Don't miss the next broadcast of ThreePeaks Perspective on April 22nd from 7 to 8 pm MDT. I will be interviewing Tonya Gamman, a student of the masters for decades, about her latest book, "Heaven & Earth: How it all Works." The following is a review and synopsis of this book:

"Heaven & Earth: How it all Works" is not just someone's recollection of heaven in a near-death experience (NDE) or out-of-body (OOB) trip. It's a past-life, death, between-life, life, and OOB account that weaves profound teachings about heaven and Earth into a personal story of two lifetimes that goes far beyond the brief glimpses and teachings gained in NDEs.

The story begins with a detailed account of the tragic last days of Tonya's previous life in 19th-century Ireland. Tonya traveled to Ireland to visit the very castle she lived in during that short life. Thus this chapter is rich in details that are usually not found in a past life memory. She then condenses 141 years in heaven into one chapter that describes heaven in exquisite detail and explains the major activities that souls engage in: healing, resting and reflecting, reviewing their last life, planning their next life, and preparing for reembodiment. One revelation that shatters the caricature of heaven is that there are no angels with wings sitting around strumming harps. What some people feel or see as angels are usually the souls of friends and relatives who come down occasionally to help. Tonya herself was mistaken for an angel when she came down to heal someone. Another misconception about heaven that Tonya clears up is that no one is judged for his or her wrong words, thoughts, and deeds, but everyone is given a life review in which they experience the pain they may have caused others. As Tonya writes in the Introduction, "In truth, we are the ones who do the 'judging.' We decide what we want to continue and what we want to change, based on love for ourselves, the true souls that we really are, and those we hold dear."

Tonya describes how a returning soul visits old haunts on Earth before entering a baby's body. When she enters her body, she says, "I'm like a pilot checking out my plane before takeoff, I activate systems and organs that are not working at full capacity. I am at the control center where I review all systems, body development, and functions." Soon after being born, Tonya forgets about heaven and the plans she has for this life. But when she is baptized at 11, she reconnects to the feeling of unconditional love, peace, and freedom that is heaven and to a "presence" who she calls "God."

Six months later, after practicing a meditation involving focusing on the point between waking and sleeping, she enters a state of heightened awareness and sees the presence as a being of light with brown eyes that are soft, deep and full of compassion. She writes, "His presence seems to pierce through to my soul, causing me to feel deeply loved and honored... He is emanating love, kindness, and an energy that is so strong, I feel as if I were being electrified with love, a love that penetrates every cell of my being... I somehow know that I have found my spiritual teacher; he is the presence that has been with me since the baptism. I feel we have been together forever and ever for an eternity of lifetimes. I am excited to meet him at last. His name is Kuthumi or the master K.H."

Kuthumi takes Tonya in her soul body to etheric retreats and cities of light in the heaven world for a series of lessons about life that lasts over a year. Tonya condenses the most important lessons she can remember into two chapters. Some of the lessons are personal as when she views scenes from her past lives in her "life book" (actually more like a holographic computer screen) in a vast library called "the hall of records." Other lessons are for the reader's edification as well, such as: everything is energy, the iceberg analogy for understanding difficult people, the merit system, we're all creators, and we all know the truth.

When Tonya's mother finds out about her daily excursions to cities of light with Kuthumi, she demands that she stop, even after taking her to a psychiatrist, who declares that she's just a normal, imaginative 12-year-old. Tonya reluctantly agrees and discontinues her OOB travels with Kuthumi. Over the next 7 teenage years, she successfully navigates past pitfalls such as smoking, drugs, and alcohol, and accelerates her education (enrolling in college at 16) thanks to the lessons she learned from Kuthumi.

At 19, after a health crisis that ends her first marriage and her college education, she begins reading the lives of saints and discovers that others had similar experiences of masters and the heaven world. In one book, she is shocked and delighted to find a picture of Kuthumi, but the caption reads "Saint Francis of Assisi." None of the books about Saint Francis explain his role as a master teacher or his relationship to her. The end of the book is the beginning of her search for answers, a search that will take her through 33 more years of her life in a future sequel.

Wayne