Rating: 
Summary: Reading is Believing
Review: In The Afterlife Experiments, Gary Schwartz discusses his research to discover the possibility of life after death. His research, with help from colleagues and private patrons, tries to illustrate and explain his living soul hypothesis through the use of mediums. His hypothesis is simply stated as the ability of our consciousness to survive forever, even without a physical body.
To "prove" his theory, he administers several medium experiments throughout a three-year time frame. With each experiment, the controls become tighter, the ability to cheat less, the documentation more specific, and the results more astounding. An example of this is seen in the comparison of the first and last experiments. In the first, there were five mediums, two sitters, and numerous experimenters and crew. The sitter and medium were in the same room, separated only by a white sheet. The mediums could talk to the sitters and the sitters would answer back with a yes or no. In the last experiment, the medium did not know who the sitter was, and was not allowed to talk to them at all. Also, the sitter was in a different part of the country, and communicating with the experimenter via the telephone. Because Dr. Schwartz is a scientist, he also had a group of his own students do the control experiment. He tried to see if his students could replicate the correct "guesses" that the mediums had made in their readings. If they could, than he would have proof that the mediums were faking it. However, the students failed miserably.
Even after all the astonishing evidence for the existence of the conscious after death, Schwartz states that because he is a scientist, he was taught to believe in nothing. Therefore, he could not believe because his evidence was not 100% proof. A few paragraphs later he says, "When a researcher is fortunate enough to repeatedly witness and collect extraordinary data in many experiments over many years, she or he has the responsibility to respect the reality of those facts." He then revises his earlier statement to say that he "advocates the survival of consciousness research." This statement does two things. First, it forces me to ask myself why he believes this. I suppose he would answer that his research made him come to that conclusion. So, his research made him believe in research? The second thing he does with that statement, is force me to wonder of his intentions for saying that. Was it because he truly does believe that the research can prove life after death, or is he saying it out of "responsibility" as a researcher? If it is out of responsibility, how can he expect the skeptics to believe if the researcher doesn't even believe in his own data.
Nonetheless, I found this book to be very inspiring. And while it did not completely convince me to believe, it has shown me that the research is compelling and sometimes, downright eerie. For now, I will continue to "believe" that death is the end, until, of course, I can be persuaded by an author that truly "believes" in his own research.
Rating: 
Summary: The Afterlife Experiments: Something to Think About
Review: I have always been interested in the possibility of life after death, psychics, ghosts, and things of that nature, although I have never been able to determine quite where I stand on these issues. I have always been on the fence on issues like these, mostly because my brain is always searching for "hardcore evidence" to support these theories.
Gary Schwartz's Afterlife Experiments was just the book for me to read. In the introduction, he compares the possibility of life after death to the stars. If starlight from distant "dead" stars still continues to illuminate the night sky, then why couldn't our personal biophotons continue to exist long after we have "died"? It has been found that 12 billion year old photons from the "Big Bang" continue to exist
The one thing that I liked the most about this book and that impressed me the most about this book was the author's unwillingness to accept something as truth just because it was the result of a single experiment. Gary Schwartz was constantly revising and re-doing experiments to make them better and more "fool-proof", not only because his reputation as an esteemed scientist was on the line, but because he wanted to display the facts and evidence unbiased for the reader to decide for himself or herself.
The first experiment was one that would be taped for a show airing later on HBO. This experiment included 4 mediums (George Anderson, Anne Gehman, Suzane Northrop, and John Edward) and 2 sitters, one of whom was found by Lucky Duck Promotions, the company behind the HBO show, and one found by Gary and his colleague Linda Russek, as to avoid the possibility of of any collusion taking place between Lucky Duck, the mediums, and the first sitter. On the day of the readings, the mediums and the sitters were kept in separate locations until their reading, when the sitter was escorted to their seat behind an opaque screen, and then the medium was seated in front of the screen. Attached to the sitter was an electroencephalogram and an electrocardiogram to measure heartbeat to brain wave effects. The sitter was allowed to answer yes or no to the mediums' questions. The readings given to the sitters were later divided into categories (such as Initials, Names, and Historical Facts)and each sitter went through each item, rating them on a scale from -3 (complete miss) to +3 (definite hit).
The second experiment came to be known as the Miraval Silent-Sitter Experiment, using something known as replicate and extend: repeating a procedure that has worked in the past and adding a new aspect that you are wanting to explore. This new experiment included more sitters (a total of 10)and, during an initial period, the sitter would remain silent. This way, the medium would have no way of knowing which sitter they were reading at a particular moment, and they would not be able to get clues about the sitter's age, sex, personality, or emotional state, a common trick used in cold readings.
