These are not in any particular order – just random as I think of them or read them.
Application of Impossible Things: A Near Death Experience in Iraq – Natalie Sudman (yes, shamelessly flogging my book, first on the list 🙂 )
Any book by Paul Selig, channeled teachings – there are quite a few out now, beginning with Book 1: I Am The Word
Seth books by Jane Roberts
A Course in Miracles
LSD and the Mind of the Universe – Christopher Bache
The Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol 22 No 1 Spring 2008
Mind Reach – Russel Targ, Harold Puthoff
Miracles of Mind – Russel Targ, Jane Katra
Supernormal by Dr Dean Radin – any book by Dean Radin
After by Dr Bruce Greyson
Peace Pilgrim, her life and work in her own words
The Cosmic Internet – Frank DiMarco
Muddy Tracks – Frank DiMarco
Journeys Out of the Body – Robert Monroe
Far Journeys – Robert Monroe
Ultimate Journey – Robert Monroe
A Spiritual Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe – Paul Rademacher
Answers About the Afterlife by Bob Olson
Mind Trek – Joe McMoneagle
Consciousness Beyond Life – Pim Von Lommel, MD
Eckhart Tolle – anything by him
Gratitude – Oliver Sacks
Man’s Search for Meaning – Victor Frankl
Old Souls – Tom Schroder
Near Death in the ICU – Dr Lauren Bellg, MD
Cosmic Journeys – Rosalind McKnight
The Ultimate Time Machine – Joe McMoneagle
Remote Viewing Secrets – Joe McMoneagle
PSI Spies – Jim Marrs
Remote Viewers: – Jim Schnabel
The Limitless Mind – Russel Targ (anything by Russell Targ)
My Big Theory of Everything (TOE) – Thomas Campbell
The Gift – Dr Sally Rhine Feather & Michael Schmicker
Many Lives, Many Masters – Brian L. Weiss, MD
Closer to the Light – Melvin Morse, MD
Soul Retrieval, and The Shaman’s Toolkit, and Walking in Light, and The Book of Ceremony – Sandra Ingerman (she has many books out – many good)
Post-Mortem Journal – Jane Sherwood
The Hidden Messages in Water – Masaru
Dead Men Talking, Afterlife Communication from Worrld War I – Michael Tymn
The Forgotten Promise – Sherry Wilde
Dolores Cannon books: Legacy From the Stars, Keepers of the Garden, Jesus and the Essenes, They Walked With Jesus, The Legend of Starcrash, Conversations with Nostadamus (Vol I,II,III, IV), The Custodians, A Soul Remembers Hiroshima, Conversations with a Spirit Between Life & Death, The Convoluted Universe (Books 1,2,3)
The Afterlife of Billy Fingers – Annie Kagan
Radical Forgiveness – Colin Tipping
Soulcraft – Bill Plotkin
Ears of the Angels – Deena Zalkind Spear
The Afterlife Experiments – Gary E Schwartz, PhD (or any of his books)
Lucid Dreaming – Robert Waggoner
Traveling Between the Worlds – Hillary Webb
Letters to My Immortal Beloved – Petra Gerda Paul
Maisie Dobbs mysteries by Jacqueline Winspear
Testimony of Light – Helen Greaves
The Beginnings of Buddhism by Kogen Mizuno
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
The Gift of Crisis: how I used Meditation to Go From Failure to a Life of Purpose by Bridgette Jackson-Buckley
Synchronized Universe (and at least one other book) – Claude Swanson
I’m glad to find this, but at the moment I’m looking only for the Robert Monroe volumes. My youngest son, Alexander James, is named for the James Madison and Monroe (as well as A. Hamilton), so I went with the family connection.
Haven’t found any Monroe in the second hand book stores so will try the library next. In the meantime I’m adrift in the North Atlantic in a Douglas Reeman sea novel set in WW2. Lots of cold, dark scenes so I’m very comfy. 🙂
Sounds like an adventure, the high seas! Have you tried looking for used Monroe books on alibris.com, or powell’s bookstore? Good luck- thanks for stopping by 🙂
I can get them through the library as it turns out. I hesitated to mention the Reeman novel; people are getting blown up left and right… 😉
LOL – I wouldn’t recommend it, necessarily, but it makes for a dramatic story 😉
By the way, I thought you might like to know how I found your own book. I have been a reader of nderf.org for about 9 years. When I saw your excerpt there I ordered it immediately through the link you provided. In fact, it arrived only a week ago and I’ve read it twice. My dissapointment with its brevity has been nicely tempered with the blog entries. 🙂
Thank you, that is interesting to me. Friends suggested that I post my story on NDERF (cheers Marian &Jim). If not for them, I would not have done it.
You must have an impressive vocabulary to have read the book twice already … lol, people keep saying this to me after reading it … Makes me think perhaps I ought to be passing that compliment along to my readers …perhaps it’s meant as a complaint, but I breezily gloss right over that possibility 😉
In all seriousness, though, thank you. That you’ve read the book twice in one week then found the blog worth reading is a very fine compliment, and I feel grateful and humbled by it.
Vocabulary; the average North American adult knows approximately 27,000 words, so I’ve read. I wouldn’t say my grasp of them all is necessarily strong. One reason I’ve read your book twice, and continue to go back through it, is to translate it into language I understand. LOL
Lol – the vocabulary word for the day: persistence
Here’s something else I’ve wanted to mention, Natalie. My closest friends where I work are all girls from Iraq. The environment is a downtown hotel overlooking the South Saskatchewan River. I work as the hotel’s manager of purchasing so have frequent direct contact with every department and the employees. The Iraqi gals comprise a large segment of the housekeeping staff and I have been smitten with them. Two sisters, one now married and the other engaged, have exchanged birthday and Christmas gifts with me for several years, mostly candles and candle holders which they know I love. They come to me for help in everything from ordering lunch off the staff menu to contacting the federal government with questions about citizenship applications. The friendship of these girls is very endearing. I bought a book, Arabic for Dummies, in order to better help them with their english.
For the most part they come from Baghdad and Mosel and miss their homes very much, despite the stability and peace they find here. And me, for all my hermit-like existence, find I cannot help but run to meet their every need. They are all devoted Christians and one of them once said to me, “you are just like Jesus”. As an ex-Christian I found that extremely touching.
Anyway, I thought my remote connection to Iraq might be of interest. 🙂
How cool is that! Thank you for telling me. I felt the same way about my Iraqi engineers – I was willing to do anything i could do for them if I could figure out how to do it. Thank you for loving these girls – I feel like everyone who is kind to an Iraqi is being kind to my Iraqi friends. 🙂
Another stand-out turn of phrase I loved in your book- “deeply meaningful tattoos”. LOL I know several people who I would love to read that paragraph out loud to. A girl in the office next to mine has what looks like half a novel written out on her upper back, and another saying across her wrist. I refrain, of course, being a sensitive and compassionate soul. But while I smile and say “very interesting” when she showed them to me, the inner me is laughing and saying WTF? At the same time I realize they probably think similar things when they see the enormous Manchester United Football Club flag that hangs on the wall of my office. The difference, of course, is that I can remove the flag should United ever fail to keep my attention.
I have quoted another paragraph extensively on several discussion boards I take part in. The one early on where you say you don’t need crystals, drums, Peruvian shaman etc in order to attain a higher vibrational level. It’s been very well recieved for the most part. 🙂
LOL – I have nothing against the deeply meaningful tattoos, really – I ‘get’ that desire to decorate anything, being an artist. The point being, though, … well, you know 🙂
I’ve heard from quite a few people who really like the list of things that can be useful tools but are unnecessary and can become impediments … (it was kind of a fun list to write!)
Last night I got out the first book I read on NDE’s, Betty Eadie’s “Embraced by the Light”. I hadn’t looked at that one for several years and, although it was not my first experience with NDE research, it was certainly the most influential at the time. I eventually left it behind because I felt it was a very elementary volume that I had no longer any need of. But browsing through it again last night I was reminded strongly of something I felt then and again when I read yours; the overpowering statement in my mind, not of enlightenment but rather; “I know this. I’ve always known this, how could I have forgotten?” The awakening for me began with Betty and continues today with regular, timely bits of knowledge either being handed to me or, more often than not, gurgling up from the depths of my own self.
