A grand survey of the world’s death and afterlife traditions throughout history • Examines beliefs from many different cultures on the soul, heaven, hell, and reincarnation; instructions for accessing the different worlds of the afterlife; how one may become a god; and how ethics and the afterlife may not be connected • Explores techniques to communicate with the dead, including séance instructions • Includes an extensive bibliography of more than 900 sources from around the world Drawing on death and afterlife traditions from cultures around the world, Mark Mirabello explores the many forms of existence beyond death and each tradition’s instructions to access the afterlife. He examines beliefs on the soul, heaven, hell, and reincarnation and wisdom from Books of the Dead such as the Book of Going Forth by Day from Egypt, the Katha Upanishad from India, the Bardo Thodol from Tibet, the Golden Orphic Tablets from Greece, Lieh Tzu from China, and Heaven and its Wonders and Hell from Things Heard and Seen from 18th-century Europe. Considering the question “What is Death?” Mirabello provides answers from a wide range of ancient and modern thinkers, including scientist Nicholas Maxwell, the seer Emanuel Swedenborg, 1st-century Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna, and Greek philosopher Euripides, who opined that we may already be dead and only dreaming we are alive. He explores the trek of the soul through life and death with firsthand accounts of the death journey and notes that what is perceived as death here may actually be life somewhere else. He reveals how, in many traditions, ethics and the afterlife are not connected and how an afterlife is possible even without a god or a soul. Sharing evidence that consciousness is not simply a product of the brain, he offers a strong rebuttal to nihilists, materialists, and the Lokayata philosophical school of India who believe in the “finality” of death. He explains how specters and ghosts are produced and offers techniques to communicate with the dead as well as instructions for an out-of-body experience and the complete procedure for a séance. With an extensive bibliography of more than 900 sources, this guide offers comprehensive information on afterlife beliefs from the vast majority of cultures around the world and throughout history--a veritable “traveler’s guide” to the afterlife.

A Traveler's Guide to the Afterlife: Traditions and Beliefs on Death, Dying, and What Lies Beyond

Politics & Social Sciences

Mark Mirabello

Sociology

Inner Traditions

The Cannibal Within (Quotations) "The truth is not beautiful - it stands on cloven hooves - it is covered in coagulated blood - but it is the truth." "Ingestion is the ultimate act of domination. The victim is absorbed by the eater--body and soul are absorbed--and all that remains is excrement." "You must torture it first, she whispered, with perverse logic. "Terror-stricken animals taste better." "Man needs lies like children need toys." "In this reality of ours, gods are simply expert players who move grotesquely carved pieces in a game without rules." "Self-destruction would be a brief, almost autoerotic free-fall into a great velvet darkness." "Had not the great Yukio Mishima killed himself with a dagger? Thrusting and wet--his hand one with the weapon--Mishima called suicide the 'ultimate masturbation.'" "Crawling into your soul, we can brutalize you without even touching you." "Nailed to the crosses were two thieves. Naked except for crowns of thorns, they were called 'Perverted by Wealth" and 'Degraded by Poverty.'" 'Error is like sin,' hissed a voice in the dream. 'The deeper it is, the less the victim suspects its existence.'" 'In the next world--as in this world--beauty and danger, seduction and torment, are indissolubly linked." "Devoted to wicked science--the hostile domination of nature--the complex is composed of thousands of gloomy laboratories. Here, legions of amoral researchers--greedy for knowledge--commit crimes against bodies and ideas." "In my dreams I kissed her in a playful and amorous way, and then we made love--in the fresh air--the way wild animals do."

The Cannibal Within

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Mandrake of Oxford

Crafted in dialogue form for clarity, this book details the beliefs and rituals of a msyterious secret society.

The Odin Brotherhood: A Non-Fiction Account of Contact with a Pagan Secret Society, With a New Epilogue A Statement on the Odin Brotherhood

Religion & Spirituality

New Age & Spirituality

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Books by Mark Mirabello