Ernest Kiwele

A modern classic written with heart and reason

Revisado: 02-16-25

I'm betting that almost everyone reading this review already has their own opinion of Bob Peterson's book; and that's because it has been available for decades and has generously answered the basic Internet searches on OBEs. That's why I won't mention much of my view on the book.

The one facet I'd personally like to highlight is that the book seems to be a response to a calling to share. This is a precious, vocational action that, with humility and method, reflects the spiritual fruits that the author himself was gathering from the transformation, and at the same time it provides an original structure amid a tediously uniform literature.
The narration brings a new dimension of life to the content.

As for the book itself, it's both pictorial and philosophical; it zooms in and it zooms out. And just as Monroe's first book, it knows the questions to ask and asks questions of the known, sometimes hastily, as would be dictated by the beauty of an eager, open, growing, and evolving spiritual being.

Thanks for having written this book, for having made it available all the way, for the audio version. Thanks for wearing your soul.

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Mere research padded with largely useless content

Revisado: 01-20-25

The description and reviews of the book made it highly promising; but this ended up disappointing me. I wouldn't say that the book in itself is bad, but the combination of its description, introduction's premises, and actual content results in remarkably poor material.

The author sets out to guide entrepreneurs growing bootstrapped businesses from his experience building his SaaS application. He writes a litany of "do this" and "don't do this" on the "crucial" selection of a niche, the steps from finding one's audience to crafting a product and everything in-between.

This is all good, except that he wants to refer to his experience building his product as an illustration while the large majority of his dos and donts do not apply to his experience. He'd make you think that you have to be laser-focused in the selection of your niche whereas his niche "happened". He'd have you believe that you have to learn and carefully do your market research, including talking to your customer, consulting with industry experts, etc., while his own business started with a simple realization of an opportunity.
Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to be opportunistic in business; I'm saying that it's a little disingenuous for an author to invoke experience that doesn't back the "guidelines" he's giving. We can all admire the evidently deep research that has gone into the book preparation, but please don't claim to be using your experience to guide others. This is the very thing that disheartens future entrepreneurs as we're being fed academic literature that does nothing but raise perceived entry barriers.

In other words, I am sure that if this author had read his own book before starting his business, he would have believed that developing his product was doomed and he wouldn't have made it to the first line of code.

Other than that, there's a lot of superfluous content. This is a business book, so the author's experience as a technical person only constitutes one tangential lens. If guidance should be given on technical aspects, then a book on architecture or architecture for SaaS should be given. if it's included in this book, it should at least enable the reader on critical characteristics of technical choices affecting the bottom line, rather than some random common sense, best practices ideas that belong in tech blog posts.

Narrator isn't bad, but the audio quality is unstable, one would think that the bit rate significantly goes down at times.

Something about this disappointment overcame my normal reluctance to leave negative reviews. I'm even unable to finish the book.

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This is a treasure in so many ways

Revisado: 02-22-24

I am filled with gratitude after finding this book. How essential the topic of experience and consciousness is will leave most of us in awe, the irony of it being practically unknown and unexplored is great.

Finding a book or any other type of work that embraces the current state of knowledge and open-mindedly and unapologetically espouses questions as a valuable tool on the way to evolving understanding is quite an undertaking. I was so relieved to discover that the author did not put on the hat of those who seek "precise explanations of facts" after getting engaged to a given paradigm. If many journeys took this approach, many destinations would be behind us by now.

There are many things to ponder in this book and a good job is done to bring some pattern to reasoning about experience and the nature of being as it applies to our interaction with what's known as reality. These concepts are close to ineffable and I suspect the author recognized that fact when deciding to break the analysis down into bite-sized perspectives and areas of experience.

You won't agree on each conclusion. I didn't. The highest value, though, will be a map that can be followed to explore facets of experience in order to analyze their relation to the "I". "Map" is a word that equally applies to the numerous resources that the book points at for anyone who needs to explore more.

I find this to be one of those rare books that are not limited as those written by the neuroscientist next door, while at the same time being practical enough to try to demystify much of the hazy, up in the air experiences from all sorts of metaphysical sources. Truly a gem.

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A perceptive reflection

Revisado: 08-20-23

There's the NDE story, there's the analysis of its effect on the author's life, and there's the detailed exploration of lessons she received while out of the physical body.

The author makes an evident effort to spread the key value of her experience: the insight her non-physical teacher shared with her. These lessons seem to be admirably integrated into her awareness and are the main catalyst of her transformation, starting with her recovery after the accident.
Because she focuses on sharing that insight, the book is consequently structured: the story is dished piecemeal to the reader, each section coming with a reflection intended to bring it home for us. You may find this approach to be a little didactic. While not preachy, it is a bit insistent.

If you've read Moorjani's book, you'll find a lot of echoes here along many dimensions.

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esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Please redo this and skip the references

Revisado: 03-27-22

This is clearly an excellent book, but the narration is killing it for me. I've tried to be deaf to the numbers read after every other sentence, but they're too distracting and make it impossible to follow the content.

Making a new recording of the book (or editing those bits out) would doubtlessly be for the greater good.

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esto le resultó útil a 6 personas

Essential read for all honest learners

Revisado: 01-31-22

I was led to this and other, philosophy-of-science-like, books when I started feeling more and more unsettled by scientific views and editorials on a number of topics. The "scientific" materialistic views themselves don't seem to be a problem to me, not only because views are clearly paradigm-bound, but also because in a sense they're a result of potentially the most sophisticated system of knowledge today.

What has been triggering me is the authority what is popularly called science has been arrogating. The more I read, the more it seems that organized science is becoming less and less unlike a form of official truth, which is not bad, but belongs better with religion and political systems.

In such a position, I find it very edifying to learn more about science as a practice and a method (it shouldn't be much more than that), and Rupert's book sheds a lot of light in that direction. I think skepticism about science is as healthy as it is about any other topic.

This book explores a number of assumptions taken for granted. It's understandable that it upsets many. Those who aren't devout "skeptics", though, will find in it a source of light that helps bring about a better perspective of science.

The reason I'm not giving this a 5 is that the book is a little distracted. Rupert brings up his own theory as alternative explanations where current materialistic approaches don't fit, and that of course triggers my own doubts. I don't think his theory is wrong (I haven't read it), I just think that it does not belong in this book. The greatest value of this book is the questions it poses, not answers it may propose.

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Worth the credit, but hard to classify

Revisado: 08-03-21

If you're drawn to this book by the consciousness exploration theme, you'd better note that there's more here than just that. It's the author's memoir, among other things. Perhaps the most extraneous part of the book is the focus on the author's religious organization and its leader.


Beside the above, the author presents his spiritual journey from early age, including the questions that drove it. He'll eventually realize that OBEs are one reliable way to obtain answers to his questions. From there, you're going to listen to extracts from the OBE journal and pick up on the influence by Buhlman and Monroe. There's very little guidance on how to achieve these experiences, and that may be a good thing depending on how much one has already learned.


The narration is probably the best part of the book. Both narrators are excellent, although the lady only participates by narrating introductory sections.

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Full of information - recording could be better

Revisado: 01-13-21

I hesitated before picking this one up, as I've developed quite a sensitive BS detector given the prevalence of vapid content the genre is rife of.

When I started listening, though, I simply couldn't stop. 12 hours after I downloaded the book, I finished listening to its 9-hour-long content.

This impression will surely be different for each listener based on what they're looking for or what they've listened to in the past, but I personally found this book very refreshing in what it presents as information and how it does so. It begins with a brief-ish introduction of concepts related to non-physical theories. I greatly appreciated how much the author cares to include references of material that was used to learn related concepts (and I already know my next listen thanks to this).

The other positive trait of this book is the level of detail to which it goes in relating the author's experiences. The sheer number of experiences told in the book is of a richness that delights the listener. The telling of these experiences is of the kind you get from an observer, and not from an experiencer loading you with vivid imagery. In other words, you'll hear more of what the author planned, achieved, and evolved rather than how radiant the light or movements felt over and over.

The author seems like a spiritually active person that learned from many big names in the genre, including R.A. Monroe whose legacy he references many times - to my satisfaction.

If you've listened to many books in the category and became tired after waiting for the next, different book, you'll surely love this one. It also has a short list of how-to's for those interested. And the interesting bit is that even short as it is, this list has items that I heard for the first time here - really worth it.

The only one thing I'd change here is the recording, especially the first few minutes, which noticeably deviate from the usual HQ audible content with somehow uneven volumes as though the reader were moving their head while using a fixed microphone. The narration is good, but the recording can be improved. Also, please attach pictures of the drawings in a PDF!!

I wish I had regularly published books written like this one, books that excite and turn me on on many fronts at the same time. Thank you very much for taking the time to share these experiences and to do so in a way that also sets the listener on a new journey of learning.

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Meet your thoughtful, unassuming educator

Revisado: 04-10-20

I know this will sound subjective, but I hold in high regard authors who masterfully manage the delivery of their book's technical content, the pace and style in which that's done, and at the same time impress on you the key points you must remember to be in the right mindset; while at the same time avoiding a technical, dictionary-like, information dump on the reader.

Tina's writing style and content structure gave me the impression that I was learning from a mentor as opposed to learning from a school teacher that's following some curriculum. The material covers what one needs to develop as skills, what state of mind one needs to adopt, what critical elements and pitfalls to be aware of at all costs. And this is done without assumptions of beliefs or attempts to forcefully push concepts on you. You are you, what's true is universal, and your role to play in it can't be denied; you own, nurture, and develop it.

I'm a non-expert in all of this material, but I have read enough books to be able to recognize one that's been thoughtfully written. I appreciated very much the skill, generosity, and humility with which this book was written. Thanks for writing this from your experience... and from your heart.

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Masterful!!

Revisado: 07-08-18

You may need to be open-minded to be welcoming to the message of this book... But you don't need that to realize how expertly it's been transmitted.

Wayne Dyer has some of the best ways of making it easy for you to get the message, to agree, or to disagree. I respect this very much and hope more authors like him bless us with their mind and heart...

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