A Review of No Beginning… No End: A Cardiologist Discovers There Is No Such Thing as Death, by Dr. Terry Gordon

 

(Cardiff, CA: Waterside Productions, 2021). ISBN: 978-1-954968-12-7

I don’t know if it is the same for all veteran book reviewers, but I have learned to either not take too much stock in the endorsements that sometimes fill up to ten pages at the front of a book (!) or to just ignore them completely. But, in the case of Dr. Terry Gordon’s No Beginning… No End, several important names caught my eye. When the likes of Don Miguel Ruiz, Bruce Lipton, Caroline Myss, John Edward, and Patch Adams are saying this is a book worth reading, one ought to pay attention.

I also want to mention the expectations that I had because of the subtitle. Having studied the survival of consciousness after death for many years as an author, researcher, podcast host, and field investigator, as well as communicating with dozens who have died and still engage with the living, I expected this to be a book securely in the camp of Science versus Spirituality. So few doctors are crossing that thick, black line, and it is hard to blame them. The medical profession gatekeepers suspend tenure, credibility, and career health like the sword of Damocles over the heads of those who do so. This is also not a criticism: Books by physicians securely in the camp of Science are invaluable to the larger work of researchers, experiencers, and psychic mediums. However, Dr. Gordon brings in and draws from both camps, in the same way as does a quantum physicist. Part clinical case study, part spiritual guide, and part autobiography, No Beginning… No End is an important text for those willing to seek the robust results at the nexus of Science and Spirituality.

Dr. Gordon’s credentials as a physician are impressive. He has an undergraduate degree in psychology, which clearly presents itself in his astute observations on human nature and motivation. As a medical intern and then as an invasive cardiologist, he has dealt daily with life and death for decades. Many of the stories he tells—devoid of the hope he assigns them—would be heartbreaking.

He has made a difference outside of the surgical theatre as well, leading the successful legislative quest to have automated external defibrillators in every school in America after a young lacrosse player died on the playing field after a ball struck him in the chest. Dr. Gordon’s insights into life surviving consciousness are so profound because they come from deep experience. Having his own life-threatening medical challenges, as well as experiencing those of his son and his father, Dr. Gordon had no choice but to give in to these dark nights of the soul or seek answers and meaning in numerous fields of study.

The result of this search is the birth of a Renaissance Man in the field of medicine who does not laugh at spiritual aspects of life and death, but embraces and incorporates them in his work. You’ll read about the third eye; Eastern ideas about cycles of life and death and darkness and light; the nature of the ego; the “heart brain”; the nature of reality and the value of dreams; the role of frequency and vibration in understanding life and death; enlightenment and the soul; karma; and reincarnation (including dual reincarnation by a single soul).

While exploring such cosmic issues as society’s misunderstanding of and obsession with death and the almost near certainty in the 21st century that consciousness survives the death of the physical body, Dr. Gordon adds to the array of case studies, personal experiences, and his patients’ wisdom by offering a plethora of quotes from medical, political, spiritual, and other sources. From Lao Tzu to Don Miguel Ruiz; Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross to Ram Dass; Albert Pike to Swami Sivananda; Carl Jung to the Mundaka Upanishad; and Sogyal Rinpoche to Voltaire, these enduring bits of wisdom undergird and further illuminate Dr. Gordon’s passionate explorations.

He even draws on the world of pets and farm animals to offer inspirational stories concerning the circle of life and the survival of consciousness after death.

I mentioned frequency and vibration, which Nikola Tesla felt were fundamental to understanding the Universe. In terms of this book and its subject matter, negative energy (low vibration/frequency) can breed illness, prevent healing, and even determine the afterlife experience (an idea to which I was first exposed while reading Neale Donald Walsch). I also mentioned reincarnation. This is an area where Science has already contributed much to the discussion, thanks to the decades-long work of Jim Tucker and Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia. It is in the study of cases of possible reincarnation that we are most likely at present to generate tangible “proof” of consciousness surviving death.   

Two chapters at the end of the book explore the ideas of pain and suffering being gifts from God. These may very well be the most challenging chapters of all. 

The final chapter, “A Good Day to Die,” explores the keys to unlocking the door to living life without fear of death. If spirituality as taught and practiced has any practical value, it is this. Being at peace with your life choices, who you are, and what you have accomplished is essential to facing death without fear. As Ram Dass often said, “Dying is perfectly safe,” but it takes consistent work to achieve this. I take stock every morning and evening of where I am in my life and adjust accordingly to keep on my path of peace, because the reality is that my death could come at any time.

Another key to managing a well-lived life in preparation for a spiritual warrior’s version of a good death is managing energy expenditures. Carolin Myss’s groundbreaking metaphor of energy being a bank account from which you can only withdraw so much each day led me to prioritize prioritizing, if I may. Managing your energy is of course essential for good health and healing.

A third key is having a purpose, or mission, and knowing that, when it is complete, we die. Therefore, an important question Dr. Gordon poses is, “How do you want to die?”

No Beginning… No End will help you answer this question and institute an action plan. In that sense, there is no more important book for you to read.

A wonderful, inspiring epilogue features a heartwarming story of a woman’s final moments and the flight of her soul that perfectly encapsulates all that has come before.

Each chapter ends with three to five Whispers of the Heart, which serve the dual purpose of summating the chapter and posing questions that the reader can address individually or in a book group. Many of the questions are essential discussion starters for families concerning matters of living wills, funeral arrangements, and the dynamics of grief and memory.

In closing, it only remains to say: Die well and without fear, my friends, just as I pray you live.