Posted on 31 October 2011, 23:10

Growing up a white Anglo-Saxon Catholic, I observed All Saints Day November 1 and All Souls Day November 2.  In other words, I said a few prayers to my favorite saint and said a few more for the anonymous dead a day later.  I had no idea what kind of fun I was missing because I wasn’t born in Mexico or Guatemala.

November 1 and 2 are the days of the dead (Día de los Muertos).  Mexican-Americans believe that their dead relatives descend to earth and enjoy a kind of homecoming.  True, it’s rare that anyone reports seeing the spirits of their beloved dead, but the stories about them get told one more time—and in their presence.  The mood is usually festive, seldom solemn—though tears will often flow.

But how do the spirits of the dead live the rest of the year?  The old timers among us might be inclined to tell us the dead are in Purgatory, the younger folk that they’re in Heaven.  Can we know the answer?

In the last twenty or so years there has been a breakthrough in afterlife research.  It might seem incredible, but some scholars, including myself, think we know what the afterlife is like: its laws, its various sectors (hundreds, possibly thousands), its location relative to earth, its appearance, its inhabitants, its diverse cultures.  My book The Afterlife Revealed summarizes this research by letting the “dead” speak for themselves, and my new novel The Imprisoned Splendor makes them come alive.  If you are expecting something based on the Bible, you’d be looking in the wrong place.  If you are interested in knowing what really happens to us when we die, check out these two works or similar books.  They are likely to change your worldview and your sense of life’s meaning.  They will leave you changed—and for the better.  (Search “Stafford Betty” at Amazon.com or b & n.com.)

Stafford Betty’s new novel The Imprisoned Splendor

Stafford,

Thanks for plugging my book, “The Afterlife Revealed,” rather than yours, “The Afterlife Unveiled.”  It does get confusing.