Author: Susan Barbara Apollon

Publisher: Matters Of The Soul

ISBN: 0975403648

The following review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Editor of Bookpleasures &CLICK TO VIEW  Norm Goldman's Reviews:

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Susan Apollon, author of Touched by the Extraordinary: An Intuitive Psychologist Shares Insights, Lessons, and True Stories of Spirit and Love to Transform and Heal the Soul has for the past twenty years worked as a psychotherapist, psychologist, and healer, treating children and adults who are traumatized, diagnosed with cancer or other life-threatening illnesses, dealing with death and dying, and those who are grieving.

Touched by the Extraordinary is an incredible book: a fully gripping read that provides us with an overview and window into the world of the paranormal and extraordinary, presented in a painless format, devoid of esoteric terminology.

As Apollon mentions in her Prologue, it required more than ten years of research to write the book.  This labor of love, as she terms it, relies heavily on the writings of some of the leading experts on extraordinary and paranormal phenomena, such as Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Dr. Melvin Morse, and Dr. Raymond Moody, whom Apollon has referred to as her mentors.

The author’s thorough investigation of a subject that has up to very recently remained on the periphery of the world of main stream Medicine and Psychology exudes a frankness and intelligence that will perhaps influence skeptics to reconsider their positions.  

The handbook, as Apollon refers to it, divides itself into two sections, the first providing the readers with an exposé of the basic terminology and theories pertaining to the paranormal and the second contains a collection of unique and exceptional encounters that have been personally experienced by the author or others that have shared these happenings with her. 

The reader is confronted with some soul-searching topics to consider on many levels such as the legitimacy of near- death experiences, visions, automatic writing, precognition, communication with the dead, angles, miracles, animal behavior and humans, intuitive wisdom, prayer, presence of deceased love ones, distant healing. All of these topics make for a compelling read, as Apollon provides us with insights into subject matters that are often suspect and rejected as gobbledygook, as they represent a new way of understanding and healing the human spirit.

Apollon also devotes considerable ink to the concept that the mind is “nonlocal” or is not connected to any particular place (the brain), time (the present), and space (the body). As she states: “borrowed from the research of the quantum physicists, the idea that the mind is nonlocal is a beautiful way of making sense of precognitive experiences.”

The objective of the stories contained in the second part, as the author states, is not only to “normalize” the extraordinary, at least to some extent, but also to enable the skeptics to have a more open mind and heart and to be more acceptable to the possibility of the impossible being possible.

It is within this second section where we read the stories from Women of 9/11, extraordinary encounters with animals and with deceased parents and relatives, prayers that were answered,  and many more difficult- to -believe happenings. Should we cast aside these stories as a being figments of one’s imagination and trivialize them? Or should we reconsider them in the light of some of the convincing evidence exposed in the book and the teachings of many renowned experts in the field?

From another perspective, and as Apollon points out, the extraordinary touches us on many levels that force us to pause and ask questions regarding the nature of life and death, life after death, as well as the meaning and purpose of life. Consequently, should we not reflect upon these happenings in a way that will help us understand who we are at the level of the soul?

This book is well worth the journey into the realm of the paranormal, and will surely keep you questioning your existence and what is life all about?