Author talks about '10 myths that prevent us from fully living our lives'

Anita Moorjani

When Anita Moorjani sat down to write in her blog about her miraculous escape from death and crossing over to the "other side", circa 2006, it was more of a therapeutic endeavour - an attempt to put in words an experience that transcends the limits of language. She had just come out of 30 hours of coma in the end stage of lymphoma.

Moorjani had been fighting cancer for four years, the doctors had declared her organs dead. What happened on the other side of those 30 hours, came to be known as one of the greatest medical miracles. Not only did she come out of coma, her organs had miraculously healed. "I was trying to make sense of it myself through my blog, I just wanted to set the story free." But, the story eventually found a place in the New York Times bestseller list, through her first book Dying To Be Me (2012).

Her second book What If This Is Heaven, however, was no accident. It stemmed from "a strong desire to bring joy back to everyone's life" - the author writes in the introduction. In this book, Moorjani has picked 10 of the "biggest myths we have been buying into - myths that have prevented us from fully living our lives". The book, she says, is an invite to consider some possibilities. "My point is that heaven can be experienced on earth. These myths that we cling on to prevent us from experiencing it."

There's a chapter titled "You get what you deserve". Why does she think that's a myth, we ask. Moorjani says, "I realised that we believe when bad things happen to us, we deserve it. Truth is, all of us deserve good things, when we realise that, life turns better." What about Karma then? "The myths keep you fearful. I don't believe the world works on Karma. Many Indians will resist this thought, I know." In another chapter, she attempts to debunk that "Loving yourself is selfish". "Everything we learn leads us to believe we need fixing. We just hold on to the belief that something is wrong with us. I want to urge you to remove that block. Let's see why you don't realise that you don't need fixing. That's my way. You have to accept and love who you are."

In further departures from conventional perceptions, she goes on to talk about how we should embrace negative thoughts, as much as the positive. "Negative thoughts need to be accepted. Don't fight them, because when you do, you're sending the message to yourself that there's a part to this that's wrong. The life that you attract is truly yours, when you accept it. Open up to the possibility that life can be different, if you can think differently," she says. Moorjani also says, spiritual people do have egos. "As long as you are in the physical body, you will have an ego. And that's fine. The ego protects you from bad things." She believes that nothing in this world is a coincidence. "We are all connected, we receive clues from the universe and act on it. That's how we find our path," she says.

Does she feel she's the chosen one, because of the unique path she found? "I have never really felt that I belonged, but I think it was meant to be like that. I was meant to be different. And it took somebody who did not belong, to have that experience. Having said that, I don't feel like I'm the chosen one or anything. This is just a path. Everyone has their own divine guidance," she says. Because of how she sees the world differently, Moorjani is no stranger to sceptics. "But I don't even try to explain myself to them anymore. Here's what I feel: For those who believe, no words are necessary, for those who don't, no words are enough."