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 pre-birth 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