Why publish on the Web for free?                                        

1. Proceeds from this book have been donated to the Rabbani School, a non-profit school in India. This school concentrates on rural development and is operated by Baha'is for the benefit of children of all faiths.  In 1993 I had the opportunity to visit the school and was highly impressed with their approach.  In addition to normal academic subjects, students learn sustainable and environmentally benign methods of agriculture in a hands-on manner.  They are also required to participate in service projects, e.g. Rabbani students have planted several hundred thousand trees to help reclaim depleted soil, they assist in inoculation projects in neighbouring villages, and they help with various other environmental and public health projects on a local level.

Once they leave school and return to their villages, they are encouraged to share what they learned with others.

So this book was never about money or profit.

2. Death is a difficult topic for some people to deal with, yet it is one of those inescapable realities that confronts us all.  The near-death experience and the Baha'i teachings on the afterlife allow one to look beyond fear and understand that life is a spiritual journey.  Helping a person see life as a spiritual journey makes our world a better place, and for that reason I'm happy to share what I've learned with anyone.  Feedback has shown me that this book has helped people to overcome the fear of death and to see life in a more positive light.

3.   I suspect that some of you will want to share this book with friends or loved ones who have lost someone close to them, or perhaps someone who must face a terminal illness.  Thus you may want to purchase the book as a gift for others, even though the book is available online for free.

4.  The WWW is great because I have editorial control.  For reasons outside my control the footnotes in the first paperback edition were omitted, and some quoted passages weren't properly italicized.  I apologize to readers for any confusion which this might have caused, and hope that this online edition will rectify the situation. Thankfully the italics in the 2003 edition were corrected, although the footnotes were again omitted.

Alan Bryson