PRAISE FOR  “THROUGH HEAVEN’S GATE AND BACK”  by LEE THORNTON (2014)

Lee Thornton has written a compelling, inspiring book where she shares her glimpse of “heaven” with us. In her writing, she presents her knowledge of what she learned in the other realm to the readers, and shares how this experience healed her physical life. It is written in the dramatic style of a novel, full of real life adventure, sorrow, suspense, and revelation. Readers will feel as though they are right there with her every step of the way, as she travels her spiritual path from debilitating childhood abuse and depression toward finally spreading her wings to realize her childhood dreams. Lee shows us by example how we can apply the lessons she learned from the other realm to our lives here.
Anita Moorjani, New York Times Bestselling Author of “Dying to be Me”
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What an inspiring book. Thank heaven Lee Thornton decided to share her remarkable life story with us. Lee's book is a blessing as well as a terrific read.
Caroline Myss, author of New York Times best selling books Anatomy of the Spirit and Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can.
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Through Heaven’s Gate and Back speaks to all of us that have been abused as children. Lee Thornton’s descriptions of the aftereffects of repeated trauma are not only true but explained in a way that the reader can take in. Her profound Near- Death Experience (NDE) and the subsequent aftereffects are also clear, heart felt and well written. She is definitely gifted in the way she expresses herself. And, it is rare to find a book so well written that has child sexual abuse and a life altering NDE under one cover. We definitely will be recommending this book to our patients.
Charles L. Whitfield, MD, Author of Healing the Child Within and Memory and Abuse
Barbara H. Whitfield, RT, Author of Spiritual Awakenings and The Natural Soul
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What an incredible story of one woman's personal experience with abuse and depression, healed when she was led to access her soul-wisdom following her near-death experience. I read the book cover to cover in one sitting. A real page turner. I highly recommend it!
Nancy Clark, award-winning author, Hear His Voice: The Light's Message for Humanity; Revelations from a Woman Who Came Back From Heaven's Door Twice
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The Light that Lee Thornton encountered during a Near Death Experience shines brightly from the first pages of Through Heaven’s Gate and Back, illuminating and carrying the reader through the darker periods of Lee’s life to the deep lessons revealed in the book’s highly satisfying conclusion. For those who have never known prolonged depression, the author’s painful struggles, expressed with exquisite literary artistry, elicit empathy and compassion. Those who have experienced the dark nights of the soul she so deftly describes in this compelling memoir will find hope, healing, and comfort from the wisdom she gained on her path to alignment with her true Self.
Suzanne Giesemann, author of Messages of Hope and Wolf’s Message
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Striking in Lee’s ability to write like a novelist is her skill to spin stories of worldly travel with her family and former husband – while a growing bitterness and fear of her father sexually abusing her since the age of nine builds to the point that she is nearly crippled emotionally. A horrendous plane crash on a spit of a runway in the Nilgiri Mountains of South India, almost ends her life and that of her unborn son. She undergoes a light-filled near-death experience that both gives her hope and fades into the background as the reality of her nightmare of a life and her husband’s determination to take the boy away from her after a divorce, closes in. What Lee went through to reclaim her health, confront her father and her mother, and find her own identity, will grab you and it won’t let go. Her case is an important example of how, even the wonders of heaven and Eternity’s Great Light, are not enough to save anyone. Integration takes time. It takes effort. But above all it takes the experiencer’s willingness to do the work required to “let go, let God.” Unbridled joy follows.
P. M. H. Atwater, L.H.D., researcher, author Dying to Know You: Proof of God in the Near-Death Experience, The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences, Near-Death Experiences: The Rest of The Story, Future Memory.
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My reaction to Through Heaven’s Gate and Back by Lee Thornton — A mini review. Every human being knows fear and despair and we all seek to make sense of our lives and our suffering. It’s part of what it means to be human. But as an adult victim of childhood abuse and a psychotherapist, I believe that trauma, particularly childhood trauma, more than anything else has the power to send us to the utmost depths of despair and desperation. It can push us to the ultimate boundaries of our existence and even our sanity. Depending on what we are able to do with it, it can either be our undoing or our rebirth. Through Heaven’s Gate and Back is a story of recovery, of triumph over childhood trauma. Lee Thornton takes us through her inspiring and deeply painful journey to recover her true identity from the rubble and desolation left by a confusing childhood — privileged on one hand but painfully mired by years of sexual abuse and the secrecy, silence and deceit that surrounded it. Through Heaven’s Gate and Back is written with the incredible courage, care, honesty and clarity that are clearly an expression of the author’s personality. The wonderful, skilled writing mirrors the story itself where breathtaking beauty so often contrasts with utter desolation, both inwardly in the author’s soul, and in the outside world. Sadly and painfully I know that not every victim of childhood abuse is able to recover and transcend their past. Too many do not make it and end up either dying prematurely, becoming victims of an often harmful mental health system, or living a life forever defined by their trauma and abuse. As a psychotherapist and adult survivor I know that to recover people need courage, determination, resourcefulness and a sense of adventure, all of which the author has in abundance. But she also went through a Near Death Experience (NDE) that was to provide a beacon of hope on her journey to recover. Of course not every victim goes through an NDE to remind them in their darkest hour that life and indeed death are not what they seem and that they are intrinsically loved and valued. This is the story of one who did, and the author is generous enough to share it with the us. As it often happens with recoverers from trauma, the author reaches a point on her journey where she beings to look for ways to use her own journey and experiences to help others. Writing Through Heaven’s Gate and Back is one of the ways that that she does precisely that. This is because reading about an NDE can have a profound effect on us even if we did not experience it ourselves. I am grateful to the author for sharing her incredible and inspiring story, and for presenting it in such a skilled and beautiful way. I am sure it was not easy to write. Through Heaven’s Gate and Back is a gripping book that I could not put down and that will remain with me for ever. I recommend it to anyone, but in particular to those who have lost hope for whatever reason, the many adult victims of childhood abuse and trauma out there and to members of my own profession.
Avigail Abarbanel, Psychotherapist - Private Practice Scottish Highlands
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Lee Thornton’s book, “Through Heaven’s Gate and Back, A Spiritual Journey of Healing” is a remarkable book that takes the reader through faraway places that most people only read about. As the daughter of a man who had a career in foreign service, she lived all over the world, adapting to different cultures. On the outside one envies her; how grand it must be to experience all of this. Her descriptions are poetic and lingering as they draw you into her world making you feel a part of it all. But there is a dark side to this enviable life. As she grows up, unbeknownst to her mother, her father is teaching her about sex as he abuses her for his own satisfaction. The horror of this follows throughout her life as she goes on to marry a man who works for the CIA and is stationed in India. While there she becomes ill, gets pregnant, and bears her child with a difficult childbirth. During this time she has a Near Death Experience. You will never fear death after reading her account about what happens when you drop your body. Her NDE becomes the instrument that catapults her into healing and a deeper understanding of what life is all about, in particular her own. This is a truly marvelous book, deeply satisfying and beautifully written. It is a tool to teach one about life and its meaning and the light that lives within us all.
Marjorie McKinnon, Author of Repair Your Life and Founder of The Lamplighter Movement