The Pocket Guide to the Afterlife: 91 Places Death Might Take You

An excellent overview that shows just how silly religions are - silly to fight with each other as they have a lot in common, but also just plain silly. if there is an afterlife, then it's a natural process and nothing we do, eat, wear or marry is going to make a darned bit of difference. more detailed review here [...]

With a slight tongue-in-cheek approach, over 50 world religions are briefly presented here with their thoughts on the afterlife. This is only scratching the surface but is simple and easy to read with hints of humor and allows you to get a very broad sense of what other religions believe happens after death. Want to know what happens after death in the Rastafarian Movement? How about as a Vodou-ian? Maybe you want to help out the Snake Handling Pentacostals or consider moving on to Summerland as a Modern Druid or Wicca. This book may help you out. Quick read and informative for the cut-rate basics. Mix in cartoon flow charts for extra instructions and you have the beginnings of your endings.

I recently purchased the Pocket Guide and was very impressed by its format. It concisely presents the various visions of the Afterlife that are taught by 40 of the major religions, and does it in a very entertaining format. It uses cartoon figures as well as flowcharts to explain each alternate vision of the Afterlife. I highly recommend it. Yes, there are scholarly books on this subject, but this one is hard to put down, while most of the scholarly works are cures for insomnia. If you want the dry dusty facts, you can always go take a course on Comparative Religion.