FROM THE AUTHOR

My Son and the Afterlife is a book of hope, not of sadness. It’s the hope that we are eternal beings. It’s the hope that the loved ones that we’ve “lost” aren’t really gone and that our relationship with them can continue, even grow.I started my journey, not from a place of hope, but of despair and disbelief. When Erik died, I didn’t know where to turn for relief. After all, I was raised by atheists and, as a physician, science taught me that something exists only if it could be perceived by the senses. This made it difficult for me to answer two all-consuming questions: Does my son still exist, and if he does, where is he?Desperate for answers, I read books about quantum physics, alternate dimensions, near death experiences, and even controlled studies on mediums. After reading those studies, I did what a lot of parents do when they don’t know where else to turn. I hired various spirit translators to channel Erik. Doubtful and afraid at first, my thick shell of skepticism opened up just a tiny sliver when two of them gave overwhelming evidence that I was communicating with my son. For instance, translator, Jamie Butler, was able to tell me exactly where Erik was sitting when he killed himself, the fact that he used a gun, what kind of gun he used, and even what clothes he was wearing. She was also able to capture his personality perfectly: his irreverent sense of humor, his mischievousness and the sailor talk that caused poor Jamie to cringe and blush.After feeling like I may have connected with my son, I asked him, in several sessions, all the personal questions I could think of, including the big “Why?” In future sessions, I asked him to describe death, including his own, the afterlife, the spirit and much larger concepts.