Was hoping for more scientific comparison or at least clinical anecdotes. Still interesting and culturally anecdotal.

Chopra tackles profound questions about the afterlife in a easy to understand and entertaining manner. Easily the best book on the subject that I have read. He references many sources, facilitating further reading . Highly recommended.

Can we explain what happens after death? Is there really anything after death like many religions believe, or does it end like westernized science entails?

Deepak attempts to clarify our view of the death through the many religious, cultural, spiritual beliefs that exist. He doesn't necessarily go into each one individually, but instead summarizes them into their core beliefs.

When people of various cultures, religions, and beliefs were interviewed about their Near-death-experiences (usually when they are declared dead for a short time), each person gave a different perspective of what they saw.

Christians spoke to Jesus or saw the pearly gates, muslims with mohammed, Buddhists with Buddha, Native Americans to their respective spirits, Indians to their gods, and so forth.

Even individual religions, would be divided into their beliefs: catholics and protestants would each get their own interpretation of their near-death experience.

The core question though is whether human consciousness continues after death. After someone is REALLY declared dead (not just a near-death experience).

Chopra leads us, slowly but surely, into realizing that the entire universe has consciousness. Because the entire universe is made of consciousness, when we die our consciousness simply continues on into the void.

Finally, I found this little aside quite interesting about absolving of our belief/tradition/pre-disposed views of the world. Almost absolving of ego:

1. Know that you are going to identify with your world-view at every stage of personal growth.
2. Accept that these identifications are temporary. You will never be truly yourself until you reach unity.
3. Be willing to change your identity every day. Take a flexible attitude. Don't defend an "I" that you know is just temporary.
4. Allow your ability to quietly observe without judgement to replace the ingrained idea you reach for automatically.
5. When you have the impulse to struggle, use that as an immediate signal to let go. Open a space for a new answer to unfold on its own.
6. When you can't let go, forgive yourself and move on.
7. Use every opportunity to tell yourself that all viewpoints are valid, every experience valuable, every insight a moment of freedom.

Interesting read, and definitely something that I haven't read before. 4/5

Like many religious people, Chopra presumes to inform you what happens after death. But he does it in a whimsical way, unlike the solemn theological certitude I’ve often heard from Western preachers. He tells the Hindu folktales he heard as a child. He believes that near-death experiences are real, but shaped by personal expectation: “A child can come back from heaven and report that it was full of baby animals at play, a cardiac patient can report sitting on God’s lap, and being told by the Almighty that he must return to earth ….”

Although Chopra weaves in accounts from many cultures, his mainframe world view is Vedantic cosmology. And in this universe, all things are naturally evolving toward higher consciousness through many manifestations: “Depending on your level of awareness, you project your own heavens, hells and purgatories, to work through on the physical plane as well as astral planes.”

In this reality, different levels of awareness seem to be more than mental states—they are altered states of matter and energy. As beings grow more aware, their “frequency” (or “vibration”) gets higher, but we can only perceive beings within our own frequency range. At higher levels, “There are an almost infinite number of astral planes, divided into a higher and lower astral worlds, and even the lowest ones vibrate at a higher frequency than the material world.” Also, “During the astral journey souls meet other souls vibrating at a similar level of evolution. You may meet some souls that you encountered in the physical world if they are on your frequency.” It’s a metaphysics were spirituality, radio frequency, and maybe temperature down to absolute zero, all seem to be functions of vibration rate.

Chopra explains all this with reference to groundbreaking research in physics, medicine, and psychology. He aims to meet “the burden of proof” regarding eternal life, but I’m unclear what his impressive evidence proves. Anyway, I like it: “You can take your mind beyond walls. There is freedom outside, and having achieved it, you will never have to go the heaven or hell again.” Furthermore, “Hell is the suffering you think you deserve.”

This book has made me a life-long fan of Chopra's, and it's helped get me through a difficult time in grieving the loss of my beloved Grandmother. This book presents itself in a way that let's me know that Death (at least the illusion of it) is nothing to be afraid of nor does it mean the end of seeing loved ones and encountering newly acquired vigor in an afterlife or higher life that's part of the evolutionary process. It makes for both an uplifting and illuminating read concerning the beauty of natural phenomena that is consciousness. Highly recommended for anyone whose either suffered a major loss and has a liberated, spiritual mindset to help ease the grieving process or simply to pique one's interest in what the Hereafter and its nuances connecting it to this realm has to offer.

