The Survival of the Soul by Lisa Williams describes the journey of our souls from the energy plane to Earth (and back again) using the information channeled from the author's many Spirit Guides. As someone who is very skeptical of any claims of communication with the spirit world, I was unsure how much of The Survival of the Soul I would be able to digest before it pushed the boundary between believable and bull. I was pleasantly surprised when the author's grounded explanation of this epic spiritual journey wove together many of the ideas embraced by religions around the world, her personal near-death encounter, and concepts and events familiar to the "well attuned" who have lost loved ones kept me eagerly reading until the end. Williams outlines the process by which souls cross over after death, including being welcomed by waiting friends and family and undergoing the often grueling "Life Review" to determine the growth of a soul while in a physical body. Though many aspects of a soul's duties and progress are, according to Williams and her Spirit Guides, intentionally kept secret from the living, the rules and expectations for souls wishing to visit those still on the Earth plane clearly explained in the book. Have you ever met someone for the first time but felt sure you knew them already? Lisa Williams says the reason for that may be because that person is a member of your "soul family" - a group of like souls who work together in differing roles in both the spirit realm and the physical. Particularly fascinating to me was the section about souls preparing to re-enter a physical body and their selection of parents who would best help to teach (or conversely, to learn) the lessons to better that soul's evolution. The Survival of the Soul is a spectacular guide for expanding your ideas about how lucid dreams, out of body experiences, spirit communication, and other phenomena are connected to the human personality beyond death. Though you may not agree with every detail, reading this book with an open mind may just bring to light many of the facets of the spirit world your intuition has already nudged you toward. Perhaps that in itself is a lesson for your soul.

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Lisa Williams writes about a fascinating subject: what happens to our souls when we die? Does life end when we die? Lisa explains everything with the help of her spirit guides, and if you choose to believe, it's an incredibly uplifting book about what it means to live and love while we're in our physical form on earth. It also provides a great deal of comfort to those who have lost loved ones and wonder if they are happy and at peace.
This is a great book for fans of Sylvia Browne, or anyone who is curious about the human soul, what drives us, and how we are all put on earth to learn lessons and advance our souls in their knowledge of God and the other side. This review was posted on Goodreads on 5/3/11