She Survived a Near Fatal Crash That Left Her Unable to Walk. Now Readers Are Calling Her Book a Turning Point.
Author Koko Alston survived a near fatal truck accident that left her temporarily unable to walk. Her new book, The Living Flame, is already resonating with readers searching for a way back to their own strength.
In January of 2024, Koko Alston was asleep in the cab of a truck when it crashed. She was trapped inside for over an hour before rescuers could free her, having sustained multiple fractures throughout her lower body. She has no memory of the crash itself, only of waking to her husband’s voice, frantic, calling her name.
“I’m ok,” she told him. And somehow, she says, she meant it.
That moment, and the extraordinary recovery that followed, from wheelchair to full mobility, became the foundation for The Living Flame: An Operational Guide to Remembering Your Cosmic Power. Alston, originally from Brewton, Alabama, and who has since lived in Detroit and Atlanta, says the book took shape during a period of deep meditation following a Kundalini activation, the point, she says, at which the material began to come together.
The book is part memoir and part practical guide, built from what Alston describes as the discipline that carried her through recovery: a sustained focus on mindset, gratitude, and belief in her own capacity to heal. She writes candidly about the setbacks along the way, including a period of isolation when her husband was unexpectedly incarcerated in another state, and how she used that time to rebuild both physically and mentally.
“I knew as long as I remembered who I was, and my mind was intact, I would come back from any injury,” Alston writes.
Today, Alston no longer uses a wheelchair or medical equipment. She walks and moves freely, and has developed The Living Flame as a resource for readers navigating recovery of their own, physical, emotional, or otherwise. The book includes reflection exercises, a guided meditation journal, and daily practices intended to accompany readers through their own process.
Early readers are already responding. Several have described returning to its pages repeatedly, calling it the kind of book that stays with them well after the first read, with more than one singling out the meditation practice on Christ consciousness as a section they return to often.
“I wrote this book because I wanted people to know that the power to rebuild your life is already inside them,” Alston has said. “You do not have to wait for permission to begin.”
The Living Flame is available now in hardcover through Barnes and Noble and Koko Alston’s official website, kokoalston.com. Alston continues to write and speak on the subjects of resilience, mindset, and recovery.
