Soul Trek: Meeting Our Children on the Way to Birth

This is an extraordinary book by Elisabeth Hallett, who had unusual experiences when she was pregnant with her son, and decided to see if other parents had similar experiences. It is based on firsthand accounts of "dreams and visions, visitations, inner voices, subtle ‘knowings’ and more" (p. 11) between 180 mothers and some fathers and their unborn children. There are 9 chapters in Part 1 consisting of the varieties of experience before birth, some involving the moment of conception. Part 2 is on "The Cooperative Bond," which she began to see only after she had immersed herself in the accounts for some time. Then she glimpsed "a pattern so consistent and so exciting that it can change our concept of the parent-and-child connection" (p. 109). The pattern revealed a cooperative bond between prospective parent and child, even in situations involving adoption. To Hallett, these varied experiences of contact prior to birth/adoption "suggest that the coming child is not the fragile, totally vulnerable ‘blank slate’ we may have pictured, but a strong, self-determined entity with pre-existing personality and intentions" (p. 109).

The third section consists of 4 chapters involving experiences of death, or rather beyond death, in cases involving babies who died before or soon after birth. The accounts in this section are of after-death communications with these children. The fourth section, "Wonder and Mystery," contains 5 chapters that provide hints concerning "the state or place or dimension from which we and our children emerge" at birth (p. 261). From the accounts she received, Hallett distills information concerning where the newborn comes from, when he or she joins the body, and who he or she is.

Hallett devotes a chapter to her reservations about the interpretations she and the experiencers have placed on the accounts in the book, drawing on her background in psychology and nursing. But ultimately, she views the accounts as "wondrous gifts," whatever their explanation, which echoes my feeling about accounts of all types of exceptional human experience. She also rests her case, not on the individual stories, but on the patterns that emerge across the entire collection of accounts, which reveal "a remarkable consistency" (p. 13). This has also been my experience with the patterns that emerge after reading hundreds of accounts of all the different types of EHEs. The experiences may differ widely, but their import is cut off the same bolt, teaching us basic core knowings about the nature of life, ourselves, where we come from, where we are going, and why we are here. Kudos to Elisabeth Hallett, for being one of a growing band of pioneers who have uncovered the wisdom to be gained from those who are on the way to birth or adoption.