A Way through the Wood

	Book review on Our pathway of Being by Jenny Masefield (2010) Reviewed by David Fontana, 2011 published in Network Review No 106
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In his Foreword David Lorimer writes that the author 'poses the very questions that readers themselves will want to explore, and answers them through the texts selected from a wide variety of sources'.  He goes on to tell us that these sources are drawn from all the main religious traditions of the world, together with some of the mystery traditions.    This is an excellent brief introduction to what the book is about, and to the kind of help and guidance it is likely to offer the reader.

Essentially, Jenny Masefield follows what we might term a paper trail, a trail that does indeed, as David Lorimer tells us, take in exerts from texts drawn from all the major religious traditions of the world.  She allows one exert to lead to another in a way that makes for fascinating and illuminating reading.  Each of the exerts, which are interleaved with the author's own observations and conclusions, contributes towards the construction of a view of reality that goes far beyond the restricted picture presented to us by so much of material science.  The reader can follow this paper trail piece by piece throughout the book, or use the book as excellent reference material, dipping into the various chapters in response to his or her particular interests.  Either way, many readers will want to keep the book handy and dip into it frequently to stimulate interest and new ideas.

The ground covered by Jenny Masefield includes reincarnation, karma and its consequences, chosen lives in childhood, spirits and inspiration, mediums and their messages, possession, out-of body experiences, death and dying, afterlife judgement, the early levels of the afterlife, and finally the concept of God.  It is fair to say that the author's own interests and perhaps belief systems are very much apparent in the selection of these areas and of the texts relevant to them, and equally fair to say that not every reader will agree with her selection.  Many of the areas involved raise highly contentious issues, and in choosing them and dealing with them the author tends to take the truth of her texts as read rather than to attempt any critical appraisal of them.  In my view this does detract somewhat from the value of the book.  Certainly her chosen texts remind us of the importance of debating the arguments for the reality of such things as reincarnation and chosen lives and the fruits of karma, but so much in the spiritual life (including afterlife experiences) is influenced by the individual's cultural background, and so much depends upon how we interpret the wealth of (often conflicting) evidence available to us.

For example, an extensive survey that two SPR colleagues and I carried out into mediumship some years ago revealed that at least half our sample reported they had never received evidence from spirit communicators in favour of reincarnation.  Having worked with mediums for some 40 years, I have also found some of them make clear that if they were not alert to the possibility, they could easily misinterpret memories retained by spirit communicators from their life on earth as memories of past lives of their own.  In addition, some of these communicators have informed mediums they have 'never heard' of reincarnation.  Others have suggested reincarnation is a matter of choice, while others have claimed it is only possible from the lower levels of the afterlife, where some individuals are only too anxious to rush back into material existence.    None of this provides us with a conclusive argument against reincarnation, but it does demonstrate that the picture may be very much more varied and complex than at first sight appears - a picture that becomes even more complex if we taken into account the almost exponential increase in world population.

Similarly, the concept of karma may have seemed to make good sense in past centuries, when populations were much smaller and less geographically mobile than they are now, making it possible for individuals to encounter repeated patterns of experience that appeared to offer opportunities for past-life mistakes to be redressed.  However, our highly complex, over-populated, rapidly changing, and socially and geographically mobile world make it difficult to see how a straight karmic relationship from lifetime to lifetime could operate.  Such variables clearly upset the social order in which karma, at least in its usually understood form, could be the general rule of life. 

Arguments could also be raised against other areas of the book, but such arguments do not detract from the book's highly stimulating and thought-provoking nature.  Full of ideas, bright with scholarship and for the most part well-written, it inevitably leaves the reader wanting to debate with the author, an experience that would doubtless be as rewarding as the book itself.  For these various reasons I rate this book highly, and recommend it strongly.  It is a valuable and important addition to the literature, and I congratulate the author on her achievement. 

David Fontana is the author of 'Is There an Afterlife?' and 'Beyond Death'.  He was a professor of psychology and former President of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR).

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