Clara’s Verdict
Dolores Cannon occupies a very particular niche: she is neither strictly academic nor merely popular, neither straightforwardly spiritual nor scientifically credentialed, and her Convoluted Universe series has accumulated a devoted readership precisely because it refuses to behave like anything else in the metaphysical literature. Book Four, the fourth instalment in the series, is narrated by Steven Barnett and clocks in at 17 hours and 52 minutes – a substantial commitment, and one that rewards the reader who arrives already familiar with Cannon’s method.
I want to be clear about what kind of review this is. Cannon’s work is derived from hypnotic regression sessions; the information her subjects provide is presented as coming from a non-physical source. Whether you read this as documented metaphysical reality, as the unconscious mind’s mythmaking, or as an elaborate literary fiction determines almost everything about how you will receive it. All three readings produce a genuinely interesting book.
About the Audiobook
Book Four continues the territory established in the earlier volumes: past lives, the mechanics of death and the afterlife, life contracts drawn up between incarnations, the role of DNA, the nature of consciousness, and a range of cosmological speculation that ranges from the formation of planets to the concept of “Back Drop People” – a deeply strange and curiously compelling idea that I will leave for listeners to encounter themselves.
New additions to this volume include extended material on what happens between incarnations – the life review process, the planning of the next life – and chapters on murder and suicide that deal with material others would shy away from. There is also a significant section on the thinning of the veil between dimensions and the activation of human consciousness in what Cannon describes as a time of transformation.
The book does not read linearly and is not designed to. It is an accumulation of case material – session transcripts and Cannon’s commentary – that builds through repetition and variation into something approaching a cosmology.
The Narration
Steven Barnett is a competent and measured narrator who handles Cannon’s often dense and discursive material with patience. The sessions themselves – with their unusual vocabulary and rhythm – require a narrator who does not impose scepticism or credulity on the text, and Barnett maintains a careful neutrality that serves the material well. At nearly 18 hours, any narrator faces a stamina challenge, and Barnett is consistent throughout. His delivery is clear, never rushing the listener through sections that deserve time to settle.
What Readers Say
The audiobook holds a rating of 4.8 out of 5 from a single listener rating, with print readers of this volume consistently enthusiastic. UK reviewers describe it as “another literary gem” that “provides insight into the boundless realities of life in many timelines, dimensions, forms and possibilities,” and note that “all one has to do in order to benefit from Dolores’s work is be open-minded.” Another reader called it “the best of her Convoluted Universe sequence,” praising Cannon’s wisdom as “always so humbling.” The series has the quality of genuine devotion from its readership – not passive consumption but active engagement with ideas that challenge conventional frameworks.
Who Should Listen?
Readers already familiar with the Convoluted Universe series will want this instalment, which builds on and expands the framework of its predecessors. First-time listeners to Cannon’s work should begin with Book One rather than here – the accumulated context matters. The series will appeal most strongly to listeners with an interest in consciousness research, near-death studies, transpersonal psychology, and spirituality that engages seriously with cosmological questions. Those with a purely sceptical orientation will find the framework frustrating; those willing to bracket their epistemological commitments will find a rich and thought-provoking imaginative world.
If your mind needs bending, this is the series that does it. Listen to The Convoluted Universe, Book Four on Audible UK and see how far the rabbit hole goes.
