Stafford Betty was attracted to religion from an early age. In college he majored in math, but his encounter with English literature, especially Wordsworth's poetry, took him in a completely new direction; and he won a teaching fellowship on the way to an M.A. in English. After a year in Vietnam and a crisis of faith, he entered a theology program at Fordham University. It was there that he learned Sanskrit and wrote his Ph.D. dissertation. From there he took a job at California State University in Bakersfield, where he has taught for over three decades. He has published eight books and many articles and essays on a wide variety of subjects. The afterlife is very much on his mind these days, and he speaks at national conferences on life after death. He also blogs for The Huffington Post.
He believes the purpose of life is to grow one's soul, with the eventual goal of coming home to God, whatever God may prove to be, in a relationship that is challenging, joyous, never-ending, and never stagnant. His views on this subject have been formed not by any religion's scripture or theology, but by paranormal research. His books "The Afterlife Unveiled" and "Heaven and Earth Unveiled" are products of this research, and his novel "The Imprisoned Splendor" brings it to life in a vivid fictional setting.