Since the 1970s there has been an increasing awareness and a desire to be more open about the process of death and dying.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross examined what happens as we die and created a model that is now generally accepted in Western countries. In 1977 Dr. Raymond Moody, and later Ken Ring studied what happens when we die.

This brought a rash of Near Death Experiences to our attention which are now referred to as NDEs. 1994 brought even more demythologising from Sherwin B. Nuland who described how we die physically.

This book looks at widely varying cultures and their beliefs on what happens after we die.

We will see that afterdeath beliefs have a marked effect on how we live our lives and how we prepare for the inevitable.

Sukie Miller is a psychotherapist and scholar of comparative religion who has taken a cross-cultural look at what sort of beliefs people have about the afterlife, or as she puts it, ‘the afterdeath’.

This did sound a little sinister to me and vastly unattractive (doubtless due to my cultural background). She is a director of the Orwellian sounding ‘Institute for the Study of the Afterdeath’. It is not as bad as it sounds.

A group of prestigious researchers from around the world collected cross cultural beliefs and practices relating to the ‘afterdeath’ over a period of eight years. They ranged over all continents except Europe and Australia.

Appendix B outlines the Senior Researchers and gives a summary of the death beliefs and rituals of the peoples they studied.

Dr. Miller has used a mixture of case studies from her own work with the terminally ill. Also included are interviews, anecdotes and scholarly research collected on the Institute database to create a model of ‘the afterdeath’.

In Part 1 she compares and contrasts the death stories of some of her clients and friends. These show how varied people are in their behaviour, attitude and beliefs surrounding the death process and the afterdeath.

In Part 2 she describes the four stages of Waiting, Judgment, Possibilities and Return. Dr. Miller samples beliefs and experiences on the stages from each culture studied. Almost every culture exhibits these stages of afterdeath beliefs.

The waiting stage is what happens immediately after death. Judgment is what we in the West would call a life review, Possibilities is the various concepts of the journey to paradise or a destination that is filled with possibilities.

Return may or may not feature in all religious beliefs, a soul may or may not reincarnate. For Westerners, the use of past life regression therapy and other psychotherapy techniques give life and hope to the return.

In Appendix A one can find ‘The Afterdeath Inventory’. This is a highly detailed series of questions that provides clarity of belief in a number of areas.

These include the reader’s identity and environment in the afterdeath, ways to prepare for the journey, influences and future, as well as personal and group evidence for the existence of the afterdeath.

The reader is encouraged to take this inventory and there may be surprising results. I found it most useful. There is also an appendix on the purpose of the Institute.

The tone of this groundbreaking work on afterdeath is hopeful and gentle. Dr. Miller states her aim as trying to have people pass from this life in a gentle and hopeful way.

For therapists working with the terminally ill, this is a highly useful work and will give many ideas for discussion and psychotherapy. For the layperson interested in what happens after we die, the cross cultural material will fascinate and maybe clarify what lays beneath the surface in all of us.

As I have said so many times in other reviews, we are more connected than we think. The veil between our current life and the afterdeath is not robust. In meditation and other altered states we may find the barrier dissolving.

I gained a lot from this book. Although I am not anticipating an early exit from this life (so much to do...), the book has certainly given me much to ponder.

I recommend this book as a ‘fear buster’.

– Reviewed by Jennifer Hoskins in New Dawn No. 92