The Modern Book of the Dead
A Revolutionary Perspective on Death, the Soul, and What Really Happens in the Life to Come
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A modern exploration of what happens after death, uniting spirituality with philosophy, biology, neuroscience, and rich examples of afterlife experiences.
What happens to us after we die?
It remains perhaps the single most important question we can ask, one that still inspires thousands to turn to the Tibetan and Egyptian Books of the Dead for hope and comfort. But we can no longer rely solely on ancient wisdom for truly useful answers about our own mortality. We must find explanations for the afterlife in the fruits of modern experience.
Critically acclaimed author Ptolemy Tompkins grew up in a family where questions about the shape and fate of the human soul were discussed on a daily basis, but it was only after his father’s passing that he began to consider death in a genuinely concrete way. In this boldly unconventional book—part memoir, part history of ideas, part road map to what might truly await us—Tompkins approaches the question of the afterlife with refreshing intimacy. Weaving together philosophy, science, stories of near-death experiences, and theology, he offers readers a new perspective on death and comes to an amazing and uplifting conclusion: that, somehow, human consciousness lives on.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From Egyptian and Tibetan books of the dead to contemporary near-death experience reports, Tompkins (The Divine Life of Animals) rigorously reviews literature about the edge of life in seeking answers to what the afterlife may hold. "Our beliefs about the world beyond are hopelessly vague," writes the author, who argues that scientific reason has undermined our faith in the possibility of consciousness surviving the body. Tompkins, whose research was prompted in part by the death of his father, New Age author Peter Tompkins, synthesizes Eastern and Western beliefs to arrive at a theory of the afterlife that accepts reincarnation and a forward-moving process of spiritual evolution. By incorporating timeless traditions alongside more esoteric ideas, this volume is a winning history of humanity's numerous imaginings of the hereafter. But Tompkins also interprets his sources, arriving at a possible geography of the afterlife that reconciles a variety of cultural understandings. Though readers may not agree with all the specific features on Tompkins's otherworldly map, this is a smoothly written and well-argued odyssey into the unknown.
