Barker - Letters from the Afterlife: A Guide to the Other Side

LETTERS
FROM THE
AFTERLIFE

Beyond Words Publishing, Inc.

20827 N.W. Cornell Road, Suite 500

Hillsboro, Oregon 97124-9808

503-531-8700
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Foreword and afterword copyright 1995 by Kathy Hart Cover and interior design copyright 2004 by Beyond Words Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No copyrighted part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of Beyond Words Publishing, Inc., except where permitted by law.

Cover Design: Jerry Soga

Interior Design: Principia Graphica

Composition: William H. Brunson Typography Services

Printed in the United States of America

Distributed to the book trade by Publishers Group West

The corporate mission of Beyond Words Publishing, Inc.:
Inspire to Integrity

eISBN: 978-1-4516-5433-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hatch, David Patterson, 1846-1912 (Spirit)
[Letters from a living dead man]
Letters from the light : an afterlife journal from the self-lighted world / [channelled by] Elsa Barker ; foreword and afterword by Kathy Hart,
p. cm.

Originally published: Letters from a living dead man.

London : W. Rider, 1914.

ISBN 1-58270-121-0

1. Spirit writings. 2. Future lifeMiscellanea. I. Barker, Elsa, 1869-1954. II. Title.

BF1301.B3 2004

133.93dc20 94-43637
CIP

The republication of these letters
is dedicated to all those
who are ready to enjoy the freedom
and unlimited potential of eternal life

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Certain precious books have changed my life. Few have done so more profoundly than this one.

As so often happens with valuable information, the book came to me when I most needed to read it. At the time, I was approaching forty and going through a period of disillusionment that was wracking me both emotionally and physically. A dear friend, Laura Riley, sympathizing with my precarious state, loaned me the book in a particularly dire hour of need. I credit her and the author for significantly altering the course of my life.

The story of how the book reached me is as uncanny as how it came to be written in the first place. Phil Ginolfi was seventeen years old in 1965 when he came across the book in a Victorian-building-turned-used-bookstore in Stamford, Connecticut. The book made a tremendous impact on me, Phil told me. It became one of my most treasured possessions. Then, in 1972, when Phil was living in Darian, a longtime friend visiting from Miami asked to borrow the book. I was reluctant to part with it, but since he was a long and trusted friend, I couldnt refuse him. The friend took the book with him back to Miami. Three months later, his car was stolen, with the book in the trunk.

Four years passed. Phil was driving through Northhampton, Massachusetts, when he noticed a Victorian-house-turned-used-bookstore. It had the same feeling about it as the bookstore in Stamford, Phil explained, so I decided to go in. I walked in the door and straight down the hallway. I didnt stop to ask directions; I just went down the hall, turned a corner into a small back room, lifted my arm and reached out for a book. It was the same copy of Letters that had been stolen four years earlier in Miami.

That was in 1976. I knew I had been directed to have that book, but I didnt understand why, Phil went on. Several years later I moved to California, where I met a woman named Laura Riley. Eventually she read the book, and later asked if she could loan it to a friendyou. After you read the book and told me you wanted to republish it, I knew why I had found the booktwiceand why I had held on to it all those years.

Phil was seventeen when he first read Letters. I was nearly forty. I didnt believe in reincarnation; I didnt believe in God or any kind of higher intelligence; and despite my protestations to the contrary, I feared death deeply. Certainly I did not believe that the dead could speak through the living.

What I find most remarkable about these letters is that one does not have to believe in channeling to appreciate the wisdom so eloquently put forth by the writerwhomever he or she may be. Whether they are the words of a deceased judge speaking through Elsa Barker, or whether they came from Elsa Barkers subconscious or from another source altogether, they provide an inspiring perspective on death and on life that both mitigates our fears of dying and impels us to live to the fullest.

Immediately after reading the book, I had two responses: I wanted everyone I knew to read it, and I wanted a copy of my own. This second ambition, I realized, would be no easy one to achieve. Letters was originally published in 1914; surely it was long out of print. I wrote to an out-of-print-book-finding service in New Jersey. After six months, the company wrote to say it had found a copy.

When the book arrived, however, it turned out to be not the one I had ordered but a sequel. In the second volume of Letters, published in 1915, the deceased correspondent, referred to only as X in the original volume, is identified, and there is included in the book a photograph of the Honorable Judge David Patterson Hatch. (See the Afterword on pages 269-76 for photographs and biographical information on Judge Hatch and Elsa Barker.)

Over the next several years, I made various attempts to find a publisher for the letters, without success. Then in 1987, I met Michael MacMacha and had my first experience with a living channel. Michael gave voice to a spiritual grande dame named Evangeline whose wise counsel on many subjects impressed me greatly. I decided to have a private consultation with Michael/ Evangeline, to ask about the republication of Letters. Evangelines response was direct:

I know of this book, she said. Its a very important book, and it should be republished. And you will be the one to have it republished. But now is not the time. There are many channeled books coming out right now, and not all of them are genuine. Wait a while. Youll know when the time is right, because it will happen easily.

I was with my friend and mentor Arnold Patent at the American Booksellers convention in Los Angeles in May of 1994 when I met Cynthia Black and Richard Cohn, owners of Beyond Words Publishing. When they agreed to republish Arnolds books, I asked them if they would be interested in Letters. After reading the book, they said yes, and the republication process has been happening easily ever since.

Except for the title, the book remains essentially the same as the original 1914 edition. I used American rather than British spellings; I omitted one short letter in the beginning whose subject matter was more clearly and elaborately explained in a later letter; I deleted several brief passages that seemed to me to obstruct the flow of the book; and I changed a few words whose connotations today mean something slightly different from what they implied more than eighty years ago. As a professional editor for many years, I am confident I would have the approval of Judge Hatch and Elsa Barker in making these minor modifications.

My purpose in republishing Letters is perfectly reflected by Ms. Barker in her introduction to the book. She writes: The effect of these letters on me personally has been to remove entirely any fear of death which I may ever have had, to strengthen my belief in immortality, to make the life beyond the grave as real and vital as the life here in the sunshine. If they can give even to one other person the sense of exultant immortality which they have given to me, I shall feel repaid for my labor.