Friends who become aware of my recently released book, "The Articulate Dead," often react with some hesitation, as if death is a taboo subject. When I tell them that the book is about scientific research strongly suggesting that consciousness survives physical death while also telling a little about the afterlife environment as reported through various sensitives who have been able to penetrate the veil, "One life at a time for me," is a typical reaction.

I agree that we should be living in the present, not looking ahead to some distant afterlife. But the best way to live in the present is to "live in eternity."

It is not easy to explain how to live in eternity, but the best analogy I can come up with is retirement from the workforce. Most people look forward to retirement. They envision more freedom and opportunity to pursue things that really interest them and that involve less stress and conflict than their occupations. Retirement is not something they constantly dwell on, but it is a motivator that more or less straddles the dividing line between the conscious and the subconscious. That's what "living in eternity" is like — having that long-range goal in the back of the mind while still focusing on the present.

But what if retirement meant no income of any kind — no savings, no Social Security, no pensions. Retirement would not then be very inviting. There would be nothing to look forward to except poverty, squalor and despair. Unfortunately, that is how most people look at death and the afterlife. Orthodox religion has not been able to paint a picture that offers anything more than a humdrum heaven or horrific hell. Assuming that a person feels qualified for the humdrum heaven, how can he or she get excited about floating around on clouds all day while strumming harps? How appealing is that?

Various polls suggest that 80 to 85 percent of the U.S. population believe in an afterlife, but the problem is that they don't really "believe." They just "hope" for it while striving to be "one with their toys," worshipping celebrities as gods, and living in the moment, having no conception what death brings. They might as well be marching toward the abyss of nothingness that the atheist does his best not to think about.

It is possible to view death in a positive light, in the same way we view retirement, but, unfortunately, orthodox religion has been as closed-minded as mainstream science in opening itself to true enlightenment. The Bible tells us to "seek and ye shall find," and further says that "seek ye first the kingdom of God." But you have to know where to look and have to understand that the book or revelation is not closed.