This new design was taken even further in the Canyon Ranch Experiment, where the sitters never spoke. During the yes/no session, the experimenter would say yes or no, depending upon a nod or a head shake from the sitter. This further negated the possibility that the medium could get clues from the sitter's voice about their sex, age, personality, or emotional state. Also, the screen used to separate the sitter and the medium was doubled and attached from wall to wall and from floor to ceiling. The sitter was escorted into the room from a door on the opposite side of the screen from the medium. This eliminated the possibility of visual contact by the medium. Also, during the scoring period, the sitters not only rated their own readings, but they also rated the other sitters' readings as pertaining to them. This was to eliminate what was known as rater bias.
As you can see, Dr. Schwartz followed the basic pattern of the scientific method when investigating his hypothesis, and this is why I think he has made a good argument for the possibility of life after death in his book. With every experiment conducted, Dr. Schwartz was constantly revising his methods by consulting with people like Ross Horowitz, a Tucson magician who teaches psychic cold readings at a local community college, to get tips on any trickery the mediums might be using. Dr. Schwartz was quick to point out the mistakes or misses the mediums made, as well as the definite hits. He presented all the data from the experiments in a clear, unbiased fashion. Dr. Schwartz also took opposing views and arguments into consideration, as seen by the constant revision of the experiments and by a section in that book that addresses these views/arguments. In conclusion, I believe that Dr. Schwartz has presented a strong, clear, and fair argument in his book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Perfect Example of:
Review: 1. How one's credentials get you in the door, but still allow you to be fallible and self-deceiving. That's why studies need to be repeated by others. That's what happened with "cold fusion", and what has happened with EVERY study of ESP, precognition, and mediums. This one wasn't, and the critical independent reviews were ignored in the blind rush to publish.
2. How difficult it is to do good research. On the surface, this looks to be a well-conducted study. Even I was fooled, until I read the report of Ray Hyman, "How Not to Test Mediums", in the Jan/Feb 2003 "Skeptical Inquirer". Over a dozen key rules of good research were broken. Most telling is the failure of Schwartz's best medium, Laurie Campbell, to have greater than chance success with 6 "sitters", despite allowing the sitters to score their own readings. The only sitter she succeeded with rejected every accurate statement in one reading that started by saying "this has female energy", not even accepting as a hit the name of his love partner who died, and accepted everything as an amazing hit in the other reading, which he assumed must have been for him, despite the fact that it contained none of the information she provided in a previous un-blinded sitting for him! Despite this negative result, Schwartz claims that the success with this one (of six) sitters PROVES his case. Amazing!
3. The power of self-deception and self-fulfilling prophesies. Watch how this review and every negative review of the book gets panned by other people, and every positive review of the book gets praised. Read the report of Ray Hyman, "How Not to Test Mediums", in the Jan/Feb 2003 "Skeptical Inquirer", and see how Schwartz ignores and rationalizes away all criticism of his sloppy techniques.
4. How you can't judge a non-fiction book by it's reviews. It's so comforting to believe in an afterlife, in ESP, in fate, in external meaning to one's life, and so HARD to be a skeptic! Do you think scientists enjoy having their work cut to shreds? How much easier to believe your fantasies uncritically.
5. The danger of true believers publishing non-peer-reviewed books and articles, especially ones like Deepak Chopra's, who has now profited from an audiotape with Schwartz in addition to his millions from every quack therapy imaginable.
6. How true believers will ignore every critical study, including ones by scientists who STARTED as true believers and got disillusioned when they OPENED their minds, like Ray Hyman, Susan Blakemore, me, and Basava Premanand. Mr. Premanand has devoted his career to investigating the claims of Indian gurus, yogis, and fakirs, and has found not one "miracle" that he couldn't perform himself using the knowledge of physiology, chemistry, and sleight-of-hand.
7. How most skeptics and scientists, if given one wish, would say something like Mr. Premanand said, "I'd like to witness a real miracle before dying". Houdini spent his last years trying to communicate with the dead, and discovered that every medium was a fraud. Unfortunately, Dr. Schwartz has done great damage to science and common sense with this book, which only adds to the overwhelming pile of nonsense that people will read and gullibly believe.
Rating:
Summary: Kudos to Gary Schwartz ......for this visionary work
Review: Certainly inspiration is what fuels our quest for future possibilities of expanding thinking and this book is definitely a pioneer in that regard. Survival of consciousness is a valid and absolutely necessary, and powerfully uplifting, experience. Experience is a word that describes what happens when we are present, and the moment we are observing comes alive with information, and it is exhilarating and purposeful! The exhaustive research revealed an accurate and pure experience for all of those involved. No doubt, it is beautifully apparent in this endeavor to say... you had to "be there."
