When Suzanne Ward’s son Matthew died in a vehicle wreck in 1980 at the age of 17, she tried to cope with her grief by contacting mediums. Those to whom she "was led," as she later learned, gave progressive updates on Matthew’s spirit life and all said that when the time was right, she would communicate with him directly. Due partly to 35 years of immersion in Christian dogma and partly to her belief then that telepathy is a rare gift (and she didn't feel worthy of it), it was hard for her to believe that she and her son really would talk again during her Earth lifetime, but she never stopped hoping that they would.

One morning early in 1994, almost 14 years after Matthew's death, Suzanne heard him speaking to her as clearly as if they were sitting side by side, chatting like any other mother and son. During the first days as she recorded their long conversations at the computer and received the images he sent of himself and his surroundings, she felt both elation and doubt. The doubt faded when Matthew's information went so far beyond her comprehension that she knew she wasn't imagining what he was saying, or the astounding information she was hearing from the many souls in other civilizations whom he introduced to her. He told his mother that her profession as journalist was not by chance; it was the experience she needed to organize and publish the descriptions of life in the realm we call heaven, the purpose of multiple lifetimes on Earth and in other worlds, and the help and guidance from extraterrestrials during this era of unprecedented planetary changes. He said that in the family's pre-birth agreement, she had accepted this responsibility as her primary mission of this lifetime, and thus the Matthew Books were born.

The first - Matthew, Tell Me about Heaven - is a selection of Suzanne's and Matthew's verbatim conversations during the first month after their telepathic communion started. Except for a few later additions to Revelations for a New Era (e.g., "A Spiritual Response to Terrorism," Matthew's explanation of "9/11"), the content of this second book was received during spring and summer 1994. However, due to one obstacle after another, the books were not available in any quantity until mid-2003, when revised editions were published simultaneously with Illuminations for a New Era, and six months later, Voices of the Universe came out. The second, third and fourth books of the series include cogent messages from God and representatives of 13 civilizations, some of them our ancestors, who are helping Earth in her ascension from third density to the "Golden Age" vibrations of fifth density.