The Hand on the Mirror: A Book Review

By John R. Audette, MS

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The Hand on the Mirror:
A True Story of Life
Beyond Death

Janis Heaphy Durham has written an engaging book entitled The Hand on the Mirror. It is an exceptional, well-documented work about a series of after-death communications (ADCs ) from her late husband, Max Belser, who left this world for the next on May 8, 2004 at the young age of 56 caused by systemic cancer.

Durham tells this captivating story in a mostly chronological journalistic manner. She reports the facts as she experienced them, befitting her former position as President & Publisher of the Sacramento Bee, which lends further credibility to this account.

It is a compelling case study, truly among the best to be reported on the subject of ADCs  because it offers substantial evidentiary detail and because of recurring multiple events over the course of several successive years. More importantly, Janis’ ADCs  are fully corroborated by various witnesses, including Tanner (Janis’ son from a prior marriage), Helen (the Besler’s housekeeper) and Jim Durham, the man Janis married several years after Max had passed.

An important case study such as this, so rich in data and supporting corroboration, lends further credence to the validity and legitimacy of ADCs  as a subject worthy of serious scientific study for all the significance this phenomenon holds in regard to the survival hypothesis. So much can be learned about the survival question through the scientific study of ADCs , and STEs  generally. Education about them is greatly important as well to help the bereaved reconcile their grief and for a host of other reasons.

The Besler ADCs  certainly convinced Jim Durham, an analytical engineer and CPA, who was firmly agnostic before his marriage to Janis. Then he witnessed several ADC  incidents in the company of Janis which inspired him to reverse his outlook, becoming certain that consciousness survives bodily death. This change in conviction gave Jim great comfort when it came time for him to face his own death from systemic cancer in May 2014.

The many communications from Max to Janis throughout the immediate years following his death, gave comfort and reassurance to her as well. It elevated her long standing faith in life after death stemming from her upbringing as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, to the level of certain knowledge and unwavering conviction that consciousness does indeed survive after the body dies.

In her own words, she says: “Simply put, life does not end with our physical death.” What’s more, Durham dives deep into reflection about the implications of this statement for humankind. She writes: “If we knew not just from the faith of our religions, but from modern science, that our consciousness survives after death, it would profoundly affect how we behave.” As a further extension of this observation, Durham says, “We will live our lives with more emphasis on love.”

Just as her ADCs  transformed Durham’s attitude toward death and life, she believes others can be similarly transformed by this knowledge. So, she was inspired to develop a website expressly to serve this purpose. Her website  is dedicated to furthering this work, as an outgrowth of her ADCs , as well as a single out-of-body experience she described soon after Besler’s death, one in which she encountered Max in astral form. She notes that “My goal in this is to help scientists and their work (in this field) get the widespread attention they deserve.”

Durham's ADCs  ran the gamut from many instances of clocks stopping at the exact time of Max's death (12:44), to a powdery imprint of Max's right hand on her bathroom mirror in 2005 on the first anniversary of Max's death, to a powdery imprint of angels in 2006 on the second anniversary, to another powdery imprint, this time of his left hand, on the third anniversary of his death, to recurring movements of a Persian carpet in her bedroom, to chimes ringing absent wind, to lights flickering without rational explanation, among several other happenings. Many of these manifestations were also witnessed and verified by others in the household, giving further credence to their authenticity.

Durham is resolved to help public sentiment shift in relation to funding serious research into the question of life after death. It is her calling now to do all she can to further this goal. She hopes to see awards given to top scientists for their work in consciousness and life after death, comparable to the “Breakthrough Prize.” She also hopes to see the creation of a foundation that can be as successful in fund-raising for survival and consciousness research as the Susan G. Komen Foundation is in raising funds for breast cancer research.

For all these reasons, and more, The Hand on the Mirror should be added to everyone’s must read list. It is a major contribution to the exponentially growing mountain of sound irrefutable evidence that consciousness is indeed eternal and continues its journey after the death of the physical body…time and time again, as it steadily evolves into the unwavering ability to love all things unconditionally.

for more information Janis Heaphy Durham click here