A recent Newsweek poll reports that 76 percent of Americans believe in heaven. Yet even avid believers have difficulty conjuring up more than vague images of halos, harps, and wispy angels in flowing robes. Anthony DeStefano knew there had to be a more complete, meaningful, and comforting vision of what heaven is like, and A Travel Guide to Heaven is the entertaining and enlightening result. Using the Bible as his guide, the author notes that heaven is not only a spiritual place, but also a physical place, a fabulous “luxury resort” more sumptuous than any on Earth. The residents are real, their bodies transformed into their most perfect selves—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. By making a spiritual subject immensely physical, the book provides a picture of amazing places to visit, things to do, luxuries for pampering—not to mention deep, abiding joy. Combining the clarity and logic of C. S. Lewis with a terrific sense of fun and adventure, DeStefano creates a brilliant, reassuring portrait of heaven, a place that has intrigued and puzzled humankind throughout history. With its clear view of the afterlife, A Travel Guide to Heaven might best be compared to James Van Praagh's Talking to Heaven or Betty J. Eadie's Embraced by the Light in its tremendous message of comfort and reassurance. A recent "Newsweek poll reports that 76 percent of Americans believe in heaven. Yet even avid believers have difficulty conjuring up more than vague images of halos, harps, and wispy angels in flowing robes. Anthony DeStefano knew there had to be a more complete, meaningful, and comforting vision of what heaven is like, and A TRAVEL GUIDE TO HEAVEN is the entertaining and enlightening result. Using the Bible as his guide, the author notes that heaven is not only a spiritual place, but also a physical place, a fabulous "luxury resort" more sumptuous than any on Earth. The residents are real, their bodies transformed into their most perfect selves--physically, emotionally, and spiritually. By making a spiritual subject immensely physical, the book provides a picture of amazing places to visit, things to do, luxuries for pampering--not to mention deep, abiding joy. Combining the clarity and logic of C. S. Lewis with a terrific sense of fun and adventure, DeStefano creates a brilliant, reassuring portrait of heaven, a place that has intrigued and puzzled humankind throughout history. With its clear view of the afterlife, A TRAVEL GUIDE TO HEAVEN might best be compared to James Van Praagh's "Talking to Heaven or Betty J. Eadie's "Embraced by the Light in its tremendous message of comfort and reassurance. "From the Hardcover edition. Anthony DeStefano  is the bestselling author of over twenty-five Christian books for adults and children. His nonfiction adult books have been published in eighteen different countries and twelve different languages. A native New Yorker, Anthony attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, where his English teacher, Frank McCourt, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of  Angela’s Ashes , sparked his interest in becoming a children’s book author. In fact, Anthony wrote his first picture book,  Little Star,  as an assignment for one of McCourt’s writing classes. Three decades later it was finally published and became a bestseller. Anthony is an avid pilot and successful businessman. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Jordan. CHAPTER 1 Welcome to Paradise! When you ask people what they think heaven will be like, most struggle to find a clear answer. Instead of giving you a definite response, they usually grope for various adjectives. These almost always include words like cloudy, hazy, white, and dreamlike. Sometimes people will tell you they picture heaven as being infused with "incredibly intense light." Whatever you imagine heaven to be, chances are that one of the first words that comes to your mind is spiritual. When we do allow ourselves to describe heaven in a material way, we usually think of angels or saints walking around wearing long white robes and choirs singing in the background. The only activity we imagine these strange beings engaging in is never-ending worship of some invisible God, who is as cloudy, nebulous, and undefined as heaven itself. And then we wonder why no one is excited about traveling to this place! Well, the first thing to do before we begin our trip is to get the picture of robes and choirs out of our minds altogether. Many of us have such a monumental misconception about heaven that it severely limits our capacity to imagine it, much less look forward to it. The reason is partly that the entertainment industry has programmed us to picture heaven in a very cartoonish way, with clouds, harps, halos, and the like. The real culprits, however, have been poets. Down through the ages, poets have attempted to capture the joy, rapture, and happiness of heaven by giving us an abundance of "ethereal" images. These images, while designed to elevate our souls