****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This powerful book titled To Heaven and Back, by Mary C. Neal, M.D., is a compelling story about a powerful subject, the matter of whether we humans can experience eternal life and return from it. Dr. Mary actually drowned in a kayak accident during a South American adventure. After her death underwater, from accidently tumbling down a waterfall, she was transported to heaven, moving from life, to death, and into eternal life, and then back to life again. It was an amazing experience of God’s peace, joy, and angels, before she came back to life again.The narration of the book would be complete in itself with only Dr. Mary’s report of her own visit to heaven and her return to earthly life. Near the close of the book she tells of the tragic death of her son at age 18 in a terrible accident while skiiing in Vermont, struck down by a teenaged driver distracted by a cellphone. “God took our son,” she wrote, “but there was no grim reaper.” She went on to say that she believed God “sent his most gentle and loving angels to collect Willie’s soul and take him to heaven.”This book affirms a strong belief in eternal life, which Christians believe is the very cornerstone of our faith experience. As Shawna Osman put it in another book on the subject, I Believe in Life After Death, “It is not just the reward for our service and our good faith, rather is it the reason that we are able to carry on in the first place: this world, this vale of tears . . . There is more to life than this life, there is more to God than what we can see in our lifetimes. Believing in life after death puts our mortal lives into perspective. It reveals what our true problems are. It shows us what really matters, what we should actually be concerned with.”This story as told by Dr. Mary Neal, a medical doctor along with her husband, and an active person of faith (she is an Elder in her church in Jackson Hole, Wyoming), is a most credible witness to a profound experience. Reading this book will impact any person who is sincerely seeking the truth about the whole matter of the meaning of life, its purpose, and our destiny in eternal life with God.
