How My Bad-Boy Brother Proved to Me There’s Life After Death

Book Review

This was a fun book to read, quite different from other books about life after death. The author, Annie Kagan, writes about her own experience of receiving messages from her recently deceased brother Billy. Annie was not a medium or psychic, and was quite skeptical about these communications from the other side. As a matter of fact at first she thought she might be going crazy, so she asked Billy to send her signs to prove that this experience was real.

Billy was in his 60’s when he died suddenly in a motor vehicle accident, but he had been estranged from the family for quite some time. Billy had been in trouble most of his life, developing a drug addiction early on. His parents considered him to be a bad influence on his much younger sister, Annie, so they did their best to keep them apart.

But despite Billy’s troubles in life, he actually had a good heart. During the times of his life when he was sober, not using, and not in jail, he actually ran a drug rehabilitation program trying to help others avoid the pain and suffering he had experienced. Billy had also begun to study some new age spiritual beliefs.

Annie’s Life

You might say that Annie had been going through a bit of a mid-life crisis about the time that Billy died. She had separated from her husband and was living alone on Long Island, trying to get her own life sorted out. Although they were separated, she and her husband still had a friendly relationship. Annie had a weekly writing group that she met with, although she had never written a book before and was not expecting to because she was a songwriter.

When Billy started to come to her he asked her to write everything down. Her descriptions of their communication are very entertaining, especially because she doesn’t want to accept that these experiences are real. At the same time she can’t deny the reality of how it feels to communicate with the other side, as well as all the proofs that Billy sends her. Meanwhile, Billy is telling her about everything he is experiencing as he transitions through different levels and stages of the afterlife.

Realms of the Heart, Mind and Spirit

As I progressed through the book I found it to be more and more reflective of what is sometimes called ‘New Age Spirituality’. Many descriptions from the spiritual side were similar to beliefs rooted in Hinduism (which is not new at all), as well as language from the current popular philosophical trends in spirituality. In other words, Billy’s experiences after death were quite different from the more Christian based near-death experiences I’ve read about. Different, yet there was also similarity.

It seemed that Billy went through a period of healing, then adjusting to his new form, followed by a period of reflection or viewing his earthly life. He did not experience judgment, only learning, growth, and unconditional love. His accounts are visually and emotionally very descriptive and his experiences range from what it feels like to not have a body, to meeting and falling in love with a goddess who guides him into a castle.

A true story, thought provoking and enjoyable.

For me it was a testament that what we believe follows us into the spiritual world. Billy was quite an open minded and non-judgmental guy himself. He desired freedom from a physical body that had experienced much pain and suffering. He also still wanted to fulfill his life’s dreams: to experience true love, to help people, and to write a book.