Rating:
Summary: Very good book
Review: This book is very good. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered if there is life after death. Now, I'm going to make several comments:
I've noticed in several reviews that many readers are not content with the scientific methods that Dr Gary E. R. Schwartz uses to coduct the afterlife experiments. In part I agree with the reviewers because I noticed it myself. However, the issue is that there is no real scientific principle (known scientific principle) that can be used to verify these claims. In a physics experiment, there are certain tanglible variables, there is observation, recording the results, analyzing the data, and providing a theory that agrees with observation and the data results. The same goes for other kinds of experiments such as Chemistry, Geology, etc. Now, how do you carry out an experiment for which there are no guidelines, no tangible variables? I think Dr Schwartz did pretty well, given the circumstances.
Will this book convince you that there is life after death? No, I don't think so. I don't think any book can do that. But the book does present "evidence" that could be termed as compelling.
I am a scientist myself, a physicist. It is not easy to convince me of things that cannot be verified through any accepted scientific method. Also, it is important to point out that the scientific method has been developed based on tangible and observable phenomena, not this. What I mean to say is that we cannot judge Dr Schwartz's scientific method by any other standards because there aren't any. So I think we should give Dr Schwartz a break on this specific issue.
Besides that, the book is well written and documented. Dr Schwartzs definitely has a case and his research is genuine.
I have read many books about the afterlife that attribute these amazing experiences to the human brain. In these other books, the authors claim that these experiences have something to do with brain processes. I think that if this book by Dr Gary E. R. Schwartz really proves anything, given the legitimate experiments, is the fact that the afterlife experiences are not the consequence of some unknown brain process, but of some other aspect of reality that we do not yet understand.
Rating: 
Summary: Pseudo-science... but very good pseudo science
Review: I found the book to be both entertaining and enlightening. I came away with the belief that these experiences were real and meaningful to all the participants.I was disappointed, however, in the level of science that was represented in the work. Dr. Schwartz is not coy about setting out to arrive at a predetermined conclusion. Such passion rarely survives the scrutiny of objective review. The accounts in the book speak for themselves. The references to scientific method are inaccurate and a distraction.
Rating:
Summary: This book is wonderful!
Review: Professor Schwartz had written a truly remarkable book, which should be of interest and help to psychics and laypersons alike. Using experiments that are as tightly controlled and completely unbiased as possible, Gary Schwartz is looking for the truth, and he's finding it. This is one of the best books (if not THE best) available on the study of the paranormal. It's impossible to recommend it too highly. I hope we'll be seeing more from him
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book, Very Readable and Informative
Review: This book gives you the experience of being in several psychics offices' and witnessing a person's dead relatives communicate with that psychic. It is thrilling to hear how very specific the different readers are and where the information overlaps for the individual who is being read. When the skeptic started to chatter in my head this book was way ahead of me and would ask the questions that I was just beginning to formulate. The book is scientific and also informative and very readable.
Rating:
Summary: Almost a Five. Great Book...Very interesting work
Review: My eyes were glued to this book until well after 5 o'clock in the morning. It's well written and captivating. For those open to the metaphysical world, it validates much of what is to be believed about the other side. For the skeptic, it should open some eyes, but not all. "I see the world...it's flat...can't you see that it's flat?" The research was so strong that one skeptical Amazon reviewer suggested that it was possible that the psychics grabbed the information from a central force somewhere, instead of from actual souls. (A feat I fear would be harder...wow, what a brain you'd have to have to sort through the trillions of data stored there.) The research is strong and mind-blowing. I await more of Gary's exciting and groundbreaking research on the subject. I applaud his courage and his supporters.
Rating:
Summary: About mediums, not the afterlife
Review: All the experiments in this book describe controlled studies with a group of reliable mediums (people who claim to talk to the dead, like John Edwards). Given that they're experiments are true (that the author isn't making this stuff up and is reliably providing the evidence), these are hard to ignore. On average, 80% of the reading by a given mediums are accurate and most of the information is very specific. They seem to have done an excellent job of ruling out sources of error and methods of trickery (ie - the "cold reading").
Given these pretty amazing results from these scientific experiments, the author swiftly concludes this means there is a survival of consciousness after clinical death. This is the part that bothers me most about this book. The mediums and the author say that these amazing talents shown at the reading are the results of departed loved ones eagerly communicating to the mediums through emotions, images, and sounds in which the medium have to interrupt to the sitter. The mediums never claim that they can "see dead people" or hold normal conversations with the dead, just that they interrupt images, sounds, or emotions that come to them.
Are they tricksters? Maybe, but not likely. They might have advanced so well in they're art that they can fool these strictly controlled conditions. Tricksters have fooled scientists before, and I'm sure they could do it again. But what about other explanations? Maybe a combination of powerful physic abilities with remote viewing abilities or the ability to tap into a sort of wealth of knowledge of the universe or life force, misinterpreted into talking with dead people. These particular topics are briefly mentioned, but dismissed because the experience of the mediums "seems to be talking to something that alive".
Are the results of these experiments interesting? Yes. Is there evidence that these "white crow" mediums are doing something extraordinary? Yes. Does that mean there is an afterlife? I don't think so.
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