“Life beyond Death” is a collection of lectures delivered by Swami Abhedananda in the United States. Unlike most books on the subject which mainly record encounters with ghosts and other kinds of paranormal activities, this book looks at the mystery from a soundly rational and scientific perspective.
Initially in the 1st half of the book it imparts various knowledge regarding soul, death and rebirth, also does a comparative study among the religions of the world and parallely discusses the hindu/vedantic view on the same matters.
Then in the 2nd half of the book, it delves into the realms of dead or what is beyond this physical. With astonishing detail it describes various intricacies with which the law of Karma works, it also
describes author's first hand experience with spirits.
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The lectures initially focus on providing rational arguments against the material theory of consciousness, which states that consciousness originates as a result of brain activity and therefore once death happens, consciousness also ends and so there is no such thing as a life beyond death. Later in the book, Swami Abhedananda also rallies against many dogmatic ideas present in Christian theology regarding the fate of the soul after death: such as the philosophies of eternal damnation to hell, resurrection of the physical body after death and the belief that the soul has a birth, but no death.