Death and the Afterlife: A Chronological Journey, from Cremation to Quantum Resurrection

by Clifford A. Pickover

Throughout history, the nature and mystery of death has captivated artists, scientists, philosophers, physicians, and theologians.

This eerie chronology ventures right to the borderlines of science and sheds light into the darkness. Here, topics as wide ranging as the Maya death gods, golems, and séances sit side by side with entries on zombies and quantum immortality.

With the turn of every page, readers will encounter beautiful artwork, along with unexpected insights about death and what may lie beyond.

Genres: Nonfiction, Death, History, Science, Anthropology, Spirituality, Art

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 2015

About the author

Clifford Alan Pickover is an American author, editor, and columnist in the fields of science, mathematics, science fiction, innovation, and creativity. For many years, he was employed at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York, where he was editor-in-chief of the IBM Journal of Research and Development. He has been granted more than 700 U.S. patents, is an elected Fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and is author of more than 50 books, translated into more than a dozen languages.

Reviews

[Brett C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a historical look at the human concept of death and the afterlife. Every page was a picture and a brief description about the picture, the concept, and its place in history. The book starts from the days of prehistoric man and finishes in today's modern world. There was some great artwork depictions of the the concepts to include: Heaven, Hell/Hades, resurrection, necromancy, burial mounds, gravestones, euthanasia, autopsy, the electric chair, CPR, embalming, Do Not Resuscitate, and a lot of other interesting subjects.


This was a beautifully crafted book full of information. However the information is very basic and merely introduces the reader to a new subject. I would recommend it for anyone interested in this subject. Thanks!

[MKF · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book because of the cover though not the one shown with the two female skeletons. It is a great book almost like an encyclopedia though the subjects are not alphabatized but by dates. The subjects include art, religion, customs, science, history, and so much more. Though I enjoyed this book I do recommend not reading it from cover to cover without a few breaks since it is a lot to take in.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Death comes for us all, and none of us are exempt from its cold and final embrace."

From the four horseman of the apocalypse, the resurrectionists, hell, angels, plagues and ritualistic sacrifice this book has snippets of a little bit of it all!

[Emma Sea]

Squee! Look what just arrived. The cover is all textured and prettied with gold, and the endpapers are gorgeous.

[Emma Nebelung · Rating 3 out of 5]

We are living in a society where everyone is disconnected from death, it became a topic people avoid and ignored, it seems so far away and surreal to us. However, death is such a natural thing that will eventually befall every single one of us, no matter the rich, the poor, no matter your loved ones nor your enemies, no one can escape death, not even the universe that we are living in itself.

This book introduces everything about death, dying, and afterlife throughout human history. For people who are fascinated by this topic, it is a great read to an open gate of all the information and stories you might be looking for. For people who fear death, or generally disconnected from it, this book is a good reminder to show how insignificant we are in front of the unknown and inevitable death.

[Trang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't judge a book by its admittedly cool cover! It starts off interesting but then it gets really.. bland? It's more geared towards middle schoolers than adults. And there's a part that said "that's all folks!" was Porky Pig's catchphrase lol

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went to visit the Museum of Death in Los Angeles once—the very definition of thanotourism as explained in this book, in fact!. What I’d expected to be an intriguing collection of death rituals and funerary objects actually turned out to be a voyeuristic display glamorising serial killers and the goriest, absolute worst ways people can die (I do not recommend it—I found it very disrespectful and not at all death-positive).

This book is more what I expected that museum to be; this is a beautiful anthology concerning death, the afterlife and all its forms—though as others have noted, very much with heavy focus on a western perspective, which is a shame. Each turn of the page shows an image, followed by a few paragraphs concerning the subject of that image. Example subjects include: cremation, coffins, epitaphs, Gilgamesh, Yama, burial mounds, premature burial, sin-eaters, Edgar Allan Poe, guillotines, kamikaze pilots, CPR, DNR, transhumanism and quantum resurrection... I’ve barely scratched the surface! Personally, I thought there were a few important topics missing (lynching, cannibalism, composting) but I suppose it would be impossible to truly cover everything!

You’ll never find anything more than summaries throughout this book, though the author does make clear his intentions at the start, and provides further suggested reading should you wish to know more. There are lots of thought-provoking subjects here, particularly towards the end of the book when Pickover focuses on the advances of modern science and quantum theory—a little deep for my Friday afternoon commute but very, very interesting!