As I did with Embraced by the Light, I will continue reading and re-reading your book, Natalie, until I’m satisfied that I’ve absorbed every aspect of it that I desire to have. Typically this will take several months so the volume will be dog-eared and crumpled by the time I find it a place of honor on a shelf. With over 4,000 books crammed into our little house that may not be easy. 🙂
That’s the truth of it – that it’s a matter of remembering what we already know, finding the little feathers that wake us to that. I’m so glad that my book is able to do that for you. Thanks for telling me that.
I don’t know if you take requests, and if you do there is certainly no rush. But I wondered if you would consider doing a piece on suicide. I’ve always been fascinated with it as a way of escape and when a suicide is reported, whether a celebrity, a stranger, or someone I knew my first thought is always, “Good for them, no one should have to stay who doesn’t want to”. But my interest stretches into beyond the act itself. I wonder what sort of reception they get on arriving at their own “gathering”. Any thoughts you have on the topic would be appreciated. But like I say, I’m not considering it myself so there’s no hurry. 🙂
Good idea – it sounds interesting to me so I’ll “go in” and see what I get. Thanks for the suggestion! And glad you’re. It thinking about doing it – even if you’ve withdrawn from the world to some extent, your energy here on the earth matters and I’m enjoying your comments and thoughts!
That’s “glad you’re not” – when will I learn to re-read before posting when I’m using this mind-of-it’s-own iPhone!?! (probably never)
I’m using this mind-of-it’s-own iPhone!?! <<<
I don't know how you people even use those things. When my wife's cell phone rings and she hollers from the tub, "will you answer that please?" I just stare at all the little buttons and have no idea what to do. lol
I used to be so nannoyed by them. Just wanted a phone that’s a phone … Now I’m liking it. I can travel without a computer, and reply to comments during breaks from painting ha
How about a question regarding something from your own book now? 🙂 It’s actually a broader based idea but it came to me on Saturday night while I was browsing your volume. You said that you didn’t have much interest in returning to the physical when initially placed before the gathering, and (in the tv interview) that you gave no thought to the people still here when making your decision. This is a very, very common feeling according to the dozens and dozens of NDE’s I’ve read. Now obviously we wouldn’t know that if none of these personalities, including your own, had decided not to come back. But the vast majority did so with reluctance, and only after being shown what they still needed to do, or what life would be like for those they would be leaving behind. So my question is this; if we find the physical world so easy to leave, missing nothing here when we do so, do we also approach it beforehand with this same “it’s not that important, I may or may not do it” mindset? I have some thoughts from others to add here but will wait for what you may have to say. 🙂
I’ll try to get to this question in the next week or so … Am not feeling much like writing. In the meantime, the answer is in the book … Maybe you’ll find it before I write something about it !
No hurry at all. I know that feeling well, not wanting to write… or do much of anything really. Here are my own thoughts on the question. As there are myriad personalities and character traits in the physical world, these are the merest reflection of the vast scale in which these things exist in the non-physical. So just as we might find students entering college with a wide variety of attitudes; some eagerly looking forward to it, others saying, “I dread what I’m going to have to go through to get where I want to be”, there will be an equal range of attitudes toward an earthly life. Two passages from different authors say this well. One, in her own NDE, saw multitudes of souls, hardly able to wait for their turn to experience the “tremendous growth” we experience in the human world. Another, in an interview with another author, says she saw multitudes of souls looking toward a physical life much as one views cleaning the bathroom; life will be better afterward but who really wants to do it?
It will always be a very personal thing, and no one is compelled to do the “physical world” at any time unless it is their choice. There. I knew the answer all along. LOL
I recommend beer and cheetos for your writing malaise. It won’t make you feel like hitting the keyboard, but you’ll love the passage of time. 🙂
Something else from the book that addresses this; the goofing off, which is what originally drew me to your story. “Goofing off”. That really says it all.
No further questions. 🙂
Hi, Natalie: I loved reading your book and enjoy keeping up with your blog. I have a question for you. After your NDE and in light of your psychic experiences, have you found that your interest in this physical world has waned? For example, do you find history, science, politics and news in general interesting, or do you view it more as drama taking place in the dream/movie that you watch but don’t take pay much attention to? Thanks!
