Mark Mirabello - A Travelers Guide to the Afterlife: Traditions and Beliefs on Death, Dying, and What Lies Beyond

In an underground Mithraic temple, in Sarrebourg, France, archaeologists discovered a human skeleton, chained to the altar. The door was found blocked, so the nameless follower of Mithras had died alone and in darkness.

To the unknown individual who was murdered for his religion, I dedicate this book.

A Travelers
GUIDE
to the
AFTERLIFE

People interested in the research of survival of physical death will find in A Travelers Guide to the Afterlife a compelling wealth of information. People who are not interested in the subject will benefit from the authors erudition and his remarkable exploration of the sacred Eastern and Western traditions.

ANABELA CARDOSO, RETIRED PORTUGUESE SENIOR CAREER DIPLOMAT, EDITOR IN CHIEF OF THE ITC JOURNAL, AND AUTHOR OF ELECTRONIC VOICES: CONTACT WITH ANOTHER DIMENSION?

An extraordinary exploration of humankinds collective wisdom about what lies on the other side of death.

MATTHEW MCKAY, PH.D., AUTHOR OF SEEKING JORDAN

What stands out in this travelers guide to the afterlife is how great minds throughout Earths history have over and over said that reincarnation, the recycling of souls, is the machinery of the universe. This book reinforces the importance of the soul in the mind-body-spirit complex that humans are; it should inspire all readers to do what they can to strengthen their soul while alive in the matter world.

LINDA MOULTON HOWE, EMMY AWARDWINNING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AND REPORTER AND EDITOR OF EARTHFILES.COM

I have been hoping to find a resource like this for years. Marks book has become one of my most valuable reference tools for information on multicultural, multispiritual perspectives on death and the afterlife. The research is impeccable.

REV. TERRI DANIEL, CT, FOUNDER OF THE DEATH AWARENESS INSTITUTE AND THE AFTERLIFE CONFERENCE

The suspense of death often kills us, figuratively speaking. That unknown door we all inevitably walk through stands as the proverbial elephant in the room that we all choose to ignore. In this book Mark Mirabello has accumulated the most extensive knowledge on death and the afterlife; it is enough to make a believer out of the skeptic. After reading this book you will face that unknown door with no suspense but instead a sense of wonder and excitement.

JASON GREGORY, AUTHOR OF ENLIGHTENMENT NOW AND THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF HUMILITY

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank several colleagues, including professors Lavanya Vemsani, Sean Dunn, Sibylle Herrmann, and James Miller at Shawnee State University, as well as the late John L. Kelley, professor emeritus. I also wish to thank Jack Wolf, Kwak Ho-Sung, Tricia Martineau Wagner, Carol Sue Sessor, Erica Hasselbach, Zachary Nickoli, Mogg Morgan, Heather Cantrell, Jon Graham, Nancy Yeilding, Jamaica Burns Griffin, Blythe Bates, and a future professor named Ashley Rowland.

I wish also to remember family members, especially Paula Sheroian, Paul Mirabello, Regina Baranski Mirabello, Jennifer Greca, Stacey Treanor, Brad Sheroian, Ashley Oliker, Donald Sheroian, Frank Vallas, Margaret Vallas, Mae Mirabello, Martha and Jack Lickendorff, Amy Gilmore, Grace Russo Mirabello, Leonardo Mirabello, Nadine Maynard, Viola Shope, and Lailah Holbrook.

Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Taryn Mirabello, who has always inspired me. She is a loving soul enveloped in beauty and light.

If you know what you sing, death is the center of a long life.

LUCAN

The only true wisdom lives far from mankind, out in the great loneliness, and it can be reached only through suffering. Privation and suffering alone can open the mind of a man to all that is hidden in others.

IGJUGARJUK (INUIT SHAMAN)

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

JORGE LUIS BORGES

Whatever is here is found elsewhere. But whatever is not here is nowhere else.

MAHABHARATA

Note from the Editor

The author has drawn on 965 sources in the creation of this book, texts from around the globe and throughout time. While not every source is quoted directly, each of these texts has informed the book.

Given the large number of sources, a condensed endnote/bibliography style has been used. Each source is listed alphabetically in a numbered list at the end of the book. In the body of the text, a superscript number refers readers to these sources.

A large portion of these source texts have been published multiple times, by different publishers and in different periods of timeand, indeed, the author often consulted more than one edition of a given text. Because of this, the author has provided only author names and book titles rather than referencing a specific edition or printing.

For some facts and quotes, multiple sources are given. Simple facts are open to different interpretations, and those readers intrigued by a particular belief or culture may wish to consult various sources for additional information and commentary from different perspectives. When multiple note numbers are provided, the author considers the first source(s) to be the most significant.

Introduction

The sage keeps company with those who think of life and death just as one thinks of waking and sleeping, not with those who have forgotten the meaning of return.

LIEH TZU

Death is often only the result of our indifference to immortality.

MIRCEA ELIADE, IMAGES AND SYMBOLS

Where joy and delight reign, where reigns pleasure heaped upon pleasure, where the hearts desires are attained, in this place, make me immortal.

RIG VEDA

S igmund Freud (18561939) made this observation: It is indeed impossible to imagine our own death; and whenever we attempt to do so we can perceive that we are still present as spectators.317

I have tried to imagine myself dead....

Perhaps, like a Brahmin priest, I am shrouded in silk, garlanded with flowers, drenched in clarified butter, and cremated on a pyre of scented wood until my skull explodes from the heat.442, 175

Or, perhaps, as the Marquis de Sade (17401814) requested, I am buried in the forest, the soft earth above me strewn with acorns.260, 346

Or, perhaps, like some of the tribal people in India, I am buried face down in a grave filled with thorns.72

Or, perhaps, like a Tibetan Buddhist, I am given a sky burial. My body is taken to a hill-top, chopped into pieces, and left for the birds to consume.663

But, as Freud predicted, I cannot really imagine myself dead. I am presently stricken with cancerI am surrounded by skulls and carrion flowers, the symbols of deathbut I cannot really imagine myself dead.

So, this is not a book about deathabout annihilationto the contrary, it is a book about existence beyond death. It is about surviving the grisly decay of the grave.

In my opinion, a volume on death, a form of literary necrophilia, is informative but of finite value. A text on the afterworlds, however, is a torch that illuminates the great unknown.

Moreover, information about the afterlife is valued by all responsible minds. As one Buddhist text makes clear, since death is virtually inevitable (even the Buddha died), to simply focus on enjoying life here is as misguided as a person who has fallen off a cliff deciding to enjoy his descent to earth.535