believes there’s nothing more romantic than reincarnating with those she loves. After her first one-on-one past life reading with Dr. Doris E. Cohen, she was hooked and has never looked back. (Pun intended) She wants to share her passion for living a life free from fear and full of love. She writes reincarnation romance novels in the genres of mystery, science fiction, contemporary, and YA.
While James Van Praagh’s book titled Unfinished Business: What the Dead Can Teach Us About Life is not strictly dealing with reincarnation, but rather, what those who have passed over want us to know, it is founded on the same principle—that life and death are not about punishment and reward but compassion and love. Told on a case-by-case basis, the book aims a spotlight on just how important our earthly relationships are. And those souls, who have moved out of their bodies, are determined to have their messages heard, whether to right wrongs, settle debts, or, as in most cases, to ask for simple forgiveness from those they wronged on earth.
“He helps a lot of people. He really is a healer. I think he’s basically on this earth right now at this time and place to heal. He is the real thing. I can’t tell you how many times he’s been right with me.” — Shirley MacLaine
“It has such a hopeful message. Even though he’s telling stories of the dead, it’s really about living your life better and inspiring people to not have unfinished business.” — Jennifer Love Hewitt
James Van Praagh, world-famous medium, co-executive producer of the primetime series Ghost Whisperer, and author of the New York Times…
I’m of Indian ethnicity and Japanese nationality, so it felt natural to write a book that drew inspiration from both cultures without being adjacent to either one. Like me, my book is a mixed bag. It features an original mythology with a unique religion and mythical beasts that you’ve (hopefully) never seen before. It’s also pretty heavy on themes and tries to provide some context to questions that baffled me as a kid: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do war and violence exist? I can’t say that I’ve answered those questions, but I hope I’ve provided a multifaceted perspective into the conversation around them.
My mother introduced me to the Bhagavad Gita at a young age, but this particular translation and commentary was my most recent read.
One of my favorite concepts is the idea that our lives are moral battlegrounds for self-betterment and that our soul reincarnates through various lives to improve upon itself; and of course, karma yoga (the theory of karma), which is intrinsically linked with the concept of reincarnation.
I find it difficult to speak further about this book because I really cannot do the Gita or its themes justice in my own words. Those interested should try it out for themselves and understand it in their own way.
To experience another's thoughts and emotions, one first has to feel them. Eyes, lips, tongue, and teeth are involved before the brain/heart can engage. Translation of poetry is the same. My mother has sung Chinese poetry to me since forever, and English poetry came alive for me through verse speaking. I studied and taught as I wrote for many years. I cannot say I find my way into every poem I come across, but the poems I translate are ones I know and love. That is why I am passionate about translation. For me, it is not a secondary experience but a primary, primal performance art!
I read this English translation before I even read the book in Chinese, even though Chinese readers in Hong Kong where I grew up all read it as teenagers or young adults. The popular title of the novel is Dream of the Red Chamber, in both English and its original Chinese, but I immediately agreed with Hawkes that The Story of the Stone, one among its many titles, is much more expressive and fitting.
The eighteenth-century aristocratic family is a hugely complex world we are introduced to, but Hawkes’ faithful, resourceful, and unpretentious translation makes getting to know the multitude of characters easy and unforgettable.
Even though it is set in eighteenth-century China, for a twentieth/twenty-first-century English reader like myself, the family dynamics, tragedy, and romance here are palpable thanks to Hawke’s understanding and translation.
The Story of the Stone (c.1760) is one of the greatest novels of Chinese literature. The first part of the story, The Golden Days, begins the tale of Bao-yu, a gentle young boy who prefers girls to Confucian studies, and his two cousins: Bao-chai, his parents' choice of a wife for him, and the ethereal beauty Dai-yu. Through the changing fortunes of the Jia family, this rich, magical work sets worldly events - love affairs, sibling rivalries, political intrigues, even murder - within the context of the Buddhist understanding that earthly existence is an illusion and karma determines the shape…
I’m of Indian ethnicity and Japanese nationality, so it felt natural to write a book that drew inspiration from both cultures without being adjacent to either one. Like me, my book is a mixed bag. It features an original mythology with a unique religion and mythical beasts that you’ve (hopefully) never seen before. It’s also pretty heavy on themes and tries to provide some context to questions that baffled me as a kid: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do war and violence exist? I can’t say that I’ve answered those questions, but I hope I’ve provided a multifaceted perspective into the conversation around them.
