After is a book by Bruce Greyson, M.D. I came into possession of it in the commonest manner for books. It was gifted to me on my birthday by a stranger. Perhaps that is not unusual for some people, but I am not someone often given gifts by people I don’t know.

The man who gave me the book is elderly, singular and overwhelmingly friendly. He is the living embodiment of the old man that Charlie (of the Peanuts cartoon) would grow into.

He has a tuft of hair that sticks up from the top of his forehead into a perfect Who-ville style tuft of whipped cream. Otherwise, the man is entirely bald. He has never met a stranger, and wears nothing besides blue jean overalls. One strap unbuttoned. Shirt underneath optional.

I tell you this to hammer home your mental image as I tell you how he described After to me. He makes really intense eye contact, and hands the book over. He waits until I take the book, and does not let go as he says, “I do not think this book is dangerous. To the best I can tell, it is not.”

I was speechless, and had to read the book as soon as I could.

To which, I now believe, the man meant that the book was ‘Mostly harmless.” Like the entry for Earth in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For, like Earth on the whole, the book is at once extremely banal, ordinary and dense, while being absolutely fascinating anyway.

There was much chance of the book being dangerous. It deals with subject matter that interacts with every religion in the world. It challenges the very notion of life and death. Somehow, inexplicably, the author, Dr. Greyson, manages to have it pass through every religion imperceptibly. Each religion goes unmentioned, while each explanation of the phenomena goes unproven.

For the phenomenon which is on the stand in After is that which happens during near-death experiences. The author reports answers given during interviews with the recently deceased. The range of traumas endured is diverse. As diverse as those experiences recorded.

Interesting to me, the nerd that I am, the rate of experiences among the revived community is one in twenty. About as often as a success on a twenty sided die.

The things people report on waking seem at once extremely personally meaningful as well as incomprehensible upon communication. My own idea of life and death stands unchanged after reading.

I do agree with the research shown in After, which demonstrates that education about near-death experiences lessens people’s fear of death. Not as much as the experience itself lessens fear in those who survive. He gives anecdotes about people losing all fear of mortality.

I highly encourage anyone to read this book. It’s a harmless way to meet death, shake its hand, and get a bit better acquainted. Everyone knows that the cure for fear is actually the solution to ignorance. So come, meet your fate!