David Fontana (1934–2010)

This is a beautiful album with coloured illustrations and their explanations in cultures from around the world. The author doesn't pretend to cover all symbols or all their interpretations, but this book serves as a great introduction to the most common types of symbols from simple ones (colours, animals) to complex systems (Tarot, Chakras). As well, while there is a definite effort to have a global perspective, the author mostly concentrates on Europe, India and China.
I usually give away show more all my books, I will be keeping this one as it makes a lovely reference. show less

Has an interesting array of information, though it doesn't go into much depth, being a simple survey. It is organized a bit haphazardly, though it does have both an index and a table of contents, so this is not a huge issue. The book itself is large and beautiful to look at, and serves itself best as a coffee table book, though if you're looking for something for serious research, you may want to look elsewhere.

“There is no doubt in my mind,” says Fontana, “that the question of whether or not we live after death is by far the most important that faces us.” Surely we are more than merely biological accidents with nothing more to motivate us beyond the struggle to remain alive. Luckily, the back cover promises, “After reading [this book] and assessing the evidence, there can no longer be any doubt that there is life after death.”

As far as I’m aware, this is the most exhaustive study show more ever on the afterlife. 496 large-size, small-print pages. The sheer volume of evidence would appear overwhelming, except that the majority of the book is about mediumship. I was a bit disappointed in this focus, but Fontana lists “Professor of Transpersonal Psychology,” “Vice President of the Society for Psychical Research,” and “Fellow of the British Psychological Society” among his credentials, so his primary focus should come as no surprise.

There are other topics, including apparitions, hauntings, near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, and studies of reincarnation, but they receive comparatively little attention. One chapter summarizes the findings of what the afterlife must be like; whether we will sleep, enjoy sex, become wiser, retain our individuality, interests, memories … if you’re curious, Fontana concludes that in the afterlife you’re going to be pretty much the same person as you were in this life.

Overall, I found the book unconvincing, but I’ll try to include some reviews shortly of other books on the topic that I found more fascinating. show less

This work refers to meditation as traveling. The author addresses such basics as beginning, finding the time and positions to use. For the major part of the book, he explores using the breath as the focus. Later he reviews other methods of travel, such as color, sound, pictures, mandalas and yantras. A list of references for further reading is included.