Introduction

This chapter presents a new sociological framework for studying spirituality and the afterlife within contemporary therapeutic culture, addressing a domain that, despite its prominence and popularity, has received no sustained attention within sociology or therapeutic culture studies. Introducing the concept of the therapeutic afterlife, the chapter describes this growing self-help genre that reimagines healing and wellness through the lens of a sacred, eternal, and evolving soul. It provides an overview for studying the therapeutic afterlife found in self-help literature, popular media, and related therapy discourses, framing it as a distinct genre within wellness culture that reimagines pathways to health, healing, and transformation using non-traditional approaches to adversity, empowerment, and well-being. Postmaterialist philosophy, an affirmative genealogical method, and relevant sociological theory are used to analyze the content, discourses, narratives, and principal themes such as immortality, divine-human relations, karma, after-death communication, reincarnation, angel therapy, near-death experiences, demonology, possession, past-life regression, the afterworld, and God. By addressing this significant research gap, the chapter develops an original sociological perspective on spirituality within Western therapeutic culture, offering a novel theoretical analysis of the enchantment and emergence of a new sacred paradigm in contemporary society.