For the first year or so my feeling of involvement was very low, Joan. Things like politics and etc weren’t interesting really. Sometimes they were amusing, sometimes curious, sometimes silly, sometimes of no interest at all. Other things were and are more deeply touching and beautiful – small kindnesses people do for each other, certain music, random moments, … As time goes on, the detachment is more a matter of focus. If I focus my attention on this physical life and my involvement in it, I care about things – I suppose like I do a good movie that I’ve immersed myself in. If I focus my attention or awareness on the Whole, those things are viewed with detachment. I can choose how and where to focus, choose my perspective. It was a disappointment to lose that constant detachment, but the ability to move around from one focus to another has it’s value and fun – after all, we’re here in this reality – like I said in the book, it makes sense to participate. I suspect that if the constant detachment served me best, I’d have remained in it. Or I’ll return to it’s constancy when that serves me best. Thanks for asking the question.
Thanks so much, Natalie. I really appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts and perspective. 🙂
Hi Natalie,
Seems so strange to be writing you when I just watched the 3interviews with Bob Olson a few years back. You know… a few things have happened to me well more than a few more like on a daily basis (though not a NDE) it is why I am writing to you…. I need direction… I feel like I live on a “fence” between worlds. My problem is I am 55, struggling with “a career” and losing stamina “ to make something” of myself. I am not sure of your present schedule as it is today August 26..2018. If you don’t mind…could you let me know when you are available?
To be honest I would have to build up funds before scheduling but my birthday is September and probably would be able to do it then.
SMc
Hi Sharon, I’ve got a long waiting list – check out the Readings page on this site … then email me if you’d like to get on the waiting list: njsudman@gmail
Hi Natalie, I’ve read so many spiritual books, read and listened to thousands of NDEs and found YOUR youtube interviews and your book leaving me wishing for more of your honest, intelligent and insights and spiritual knowledge. It’s ez to see that you are ‘the real deal’…from your thoughts, body language and that ‘SPECIAL SOMETHING’ that you evoke. Though I’ve long since given up on ‘loving myself’ or retrieving my once optimistic and unconquerable spirit and left me in a 15 year funk/substance abuse medical maintainance state, listening once again to one of your YT vids,
This Covid sitch has provoked even more depression and only non-suicidal, (but close) bc my autistic son needs me. Once I can hopefully escape the debt and meds, I’m looking forward to having a ‘reading ‘ with you. Just know that you have helped me more than any book or spiritual journey, and there have been MANY. Thank you,Stay safe (and I hope that you got that Porsche
you wanted ; ). ) Ron Coen
Thanks for sticking around here Ron – and thank you for these kind words. Very humbling for me to hear … stay safe and I hope you find some of that wonder again 🙏🏽🌿
Hi Natalie! I just wanted to say thank-you for sharing your story, it’s definitely my favourite NDE account so far. I first saw you on various Youtube videos, resonated pretty quickly and then ordered the book a while later. It was a lot more technical and analytical than I was expecting but it was a fascinating read.
When you mentioned “folding in on yourself” that really got my attention because I have experienced something like that once in my life. It was during a low point in my life, I was reading a book called The Ascension Papers by Zingdad (a channelled work) and I resonated so hard that I had that collapsing inwards sensation! I don’t remember anything else (maybe I chose not to?) except that feeling, then I found myself thinking “No I’m not ready!” and that was the end of it.
Anyway, you have my gratitude for putting yourself out there. Best wishes for the future!
Kin
Thank you, Kin!
Hi Natalie! I have enjoyed and reread your book many times over the last 10 years – it feels like a touchstone every time – thank you! As others have said before, your particular combination of humour and feet-on-the-ground is a wonderful complement to the more frequent, more mystical experiences. I see from your book list that some of my favourites are on there as well (like Monroe, Campbell, von Lommel, Grayson and Bellg) – I shall have to start in on some of the ones I haven’t read yet – I really appreciate the list!
I have a question arising from my just finished re-reading of your book. Also intrigued and indeed fascinated by the mystery of the empty landscape while you were waiting for the helo, when so much was going on (in parallel experiences) all around you. You said at one point that it takes an amazingly sharp focus to stay functioning in this narrow band of physical life, like flying at fifty feet. And yet it often seems to me that it takes a lot more focus and “work” to get out of that focus. The easier and less difficult is to just relax into it, follow the “grazing principle” that Bob Monroe referred to, and see where your foundational commitment and maelstrom of circumstances lead. I’m trying to get into how you were/are seeing this world as a challenge to focus (or else… what?) rather than an opportunity for a very specific kind of experience – the discipline of limits, the opportunity to experience the threads of the fabric down close and personal, slowly and in detail. Or maybe both. Or neither. Just realizing that this was a bit that I didn’t immediately understand. If you had the time and inclination to comment, I’d be grateful!
v
Thanks Veronica, I’m glad the book has been useful for you.
