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Books of the Dead
Redesigned and reformatted for a new generation of readers, this classic series provides illustrated introductions by distinguished writers and scholars to the worlds of mythology, symbols, and sacred traditions. Shamans and mystics seeking to enter the afterlife by "dying before dying" have inspired Books of the Dead across continents and millennia, from Egypt and Tibet to Europe and the Americas. Stanislav Grof suggests that these depictions, ritual manuals, and mythic maps for the afterlife are bound by common threads and that modern consciousness research may bring us closer than ever to the realms beyond life. 154 illustrations, 34 in color
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1994
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262 people want to read
About the author
Stanislav Grof
128 books696 followersStanislav Grof is known for his early studies of LSD and its effects on the psyche—the field of psychedelic psychotherapy. Building on his observations while conducting LSD research and on Otto Rank's theory of birth trauma, Grof constructed a theoretical framework for pre- and perinatal psychology and transpersonal psychology in which LSD trips and other powerfully emotional experiences were mapped onto one's early fetal and neonatal experiences. Over time, this theory developed into an in-depth "cartography" of the deep human psyche.
Following the legal suppression of LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques in a supportive environment. He continues this work today under the title "Holotropic Breathwork".
Grof received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague in 1957, and then completed his Ph.D. in Medicine at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences in 1965, training as a Freudian psychoanalyst at this time. In 1967, he was invited as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, United States, and went on to become Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center where he worked with Walter Pahnke and Bill Richards among others. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as a scholar-in-residence, developing his ideas.
Being the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (founded in 1977), he went on to become distinguished adjunct faculty member of the Department of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a position he remains in today.
Grof was featured in the film Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a 2006 documentary about rediscovering an enchanted cosmos in the modern world.
Following the legal suppression of LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof went on to discover that many of these states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques in a supportive environment. He continues this work today under the title "Holotropic Breathwork".
Grof received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague in 1957, and then completed his Ph.D. in Medicine at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences in 1965, training as a Freudian psychoanalyst at this time. In 1967, he was invited as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, United States, and went on to become Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center where he worked with Walter Pahnke and Bill Richards among others. In 1973, Dr. Grof was invited to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and lived there until 1987 as a scholar-in-residence, developing his ideas.
Being the founding president of the International Transpersonal Association (founded in 1977), he went on to become distinguished adjunct faculty member of the Department of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a position he remains in today.
Grof was featured in the film Entheogen: Awakening the Divine Within, a 2006 documentary about rediscovering an enchanted cosmos in the modern world.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 4, 2018
Just like The Afterlife Bible: The Complete Guide to Otherworldly Experience, I got this book expecting to be able to use it as research for the series I am writing. My series is about immortal characters from various cultures and I wanted to connect them with the beliefs about death specific to their respective religion.
Unfortunately, just like the book previously mentioned, this too was a complete mess. There was no clear structure to the text and everything felt like a huge info dump where no information stood out from the rest. Upon further thought, I guess it was meant to be organized into three distinct sections of unequal length, each detailing different aspects - unfortunately, it wasn't, and this is only my own understanding.
The first "section" of the book attempts to present Books of the Dead related to Egypt, Tibet, Maya, Aztecs, and Christianity. Of these, the Christian ones were probably the most coherent. The Tibet one was completely overwhelming and impossible to understand, jumping from one notion to another without a clear hierarchy. The others were so-so, helped more by the images than by the text itself.
The second "section" of the book was about how myth and science can help people understand "the journey of the soul". However, the little science that was in there felt more like the author's opinion, rather than objective facts. I guess I would have wanted more points of view or different interpretations and suppositions. Instead, I got many references to LSD and birth theories and very little (if none) actual support in their favor.
The last "section" of the book explained themes present in the Books of the Dead. My gosh, was this messy. I'd say the images saved it, but the images were always cited out of order in the main block of text, making me do double and triple takes on the following pages. Again, there was no clear structure here and it felt more like the author was trying to stretch certain interpretations to fit his own view.
All in all, I am thoroughly disappointed in this book. It's gorgeous visually, but the information inside is extremely poor.
Unfortunately, just like the book previously mentioned, this too was a complete mess. There was no clear structure to the text and everything felt like a huge info dump where no information stood out from the rest. Upon further thought, I guess it was meant to be organized into three distinct sections of unequal length, each detailing different aspects - unfortunately, it wasn't, and this is only my own understanding.
