Rating: 
Summary: One of the Most Important Books of our Time!
Review: It's time human beings start listening, "The Afterlife Experiments confirms what we already know to be true in our hearts"
Rating: 
Summary: No Science in These Experiments
Review: The book is not evidence of an afterlife nor of telepathy. Those two phenomena may well exist, but this book does nothing to evince it.For detailed reviews, I suggest the Skeptical Inquirer (sorry, I don't know which volume off the top of my head), skepticreport.com, or the Forum at randi.org. For a quick list of flaws, though, I'll give it a shot: -There is no hypothesis put forth which the experiment attempts to demonstrate or falsify. -The protocols are ludicrously porous; Schwartz claims that cheating is not possible but a reading of the book reveals myriad opportunities for cheating by the medium and for cold reading (for instance, and this is not the worst of it: Schwartz says the sitters give no feedback, but they consistently do -Schwartz's statistical analysis contains sophomoric errors, particularly where he averages "accuracy" -The "control" survey done is not a control at all and is instituted after and differently than the actual experiments -Schwartz refuses to say how he turns a subjective sitter determination of accuracy (on a scale of -3 to +3) into a percentage accuracy; he just does it -Only one complete transcript is shown (and that's not really complete in that it leaves out the "mood setting" introduction by medium George Anderson); only snippets of some others are shown; the vast majority are not referenced at all -One John Edward is missing with the sitter, Schwartz takes the sitter's place and counts the information as hits for him There's plenty more, but the holes in this book are huge. It is not remotely science. You can determine that by noting that Schwartz does not publish it in scientific journals; he publishes it in the media. He then refuses to share the actual data with anyone. The experiments are worthless. Schwartz demonstrates nothing. Buy the book if you are interested in how people deceive themselves and others by donning the trappings of science while avoiding its rigors, but do not buy it if you want actual science demonstrated. And, yes, I have communicated my thoughts to Schwartz.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read for the Truly Objective
Review: Gary Schwartz' After Life Experiments may not be the best book I've ever read, but it certainly may be one of the most important. Schwartz' willingness to stake his professional career and academic credentials in pursuit of the question of whether human consciousness survives death is nothing if not courageous, and his book echoes that daring approach to a subject "real" science has chosen to consistently ignore. This book, I believe, will be remembered as the forerunner of a host of similar works in the future, and may be looked upon by future generations as a watershed work in the field of parapsychology. That being said, I will not do another chapter by chapter critique of the book, for the contents have been well covered by other reviewers. What I do want to discuss is how it is being reviewed. I find it most curious that it either consistently receives five stars and high praise (often by apparently cogent, intelligent reviewers) or one star and some turgid two sentence review to the effect "this is all nonsense." There's almost nothing in between these two extremes. Obviously, it has hit a few raw nerves and is being set up as the biggest challenge for the skeptical community to date. It's fascinating to observe to what extent debunkers will go in their efforts to silence an author's work, and wonder if that's a sign of their intellectual superiority or evidence of some deep seated fear. I really don't know, but I find it an interesting phenomenon in any case. As for the book, I strongly advise anyone with even a modicum of objectivity to read it. It may not change your life, but it's certain to change a few minds or, at very least, get you thinking. A nice read.
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