Richard Matheson-what dreams may come

I watch the movie I think back in 1998 or so. I loved it then but hadn't realized it was adapted from a book till recently when I was browsing through some e-books. I think the film was better than the book. The book's a bit long-winded but then again it paints a bigger picture of the philosophy of life after death, reincarnation, etc and gives the readers more room for thought. I quite enjoyed the afterword by Stephen Simon, the producer of the movie. He said he actually cried reading the book and thought Matheson was ahead of his time by raising all these questions and ideas regarding the spiritual life before new age became popular. It was also through this after word that I realized Matheson wrote somewhere in time (the book title is actually bid time return) , another favorite of mine. I watch somewhere in time back in 1996 but I think it was screened way before 96. It starred Christopher reeves aka superman and Jane Seymour. That movie made me wish I could time travel that way too! By pure thought.
I couldn't find the eBook version of somewhere in time so decided to try my luck at the library today. Unfortunately the library didnt carry it as well but I made another discovery about Matheson. He actually wrote I am Legend. I read the book and watch the movie but didnt recall Matheson being the author. A string discoveries and it turned out I actually liked all the movies that were adapted from his books.
Back to What Dreams May Come... The idea came from Shakespeare's Hamlet where Hamlet said "for in that sleep of death what dreams may come". It hints of the idea that there is belief or even fear of what might linger after death. Do we completely dissolve out of existence or do we carry on another life as what Chris Nielsen experienced after his death. It talked about souls and mostly above love. Chris and Ann were soul mates in the literal sense of the word, inseparable, finding one another life after life. Chris went through hell and was willing to stay on in hell just so he could be with Ann. I remembered this scene very well from the movie. Robin Williams was terrific in his acting. You could really see the light went out of his eyes when he decided that hell was where he would stay, if he couldn't pull Ann out of it. A rather beautiful moment.
Although I so want to believe that everyone has a soul mate, it gets harder as one grows older. Do we really have souls that will persist after our physical shells die?is there only one soul mate for everyone or are there many to go around? How did soul mates come about? An act of God or something else ? Why is it that some people never meet their soul mates and live their lives in single hood ? Did their soul mate got lost in another life? Perhaps.... It's all very strange and I guess we would have no answers to that.