The first "section" of the book attempts to present Books of the Dead related to Egypt, Tibet, Maya, Aztecs, and Christianity. Of these, the Christian ones were probably the most coherent. The Tibet one was completely overwhelming and impossible to understand, jumping from one notion to another without a clear hierarchy. The others were so-so, helped more by the images than by the text itself.
The second "section" of the book was about how myth and science can help people understand "the journey of the soul". However, the little science that was in there felt more like the author's opinion, rather than objective facts. I guess I would have wanted more points of view or different interpretations and suppositions. Instead, I got many references to LSD and birth theories and very little (if none) actual support in their favor.
The last "section" of the book explained themes present in the Books of the Dead. My gosh, was this messy. I'd say the images saved it, but the images were always cited out of order in the main block of text, making me do double and triple takes on the following pages. Again, there was no clear structure here and it felt more like the author was trying to stretch certain interpretations to fit his own view.
All in all, I am thoroughly disappointed in this book. It's gorgeous visually, but the information inside is extremely poor.
July 1, 2013
"While the hells of the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Egyptian and Pre-Columbian underworlds were places through which the deceased or initiate could pass during their spiritial journey, the Christian Hell was the final destination, from which there was no escape."
March 19, 2026
I've been very bad at reviewing things lately, so let's try to fix that, shall we?
I have not felt so conflicted about a book in a while.
To start with the part you probably will not care about (but that I have to share), I cannot for the life of me remember where I heard about this book. By my personal archive, I got a copy of it in March of 2025 (a year ago), but I have no memory of why or because of whom. This is rare for me.
Second, I was under the impression that this was an academic book. I read little to no general historical non-fiction because I prefer the depth and thoroughness of academic books and don't mind/prefer them being "harder". But this one is not. The author isn’t even a historian; he is a psychologist researching "non-ordinary states of consciousness" (this will be relevant in a moment). Nothing wrong with that by itself, but how did I manage to miss it?
Besides all of this confusion that concerns only me, what about the book proper?
As some reviewers have mentioned, the structure is profoundly strange. There is first a description of the Books of the Dead themselves, their structure and social purpose, then a collection of subtitled images related to/from the Books and thirdly a discussion of the actual myths and beliefs contained in the Books, thematic similarities between them and final conclusions. There are also frequent mentions of how modern research into "non-ordinary states of consciousness" has changed our perception of these Books from mere myths or made-up stories to quite accurate interpretations and explanations of these experiences.
This is not the structure choice I would have made. I'd have gone Book by Book and presented everything about it at once, integrating all three sections. Otherwise you have to hear the same information multiple times (and get serious dejà vu from it); stuff that should be interconnected is not (how does the culture influence the myths, for instance), and you never know where to later find the stuff you want to reference.
I suspect this choice was made for the sake of comparative analysis, but if you want to do comparative analysis of something, you have to first establish each of the elements involved on their own before you do so. If, like Grof, you try to do both things at once, it becomes incomprehensible and overwhelming. Which is a shame because there was a lot more potential here.
Next, the length of the book. It's rather awkward. Too long to be an introductory paper, too short to be a proper detailed book. Too long for those who only wanted a brief idea, too short for those who wanted an actual deep dive (like you would usually get from a book). Grof tries to satisfy both camps and fails. There is a lot of information distilled in a very short space, but there also is not much time for analysis beyond "Look, here is a thing; isn't it interesting?" Despite that, the information itself is obviously compelling, and Grof is a decent writer.
Second, like I mentioned above, Grof's work is in "non-ordinary states of consciousness" and not in history/archaeology/literature, etc. Again, nothing wrong with that per se, but it would maybe be important to mention that in the back-cover synopsis? Or the title of the book or somewhere, anywhere other than getting backstabbed in surprise midway through by the text. Are some of the ideas Grof proposes interesting? Yes. Does he provide enough compelling scientific evidence for them? Absolutely not. And he doesn't even try, I feel. He just states them like universally accepted facts (even though they're not), and as the book progresses, you start to feel like that was the entire point of it all along and the more historical analysis was just window dressing.
The trouble, though, is that for all the problems with this book, I have found no other that attempts to do a roundup summary of/introduction to/comparison between multiple Books of the Dead. And that is frustrating because the subject deserves a better book, written in a more academic context by someone more qualified. One that has footnotes, discussion of how we came to know and interpret these texts, more analysis, etc. I feel like a broken record at this point.
So all that said, it's not a bad book, but it's not a fully satisfactory one either. As harsh as it might sound, you are probably better off reading the Wikipedia pages for each of the Books rather than it.
