After Death: How People Aroung the World Map the Journey After Life

As a psychotherapist treating the dying, Miller found that many of her clients' fears seemed linked to the uncertainty about what, if anything, happens after death. She began eight years of worldwide research on ""afterdeath systems,"" finding that most complex cultures posit four stages: the ""waiting place,"" where the dead come to terms with their new status; the ""judgment"" phase, where, in Egyptian, Tibetan Buddhist, Christian and other traditions, the life that just ended is evaluated; the phase of ""possibilities,"" in which the dead accept their fate of light and love, or of punishment and pain; and the phase of ""return,"" through reincarnation or another form of rebirth. Through case studies, Miller, founder and director of the Institute for the Study of the Afterdeath, shows how her research can help people who are dying. A self-described ""New York skeptic,"" the author also attended a two-day Afro-Brazilian ritual that ""wove together the worlds of the living and dead"" and, straight-faced, describes a similar event some years later in her own living room. Some readers may balk at Miller's apparent credulity, but she urges that they and others, especially the dying, develop ""vital imagination,"" the ability to see ""not by the five usual senses alone but by a highly sensitized, transformed imagination that functions in and of itself as an organ of perception."" Her book, with its research questionnaire and sources, should be a useful tool for those facing death and for their counselors. QPB and One Spirit alternate selections. (Apr.)