Over two thousand years before the version of the resurrection promoted by the Vatican, people from Egypt and China to Celtic Britain and North America practiced a secret, mystical ritual. Its initiates - from Plato to Zoroaster - regarded the experience as the pinnacle of spiritual development, a life-altering awakening that disclosed insights into the nature of reality and the purpose of the soul. Contrary to popular belief, a text inside a restricted chamber in Egypt describes how resurrection is not meant for the dead but for the living, a fact supported by the suppressed Gospel of Philip: "Those who say they will die first and then rise are in error. If they do not first receive the resurrection while they live, when they die they will receive nothing." No wonder every esoteric and Gnostic sect around the time of Jesus claimed that the literal interpretation promoted by the Church was a fraud. Blending ancient traditions, factual research and rare accounts, this book offers a unique insight into the secret art of living resurrection, what it really means to be risen from the dead, and why initiates chose a voluntary near-death experience to journey to the Otherworld and back. It also reveals - Jesus as a re-enactment of earlier resurrected gods - the purpose and benefit of initiation - why people endured a near-death experience to access the Otherworld - the secret chambers around the world where the ritual was performed - the cultures and societies who practiced it - why initiates protected its secrets with their lives - and why the Church preferred you didnít know about any of this.