There was a consistent theme in the Classical world, that initiation into the various "Myseteries" prepared one to be in control when the time came for the initiate's own death. It is argued that the various Egyptian "books of the dead" and the Tibetan "book of the dead" were (are) not mere funeary guides, but were primarily intended as texts of initiation so that initiates would later, at the time of their death, know what to expect, and what to do for their own spiritual advancement through the death experience...