Explorations in Life, Death and the Afterlife

Dr Fiona Bowie, Kings College London

3. Finding Lifes Purpose and Plan

In this third session we ask some of the perennial questions about the purpose of life
and what it might mean for us as individual and as a species. Most religions have some
answers to these questions. This is part of their appeal, and one of the reasons they
have the power to endure and to draw unrelated individuals together to form
communities. We will approach this question from an evolutionary perspective and in
the light of some of the information gained from visionary experiences and channelled
communications. We will also use these insights as a way of prompting reflection on
what our own life plans might be, and ask how such knowledge or intuition can affect
how we live our lives. I can recommend reading and following up the work of Robert
Schwartz. While his ideas on pre-birth planning are not original or unique (notion of prebirth planning recurs throughout history and in many cultures), Schwartz communicates
in a fresh and original way.
References and Further Reading
Harari, Yuval Noah (2014) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. London: Random
House.
Kripal, Jeffrey J. (2014) Comparing Religions. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.
Moen, Bruce (1997) Voyages into the Unknown. Charlottesville, VA.: Hampton Roads.
Moen, Bruce (2005) Afterlife Knowledge Guidebook. Charlottesville, VA.: Hampton
Roads.
Monroe, Robert A. (1977) Journeys out of the Body. New York: Broadway Books.
Moreman, Christopher (2008) Beyond the Threshold: Afterlife Beliefs and Experiences in
World Religions. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
Newton, Michael (1994) Journey of Souls. Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications.
Pachis, Panayotis and Wiebe, Donald (eds) (2010) Chasing Down Reilgion. Sheffield:
Equinox.
Peake, Anthony (2006) Is there Life After Death? London: Arcturus.
Schwartz, Gary E. (2002) The Afterlife Experiments. New York: Pocket Books.
Schwartz, Robert (2009) Your Souls Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life you
Planned Before You Were Born. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.
Schwartz, Robert (2013) Your Souls Gift: The Healing Power of the Life You Planned
Before You Were Born. London: Watkins.
Stapp, Henry P. (2011) The Mindful Universe: Quantum Mechanics and the Participating
Observer. London: Springer.
Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (1955) The Phenomenon of Man. Reprinted by Harper
Perennial, 2008.
Tymn, Michael (2011) The Afterlife Revealed. Guildford: White Crow.

Links
Website called All About Heaven observations on out of body experiences.
http://www.allaboutheaven.org/observations/types-spiritual-experience/out-of-body
Robert Schwartzs web site, Your Souls Plan, including some video interviews and free
extracts from his books on pre-birth planning.
http://www.yoursoulsplan.com
The Monroe Institute
https://www.monroeinstitute.org
Robert Monroe pioneered out of body travel into the afterlife realms using bi-aural
sound (hemi-sync). Bruce Moens books give a good idea of what can be achieved by
this method.
White Crow Books
http://whitecrowbooks.com/blogs
Some excellent blogs on Michael Tymns White Crow Books website, with some of the
worlds leading researchers and writers on the paranormal, spirituality and the afterlife.
Fiona Bowie: fiona.bowie@kcl.ac.uk; website Academia.edu; blog Exploring the Afterlife