Guardians of the Afterworld is the third of Professor Betty’s afterlife novels. The first, The Imprisoned Splendour, tells the story of a non-believer who dies in a plane crash, the second, The Afterlife Therapist,  is about a therapist who counsels lost or confused souls when they come over. Guardians of the Afterworld looks at big-picture problems, and the Guardians, highly evolved spirits, one female and one male, do what they can to fix them. Betty’s views are not based on religious doctrine but on responsible paranormal research, which he regards as far more dependable. All three novels, which form a trilogy, use this research to create the settings: the landscapes, activities, laws, and the great variety of souls and their destinies that make up life over there. Can his books, both fiction and nonfiction, serve as trustworthy guides? He believes they can. “I write novels to entertain,” he says, “but more importantly to inform. The information here should inspire readers to take their present lives more seriously and face death without fear. I think we are all pilgrims on a very long march.”

Stafford Betty earned his Ph.D. from Fordham University, where he specialized in Asian religious thought and Sanskrit. Today he is a professor emeritus of religious studies at California State University, Bakersfield, and an acclaimed expert on the afterlife. In 2011 he published The Afterlife Unveiled, the first of his nonfiction afterlife books, and The Imprisoned Splendor, the first of his novels set in the afterlife.

Other titles include Heaven and Hell Unveiled: Updates from the World of Spirit (2014), When Did You Ever Become Less by Dying? Afterlife: The Evidence (2016), and The Severed Breast (2016), a historical first-century novel about St. Thomas’ travels to India, and The Afterlife Therapist (2020),  a novel for middle-graders, Ghost Boy (2018), and a futuristic novel The War for Islam (2019).

Stafford’s many scholarly articles and essays can be found at academia.edu. His videos with Jeffrey Mishlove for his New Thinking Allowed series on YouTube are popular with those interested in contemporary afterlife research.