Read excerpts from Viraf’s Journey to the Afterlife,

The Book of Arda Viraf is part mythology and part Dantesque Divine Comedy.

An assembly of Zoroastrian clergy during the Sasanian Empire chose a young, pure priest and sent him on a journey to the afterlife with a mission: To return and reveal to them what awaits us after we die.  The plan was outlandish and the Haoma-fungi psychedelic was stunning.  They induced a coma, and sent his soul to the netherworld long enough to discover the mysteries, and then brought his spirit back to enter his lifeless body after seven days.  What Viraf saw would shock even Dante.

Viraf’s Journey to the Afterlife is a revised, illustrated version of the ancient book, and it also includes several otherworldly stories from around the world, such as Mesopotamian, the Egyptian, all the way to “Divine Comedy.”  Alas, the Book of Arda Viraf is far from comedy.  See how a Zoroastrian sees Viraf’s narration of the afterlife:

“So profound, even to this day, is the Parsis’ faith in the reality of Viraf’s vision that when the work is read in their religious assemblies, the men weep, and the women cry out in horror over its pictures of the damned. It has certainly a powerful influence in restraining the Parsis from sin.”

There is much more to mythology than the Greek and Roman, or the New and the Old Testaments. Contribute to our global stories of the Afterlife. Email us or Post your thoughts in global education facebook.