CITY/TOWN: Kelowna
DATE OF BIRTH: June 12, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH: Oliver
EMPLOYMENT OTHER THAN WRITING: Graphic Designer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Through Hell, to Heaven, and Back! A True Afterlife Journey into the Heart of the Soul (Professional Image Design Publishing, 2003)
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: Cassidyne has an MA in Political Science.
[BCBW 2003] "Fringe"
DATE OF BIRTH: June 12, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH: Oliver
EMPLOYMENT OTHER THAN WRITING: Graphic Designer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Through Hell, to Heaven, and Back! A True Afterlife Journey into the Heart of the Soul (Professional Image Design Publishing, 2003)
BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS: Cassidyne has an MA in Political Science.
[BCBW 2003] "Fringe"
Articles: 2 Articles for this author
“Pantes Kiroson”
Letter to Editor (2005)
Michael Cassidyne's promotion of Through Hell, to Heaven and Back!, his translation of a work by "Vassily Solitsin" (pseud.) (BCBW, Summer 2004), is at least doubly misleading. According to this translator/publisher, he spent ten years working with the original Russian-language manuscript, composed in 1954 by an author whose real name Cassidyne chooses not to disclose. In fact, this epic had previously been published in book form in 1950, ascribed to an author whose identity was then only thinly disguised.
Through Hell... is a translation of Tri dnia i tri nochi v zagrobnoi zhizni [Three days and three nights in the afterlife], by "Pantes Kiroson," an anagrammatic pseudonym not difficult to decipher given the place of publication - Crescent Valley, BC, the former Sons of Freedom stronghold. The Russian original is accessible in at least two BC libraries (see Outlook Online and UBC Library's on-line catalogue).
Jack McIntosh
Richmond
Through Hell, to Heaven & Back!
Article
"I, Vassily Solitsin, was physically put to death, but my soul did not die. It was alive. And I proclaim to all people living on earth that there is no death!" -- Through Hell, to Heaven and Back!
According to publisher and translator Michael Cassidyne of Kelowna, Vassily Solitsin (a fictitious name given to a real person to protect the identity of his son) grew up in Russia before and during the Russian Revolution. "After narrowly escaping from the hands of Soviet persecutors bent on turning the vast country into one huge 'torture chamber,' he immigrated to Canada in the 1940s, where he recorded his incredible and shocking afterlife experiences in the form of a Russian-language manuscript in 1954." According to Cassidyne's promotional material, he was approached by the author's son (name withheld) in 1993 when Cassidyne was attending University of Victoria. Cassidyne, who has since gained a Master's degree in political science, was shown a manuscript, written in Cyrillic and shabbily-bound, that apparently arose from Solistin's horrific experiences in 1931 after he was captured for attempting to reach Iran. Tortured and imprisoned in an underground cell by Russian State Security Police, Solistin was left to die without food, water or medical attention. He died for three days. The out-of-body experiences he describes in the text led him to the revelation that there is no death. "I had no knowledge of Russian so I was a bit baffled," Cassidyne has recalled. He learned Russian in order to translate the memoir and he has now created his own publishing enterprise to market it. There is no way to substantiate the claims of the text or the true identity of the person who wrote it. The man dubbed Vassily Solitsin apparently died--for a second time--in 1987. Possibly he'll be reborn for a sequel. [See Sorokin entry]
BOOK:
Through Hell, to Heaven & Back! by Vassily Solitsin; translated by Michael Cassidyne (Professional Image Design Publishing, 2003) Paperback with Embossed Title, 5.5x8.5, 232 pp ISBN 0-9732993-0-4. $21.95
[BCBW 2003] "Supernatural"