Review: The Silver Thread of Life by Phillip B. Chute

An economic advisor, Phillip B. Chute, draws on dramatic material from far different aspects of his working life – spirituality, karma, and the supernatural – in The Silver Thread of Life: True Accounts of Spiritual Interventions.

The author’s business career began with a single, simple episode: returning from service in the Army, he saw his family’s tax returns on the kitchen table, drawing him into the world of finance. Through that career he has made contact with hundreds of clients, some of whom have volunteered personal information about their private lives, seeming to give evidence for such phenomena as spirit visitations, karmic reparations, and near-death, heavenly visions.

The source of these tales gives the book a wholly unique perspective, as well as fascinating variety. A Hungarian barber is able to escape to freedom after giving a satisfactory haircut to a Russian border guard, a woman about to undergo a simple surgical procedure has a warning dream, takes what seem like unnecessary precautions and narrowly escapes with her life, and a dying man who swore to his wife that that he did not believe in an afterlife returns in spirit form to let her know that life after death is a reality.

Chute himself has had significant, inexplicable incidents in his own life. As a teenager, working with his head under a propped up car, he moved seconds before the vehicle fell and crashed onto the pavement. In the military he survived the total failure of his parachute, and as a child he experimented with explosive chemicals, once almost losing a hand. One example of karma concerns his wife, who had a hole in heart requiring major surgery; later a psychic told him that in a previous life, she was his mate but was unfaithful, her punishment being to pierce her heart with a sword. Later, in real life, he saved her life in a choking incident, seeing this as karmic reparation for the earlier envisioned execution.

Chute’s interest in psychic, unseen and unproven happenings may seem unusual for a tax accountant, but he believes that so many incidents, and so much gathered lore about these occurrences, logically point to their validity. Many accounts of near-death experiences and a glorious afterlife provide their own credibility, and inexplicable healings are also recounted from various reliable sources, including doctors. Chute offers brief supporting text, such as his straightforward analysis of karma: as we go through life, “we make many mistakes as we mature both physically and mentally,” mistakes that we can gradually correct on the path to maturity and wisdom.

While it’s impossible to prove the veracity of these claims, there is a kind of strength in numbers, so Chute’s compendium of examples ends up being both persuasive and inspiring. For those who are more cynical about these sorts of ideas, the book is a much more sober take than usually found on the subject. Given that Chute worked for the IRS, and is not a professional spiritualist or New Age guru, as is common in the genre, the book is more down home and engaging than books driven by zealotry. Chute’s insights into each example, and the overall phenomenon, are intriguing and unique in the field.

Throughout, Chute demonstrates a clear capacity for empathy that draws others to share their secrets, and the craftsmanship required to organize these stories with such discretion and understanding. As long as one approaches this book with an open mind, there is a wide variety of wisdom and insight to be found in this deeply compelling book.