Rating: 
Summary: Skeptic loved it
Review: To say I'm a total skeptic about psychics, mediums, and communicating with the dead puts it too mildly. Can't be, isn't, never was, won't be.And yet, and yet...I wss surprised to find this book compelling reading and with experiments under scientifically controlled conditions that are just spooky. Something's going on. I don't know what it is; I'm still a skeptic, but it certainly appears that a small number of mediums are able to do things that are well beyond explanation. It helps that the sessions with the mediums were well planned and very carefully carried out, and that the book is so well written that it holds your attention like a mystery novel. Quite a feat, given that I'm such a non-believer. I'm not sure what I am now; I still don't believe, but I'm not as ready to say it can't be done! David Simon
dhs14@cornell.edu
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Summary: Read This Now
Review: With a foreword by Deepak Chopra, this new book details experiments on mediumship conducted under the best set of scientific protocols yet attempted. Over the years, Gary Schwartz, an Ivy League psychologist with impeccable credentials, assembled his Dream Team of mediums and convinced them to work under strict supervision-usually not their venue of choice. The experiments constituted significant risk for all involved. For Gary Schwartz, his academic standing was on the line. As a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry, and surgery at the University of Arizona, venturing into such controversial and uncharted waters could be devastating. The mediums participating also were placed at risk in that it was made known that anyone caught cheating would be publicly exposed. For those making a livelihood from readings with departed loved ones, such official denouncement could hurt them financially. Schwartz is first to acknowledge that readings from mediums are rarely perfect. In fact, he uses the Michael Jordan analogy. Jordan is acclaimed, not because he is perfect, but rather, because he is better than everyone else playing the game. His lifetime shooting average is about 45 percent. That's scoring less than half of the time. So too, Schwatz's Dream Team was made up of individuals who have remarkable track records, most of which have held up over a period of many years. Their exact averages have not been established, but they are far better than average or chance. In designing the experiments Schwartz carefully listened to the established skeptics and incorporated their concerns and criticisms into the protocols. Foremost among these was the notion of a cold reading in which some self-professed psychics use feedback from the person to zero in on relevant issues. To prevent leakage of information, the protocols prevented direct visual contact between the medium and the sitter. In fact, during the initial phase of the experiments, the mediums provided their impressions with no feedback whatsoever. Only later in the process was controlled acknowledgement incrementally provided to them. Just as Michael Jordan occasionally has a phenomenal game, some of the mediums have had extraordinary hits. Schwartz includes these as the White Crow Readings, ones in which the amount of specific and verifiable information exceeds any expectations, let alone chance. As an example, one medium, Laurie Campbell, a delightful young California housewife, correctly identified close relationships between George, Michael, Alice, Bob, and Jerry before any contact had been established. While most people might have relationships between friends and relatives with one or two of those names, five for five is well above chance. It gets better from there but you can read the rest of the story yourself. It should be noted that the protocols call for the readings to be divided into information segments and then judged by the sitters to ascertain the degree of correctness. What seems to be most striking is when the mediums correctly identify specific information, previously unknown to the sitter. Only after later verification does the sitter learn that the reading was correct. With sufficient specificity, such examples can rule out any possible inadvertant information transfer between the sitter and the medium. Most who claim the title of skeptic are really debunkers. For them, no amount of evidence will ever suffice. For the vast majority, who have an open mind but would like to believe we outlast our mortal coil, The Afterlife Experiments will provide both reassurance and guideposts. The true believers are often far out on the other end of the spectrum from debunkers. For them this book will be preaching to the converted. Still, it will provide facts to support their beliefs in a nonsectarian manner. Ultimately, death remains the final great mystery. Gary Schwartz has yet to solve this teleological puzzle definitively, but he has gone a long way in presenting hard evidence in support of the nearly universal theories and belief systems that consciousness, in some form, continues beyond cessation of bodily functioning. If you're planning to make the trip-and who isn't-then I highly recommend you read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Exactly What I Was Expecting
Review: Based on the title, I was expecting to read about a range of experiments that would prove (or disprove) the existence of an afterlife. Instead, the main text of this book focuses largely on the author's research using spiritual "Mediums" in developing his hypotheses related to the afterlife. That's not bad -- it's just that my expectations included learning about a wider range of "experiments" by a more diverse group of scientists. It's an interesting book, and there are several appendices that explore other concepts including "energy" principles that relate to the human spirit and the concept of eternal life.
