My Review of The Last Frontier; Exploring the Afterlife and Transforming Our Fear of Death.

Imbibing Dr. Julia Assante’s uplifting book is like taking a shot of courage in the arm. If not now, when?

“The social fear of death traps us in a playing-it-safe existence in which we no longer actualize our inborn audacity to live up to our own ideals,” says Assante.

She shows us that a good hard look at our own mortality through facing the fears we have about death, our own and those loved ones who have previously departed, would generate more energized, radiance-filled lives, the ones we were born to enjoy.

Are you ready to challenge the many assumptions you have about life which you may accept, even unconsciously, as hard facts? If so, you are ready for the fascinating ride to The Last Frontier.

In this comprehensive scholarly and personal work, Dr. Julia Assante examines what happens after death, presenting the full data of historical and religious accounts, near-death experiences and after-death communication.

I found her evidence of discarnate existence and communication with the dead convincing, and the journey through this material as a pathway toward healing by overcoming deep-seated personal and societal grief, guilt and fear. Emotionally well-grounded and accessible, Dr. Assante concludes with intriguing instruction on how to communicate with the departed.

What resonates with me most about The Last Frontier is Julia Assante’s underlying perspective that the universe is kind. Her own direct experience of the Divine, as well as the accounts she has received as a professional medium for the past 30 years, gives her language that describes my own resonance with what I call the love of the universe, or God.

“And then there is God, the ultimate ineffable…My God is too immense to be a being and too indwelling to be somewhere else. For me, It is a consciousness of such massiveness that It dwarfs the cosmos. It is forever giving birth, spawning whole universes and reality systems, such as the physical one we are presently in…It permeates everything that ever is, ever was and ever will be, while containing everything tenderly within Itself…It manifests all that is and is manifested in all that is.”

A presence that has been palpable off and on since her childhood, Assante emphasizes that how one experiences the Divine is clearly more important than describing what It is.

We all have experienced a knowing light touching our heart and soul and her work helps us identify that our mysterious experiences that actually fit within the mystical realm are not to be feared.

It is helpful to hear the language she shares used by near-death experiences about manifestations of the Divine, such as a “radiant atmosphere that envelopes them in the afterlife. Not a light, but something alive and aware and with which they merge.”

Assante goes on to say, “What strikes me most now is the intensity of its intimacy…We sense the deeper meaning of existence, although we may not be able to make out its exact contours. And we know, finally, that death is not an end but rather a lifting out into the vast, knowing, luminous presence, in which all things thrive and are made possible.”

Facing one’s mortality through direct experience of the Divine is actually to glimpse one’s own immortal self, the true self that “transcends all lineages, familial, national, and racial, as well as the boundaries of time and place.”

Communicating with the departed not only helps rid us of the fear of death but will open vistas of our awareness that can produce permanent transformations of body, mind and spirit.

Assante encourages communication with departed loved ones as being entirely normal and healthy for everyone involved, including the deceased.

Suppressed imagination comes from denying the natural impulse to hear inspiration from worlds unknown. When suppression of the imagination is strong enough, it can clog the pathways that lead to our inner selves. The imagination is a “creative tool that funnels information and sets up networks for growth and awareness.”

Imagination “possesses the kind of rationality that organizes nearly unlimited amounts of information instantaneously. Once you allow your imagination to lead into the true rationality of the inner self, you will quickly realize that its depth and breadth, its unerring logic, make the rationality of reason look absurdly inadequate by comparison.”

After near death experiences, Assante teaches that “Generally, people are no longer blind to what really matters. Petty fears pale in the light of the miraculous…The desire for material gain gives way to a new desire for knowledge, to provoke fresh thought and deeper reflection, to develop spiritually… Space in the psyche is freed up, allowing emotional reserves once wasted on fear-based self-interest to turn toward creativity and service.”

We do not need to wait for an improbable near-death experience, but rather can engage the discipline of opening creative channels of hearing and retrieving one’s own inner wisdom. Sometimes this may include hearing the voice of guidance from one who has passed.

We can consciously choose to live the wisdom gleaned from those who have glimpsed the other side; to live creative, authentic lives rich in wisdom and generosity, guided by a simple inner trust that one is on path.

As Dr. Larry Dorsey astutely states in the forward of The Last Frontier, “The infinitude of life does not need to be developed, (or earned), but only has to be realized.”

Ed: Brianna Bemel
Assistant Ed. Rebecca Schwarz