Michael Cassidyne-Hook

I began my Russian to English translation career back in 2003, when I (pen-name: Michael Cassidyne) successfully translated and published the Russian language true afterlife account into the form of an English language book ("Through Hell to Heaven and Back!" sold in bookstores and found in public libraries all around British Columbia, Canada.) I had started formally studying the Russian language in 1993 at the University of Victoria, shortly after I had been given access to a mysterious Russian language text typed in the 1950's by a Russian gentleman who tells the story of his mortal death in a Soviet prison in 1931 Russia, and how after three days and three nights of the most terrifying and awe-inspiring experiences beyond the grave, he came back to life into his physical body; what is, of course, by all known medical standards, an impossibility. I was motivated to learn new Russian words, grammar, and phrases every day for ten years in order to access what I was told by the son of the author of the text were fascinating spiritual insights the likes of which no one on Earth had ever before revealed. With the help of my ten years of Russian-language studies, I ended up with what I was certain was the most accurate-possible translation into English of the Russian words and phrases found in this 210-page text describing the most bizarre, awe-inspiring, and intuitively-appealing story and insights I had ever come across. Since translating and publishing this account, I have shared the original Russian text and my English translation of it with many experienced and objective native Russian speakers, and they all agreed that I had, despite my being a native English-speaker, captured the real and accurate essence of the text developed by the original Russian author.