Beyond Death: The Gates of Consciousness (Art & Imagination) (Paperback)

by Stanislav Grof (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Analyzes the portrayal of death, afterlife, heaven, and hell in the art of various cultures, from ancient Egypt to the North American Indian.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (April 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500810192
• ISBN-13: 978-0500810194
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #186,930 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WORLDWIDE ARTWORK SHOWING THE AFTERLIFE JOURNEY, June 30, 2002

By	Christopher Theophilus "christophertheophilus" (The Green Mountain State of Vermont) - See all my reviews

BEYOND DEATH is a visual feast of worldwide artwork throughout history depicting scenes of the soul's passage into the afterlife and through the trials and tribulations of purgatory or hell into the eventual bliss of paradise. The text and illustrations also apply, to a substantial extent, to the death-and-rebirth process a person typically goes through during psychedlic therapy; there is a tie-in to a lesser extent to near-death experiences, shamanic initiation, and mystical experiences especially as occur in psychosis/schizophrenia.

I have found the pictures inspiring, and the text informative, as over the past fifteen years I've journeyed on my own path (involving safe, legal psychedelic therapy complemented with hyperventilation therapy and other techniques to grow psychospiritually). The paintings in the pages of this book have repeatedly brought me reassurance that the hellish nightmares as well as blissful heavens of my own life are all actually universal, natural experiences that every person may pass through, if not in this life on earth, then in the next.

I highly recommend this gem of a book with its artistic treasures (and complementary text), both for enhancement of one's life now, and preparation and reassurance for the journey that lies at the end of this life.

Other books I enjoy are Stanislav Grof's masterwork BEYOND THE BRAIN: BIRTH, DEATH, AND TRANSENDENCE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY, the author's conclusions and insights on how birth affects a person throughout their life and how to heal, based on his seventeen years as a pioneering LSD psychotherapist; Sandra Ingerman's SOUL RETRIEVAL: MENDING THE FRAGMENTED SELF, a modern shamanic view of reclaiming one's lost "inner-child" self; Betty Eadie's near-death bestseller EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT; and STORMY SEARCH FOR THE SELF by Christina and Stanislav Grof, telling of her kundlini/alcoholism crisis, and how similar psychospiritual crises can be initiated by UFO/ET encounters, mystical or near-death experiences, awakening of psychic powers or channeling or spirit guides, shamanic "illness," and other events, all unsought and spontaneous--and all often mis-diagnosed as psychosis...yet all can be worked through to positive resolution and a new spiritual-psychological awakening.