Best Books for Spiritual Awakening: An Akashic Record Reader's Guide
Looking for the best books for spiritual awakening and consciousness expansion? As an Akashic Record reader, I've curated this reading list to support your spiritual journey. Whether you're exploring past lives, near-death experiences, out-of-body journeys, or seeking spiritual guidance to discover your soul’s purpose, these books have profoundly shaped my understanding of consciousness and our soul journey.
Right now I'm deep into a nonfiction trilogy called My Big TOE: A Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics, and Metaphysics by Thomas Campbell. It's too soon to share any conclusions, but it's part of an ongoing process to uncover what the author calls "Big Truth." We all do this—move through life building a big picture of reality, bit by bit. Ever since my spiritual awakening, I've been delving into materials exploring consciousness, the afterlife, and past lives in pursuit of my own Big Truth.
Maybe I'll share my own ‘theory of everything’ one day. But for now, one thing I find myself doing is recommending different books, podcasts, and spiritual modalities to the people who come to me for Akashic Record readings.
Today, I want to share these recommendations more broadly.
Want to see what your soul has to say about your own spiritual evolution? Book an Akashic Record Reading—I’d love to help you find out.
A quick caveat: These are the resources I've found most helpful for spiritual development. They've also had a funny way of finding me just when I was ready for them. That means something that might shift my personal paradigm might fall flat for you. I've included context about each resource to help you gravitate toward what might be meaningful for you. But I'd also like to offer you this idea: let your intuition guide you. Are your eyes jumping to one particular title? Is one hovering off the page? Trust that, and start there.
Enough delaying, here we go:
Books for Spiritual Awakening and Consciousness Expansion (in no particular order)
Heaven Is for Healing by JoE Gallenberger, Ph.D.
This book is written by a clinical psychologist who lost his brother to suicide. Joe finds, by connecting with his brother through a medium, that our spiritual healing continues after we leave our physical bodies. It's a beautiful account of the compassionate system of soul growth we're all going through and the connection between two brothers, showing it's never too late to deepen a relationship.
Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss, M.D.
In this classic must-read, Brian Weiss (a Yale-trained psychiatrist) tells the incredible story of his work with a client who inadvertently led them into an exploration of her past lives. These past life regressions not only held the key to her healing but introduced Dr. Weiss to the "Masters"—spiritual guides that help us develop during and between our incarnations. The writing is beautiful and moving, and it's a very easy audiobook listen.
I also loved his Same Soul, Many Bodies, in which some of Dr. Weiss's clients not only regress to past lives but progress to future ones. [Insert mind-blown emoji here!]
Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls by Michael Newton, Ph.D.
Also written by a clinical psychologist, these books dive deep into life between lives—the spirit realm and what we experience there. Though a bit more dense than the Weiss material, I loved the precision with which Dr. Newton maps out the afterlife. Learning about the process of life-planning before incarnation is both humbling and empowering.
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
A classic for a reason. Paramahansa Yogananda is one of the key figures responsible for bringing yoga and meditation to the West. In his spiritual memoir, he shares mind-blowing firsthand accounts of mind-over-matter feats like teleportation and psychokinesis from the masters who preceded him. One of my favorite chapters describes an afterlife after-party on another planet, where we can mingle with other astral beings as we decompress from earthly incarnation.
Real Magic by Dean Radin, Ph.D.
This book is more responsible for my spiritual awakening than any other. I came across it at the very beginning of my awakening, right after being told by a psychic that I might have extrasensory perception of my own. I was deeply skeptical of anything metaphysical, and this book is written by the Chief Scientist of IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences)—an institution that has proven the reality of psi (i.e. psychic) phenomena in laboratory settings time and time again.
This book also introduced me to the concept of Akasha, the fifth element of ether, the primordial substance that interconnects us all. That concept was so fascinating that it led me to—yes, you guessed it—the Akashic Records. Though the experimental data he shares is impressive and illuminating (plants grown with water blessed by Tibetan monks grew better than their non-blessed neighbors!), the biggest takeaway is the worldview these experiments point to: the idea that consciousness is fundamental. It's like the mountain of the iceberg underneath the surface, anchoring and underpinning our physical reality.
I also loved his Supernormal, though the content felt a bit repetitive after reading Real Magic. He is due to release another book, and I can't wait to read it.
Wired for God by Dani Antman
In this deeply personal memoir, energy healer Dani Antman weaves together her experiences in Jewish Kabbalism and Kundalini awakening. I loved how personal Dani's story is, tracing her journey in healing both self and others. As an aside: though Kundalini Yoga was brought to the US and turned into a cult, Kundalini was, and remains a valid ancient lineage from India that offers a framework and pathway for spiritual enlightenment. Dani engaged with the real deal, not the culty knock off.
Love, Pamela by Pamela Anderson
Though not an explicitly spiritual text, I found Pamela Anderson's memoir full of spiritual lessons. Her life is a master class in compassion, destiny, surrender, and unabashedly making your own way.
Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, M.D.
One of my more recent reads, this book by Dr. Eben Alexander tells the story of his near-death experience (NDE). He's a Duke-trained neurologist who had a rare case of meningitis that shut down the part of his brain responsible for hallucination. Yet he experienced a vivid, hyper-real journey into the afterlife, bringing back profound insights about the nature of our existence and the loving, divine presence that holds us all—whether or not we see it.
One of the most impactful parts of this book was his explanation of the presence of evil in our world. I won't spoil it for you, but it has helped shed new light on the topic of good versus evil, which I've been grappling with for a while now.
The 'Journeys' Trilogy by Robert Monroe
Robert Monroe popularized the term "Out of Body Experience" (OBE) because he used his analytical, engineering mindset to track and document his spontaneous OBEs. The trilogy starts with tangible, firsthand accounts of his OBE experiences and evolves into something that feels more like science fiction as his journeys take him farther and farther beyond the stratosphere of our typical physical experience.
The three books are:
There are some seriously paradigm-shifting ideas in this trilogy. While I can't personally prove or disprove them, they resonated deep in my bones. In fact, the second book had a revelation that felt so big that it pulled me into a mini existential crisis. If you get to this point, get in touch! I can be your support group.
Robert Monroe founded the Monroe Institute, which created sound technology for altered states—ideal for sleep, creativity, meditation, healing, and out-of-body exploration. I love their app and use it regularly to help me find stillness and explore my inner world.
That's all I've got for now. I'll try to update this list from time to time and will do a separate post for non-book resources.
I'd love to hear from you: Have you read any of these books? Do you have recommendations of your own for consciousness exploration, spiritual awakening, or metaphysical studies? Drop a comment below!