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Summary: Okay, But Needs Additional Context to be More "Readable"
Review: I had a hard time sticking with this book. I was attracted to it initially in the bookstore because of the foreword by D. Chopra. The book does provide some compelling evidence related to the concept of afterlife, but much of the discussion that is presented is based on work through spiritual "mediums." I am still searching for a book that presents this type of evidence as well as a discussion of afterlife using additional concepts of physics and "energy." There is SOME of this in the appendices of this book. Specifically, there is a discussion of the nature of human energy and the energy that gets communicated through the body via the heart and into "space" where it becomes then a form of eternal energy. Overall, if you are into this topic, this is a good read, but does not answer all of the questions (at least those I have) in a holistic and complete way.
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Summary: Amazing, Incredible SCIENCE on Consciousness after Death
Review: If you've lost a loved one, if you are a fan of Jonathan Edwards or James Van Pragh or Sylvia Browne, this book will be a pleasure. The book reports on scientific findings about consciousness after death from the University of Arizona Laboratory of Gary Schwartz, former Yale and Harvard professor. He works with mediums, who are "superstars of mediumship" including Jonathan Edwards. The findings are based on data the mediums report based on their contact with people on "the other side" who are associated with "sitters" who are volunteers for these experiments. For example, if a person says to a sitter that she had a grandmother, that's not impressive. If the medium says the grandmother loved the sitter very much, that's not too impressive either (My grandmothers died before I was born so it would be a wrong answer in my case) But if the sitter said that the grandmother is talking about daisies and her wedding-- well, that stands out. And if the medium reports that the daisies were in the sitters hair.. That's pretty amazing. Schwartz's research takes hundreds of items like this and then has the trained sitters rate them for accuracy. The mediums never meet, never see or hear the sitters, except when the medium hears the sitter in the next room sob, if the medium really nails a connection. This work has evolved as a logical step in Dr. Schwartz's research into human energy systems and energy medicine, and from ideas that he first developed and reported with Lynda Russek in the book Living Energy Universe. This research is very controversial, and while exciting and comforting to some, it is upsetting to some of the science skeptics, like James Randi, who seems to have made Dr. Schwartz his number on target recently. I've read his attacks though, and the attacks are personal and subjective, and if Randi submitted his own statements about Schwartz to the same requirements he expects of others, well, we wouldn't be hearing from Randi. I expect that I'll get more than the usual number of negative feedbacks on this from people who are skeptics, regardless of what the content of the review is. The findings in this book are fantastic and call for further research and replication. And Schwartz is bravely continuing to do just that. Hopefully, as his research reaches broader audiences, other scientists will be encouraged to come out of the closet (there are plenty who believe, based on existing data) and start publishing and researching more on these and related parapsychology topics.
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Summary: An Old Topic Made New Again
Review: The book presents the results of a scientific experiment carried out by scientists at the Univesity of Arizona, concerning the possibility of communication with the dead. To be sincere, to those interested in the topic, this kind of research is nothing new: Asakof, Crookes, Lombroso, De La Roche, Kardec and others had done that over 2 centuries ago (and not to detract from the present author, much better than he has). However, it is refreshing to see the topic revisited -- especially when portrayed in a very soft, non-academic writing style that makes it easy to read. It should be a good stepping stone to other, more complete works. It also has a good last chapter, about the implications of such findings -- the most important aspect of the whole thing (which is often let aside in most contemporary works of the same kind). I would definitively recommend it.
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Summary: THE AFTERLIFE EXPERIMENTS
Review: Emily Heibert
Book Review
The Afterlife Experiments
Gary E. Schwartz Ph.D.
The Afterlife Experiments; written by Gary Schwartz discusses an overwhelming exploratory view of the hypothesis that consciousness survives after physical death. It is an amazing collection of data and real life experiments. At the beginning of the book, Schwartz does not really tell the reader what he believes to be true about the living soul hypothesis. He leads to his conclusion with dumbfounding readings from mediums and very convincing data. It is full of remarkable events which lead to many new and intense thoughts for someone who has really never thought of the possibilities that might actually exists.
