I never gave the afterlife much thought until a friend gifted me After by Dr Bruce Greyson. Sometimes, a book doesn’t just change your mind; it opens a door to a new way of seeing life itself.
The idea of life beyond death is deeply embedded in our cultural DNA. Concepts like punarjanma (rebirth), moksha (liberation), and samsara (the cycle of life and death) are not only central to Hindu philosophy, but also echo through centuries of literature and art. The Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita explore the nature of the soul (Atman), its union with the ultimate reality (Brahman), and the mysteries of existence.
Yet, in a world obsessed with productivity, performance, and the next milestone, conversations about death – or what may come after – are often sidestepped. Perhaps it feels too uncertain. Or too uncomfortable. But few questions are more universal.
Reading After felt like being reminded of something I had always known but never articulated. Dr Bruce, a psychiatrist and a scientist, has documented thousands of near-death experiences (NDEs) over four decades. These are not hallucinations, he argues, but profound psychological events with common threads: a sense of peace, a journey beyond the body, a message that “your time has not yet come,” and most strikingly, a return to life with renewed clarity and purpose. People come back from the brink not afraid but more loving, more forgiving, more alive.
In Sum, David Eagleman invites us to play with these ideas imaginatively. This collection of 40 whimsical afterlives, written by a neuroscientist, feels like a child’s dream married to a philosopher’s mind. One moment, you’re a microbe in someone else’s universe; the next, you’re reliving your life out of order. Then there’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. The story follows Eddie, an unassuming amusement park worker who dies saving a child. In heaven, he meets five people, each revealing how their lives and his were intertwined in unexpected ways.
Many Lives, Many Masters by Dr Brian Weiss has become almost canonical in the world of spiritual healing. A trained psychotherapist, Dr Brian was stunned when a patient began recalling traumatic past-life memories during therapy. Skepticism gave way to openness. His journey reminds us that truth lives outside the boundaries of conventional logic.
Perhaps my most favourite book in this category is the New York Times bestseller 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper who shares the extraordinary experience that changed him forever. Don’s car was crushed on his way home and the medical personnel declared him dead. He was awed by the beauty and music in the glories of heaven while his body lay lifeless inside the ruins of his car. After a minister had spoken the last prayers for him, he returned to life on earth, remembering only the inexpressible heavenly bliss.
What unites these books isn’t a conclusion, but a shared invitation to slow down, reflect and look inward. Whether we believe in reincarnation, in a realm beyond, or simply in the enduring power of love, the takeaway is the same: how we live today shapes what follows. In the end, I am reminded of a line from the Isha Upanishad: “He who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in all beings, he sees truly”
Maybe the afterlife begins not after death, but in how we choose to live.