The Top Ten Things Dead People Want to Tell You

Mike Dooley was a tax consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, but has now turned his attention to spiritual accounting. As the title suggests, there are 10 chapters, each with a key message gleaned from a number of sources listed in recommended reading at the back of the book. It is clear from the content of the book that Mike has picked up many essential points that are also relayed in mediumistic communications as well as near death and mystical experiences. However, his philosophy draws on Seth, Hermann Hesse's Siddartha, Neale Donald Walsch, Robert Monroe, Raymond Moody, Ramtha, Wallace Wattles, Kahlil Gibran and Rhonda Byrne. He starts by connecting the dots and asserting that life is about loving, being loved and pursuing happiness - this does not exclude creating, learning and serving. A fundamental message is that our consciousness is not extinguished at bodily death.

Each chapter conveys a basic point that is reinforced at the end by a sample letter from a recently deceased person; none of this is verbatim, but rather compiled on the basis of the author's understanding. In dealing with suicide, I felt that he did not fully embrace the difficulties but at the same time he put the issue within a helpful wider context. Perhaps an even more basic message from the book is that thoughts become things (TBT), the subject of chapter 6 (and see especially p. 156). Unfortunately, many people are completely ignorant of their deeper nature and of the implications of survival and serial lives, which makes them very unprepared for death. This is where the real strength of this book lies, that between two covers one can acquire a sound philosophy of life and an understanding of the deeper nature of both life and death; and in the light of this, one can potentially live a more intelligent, conscious and aware life.