“I know it was the hand of God that saved me,” Audette writes early in this account of divine intervention, a book surveying seven of his own near-death experiences (NDEs), each involving an angelic encounter, plus testimonials from others who have faced NDEs, practical steps to help readers arrive at their own epiphanies, and bold conclusions about what can be concluded from this evidence. Audette, the principal founder of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, attests that Loved by the Light offers the soul-stirring “truth about the reality of God and continuation of consciousness after death of the physical body.” The promise made by the title is heartening: Audette and his testifiers report that, where life and death met, they felt great love in the light—a love so profound it felt “like they have never experienced love before.”

Not that Audette is given to sweeping conclusions. A logic-minded, even “dispassionate” hospital and hospice administration executive, Audette considered himself an agnostic up until the time that the “compelling evidence” for God’s existence and the persistence of consciousness became so “overpowering and undeniable” he found no other conclusion possible. It’s up to readers whether the accounts collected here of NDEs and angelic intervention prove persuasive, but Audette writes these mysterious, often harrowing moments with power, humility, and shivery small details, like the Beatles’ “Drive My Car” playing just after Audette realizes something beyond us had taken the wheel and saved his life.

Seekers and believers will relish other urgently told stories that touch on communication with loved ones who have died, as well as other moments of spiritual connection. Audette proselytizes for no established doctrine, beyond that promise of love, and sees in these experiences the potential to move humanity beyond “materialism, dualism, dogma and egocentrism.” Thought experiments and practical exercises like his “God for a Day” challenge offer an encouraging path for finding personal resonance and meaning in experiences like those Audette lays out.

Takeaway: The near-death experiences that convinced an agnostic that God is real and loving.

Great for fans of: Bruce Greyson’s After, Michael Newton’s Journey of Souls.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A