I'm in the process of reading Bob Olson's book, Answers About the Afterlife: A Private Investigator's 15 Year Research Unlocks the Mysteries of Life After Death....and some issues are being clarified rapidly for me. For years I have been trying to understand some of this. He has some nice online video interviews and I have caught a few of his programs.

He sees the structure of our spiritual selves as something like this: 1)spirit (you or me individually); 2)soul (all of our reincarnated selves which come from that one soul); 3)other entities which are "higher" than our "higher self" which is the group that makes up each of our souls; 4)all the way up to the Source/Universe/All that Is/Energy that connects everything which is composed of great love.

This makes perfect sense to me and would explain some bizarre experiences I have had in which I know I have been communicated with and influenced by a higher self.

Also, he speaks about the process of transition after death being quite varied, which we all know at this point in time. Even the process of death can be an experience which the soul wants to have, which explains why some people might have a longer road to a place of peace in the afterlife. In this regard, lingering a while in an unpleasant state of being somewhere along the way would not be punishment (as in "hell") or some kind of retribution for past "sins" but simply a detour along the way.

He believes, from all the varying evidence he has gathered since the 90's, that we are here for the experience, not necessarily because it is all fun and games, but because, while it lasts, our experiences contribute to the greater knowledge of our soul, which is composed of various personalities we accumulate. Each other personality in our soul has some things in common with us, like our brothers and sisters here.

Therefore, there is no reason why we as individuals would "come back" to earth -- we can exist in a world of beauty and peace and love on the "other side" among many other spirits and soul groups. It would be a new spirit created by our soul which extends into this world -- a kind of brother or sister to us. This way of looking at things, for me, solves my riddle of why people can know things about their other supposedly reincarnated selves who are extensions of their larger oversoul but Not Them at the Same Time.

Because of this, I am also able to reconcile why a retrieval may not always be necessary. The place that the spirit resides during their transition may be something the soul wants to experience, like some people like to hitchhike across Europe and stay in places others wouldn't particularly find comfortable.

In any case, I am not finished with this book, not even half finished and it is already answering many of my long-time questions in a way which makes perfect sense to me, especially after years of being partially exposed to many different kinds of evidence of an afterlife and our connections to it and all life. How tremendously reassuring to a person like me who can appreciate many aspects of religious history but simply cannot make sense of the claims about the afterlife and the contradictions within those teachings.

I don't believe, from what I've read so far, that he says the earthbound spirits don't exist, rather that some of what people have experienced are a sort of memory imprint and not actual earthbound spirits. He made a distinction. I will need to continue reading to know.

I finally got a copy of the book and have started perusing it.I have not looked at the questions about earthbound spirits.

I have been watching his videos for several years now. He is a really interesting person. I did not know what to expect in his book but I find I think it really reflects his personality and work as an investigator. It is arranged in question and answer format. But it is not boring at all!

I like his support of striving to have personal experiences. He breaks ideas about the afterlife into three groups
Skeptics which is where he started
Believers who  take other people's experiences and form beliefs from them
and
Knowers who have experiences that make them know things.

The "knowers" sound a bit like what Bruce encourages.

I can't say I've yet encountered any ideas I haven't seen before but I like the way he puts things together.

If he is skeptical about earthbound spirits it is probably because he has never experienced one. I think if someone had an experience and based their ideas on their personal knowing, he would listen to their ideas.

He clearly does not advocate any one line of thought (besides his own for himself) but he mentions various sources and does give a tip of the hat to the Monroe Institute as a good place to get the knowing level.