The Unanswered Question: Death, Near-Death, and the Afterlife

by Kurt Leland

Near-death accounts of the experiences after death are so commonplace today as to stand as received truth. But are they? Is a near-death experience actually predictive of what the real death experience will be like?

No, in many respects, concludes Kurt Leland in this ground-breaking, controversial, and extraordinary book. Leland starts by accepting the validity of Near-Death experiences. The NDE may be something like a forced initiation into the mysteries of death, he says. NDEs may open the Afterlife door a crack, but the view may not penetrate very far into that world, and we could be drawing mistaken conclusions that leave us unprepared when we do die. "I'm questioning whether they're enough to pack our bags and go with when our own time comes to die," says Leland.

At the center of this book, of course, is the great unanswered question: what happens after death? Leland convincingly shows that we need not have an NDE to explore the Afterlife. He combines his own formidable psychic research and remarkable otherworldly adventures with analysis of the reports of numerous NDEs and classical texts and wisdom traditions about death to describe an Afterlife terrain both very different from and perhaps even better than our expectations.

Like a seasoned guide, Leland conducts us on a fabulous and enriching tour of the Afterlife, its marvels and mysteries. What happens to suicides? Where do we go when we get there? Who's in charge? What do the angels do? Are there different realms for different religious beliefs, or no beliefs? You'll find unforgettable answers to these mysteries and many more in The Unanswered Question.

688 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

Reviews

[Moises Pittounikos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Half creative writing course (but in a positive sense, so worth the purchase) and the other half is a surprisingly clever muse on the possible post-death state.

Leland claims to be able to shoot out of his body and come back again. I don't buy it but I'm glad I bought the book!

The chapters on the Tibetan book and the comparisons with Swedenborg are very revealing.

[Johan Pretorius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended

A good read providing different perspectives and insights into the question of life after death and the relevance of NDE’s.