Another notable thing to comment on: this is a very aesthetically pleasing book—leather-bound and gilded with thick, heavy, full-colour matte pages that one can just pick up, flick through and land on a random page to learn something new. It’s a good coffee table book; something you can leave on your table for guests to pick up and muse over... because they will! I got so many comments and questions from strangers and colleagues when reading this book in public. It has a very striking cover and title.

Overall, a good entry-level book if you’re not sure where to start when tackling the subject of death, or are just looking to flick through something for inspiration.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's good, but the meandering off into faux-science speculation near the end was unnecessary. More history pls.

[Mateicee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wie der Titel schon sagt, beschäftigt sich das Buch mit den Themen Tod und Jenseits in Kunst, Kultur, Wissenschaft und Literatur.

Jedes Thema besteht aus einer Seite Text und einem Thematisch passenden Bild dazu. Die Bilder sind sehr gut gewählt und sehr ansprechend, die Texte sind gut verständlich und leicht zu lesen. Ich hätte mir an manchen Stellen nur etwas mehr input gewünscht

[Helene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ästhetisch ansprechende(s) Gestaltung, Layout und Bilder. Guter und knapper Überblick über die Themen.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but organizing the book by timeline wasn't a good choice I think. Some subjects were described several times through different chapters far apart, it would have made more sense to have them together

[Reijn van der Meij · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was wel leuk, maar nogal simpel.

[Samsalaqueen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joah, kann, muss aber nicht

[Maria Bartle · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5~ A variety of topics, quick little blurbs with some interesting information.

[Carlos J. Eguren · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/365
MUERTE Y EL MÁS ALLÁ de Clifford A. Pickover
Decía Ray Bradbury que un escritor debía leer de todo y esta obra, aparte de por su cuidada edición, me llamó por su temática, así que decidí leerla poco a poco y haciendo anotaciones para profundizar en algunas ideas.
Este volumen es un recorrido ameno y en algunos puntos superficial por conceptos, ideas, relatos y visiones relacionadas con el viaje hacia el que todos nos dirigimos: la muerte.
Ideal para aprender nuevos términos relacionados con Tánatos y aceptar lo inevitable.

[rae . *. ⋆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“the bengali poet rabindranath tagore wrote, ‘death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.’”

this book covers notable moments in history where death and the afterlife have been approached, discussed, and researched. each moment is accompanied by an illustration, some of which are very beautiful. lots of great quotes and interesting/macabre facts. i recommend to those interested in history, death, and/or the occult and spirituality. would keep this in my library for others to flip through

[Patricia Montero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buena crónica sobre historia e ideas sobre la muerte y todo lo que conlleva sin necesidad de ser cansino.
Si eres una persona a la que le gusta saber sobre culturas, antiguas tradiciones, mitos griegos, religiones, etc. este es tu libro sin duda

Algunas de mis frases favoritas han sido sin duda estas:

"Los humanos empezaron a ser humanos la primera vez que añadieron objetos a una tumba."

"No tenemos porque curar para sanar."

"Importas porque tú eres tú y hasta el último momento de tu vida."

[Lesung vor Acht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein schöner "Stream of conciousness" zur Inspiration. Pickover gibt mit diesem Buch intellektuelle Anstöße zur Reflexion über Tod, Jenseits und das menschliche Leben überhaupt. Bei den Illustrationen handelt es sich größtenteils um hochwertige Kunstwerke. Durch diese Sinfonie aus künstlerischen, historischen und naturwissenschaftlichen Inhalten entsteht ein einzigartiges Gesamtkunstwerk zum Thema Tod und Jenseits.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked EVERYTHING about this book. The cover was great, the pages were thick and easy to turn, huge pictures (page-sized) on every left side--text on the right and . . . OH, the text was super interesting too! Fantastic.

[Yuno Yuno · Rating 3 out of 5]

es bueno, interesante pero muy basico en su información, deberian quitarle el tamaño a las imagenes para colocar mas texto.

[Juan Valencia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me gustó mucho que fuera cronológico. Son entradas pequeñas pero siento que aportaron un montón de cosas interesantes que yo no conocía o:

[Mistress of the Bleeding Sorrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a beautiful book, something cool to have on your coffee-table. Awesome selection of artwork and illustrations. However, if you intend to read it, I'd say it's not worth it. Each subject is only a few paragraphs long, which makes it completely inadequate and too vague and generic, as it doesn't offer much information about anything. So the purpose of this book is strictly ''decorative''.

[Loren · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a lesson in not buying a book for its cover. It was shrink-wrapped in the store, so I was seduced by its subtitle promise of death "from cremation to quantum resurrection." Unfortunately, the text places more much emphasis on the afterlife, especially from a Western religious perspective.

