Joseph A. Phelps

Counterpoint Joseph A. Phelps

I think I can peg what I might call the beginnings of my own 'Spiritual Journey' around age 40 on a sunny day on Ramstein air base in Germany. A squadron barbecue. An overabundance of pork ribs, baked beans and sauerkraut and a huge discomfort in my chest afterwards. I called it indigestion. Seeking medical attention at the base hospital, the duty doctor thought he'd a case of a heart attack on his hands and shipped me forthwith to the 2d General Army Hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. The bumpy journey over cobble-stoned streets underscored the possibility that on this particular day the odds were that I was going to die. A very difficult realization to handle considering the fact that this eventuality was one I feared with all my heart. Imagine my absolute surprise at my sudden total acceptance of that possibility, the moment I was unloaded from the ambulance. Acceptancemeaning that all fear of death and dying poured from my psyche like water from an upended tumbler. In fact, in that moment, I literally and totally embraced the idea and felt an absolute joy in the knowledge of it. Suddenly, as James Van Praagh has since put it, that stretcher and the waiting gurney the emergency ER Team that awaited my arrival became 'My Way Home'and I was absolutely thrilled to be able to exit the earth plane. That experience took place over 40 years ago. I haven't forgotten it. Since then, I've had my psyche jolted from time by other human beings I've met who are also dearly afraid of Death and dying. And so this book. A novelwritten in the guise of a love story gone awry, with a touch of metaphysics and sex; of greed, murder and frequent forays into the Other Sidefor those of my fellow travelers on the earth plane who continue to be afraid of outcomes when their personal Maggie's drawers are waved and Death comes calling!The hope is that they too will be smiling in lieu of grimacing when the end of their time on earth has come. They'll seek surcease in that tunnel which takes them h