There were some interesting ideas in this book; many that I agree with but my mind just kept wandering. I just could not stay focused on this book so I'm calling it done. I got about half way thru it.

I thought this book would be much better then it was. Deepak was talking about what he believes happens to people after we die. He tried to incorporate Christian beliefs, Hindu beliefs, and Buddhism. If he had done them more individually, I think it would have been better. However, he combined all of them in the same chapters so it turned into a study assignment instead of a book that I was reading.

He had a very long parable that he broke up so that it was at the beginning of each chapter. Again, it was a good story that had WAY TOO much in it. I was very impressed that the character in the parable was able to keep up with all the lessons that she was supposed to be learning on this day long journey.

And the physics! He started going into Schroedinger's Cats and string theory and it was hard to follow. I basically forgot what the book was supposed to be about anymore.

I do not recommend this book at all.

I love this guy! He is so intriguing. I have seen him on TV and always thought what he said made sense. So I bought this book... my first Deepak Chopra book. I feel that he has many important things to say, but uses long confusing sentences when he could have easily gotten away with a simpler one. I found myself rereading sentence after sentence. Its not that the vocabulary was difficult, its just that some of the wording can be a bit convoluted. Here is an example.. picked out of the book...

"If there is only one reality, as the rishis declare, then life is not a struggle between good and evil, but a tangled web where all actions, good and bad, move us closer to reality or deeper into illusion."

I mean really, that was a random example, but I had to read that twice... slowly, to get what he was saying.

"the erosion of faith has not left Paradise untouched."

So does that mean it left Paradise touched? I am not sure. The whole book is like that. But, when you finally 'get' what he is saying, it is truly profound. It just takes awhile. Or maybe its just me.

As someone who isn't very religious or spiritual, I thought this was a compelling book. Life After Death explores Hindu spirituality and concepts such as planes of existence. Chopra's belief that death is just being a stopping point on an endless soul journey is comforting.

Written for white people and whitewashed people.
Actually not, I like a lot of the things he is saying--but reading this book is akin to the experience of reading a high school algebra textbook as a math researcher. I am not saying that there are not new, valuable things to learn, it is just that when you do have this higher ground there is a tendency and a capacity to skip things. I think I glanced through tens of pages in minutes, just because I don't really find the need to go into the details.
Then again one can also connect directly to the writer, a sort of mental technique I have recently learned. I am not saying I can explain everything in the book now, but if you give me the chance to rewrite it I probably could.
The book makes a case for reincarnation, and the metaphysical implications of these things. Most of it is based on past Indian philosophies - I suspect Chopra writes well for the nonbelievers, but since I am fairly familiar, and convinced that there are past lives, and alternate realities, I guess the only satisfaction I derived from reading this book is that I have acquired a way to explain to the laymen. This is not to say that this is the new absolute best way because the power of belief is amazing and not to be trifled with. Scientific dogmatists will keep believing in their version of truth, and that is an experience to have and to be respected.
I guess I was looking to find some new information, a sort of perspective. I got an anecdote, and a fictional story. The story possibly represents some higher truths that cannot be described by current language. The people in the story are probably more godly than they are shown to be. But the story just doesn't click very well. The things that should be said are too little. The science is too flimsy if it were to be convincing.
I don't like the book that much, but I appreciate the effort given to write it.

For the consummate spiritual adventurer...

I enjoyed the easy conversational flow along with the association to quantum physics and what I see as the heart of the gospel of Christ (the mystery revealed of Christ in us where our life is hidden in and one with God). Deepak explains the reality of life as Consciousness, which I correlate to the Mind of Christ which holds all things together. He speaks of a void or gap between the most minute physical substance where creation arises from, where consciousness persists. He speaks of a mental spiritual state where a person can be still and apprehend this consciousness which I associate with being still (no mind or emotional jabber) and knowing God. I appreciate the fearlessness of what he illustrates as the fearless goodness of our source in the creative mind and being of God who shares his consciousness with us. I recommend this book to those who have or want to walk in the world but not of the world in fearless love.

Not bad.