The Imprisoned Splendor

A nationally celebrated but self-absorbed philosophy professor finds himself very much alive following a fatal plane crash in an afterlife world he was absolutely certain could not exist. A pushy and insensitive alpha male in the habit of manipulating students, colleagues, and his wife, he relives events from the viewpoint of his victims and faces the consequences of his karma.

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Details

Publisher: White Crow Books

Publication Date: November 2011

Extent: 156

Size: 229 x 152 mm

ISBN: 9781907661983

eBook ISBN: 978-1-907661-99-0

Summary

A nationally celebrated but self-absorbed philosophy professor finds himself very much alive following a fatal plane crash in an afterlife world he was absolutely certain could not exist.  A pushy and insensitive alpha male in the habit of manipulating students, colleagues, and his wife, he relives events from the viewpoint of his victims and faces the consequences of his karma.  From the front ranks of academic philosophy he falls to the level of a back-row student in a “classroom” where love, service, and generosity form the better part of the curriculum.

As he watches others move ahead into higher worlds, he presses on toward his own future with one of the women he rejected, who has been stuck in the Shadowlands since her suicide many years before.  How far will he extend himself to help her free herself from her personal hell?  Will he “grow his soul” enough to sidestep another birth on earth, or will he have to “repeat the grade”?  And what about her?  Descriptions of the afterworld based on spirit communications provide a consistently arresting setting.

The Imprisoned Splendor is much more than a paranormal romance.  Many readers will be captivated by the spirit-charged world they find here—with its unfamiliar laws and culture, its vivid landscapes and astral cities, and its lessons for common earth dwellers like us as we look toward our own future beyond death.  This is not a religious book, but it does have a strong spiritual message.  It talks with compassion to wounded, struggling human beings, and it suggests that the Universe, moral to the core, holds us accountable for our actions in a world that many of us, like Kiran, don’t even suspect exists.

“. . . a riveting, action-filled, visionary” novel set in the afterlife.  Wisdom Magazine

Whether you agree or disagree with the novel’s interpretations of the afterlife, the divine and the idea of rebirth, its major themes—never stop seeking new truths, make the effort to treat people as ends rather than means, and the idea that “only love works in the long run”—make this book an entertaining, challenging, and thought-provoking read. By Rebekah Kearn, Bakersfield.com. full review here. www.bakersfield.com/entertainment

About the Author

Number of books: 9

Stafford Betty

Stafford Betty, Professor of Religious Studies, CSUB, (ret) is the author of When Did You Ever Become Less by Dying?  and Heaven and Hell Unveiled. His latest novel, Guardians of the Afterworld is published by White Crow Books.
Stafford can be found at http://www.staffordbetty.com.

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.