Elvis After Life: Unusual Psychic Experiences Surrounding the Death of a Superstar

I checked this book out of the library in 1993 after a trip to see a friend in Memphis Tn. I had always been an Elvis fan so of course I went to Graceland while I was in town. I began reading about Elvis after that trip. There are alot of biographies and tell all's out there and I have read a good many. I never forgot this book because it was so unusual. To realize that so many people believe that they have had an experience with Elvis after his death was fascinating. A few of the stories are silly but some are quite haunting. The book moved me in a way I had not expected. I returned the book to library, and that very night around 2:00 a.m. my phone rang and it was Elvis. Ok, it was a recording of Elvis singing Love Me Tender but in the middle of the night, after just having finished this book, it scared the daylights out of me. To this day I have never figured out who made that call. I will never forget it.

I don't believe or disbelieve in an afterlife of any sort; I bought this book for a paper I wrote on the legend of the hitchhiking ghost of Elvis. Dr. Moody not only recorded the earliest version of this legend I could find, he also accounted for the "sighting" in a compassionate, psychologically rational way. His blend of the open-minded and the semi-skeptical is what makes the book interesting reading. Elvis did and does mean a lot to many people. I lived in Memphis for 30 years, and I still can't say I "get it," but this book (and Strausbaugh's E: Reflections on the Birth of the Elvis Faith) have brought me a lot closer to an understanding of the Elvis phenomenon.

It is way too bad that Dr. Moody abandoned affiliation with this project. It is fascinating, enlightening, and entertaining. Dr. Moody's later research paved the way for LIFE AFTER DEATH studies, and he became a fine-print foot-note in that historic research. But it is with ELVIS where he began. For whatever bizarre reason, Dr. Moody decided to interview people who had "ELVIS AFTER-LIFE EXPERIENCES". As weird as this sounds, Dr. Moody serendipitiously unlocked a Holy Grail: These were real, normal, successful people he interviewed. People who REALLY believe they interacted with ELVIS after his death. One man picked ELVIS up as he hitch-hiked. A house-wife found his profile in the base of a shower! Another woman compared watermelons with him in a grocery store. A whole family sees his eyes follow them out of a picture! Get the point? It is easy to understand why Dr. Moody would abandon and disown this ridiculous tripe, however, he really did catch something! Presented straight-forward and fast, without judgement or psycho-babble, as a student of psychology I would sincerely recommend this work as a treatise in the bizarre! PS. Thank you Dr. Moody! I didn't think people like this really existed!