Following on from The Supreme Adventure and Events on the Threshold of the After Life, What Happens When You Die documents in detail reported after-death experiences to the still living. The evidence from these and other sources around the world is often consistent - there is no death - we are told, other than the death of the physical body.

As with his other works, Dr Crookall cites evidence, demonstrating that his reasoning is well thought through. He concludes that man is a multiple being, and that the part of him that gives him character, personality - his soul - is immortal. The author sums up his motivation for writing this book in the introduction where he writes:

"This book replaces unreasoning fear with knowledge of what actually happens at the moment of death and after and of the strict spiritual laws involved. Death is no more than a transition, a passing, as it were, through a door from one room to another; although those left behind are unable to see into the next room, those who have gone ahead are closer in spirit than before. The fact is that death is a minor incident, a well-ordered and beneficent process, which is to be accepted with gratitude and peace."