My favorite aspect of this book was the concept of a crime coefficient: a numerical measure of how likely a person is to commit a crime. Punishments are meted out preemptively based on this. I found it a fascinating concept, especially in the context of karma, which also explores the idea of violence at a thought level (it does not delve into karma, but it is a personal interest of mine).
Overall, this had some solid and unique themes around ethics and justice—as well as really interesting worldbuilding, centered around this idea of a non-human (and thus ‘unbiased’) system judging humanity for their sins. I should note that this manga came after the anime—so the anime is the original work.
I’ve always been intrigued by concepts of what happens after death, ignited by my religious schooling and fueled by afterlife stories from The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Tales from the Crypt, and similar works of fiction. In college I began studying interpretations of Heaven and Hell from literature, art, myth, music, and pop culture, and continued to pursue the topic in my early career. This fascination led to my first books, Encyclopedia of Hell and Encyclopedia of Heaven, and has inspired many of my other works. I continue to do research in the field of comparative afterlife theory, and never miss a chance to interview those with expertise in supernatural matters.
For insights into non-western afterlife theory, the Bardo Thodol offers a collection of texts covering aspects of death, reincarnation, and the ‘space’ in between. The work, which dates back to the 8th century, serves as a ‘guidebook’ on preparing the soul for its continuing journey, including advice on meditation, the six states of consciousness, death rituals, and the pursuit of karma. Over the centuries theBardo Thodol has inspired numerous interpretations as well as literary works. Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin, who spent time secluded in a Buddhist monastery, describes his film Jacob’s Ladder as a modern take on the ancient text.
Unravel the Secrets of Life, Death, and Rebirth with the Tibetan Book of the Dead!
Have you always been intrigued by rebirth, death, and the afterlife?
Immerse in a whole new dimension and explore life and death from a completely different perspective with this book!
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, also known as Bardo Thödol, is originally a funerary text recited to ease the consciousness of a recently deceased person through death and assist it into a favorable rebirth.
The idea of death, rebirth and the afterlife has been intriguing the human mind almost since the dawn of time.…
This is the perfect thriller. It has a good mystery, of course, and you can’t trust anybody, but for me, the real coup lies in the hero.
The author achieves the most difficult trick of all – a hero you don’t like but whom you nonetheless root for. I think the last time I felt like this was reading Jane Austen’s Emma. A twisty plot and perfect pacing help to make this a really satisfying read.
I once had a girlfriend back in Scotland, Lorna, who was into astrology, karma, healing crystals and all that shite. She always said the universe had a way of knowing when you needed something and providing for you. In my experience, what it generally provides is a kick in the bollocks.
Tommy Chisholm is in trouble.
His dream life in Barcelona is unravelling. He’s broke, his writing career has stalled, and maybe it’s time to pack up and go home.
When he’s recruited by an organised crime gang to help them rob an art gallery, he thinks his financial worries…
After retiring from a career in climate science, I reinvented myself as an English teacher, a yoga instructor, and a writer. I write personal essays about my life experiences, in particular my time teaching in Thailand. Before I traveled to Thailand, while I was there, and when I returned home to the US, I devoured every book I could find that could help me make sense of Thai culture and manage as a farang (foreigner, Westerner) in the Land of Smiles. Here are my five picks for helping other farangs understand Thailand.
The “many lives” in this series of linked short stories are those of eleven passengers who perish when a Bangkok-bound boat capsizes in a fierce storm.
I relished each story of each life, both as a literary gem and as an insight into something fundamental about Thai society, such as the importance of social class, the role of urban migration in altering provincial life, the potentially stifling aspects of intergenerational family obligations, and the overriding role of karma in Thai conceptions of life and death.
To me, Many Lives is to Thai culture what Thornton Wilder’s classic Our Town is to American culture.
