Dunblazier presents a comprehensive, wide-angle view of healing from grief.

Each of us, the author asserts, will have “multiple relationships to the losses we experience,” and those relationships can take a variety of forms, expressed in terms of aggression, displacement, delusional thinking, or even overeating. These responses, she says, are related to three broad “circles” of experience: the traumatic event itself; the beliefs, ideas, or choices that are brought to light by that event; and the consequences of acting upon these notions. Dunblazier draws on her experience as a professional counselor, but she also puts a good deal of emphasis on one’s “spiritual imprint” as the key to the phenomenon of grief: “You may relate to them as past lives or simply the inclination and compulsions you begin with, but no matter how you see them, they are the premising lens through which you view life, as well as the foundation of your grief.” She suggests a variety of compensatory activities, from journaling to singing to sex, advising her readers on how to focus that “premising lens” in order to better view their grief. Dunblazier writes with appealing sensitivity throughout this book. Although her specific spiritual rituals (lighting candles, making use of a “sacred altar area,” and so on) won’t appeal to every reader, her more generalized comments show a deep understanding of the nature of grieving that will be useful to anyone who may be dealing with loss. She reassures them that grief is not a sign of weakness, for example, and that many bereaved people take comfort in dealing with pragmatic details, such as paying bills or cleaning the house. Likewise, the personal anecdotes that dot the book will help many grieving readers to know that they’re not alone.

A sweeping, compassionate, and thought-provoking look at recovery from loss.

A semiautobiographical guide to the dynamics of karma in everyday life.

A Los Angeles–based shaman and “spiritual empath,” Dunblazier stays faithful to the spirit of her earlier books, which include Heal Your Soul History (2017). She sees karma as “the accumulation of the energy of all your actions and the responses to them over time and space”—in both your past and present lives—and says that in her past lives, she’s been an African tribal leader from around 1000 BCE and a French American from the 1900s. Each of the five parts of her book begins with a parable from one of her past lives and goes on to cover a range of everyday challenges from time management to how to handle feeling attracted to someone already in a relationship. At the end of each section, the author suggests a self-help ritual that can help you achieve a goal, such as “Free Yourself from the Opinion of Others.” Dunblazier keeps her message positive, reflecting her belief that “regardless of your circumstances right now, your patterns do not obligate you to continue them if they no longer serve you,” and she packs an extensive amount of material into 325 pages. Not everyone will buy her views on subjects like demons or telepathy, and Penn’s bold illustration of a concentration camp prisoner, in an image that also shows a crowd of smiling, well-dressed people around a table bearing a vast amount of food, will strike some as insensitive. Nevertheless, even readers skeptical of whether they are reading the words of a reincarnated Chief Running Bear may be intrigued by her information on how people make use of concepts like totem animals. For most readers, this book will provide different ways of looking at things. And who wouldn’t want to believe, as the author does, that in the end “you are the master of your universe”?

A personal view of karma, likely to appeal mainly to readers curious about reincarnation and related topics.

A shaman’s handbook focuses on overcoming the demons of daily life.

Dunblazier (Master Your Inner World, 2016, etc.), a self-described empath, reincarnated soul, and spiritual healer, here continues her Demon Slayer series. She looks at the possible complications individuals might experience as a result of their own past lives, and the strategies people afflicted with a variety of “demons” can use to find inner strengths they didn’t know they possessed. The author styles herself as a demon slayer, a spiritual warrior with survival skills honed over many lifetimes. In her latest book, the long sections on her own life are the most intriguing parts. She recounts, for instance, squatting in a third-floor walk-up in a derelict 1980s Harlem apartment building, and she relates her personal interactions and pregnancy. Through her own and other personal stories, she’s able to bring to life her underlying “demon slayer” philosophies: the strategies “for balancing life’s traumas” and daring to have “the audacity to laugh and see the world through someone else’s eyes.” The author prefaces her book with a disclaimer that it presents no legally constituted medical advice, and her approaches range over a wide variety of New-Age or “alternative” medicine concepts such as massage therapy, acupuncture, Kundalini energy points, and herbal supplements. The drift of the engrossing volume returns often to the idea of past lives and their effect on the present and—this account being about reincarnation—the future: “The state a person is in when they die is the state they remain in after death,” she writes. “And it is the lower vibrational states of being—like anguish, fear, anger, grief, bitterness, or hate—that keep a spirit earthbound.” In this and all cases, Dunblazier acts effectively as the reader’s coach, foremost cheerleader, and guardian angel, and this has a cumulative effect that’s genuinely encouraging. The overarching message of empowerment should speak to people struggling with their own personal demons.

An inspirational guide to using a soul’s long history to combat present-day negative forces.

A handbook for personal empowerment that concentrates on life’s demons and how to fight them.

The latest in Dunblazier’s (The Demon Slayer’s Handbook, 2015) series continues to offer personal anecdotes about her struggles as a psychic and spiritualist, as well as an account of the demons that she believes inhabit the mortal world. “There is a connection between people and demons,” she assures readers, and she structures her latest handbook around five parables (“the stories of the spirit guides that have worked with me in this lifetime and for some over many lifetimes”) and five “basic levels of perception”: physical, etheric, emotional, mental, and causal. Dunblazier focuses on encouraging her readers to remain vigilant in the face of the world’s evils, and to marshal the resources that are at their disposal, which include calm introspection, self-possession, and even good humor: “One of the things I know is that when you’re facing the devil head-on, or running for your life, fear is your friend—but not completely,” she writes in one of the book’s many pleasing, counterintuitive moves. “Your fear will eventually turn on you.” The author returns periodically to her own history with her spirit guides, but the main thrust of her book is a set of upbeat propositions about living in the moment and mastering one’s unruly inner world. These are aimed squarely at fellow spiritualists but are also applicable to a wider audience that’s prepared to see demons as metaphors. “Demons are energy, and energy doesn’t go away,” she warns readers, “it changes form”—hence, her emphasis on being alert and ready for anything. Using a potent combination of mystical concepts, including chakras and past lives, Dunblazier creates a guidebook that assures readers that they have the tools to defeat their own demons. The overall ideological framework can feel jumbled at times, but the central message of empowerment will appeal to spiritual seekers.

An encouraging playbook for would-be demon-slayers.