It’s not work to hold a focus – it’s simply attention. I didn’t ever see it as a challenge to focus here. As I experienced it, it simply takes focus, which is not an effort or a challenge, just an action that requires attention to the moment. It’s easy to relax into it – I don’t mean to imply that it negates relaxing into a flow or following the “grazing principle.” Of course the experience of being in form is an opportunity for a specific kind of experience – that it takes concentration on some level to hold an awareness here doesn’t mean it takes effort, and it doesn’t mean that this experience of form isn’t full and useful in and of itself. This experience exists within the medium of the whole self – how can it be anything but an opportunity, a valuable exploration.
Perhaps think of the concentration that I note as holding the presence within an environment, and as long as the presence is held within the environment, one is free to flow/explore/“graze.”
Thanks Natalie – I think that makes it clearer for me, that what you were referring to here: “Physical reality is a balancing trick, a performance high, an intensely concentrated speed test of complex skill sets. We’re each an F-22 pilot flying fifty feet off the deck through an impossibly narrow canyon.” – is on the “Whole Self” level, not here in the physical. Am I getting it? Or not? That our experience here is a kind of cooperative effort between our multi-tasking whole selves and their high level skills, and the subset that is here, with a little (or a lot) of help from our friends? That indeed, life in the physical is very much a cooperative project, adventure, exploration of possibilities. Which is why you were “lured” back by the challenge and the interest of the thing?
Yes, essentially that’s it
Thank you!
Hi Natalie,
Saw your interview on Next Level Soul on YouTube yesterday and had a kindred soul feeling right away. I’m an artist as well. I’ve had 3 eye surguries in the last year and will soon have the #4. So I can relate to being an artist and wanting to maintain my best vision. I was also an Army medic in the Vietnam era. I’ve had many unusual experiences from out of body journeys, being guided by voices and a period where if I was confused about what to do in a particular situation I would hear a song with the exact lyrics needed to answer my question. That was fun! I had a NDE that was very simple compared to yours but I got the message that I needed. It was right before my brother was killed in a car accident and so it helped me process his passing and help my Mother in her grief. I’ve read many of the books on your list starting with the Seth books by Jane Roberts. I have all of them and have read them so many times that I had to tape them back together because they were falling apart. They have some concepts that were way beyond my comprehension on the first go around but get easier to understand with each reading. I want to thank you for sharing your story. I’ve been through some pretty dramatic experiences but I’m not sure from my human perspective that I would agree to be blown up. Thank goodness no one suggested that while I was in my NDE!! 😂
Hi Teri, sounds like you’ve had enough wild experiences – the last thing you would need is to get blown up lol!!! I’m glad you’ve made use of the book list. Artist, eye issues, Army medic – I’m glad you’ve had some help along the way. And … I go through times when I get messages through exact song lyrics too – crazy.
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
Thanks for the quick response. I spent the day reading your book and was totally fascinated. It’s brilliant and I love your artwork too. I’ve had many more wild experiences than the ones I’ve mentioned but I don’t want to reveal too much since I want to have a reading. I’ll get in line! But with those experiences I’ve had the opportunity to view life from many different viewpoints which has been of great value. I did have an amazing thing happen last month when I had a medical procedure done. While under anesthesia my little dog Daisy that died 30 years ago came to visit. I remembered a psychic reading I had done 20 years ago a few months after my Mom died when the psychic told me that when I cross over Daisy would be one of the first to greet me. So I said Daisy, am I dead? Next thing the nurse is waking me up and I’m so excited telling her I was just with Daisy!! It was so wonderful to see her again and she was just so full of love for me!! I’ve never had any memory of anything under anesthesia before so it was a real treat!
❤️
Natalie,
I just finished your book for the first time. I’ll get back to you after I read it another 3-4 times. I’m sure I’ll have more to say then.
Meanwhile, you’re an amazing artist. I too am a painter so I enjoy seeing work I appreciate. You paint with such an ethereal quality… depth of color…such presence. Vibratory essence that is captivating. Very cool.