"That night, the rain poured and wind howled, raindrops crashing like solid objects onto the ground and water. A passenger boat from Ban Phaen to Bangkok, packed with people, pressed on through the current amidst the rising clamor of the rain and storm. . . ." The boat capsizes in the torrent, and washed up on the shore the next morning are the sodden bodies of the many passengers who lost their lives.
Thus begins M. R. Kukrit Pramoj's classic novel set in the Thailand of the early 1950s and first published in 1954. The life of each passenger who…
I’m an American author and writing teacher for both Harvard and Oxford’s online writing programs. I am also a mother of two who lived three years in a tiny backyard guest house with my family in an effort to focus more on what we love. Editing books is a practice I have honed over decades, and when my family was stuck in a living situation that felt unsustainable, the clearest way forward was for me to ask myself how I might edit our way out of it. It worked! In this book, I share the most valuable eight principles that we learned through the process.
A candid look at how we spend and how we feel about our spending. Vanderkam braids examples from her own life with deep research and statistics on the relationship between happiness and money. A memorable, practical read that I refer to often.
I love all of her books—she is definitely my continuing education for adulthood—but this one is probably my favorite.
How happy would you be if you had all the money in the world? The universal lament about money is that there is never enough. We spend endless hours obsessing over our budgets and investments, trying to figure out ways to stretch every dollar. We try to follow the advice of money gurus and financial planners, then kick ourselves whenever we spend too much or save too little. For all of the stress and effort we put into every choice, why are most of us unhappy about our finances?
According to Laura Vanderkam, the key is to change your perspective.…
I was in my teens when I discovered that if I focused on something hard enough I could manifest it. During my investigations into whether others had experienced this, I discovered the Adyar Bookstore in the Strand Arcade in Sydney, and that I had an insatiable thirst for all texts metaphysical, historical, and quantum theory. Turns out that many of the greatest thinkers in history believed that humans hold sway over many of the events and occurrence of their own lives, including Einstein, Plato, Tesla, Carl Sagan, and more. My books are the product of my exploration into the nature of personal reality, spirituality, and the meaning of life.
The Education of Oversoul Seven is the only fiction book on my list.
Most of my books deal with time travel, reincarnation, and karmic themes, and my understanding of simultaneous time came from this gorgeous little novel.
It also opened my eyes to the fact that we don’t necessarily always reincarnate into a future time.
This story tells of four characters, in four different historic periods, and the oversoul responsible for guiding them all. I have such a character in my new book also, whom I call the Inter-dweller.
When people ask for other books like mine, this is one I always recommend.
The Education of Oversoul Seven. Jane Roberts, channel of the Seth material, wrote the fictional Oversoul Seven series to further illuminate the ideas described in her nonfiction books. The Education of Oversoul Seven is a playful parable of time and space that opens up a whole new vision of life.
As long as I can remember, I have wanted to understand how the universe works. I studied physics with a firm belief in scientific materialism, the belief that all things can or will be explained by science, including consciousness. However, after earning an advanced degree I found myself no closer to a satisfying answer to my inquiry into the relationship between consciousness and the physical world. Then, a personal experience of unembodied consciousness convinced me that my answers would have to come from a reexamination of all that I had believed, an internal journey over decades that has borne fruit in unexpected and magical ways.
I fell in love with the Dalai Lama while reading this book. While telling his own story, he makes it clear that the most important knowledge a human being can have is not amenable to the usual idea of scientific inquiry, which typically involves analyzing external phenomena. I learned about how inner awareness yields to contemplative investigation in the Buddhist tradition, enabled by the development of refined attention through meditation. As I read this book, I could feel the love that remains when all judgment about ourselves and others is finally released.
Gallileo, Copernicus, Newton, Niels Bohr, Einstein. Their insights shook our perception of who we are and where we stand in the world and in their wake have left an uneasy co-existence: science vs. religion, faith vs. empirical enquiry. Which is the keeper of truth? Which is the true path to understanding reality?
After forty years of study with some of the greatest scientific minds as well as a lifetime of meditative, spiritual and philosophical study, the Dalai Lama presents a brilliant analysis of why both disciplines must be pursued in order to arrive at a complete picture of the truth.…