The Rainbow Bridge: Bridge to Inner Peace and to World Peace (4th ed.)

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“Thinking Big to Save Humanity”

Review by Joey Madia

Scanning the nine pages of blurbs at the start of this important handbook for making a difference in a dark and troubled world, you will immediately notice the names: His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Neale Donald Walsch, Arun Gandhi, Louis Gossett Jr., Ervin Laszlo, and Edgar Mitchell, among many others. This, and the fact that it is now in its fourth edition, creates big expectations for The Rainbow Bridge, and, to me, it meets them.

To those who have been doing social justice and spiritual work for any length of time—for me it is more than two decades—you will find the age-old wisdom very familiar and the continually quoted names to be in many ways your standard fare. In balance, however, with this abundance of the familiar are sections of the book that are very original, profound, and most importantly, ambitious. Perhaps some readers might even think they are naïve.

For this reason in and of itself, I highly recommend this book. Because they are not naïve, and the wisdom and quotes presented by the author, as familiar and ubiquitous as some of them are, are worth reading, over and over again, each and every day. Every chance we get. Because they do not only operate in the same manner as prayers, sutras, and koans—they are the fuel of Hope. And, in order to participate in the activities underway and recommended in The Rainbow Bridge, one must have abundant Hope. Continue reading →

Beyond Ever After: A Heart-to-Heart Journey Through Death and the Afterlife

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“A Love that Outlives Death”

Review by Joey Madia

Once upon a time, and to a horrific and violent degree, anyone who was able to mediate between a Higher Power (God, the Source, etc.) that was not sanctioned to do so by one of the established, patriarchal religions was subject to exile, imprisonment, or even execution. The witch trials and purges of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries went a long way toward weakening the remnants of the matriarchal society and strengthening the patriarchal system of medicine and religion that keeps personal experience of healing and understanding at arm’s length, regulated by Big Pharma and the fear of some eternal punishment in Hell.

Thankfully, we are living in a time when those with the ability to tap into the Source, the Superspectrum, the Field, God/Christ Consciousness, the Holographic Universe, or however you wish to term it, are no longer vilified to such a degree. On the contrary—they are sought out and consulted in increasing numbers for help with life insights, to help people make decisions at crucial times in their lives, with healing, and above all to aid in grieving the death of a loved one—up to and including serving as a channel through which that deceased loved one can communicate.

I am married to and work closely with a psychic medium who is also able to channel higher powers through automatic writing. Given our 24-year relationship and the hundreds of people she has helped with her gifts, I am always interested in learning about others who can communicate and mediate with those beings—formerly human and also nonhuman—that exist on different dimensions and whose vibrations and frequencies are much higher than ours. Continue reading →

Court of the Grandchildren

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“Pay Attention: This Could Happen”

Review by Joey Madia

What a fifteen-month journey it’s been. I have detailed the sociopolitical dog and pony show and all its many components in recent reviews of books about a dystopian future, so I won’t take the space to reiterate them here. Unless you are living in a cave at the top of some mountain—which would make it impossible to read this review—you know what they are.

As I wrote in those reviews, what seemed before March 2020 to be distant, to be able to be pushed away with a bit of Hope and dash of Belief that Humankind can get its act together, is closer than ever. This, in turn, means that dystopian writers—at least the talented ones—are giving us a handbook, a not-so-distant early warning, about what is almost assuredly to come.

Court of the Grandchildren certainly meets these criteria. Well written, with a variety of modes of information delivery that made it an excellent candidate for a stage play (which the authors took advantage of with a virtual staged reading of an adaptation they penned last year), this novel about the dual rise of flood waters due to climate change and AI as a dominant, directive force in people’s lives (even more so than now) is one you should not only read, but heed. Continue reading →

Turtle Crossing

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“Learning by Doing”

Review by Joey Madia

With a classic beginning—Once upon a time, there was a young turtle called Oliver”—this book for young listeners and readers is a journey of discovery and self-confidence written with a subtle energy that sets it squarely in the realm of the Coming of Age story. Illustrated by Marie Amelie Marquaire in soft pastels that perfectly complement the tone of the text, Turtle Crossing tells a tale of changes, challenges, and triumphs as our hero, Oliver, navigates his life with his mother and father.

Inquisitive and adventurous, Oliver is happy to learn what his parents, Ma and Pa Turtle, have to teach him, while finding simple pleasures in activities like his daily search for strawberries.

As many children face—often numerous times—Ma and Pa one day decide that what is best for the family is for them to move. As any of us are when faced with the uncertainty of change, Oliver is upset, despite his parents’ best efforts to calm him. They tell him of the venerable old turtle, great-great-great-grandfather the Scaly, whom they will now be living near and how much better their lives will be.

As one can imagine, Oliver, rather than thinking of the New, laments the loss of the Familiar, such as the strawberry patch.

Moving day comes, and the adventure at the core of the story begins. I do not want to spoil a bit of it for you, so suffice it to say that Oliver winds up getting separated from his parents during the journey, leading him to new opportunities to learn about the world between his former home and his new one and to discover his inner strength. Continue reading →

10 Little Frogs

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“Whatever You Wish to Be”

Review by Joey Madia

What if a shooting star sprinkled stardust on ten little frogs, sitting on a log, and each one got their wish?

This is the premise of this delightful homage to the “10 Little…” stories on which so many of us grew up. They combine repetition (which allows for reader participation), math, fun adventures, and a little bit of mystery—all core elements of the best books for children.

What I love most about 10 Little Frogs is that it lends itself to creative dramatics, a subfield of theatre focusing on bringing books to life with young audiences. As a creative dramatist for the past thirty years, this is exactly the kind of book that I love. One by one, as the frogs leave their log to live their wish, the audience—through the full-paged illustrations about which I will talk more soon—gets to see a different adventure or bit of creative expression. There is outdoor adventure (swimming, dog-walking, snake rodeo-riding, picnicking, sky diving, rose-smelling), creative arts (singing, baking, red-carpeting), and spiritual pursuits (gong-banging).

I hope that some of these descriptions peaked your attention, because the wishes are diverse and fun, and it will be interesting for you to see with which adventures your children, students, and other readers most identify. Continue reading →