Gary Schwartz takes the reader through years of research and actual experiments to see if possibly the hypothesis of consciousness surviving after death can actually be proven. With his partner Linda Russek, Schwartz goes through repeated experiments with mediums who claim to connect to the loved ones of sitters. Early on the two scientists did an experiment in which HBO recorded the mediums and their readings; the accuracy of the mediums was overwhelming from the beginning but being scientists needed more data to prove the hypothesis. They also did what they called the Canyon Ranch experiments, which is the place where the readings were held. As the experiments and years go on they focus on about five mediums in particular. They also do more and more to make sure the readings are accurate and that the mediums can in no way be "cheating" ahead of time by getting information on the sitters. They address the idea of precognition and of mind reading but do not believe that is exactly what is going on in these readings. The sitters and mediums do not meet ahead of time and in some cases the sitter did not even speak. Over and over again I could tell that Schwartz still could not believe the overwhelming evidence and the things he saw and heard first hand. I found myself thrown aback several different times throughout reading the book. I felt like I actually was lost in the readings that the mediums were giving. By the end of the book and what seems to be somewhat of a close to Schwartz's research it seemed to be that the evidence was extremely creditable and very supporting of the hypothesis that perhaps our consciousness does live on after our actual physical death. Being a scientist, Schwartz seemed reluctant to say he had proven the living soul hypothesis through his many experiments and his collection of data because the evidence was not 100%. He also reveals that he was brought up to believe scientists do not believe in things if they are not proven 100% even though he realized he was being scientifically hypocritical. Despite all this Schwartz and Russek decide that they are going to live their lives as if the living soul hypothesis is true. If the hypothesis is false they would never know that the experiment failed but if it were true the lives they had lived up until death would be quite different and possibly very convincing evidence. The questions that arise from these experiments and this book I believe could be life changing.
In my opinion this is an amazingly accurate and valid book of research into a very unknown but much thought about subject. I think that we all as humans at one time or another think of life after death. We think about it existing and what it might be like. What I think we all fail to realize is that we do not have to know 100% that something is true to believe in it. We wait for proof of something that we may never have proof of. I think in life whatever you believe in is a huge part of what makes you who you are. I think the experiments Schwartz and Russek do are extremely thorough and maybe even somewhat unexplainable. So if they are unexplainable I guess many people won't ever be able to say that they believe in life after death. Before reading this book I probably would have said I did not believe in life after death and while I can't really say I believe in it now, the book has opened my eyes. It has made me think more deeply, which is very liberating. I think that while some things such as these afterlife experiments cannot be 100% proved or explained that does not necessarily mean that it is not true for me. I think that maybe Schwartz and Russek had it right, why wait for the evidence to become a better person or parent or friend. What would it hurt to live like some part of you may live on after your actual death? If we would examine our lives in this way maybe we could live happier more fulfilled lives. I think that this is an amazing collection of scientific data and an eye opening examination of the human life and afterlife. I am very glad that I read this book and I think that I will try to live my life as if I am in some way conducting my own afterlife experiment.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but rambling
Review: The details of the "experiments" are interesting but the author goes on and on and on about himself which drags the book out to about twice the length it should be.
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Summary: Skeptics or Hypocrites?
Review: Being a man of science myself, and knowing just how difficult it is to be published, especially given the nature of the subject matter, I have to give kudos to Dr. Schwartz for even attempting to conduct research in this area. What I find particularly distressing are the objections from the so-called "skeptical" community who demand "rational analysis" and the like. Having been a trained philosophical logician, computer scientist, and most recently, cognitive scientist, I can personally attest to the existence of the "church of scientism." Even neuropsychology, the "hardest" of the mind sciences, is heavily reliant on experimental methodology that doesn't prove much beyond a reasonable doubt, unless the scientist makes some serious assumptions. Functional MRI studies which characterize blood flow in certain localized brain areas can give us clues as to "something going on" in a brain area, without much insight as to what that something actually is! Evolutionary psychologists, sociologists, and cultural anthropologists have stunned us with extraordinary hypotheses concerning how our views of God and self are purely social constructions which enable us to cope with the notion of mortality. Funny, if these things are all evolutionary traits allowing the florishing of the human race, why is it that there have been several thriving religious doctrines which don't explicitly talk much about the survival of personality after death. How can neanderthal cave paintings of disembodied spirits be explained without a society or cultural underpinnings to motivate them? There are too many unanswered questions. Ultimately, most of empirical science is either a weak inductive argument or abductive inference to the best explanation anyhow. Take it for what it's worth. It's just a single way of explaining "reality" using a contrived methodology.
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Summary: A Must Read For Skeptic And Believer Alike
Review: Ever since I picked up this book and read it I have been recommending it to everyone I know to buy a copy and read it! I myself am an extremely spiritual person, but I reserve the right to some healthy skepticism as there are many deceivers.
I was impressed with the lengths Schwartz went to to challenge the validity of his own results. Double blind experiments, long distance with no communication finding out facts not apparent until after corroboration with other family members...these do not indicate Schwartz was anything but scientific and thorough. As a science major in university I would love to see his statistics and detailed findings, and I hope one day to read of them. However his passion was not for proving the psychics right. It was to find out the truth, whatever way the wind blew, for or against.
In this book we find out Einstein was right - energy cannot just disappear, it simply converts to a different type. One that cannot be picked up by any man made object, as YET - only mankind himself.
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