The Dead Are Alive : They Can and Do Communicate With You

Rating:
Summary: Startling that such a book would come from THIS author.
Review: I am somewhat of a collector of Harold Sherman's sports books -- the ones that he wrote during the 1920's and 1930's.

I bought the paperback edition of this particular book (originally written in 1981) out of curiosity.

When I think of Harold Sherman, I think of all of those stirring high school and college sport operas that he wrote about the world of fresh air and fair play where teamwork and good sportsmanship inevitably prevail and where the big game is ALWAYS won in the end with a thrilling come-from-behind finish.

I bought this paperback because I was genuinely curious (but I must admit, a little disillusioned) about the fact that Harold Sherman, whom I had always though of as a bedrock of down-to-earth Midwestern values, had actually become a parapsychologist in the latter two-thirds of his life and was actually interested in the subject of communicating with the dead and other paranormal activities.

Talk about the antithesis of down-to-earth!

Well, this book was certainly entertaining enough to hold my interest, but it's really only for true believers in the paranormal and not for those like myself who are fans of Sherman's EARLIER works.

I acknowledge that I like Sherman's version of the afterlife more than I like that of most people. For personal reasons, I appreciate the absence of hell, at least in the way that it is traditionally conceived.

And I also like the complete ABSENCE of reincarnation in Sherman's view of the universe. It's much more comforting to imagine that those who have left us are waiting just around the corner for us to rejoin them, rather than being reborn into a slum in Calcutta.

But where O where, Mr. Sherman, is the SPORTS? I searched in vain, but I found NO MENTION ANYWHERE OF SPORTS in Harold Sherman's version of the afterlife.

Do you really mean, Mr. Sherman, that even YOU can discern no Valhalla on the other side where star fullback Bob Delano and super-sub Rusty Milburn, playing within the confines of a celestial version of Yankee Stadium, AGAIN crash the line on behalf of good old Bartlett in the big game against arch-rival Pennington and its ace back, King Moulton?

Is there really no setting on the other side where Prescott team members AGAIN agonize over how to defend against Redfield's top slugger Bingo Nelson (so-called because his line drives travel -- BINGO! -- down the third base line threatening the welfare of rival teams and the health of their third basemen) with no outs and the bases loaded?

"I'm still with you," Chic Hutchins gasps in "Hold That Line" to his supposed arch-enemy, Bowen teammate Vic Wanderman, who is heading downfield in a desperate attempt to [grab]victory from the jaws of defeat, at the hands of arch-rival Great Northern, by crossing the goal line with the pass that he intercepted. "Keep on going, old boy! I won't let 'em cut...you...down!"

Hutchins then throws a tremendous block on Wanderman's behalf, and this last-instant combat zone reconciliation of bitter rivals is enough to bring a manly tear to any eye.

Did Harold Sherman really come to envision an afterlife in which there no ethereal grass and white-chalked stages where such dramas are re-enacted?

I can only hope that Harold Sherman, wherever he is today, is intensely lobbying the powers-that-be for his domain to be graced with the early 20th century high school/college sports ethos (and with the lads that personified that ethos) that he once wrote about.

And anyone who wants to talk to Harold Sherman about all of this might certainly be interested in reading "The Dead Are Alive" and obtaining insight on how Harold Sherman himself recommended attempting to communicate with the dead.

But I can't help wonder if this book hasn't been overtaken by technology. It describes how one might purchase powerful and sophisticated tape recording equipment and hear the voices of the departed through the "white noise" that is heard when a blank tape is run.

Sherman acknowledges that radio waves and telephone lines are often the source of other voices and suggests that "practice makes perfect" when attempting to distinguish a spirit's voice from that of radio or telephone sound wave.

