While eastern traditions equate paradise with a higher ideal, in the west it is seen as a land tainted by evil and accessible only to the dead. Distorted by translation errors and religious propaganda, such a view bears little resemblance to the original teachings.

Persian mystics, Egyptian pharaohs, Greek philosophers, Knights Templar, they all made accessing paradise their life ambition while alive, so what is it really about? Why did philosophers see it as the only place to find true wisdom? Can it be experienced while a person is in this world? And if paradise is more than an imaginary realm, how and where can it be reached?

Welcome to a 10,000-year journey of self improvement, starting in Japan and ending, incredibly, in America’s capital.