Northeast Ohio cardiologist Dr. Terry Gordon’s new book reveals powerful lessons about the immortal nature of life...and the illusion death

By Mitch Allen

When I picked up Dr. Terry Gordon’s new book No Beginning…No End: A Cardiologist Discovers There Is No Such Thing As Death, I assumed it would be an effort to convince the reader of the existence of an afterlife, perhaps using Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence as a evidence of the soul’s immortality.

Yes, there is a bit of that, but like his previous No Storm Lasts Forever: Transforming Suffering Into Insight, Terry’s newest work is an inspirational handbook on how to live a meaningful and peaceful life—then it goes further. The book is also a guide on how to experience death peacefully, and how to support your loved ones in their final months, days, hours and minutes to make their own transitions into the next realm calm and inspired rather than filled with fear.

Normally, a book like this might be too transcendental for me, but two recent events left me especially open to it, enough to wonder whether I chose this book or it chose me: 1) I just turned 60 and the idea that my time in this world is growing short has been weighing on me heavily; and 2) my wife and I recently returned from a short vacation in Sedona, Arizona, a region steeped in Native American spiritualism, energy vortexes, healing crystals, etc. Our B&B hosts told us, “You don’t have to believe in all that; just be open to it.”

Dr. Terry Gordon asks us to do the same. He writes:

I made the conscious decision to take a step most scientists refuse to consider. I chose to be open to everything and attached to nothing. A new facet of my life’s journey had presented itself, one that would lead me to the discovery of unimaginable Truths.

No Beginning…No End is delicately balanced in terms of respecting individual faiths. Regardless of one’s religious traditions (or lack thereof), there is tremendous insight to be gained. From resurrection to reincarnation to the genetic immortality of ancestral DNA, Terry makes it easy for anyone of any faith to consider the idea that in life we are already immortal, that we walk the earth as a triumvirate—accompanied by Death and the Soul. He encourages the reader not to wait until the end of life to befriend death, but to recognize from an early age that he walks with us always and is not to be feared.

As a renowned Cleveland Clinic-trained cardiologist for more than 25 years, Terry’s powerful and objective firsthand accounts of human suffering are at first heartbreaking, before revealing important truths that transform our sadness into wisdom.

There are moments, however, when the author asks us to make leaps of faith, including his assertion that individual cells have “intelligence” and “consciousness,” which may well be the case. After all, cells clearly “know what to do,” and as yet no branch of science has been able to identify “consciousness.” To take from this book all the gifts it has to offer, one must not be tempted to debate its every mystical affirmation and risk missing its powerful lessons.

No Beginning…No End also addresses how to deal with the painful grief associated with the loss of a loved one. In his chapter “The Privilege of Pain,” Terry writes:

One of the most difficult aspects of suffering is the dread of being trapped in our perceived agony forever. Hopelessness invades like a cancer, metastasizing into the deepest crevasses of our souls. When we are buried within the loneliness of loss, it is nearly impossible to envision a way out...

Through heightened awareness of our suffering, we begin accepting it as it is, without judgment. We come to discover suffering is not a punishment. To the contrary, it is a gift from God, available to us all as a tool from which to gain great wisdom.

What I liked most about No Beginning…No End is the humble manner in which Dr. Gordon takes us through his own journey into enlightenment, his transformation from a highly trained, purely evidence-based scientist and invasive cardiologist to one who is open to spiritual growth. Importantly, his own spiritual growth doesn’t come from rubbing elbows with celebrity gurus (though he has befriended several), but from day-to-day interactions with regular people—from his cardiology patients to a stranger walking home from the grocery store to a dying infant. Every soul, Terry tells us, is equal in its value and has a lesson to teach...if we learn to listen. Of course, Dr. Gordon’s firsthand experience in the passing of more than 1,000 souls gives his stories astute credibility.

Terry’s son Tyler was left quadriplegic after a tragic automobile accident in Colorado, and Terry reprises the assertion he made in his book No Storm Last Forever that everything that happens to us—including tragedies—is to be embraced as blessings from God. Wisdom, he reminds us, lies in tragedy.

In the interest of full disclosure, I know Dr. Terry Gordon. I’ve enjoyed breakfast with him at his lakefront home in Richfield, Ohio, where—in true cardiologist style—he served quinoa and blueberries rather than bacon and eggs. His wounds are as deep as his experiences, his empathy as strong as his faith, and his wisdom as profound as the mysteries of the human heart, which, Terry reveals, contains “memories” as surely as the human brain.

We are blessed that Dr. Terry Gordon, the “Wounded Healer,” has put so much of his hard-won wisdom into his new book.

No Beginning…No End: A Cardiologist Discovers There Is No Such Thing As Death by Dr. Terry Gordon is available on Amazon Kindle and in paperback, or find a link at DrTerryGordon.com.