But considering the fax machines, cell phones, pagers, Internet access call signals, and microwave ovens that have been created since Sherman first wrote this book, you really have to figure that it's just that much more difficult (if not IMPOSSIBLE) for a communicative spirit to get through and for the aspiring parapsychologist to discern such spirits through all of that additional interference.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible but True Stories of the Afterlife
Review: If you have any interest in life after death, then you owe it to yourself to read this book. Sherman continues in the tradition of other researchers like F. W. H. Myers and provides highly convincing evidence that humans survive their physical death. Sherman covers the topic from many different points of view, from ghost hauntings and dreams to electronic voice phenomena (EVP). I differ with some of the other reviews on this page that question credulity of technological contact with the "other side." Mark Macy in Miracles in the Storm also documents other-worldly communications through phones, radios, and televisions. Just because something seems "far out" doesn't mean it isn't real. After all, Scientific American and the scientific establishment once considered the Wright Brothers a hoax also. The history of science is full of examples of ridiculed ideas that later became the foundations of everyday life. Perhaps one day, after-life communications will seem as commonplace as Internet radio is today. (Dr. Simeon Hein is the author of Opening Minds: A Journey of Extraordinary Encounters, Crop Circles, and Resonance.)

Rating:
Summary: A prove that there's no death to the consciousness
Review: it was reall devastating to imagine that i'd just loss my mom. everything is so messy even my life...every aspect in my life. i always thought and wish that my mom would communicate to me, and she did ..in my dreams. though i could not really remember in vivid details the scenes and etc., but i know she did communicate to me. i just hope she would do that when i am not asleep, i mean in the real thing. i really love to see her and talk to her face to face..i just wish i could.

Rating:
Summary: A formidable task with pockets of interest
Review: Perhaps author, Sherman was just determined to prove that survival after death was not a fallacy. This is evident in the method for which he documents numerous (and often extraneous) accounts of "spirit visits," whether it be via a tape recorder (electronic device)or a Ouija board. He gives lots and lots of accounts and experiments that were conducted throughout the years on the "survival of bodily death," but to me there was too much "extra stuff" included in his attempt to enlighten the reader of such a potentially exciting phenomenon. There was not enough captivative and usable information, for my taste. I'm sure he meant well. Seemingly he was unduly dedicated to the task of exploring what some believe to be an abstract and nebulous endeavor. But if the reader endures the mounds of pages of this "uninteresting" material, they may find some treasures buried deep and in between the other "stuff." There are in fact pockets of interest that the more than passive seeker of this type of phenomenon will find quite interesting. Some of the dialogues (spirit voices) and what they reveal are quite revelational and will give pause for thought. There are quite a few little pieces of information that will somehow see your way through the book to its end. This was the type of book for me, that while reading it anyway, I'd hold a level of interest, but after closing its pages wouldn't remember or contemplate its contents...It didn't resonate with me, entirely. But give it a shot. You might find it has a different impression on you.

Rating:
Summary: YOU CANNOT COMMUNICATE WITH THE DEAD !
Review: READ THE BIBLE AND THROW OUT THIS NONSENS

Rating:
Summary: A prove that there's no death to the consciousness
Review: READ THIS BOOK or ANY HAROLD SHERMAN BOOK. IT'LL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. Harold Sherman is the author of many ESP books. My favourite is "How TO Make ESP Work For You" and "The Power Of Prayer" since these are the 2 books that I own. I am sure if I own his other out of print books, I'll love them too. I READ THIS BOOK once although I didn't own it. Sherman goes from case example to another (with evidences) to convince us that the dead watches over us before they move onto another plane of existence. There's no death to the soul or consciousness, I am sure you already believe that. And our subconscious is all connected at a deeper level (hence we experience ESP sometimes). If people who read the BIBLE can talk to God which is Divine Consciousness, why can't they accept that we can communicate with all kinds of consciousness, since God includes the Whole and Infinite? I see people talking to God or Jesus in their mind and they have no problem with that. So why don't the reviewer below be more open minded? Sherman was a deeply spiritual man who radiates an aura of goodness, he was a very respected man in Arkansas and for those who knew him. He did a pioneering long-distance telepathy experiment with Sir Hubert Wilkins (the artic explorer). Wilkins was in the north pole on a rescue mission in 1938, Sherman remained in New York, and 80% of SHerman's records of Wilkin's activities were accurate! So accurate that he could record Wilkin's thoughts! He trained and experimented with the power of the human mind on himself. Once, he used ESP to save his very life from a deadly throat infection. After years of experimenting, his mind got so sensitive that he can make "coincidences" happen, read people (even stranger's) thoughts-many times unintentionally. This proves that all consciousness is connected at a deeper level of Mind! He used his ESP to help people and sometimes helping the police to solve crime accurately. (...)