I was looking for a book about death and its aftermath, hoping to learn more about the newest technologies for disposing of human remains. Turns out this book was published in 2015, so it had nothing to say about the topics that would have interested me most like human composting, promession, or aquamation. What it did have to say about death was all too familiar to me.

Disappointing. I wonder if the book I wanted to read has been written yet.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book to dip in and out of. The book covers a large number of topics and describes them in a way that make it easy for someone without background knowledge of the subject to understand.

One of the best non fiction books I've read!

[Ghiomara Beov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy informativo y tengo una edición muy muy bonita

[Severind Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to review this book. It's essentially a history book, breaking up one large topic (death and the afterlife) into dozens of much smaller subtopics. Each sub topic is very bite-sized and easily digestible. Think of it as a tool for beginners. You get just enough information about the sub topic to entice you. After that, you'll need to do your own research on the sub topic outside of the book if it's one you're interested in, because the book only provides you with a limited one-page summary of the sub topic. Often this is very basic information, good for those just learning about the topic.

These sub topics range from - as the book's title suggests - cremation to quantum resurrection, with everything in between like the Egyptian Book of the Dead, reincarnation, autopsies, abortion, Yama, genocide, moths, obituaries, Ophelia, etc. It really covers a broad range of information. I found it interesting because if I liked one of the topics, I could make a note of that so I can do further research into the topic outside of this book. But because it covers such a broad spectrum of ideas, you may not learn as much as you would in a more specialized book, especially if you are already familiar with the sub topic.

Each sub topic is accompanied by an image to go with it, which in part is what makes the book feel beautiful, unique, and far from stale, as books on history can sometimes unfortunately be. I'd recommend it to those fascinated by death and the afterlife. It covers perspectives and topics from a broad range of cultures and it reads very quickly.

[aja · Rating 4 out of 5]

while unfortunately very western-centric (this isn't to say that there aren't a lot of entries about non-western concepts and reactions to death, just that the western entries vastly outnumbered them), this was a highly enjoyable read. lots of great little factoids about anything and everything related to death through human history. each entry is a page long, so don't expect anything to go into too much depth. it's organized by approximate date; things get a bit less exciting once we hit the 1900s, but then we branch out into things like quantum immortality and quantum resurrection, which are weird & fun bits based on quantum physics, which was weird & fun, so those were pretty cool.

also the cover is fucking GORGEOUS. (i chose an edition that's marked as an epub, but honestly it's hardcover??? just with this particular jacket design.)

[Lina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Este es un libro de la concepcion de la muerte a lo largo de la evolucion del hombre, se acompaña de imagenes excepcionales y hermosas con una historia de una pagina sobre cada tema.
Me dio varios datos interesantes sobre la muerte, habla de alguinos de los conceptos de la muerte de las culturas ancestrales como mayas egipcias y griegas, la peste negra, la guillotina y la criogenizacion y conceptos de resucitacion cuantica.
Siento que es un libro con un arte hermoso que vale la pena tenerlos solo por el contenido grafico que tiene, porque me gustaria mas background de las historias que dos o tres parrafos por tema, pero de resto es un libro internesante introductorio a muchos temas sobre la muerte.

[zero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This chronicle by Clifford A. Pickover is a fascinating exploration of humanity’s ever-changing views on death and the afterlife. The book delves into history’s most unusual and sometimes bizarre beliefs, while pushing the boundaries of biology, psychology, and physics.

Pickover covers a wide range of topics—from Mayan death gods, mummies, and epitaphs to reincarnation, the guillotine, euthanasia, and even the concept of quantum immortality. The book combines historical insight with scientific curiosity, making it both thought-provoking and engaging.

Overall, it’s an intriguing, wide-ranging study that challenges readers to think about mortality, culture, and the mysteries of what may lie beyond life.

[tomasawyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

On peut en vouloir à ce livre de nous ouvrir l'appétit sur de nombreux sujets, sans réussir à le combler. Avec une centaine de thèmes abordés, on s'ouvre à de nombreuses cultures mais on reste forcément en surface. On se confronte aux croyances religieuses les plus anciennes, aux mythologies, aux symboles, aux réflexes culturels propres à chaque civilisation face à la mort, la maladie, aux recherches médicales et scientifiques pour la comprendre, l'accompagner ou la combattre. On aborde aussi sa présence centrale dans les œuvres artistiques, littéraires, comment les artistes s'emparent de ce qui est au-delà du perceptible et de l'entendement. Bref un livre intéressant mais perfectible.