I have not felt so conflicted about a book in a while.
To start with the part you probably will not care about (but that I have to share), I cannot for the life of me remember where I heard about this book. By my personal archive, I got a copy of it in March of 2025 (a year ago), but I have no memory of why or because of whom. This is rare for me.
Second, I was under the impression that this was an academic book. I read little to no general historical non-fiction because I prefer the depth and thoroughness of academic books and don't mind/prefer them being "harder". But this one is not. The author isn’t even a historian; he is a psychologist researching "non-ordinary states of consciousness" (this will be relevant in a moment). Nothing wrong with that by itself, but how did I manage to miss it?
Besides all of this confusion that concerns only me, what about the book proper?
As some reviewers have mentioned, the structure is profoundly strange. There is first a description of the Books of the Dead themselves, their structure and social purpose, then a collection of subtitled images related to/from the Books and thirdly a discussion of the actual myths and beliefs contained in the Books, thematic similarities between them and final conclusions. There are also frequent mentions of how modern research into "non-ordinary states of consciousness" has changed our perception of these Books from mere myths or made-up stories to quite accurate interpretations and explanations of these experiences.
This is not the structure choice I would have made. I'd have gone Book by Book and presented everything about it at once, integrating all three sections. Otherwise you have to hear the same information multiple times (and get serious dejà vu from it); stuff that should be interconnected is not (how does the culture influence the myths, for instance), and you never know where to later find the stuff you want to reference.
I suspect this choice was made for the sake of comparative analysis, but if you want to do comparative analysis of something, you have to first establish each of the elements involved on their own before you do so. If, like Grof, you try to do both things at once, it becomes incomprehensible and overwhelming. Which is a shame because there was a lot more potential here.
Next, the length of the book. It's rather awkward. Too long to be an introductory paper, too short to be a proper detailed book. Too long for those who only wanted a brief idea, too short for those who wanted an actual deep dive (like you would usually get from a book). Grof tries to satisfy both camps and fails. There is a lot of information distilled in a very short space, but there also is not much time for analysis beyond "Look, here is a thing; isn't it interesting?" Despite that, the information itself is obviously compelling, and Grof is a decent writer.
Second, like I mentioned above, Grof's work is in "non-ordinary states of consciousness" and not in history/archaeology/literature, etc. Again, nothing wrong with that per se, but it would maybe be important to mention that in the back-cover synopsis? Or the title of the book or somewhere, anywhere other than getting backstabbed in surprise midway through by the text. Are some of the ideas Grof proposes interesting? Yes. Does he provide enough compelling scientific evidence for them? Absolutely not. And he doesn't even try, I feel. He just states them like universally accepted facts (even though they're not), and as the book progresses, you start to feel like that was the entire point of it all along and the more historical analysis was just window dressing.
The trouble, though, is that for all the problems with this book, I have found no other that attempts to do a roundup summary of/introduction to/comparison between multiple Books of the Dead. And that is frustrating because the subject deserves a better book, written in a more academic context by someone more qualified. One that has footnotes, discussion of how we came to know and interpret these texts, more analysis, etc. I feel like a broken record at this point.
So all that said, it's not a bad book, but it's not a fully satisfactory one either. As harsh as it might sound, you are probably better off reading the Wikipedia pages for each of the Books rather than it.
December 15, 2022
I enjoyed this book. It has definitely sparked my interest in the Art of Dying and helped to further demystify my intuitive insight into transcendence, death, and rebirth. My first cousin experienced a transition while I was reading this and I was able to tap into his journey after his physical death.
Knowledge restores peace.
Furthermore, this is sort of a compendium of the books of the dead. It is an overview. For a more detailed search into these topics you’d have to do further reading. The author gives a list of sources in the back of the book.
Knowledge restores peace.
Furthermore, this is sort of a compendium of the books of the dead. It is an overview. For a more detailed search into these topics you’d have to do further reading. The author gives a list of sources in the back of the book.
April 20, 2021
Told in a style - with pictures - that ensures that this introduction/overview of the material contained within can be easily understood. It's a beautiful book, and with Stanislav Grof as our guide, we're in good hands.
June 2, 2023
some points i was happy to contemplate especially psychedelic experiences and the stories from the religious texts of the world but the format while attractive made it hard for old eyes to read the text and the illustrations were small for me.
November 3, 2024
The layouts on this book is a coffee table kind, not something that I’d expect from a paperback style book — which made it harder for me to read. The topic is interesting though.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews