***This book was reviewed for Reader’s Favourite. ***

 

I found A Spirit in Motion by Aaron J Schieding to be quite an interesting read. This non-fiction book investigates the notion of the human soul and afterlife beliefs. While it was an enjoyable read, I was a little disgruntled at first to find that it focused mainly on the book religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Other spiritual beliefs were mentioned briefly during relevant sections, but for the most part those three were the main focus. It wasn’t until I was twenty-seven percent of the way through my Kindle copy that the author mentioned these would be his main focus. It was partly my fault for assuming. The topic is, of course, too broad and needed to be narrowed down. It would have been nice to see more earth/pagan spiritualities represented on a more frequent basis.

The book was broken into several chapters, each with their own specialised sub-topic, ranging from origins of human souls, to varied concepts of the afterlife, to discussing whether animals go to ‘heaven, to ghosts and entities that may be mistaken for ghosts of the deceased, and everything between. I loved the fact that the book was dedicated to Nikolai Tesla. Many of the anecdotes and stories really made me stop and think. I particularly enjoyed a story in the chapter ‘Tears in the Rain’ about rain being a part of a person til the person dies, then the water would rejoin the essential flow of Mother Ocean. It helped me clarify my own personal spiritual beliefs that we all have a bit of others, most especially our ancestors, within us, and when we pass on, our essence returns to the essence of the One enriched by our life experiences.

    I did feel that, at times, the writing seemed too simplistic. I believe this may be more a case of a reader bias as I have a PhD in philosophy and am more used to considering such topics in a weightier fashion. I did note that the author uses exclamations more than is probably necessary.

   All in all, Schieding’s A Spirit in Motion is worth the read if you have an interest in the beliefs surrounding the human soul, and the afterlife.