Echo Bodine - How to Live a Happily Ever Afterlife: Stories of Trapped Souls and How Not to Become One

Copyright 2022 by Echo Bodine

Foreword copyright 2022 by Chip Coffey

All rights reserved. No part of this publication 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 permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

Cover design by Kathryn Sky-Peck

Cover art by iStock

Interior by Timm Bryson, em em design, LLC

Typeset in Adobe Jenson Pro

Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc.

Charlottesville, VA 22906

Distributed by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

www.redwheelweiser.com

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ISBN: 978-1-64297-038-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Printed in the United States of America

IBI

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

I would like to dedicate this book
to my very dear friend, Chris LaFontaine.

You have been the glue in my life for many lifetimes
and I can never thank you enough for all the ways
that you've helped me and taught me.

I love you, buddy.

Dear Echo

Echoes of the Soul

The Gift

Hands That Heal

The Key

The Little Book of True Ghost Stories

Look for the Good and You'll Find God

My Big Book of Healing

A Still, Small Voice

Things I Wish I'd Known When I Got Started

What Happens When We Die

First and foremost, I have to thank my brother, Michael Bodine, for helping me remember some of these stories. It was fun going back in time to some of the ghost adventures we've shared. Thank goodness for his nine-years-younger memory. It's getting a bit foggy in this old brain of mine.

Second, I can't imagine where this book would be without my amazing editor, Chris LaFontaine. He can take any of my goofily (sp?) written sentences and turn them into something beautiful. Thank you so much, my friend, for the work you've put into this book.

Third, thanks to my two poetsJeff Larson, who wrote the opening poem and the epigraphs for each chapter, and my dear friend Melissa Anderson, who wrote the charming piece at the end of the book. Special thanks to Jeff for his unwavering support throughout the writing of this book.

And finally, thanks to my new publisher, Michael Pye, for accepting the book, and to my former publisher, Greg Brandenburgh, just for being you.

I vividly and fondly remember meeting Echo Bodine for the first time many years ago at a convention in Minnesota. I knew of her and her work, so I was giddy with excitement to have the opportunity to meet her in person.

As I walked into the vendor area on the first morning of the convention, I noticed Echo standing across the room speaking to several people. Can you believe that I felt too timid to walk over and meet her? Luckily, Dave Schrader, the host of the event, approached me to say good morning, and I asked him to introduce me to Echo.

I tried my very best not to geek out when Dave made the introduction, but, despite my best efforts, I blurted out: Oh, my God! It's Echo frickin' Bodine! Immediately, I felt incredibly embarrassed, but Echo graciously laughed and shook my hand. My heart was racing!

I felt as if I were in the presence of royalty. And, in a manner of speaking, indeed, I was. Echo Bodine is, undisputedly, a living legend in the spiritual community. Spending time with her that weekend was pure delight. I found her to be beautiful, brilliant, and charminga total goddess. And, as fate would have it, we became friends.

Through the years, I have been asked countless times by my clients how they can enhance their own psychic abilities. And without hesitation, I suggest that they read Echo's books The Gift and A Still, Small Voice. In my opinion, those books alone provide a master class in psychic development.

When Echo asked me to write the foreword for How to Live A Happily Ever Afterlife, I felt so honored and excited. In this book, she tackles a topic that troubles most of us. She attacks difficult questions like what happens after we die and what the afterlife is really like. From her own perspective, Echo shares intimate insights that she has garnered from Spirit about life after death. This book is compelling, thought-provoking, and comforting.

If you ever have the good fortune to meet (or have already met) Echo Bodine, you will agree with everything that I have said above. She is absolutely magical!

And, if you are really lucky, you will have the pleasure of feasting on the indescribably delicious cookies that she lovingly makes. Take it from me, they are heavenly.

I adore you, Echo frickin' Bodine!

CHIP COFFEY,
AUTHOR OF GROWING UP PSYCHIC

The lights along Lake of the Isles

Through the mist of a late October night

Remind me of an early autumn fog

Along the streets of London, a century ago.

I'm not sure how I know this, but I know

I feel it with such certainty, and see it all so clearly

Like the large bakery windows and the scent of fresh-baked bread

That filled the morning street on the lane where we all lived.

Do all our thoughts and feelings ripple across time, flowing from one century to the next?

Are we old souls with little left to learn, or young souls thrilled to walk within this realm?

Perhaps we are or have been both, for journeys often end where they begin.

How like the mist, how subtle is the veil, how brief and yet how certain is the pause

That exists between one lifetime and the next.

Do we stand with Saint Peter or Saint Paul in distant heaven, there among the clouds,

And speak of what we learned and how we've grown, and then decide if we'll return again?

Or can we choose to stay in heaven's realm and join our voices with the song of angels?

In the shadows, in the hollow of the night, there among the broken and the bold,

The poets hear echoes through the corridor of time, and ask themselves:

Is this Lord Byron, returning to repeat the thoughts and feelings and actions of a writer from a far more gentle age?

Or is it Dylan Thomas, salt and stone, whose eyes reflect the darkness of the sea,

Scrolling lines immortal upon a Swansea hill as the sun rises slowly in the east?

And other voices ask: Have I returned to raise my voice again, to say, I Have a Dream,

Or join hands as we cross the bridge at Selma?

To rush from the boat onto the beach at Normandy, or plant the flag on Iwo Gima hill?

Or have I come to speak for bold Voltaire,

Who, legend says, accepted God with his dying breath

And so, with those few words, lying on his death bed, turned philosophy onto its head?

The phantom of the opera and the spirit of Shakespeare stand on the edge of the ending of time