The Afterlife Experiments : Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This is a book that consists of descriptions of meetings between mediums and subjects with supposedly dramatic revelations. From this we are to conclude that there is scientific evidence of an afterlife. Sound like hogwash? Well it is.

Let me tell you that reading about mediums in a book is like watching magicians on TV. It doesn't work. I found this book and its author to be tedious at best. For this guy to imply that people who make there living this way somehow constitute evidence of the hereafter is ridiculous.

Obviously written for those that want mightily to believe and are willing to grasp onto almost anything.

Rating:
Summary: A Scientist with guts and an open mind.
Review: Dr. Schwartz with his stellar credentials, shows true guts and character by applying scientific protocols to the largly unmapped area of life after death. Over and over he and his staff work to eliminate any possiblilty of fakery or fraud in testing the mediums and the people that they are "reading". I have had the priviledge of meeting Dr. Schwartz, and I am convinced of the absolute honesty of his work in this very controversial field. There comes a point when scepticism becomes so intrenched as to be as useless as the folks who believe everything.
I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: An instant classic
Review: Debunkers can nit-pick the methodology, but you can't argue with (1) the author's medical and academic credentials; (2) the fact that some very impressive results were achieved under reasonably controlled conditions ("highly controlled" to everyone but the nit-picking debunkers); and (3) the fact that this is a tightly written, fascinating book regardless of your inclinations toward the paranormal. You are, of course, pretty much reading a "highlight reel" of the results achieved by the mediums, but those results are incredible and will stand beside those achieved with Mrs. Piper, Eileen Garrett and the other great mediums who were subjected to scientific scrutiny (and they definitely were -- hopefully this book will launch you into a study of the serious work done by the Society for Psychical Research and its American counterpart). I had read some of the more scholarly accounts of Schwartz' work, but this book put it all in perspective in an easy-to-digest format. I didn't find it dry AT ALL. This is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the possibility of an afterlife -- much better and more convincing, in my opinion, than any of the books by the mediums who participated in Schwartz' study.

Rating:
Summary: Peer review
Review: Many times in science an experiment appears to prove a hypothesis. The mechanism that is used to be certain that data and an experiment are really accurate is peer review. Nothing gets into the good scientific journals without it. There is no peer review of this data, and simply stating that Schwartz is "Harvard trained" doesn't cut the mustard. So is Deepak Chopra, who claims that cataracts can be reversed if you "brush your teeth, scrape your tongue, spit into a cup of water, and wash your eyes for a few minutes with this mixture". John Mack is a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who writes about alien abductions. Sorry folks, it takes more than this book to "prove" that psychics are real.

Rating:
Summary: Reassuring, And For Your Serious Consideration...
Review: This remarkable book comes from the heart to address and share the remarkable data resulting from controlled experiments with mediums at the University of Arizona as featured in the HBO special, LIFE AFTERLIFE, and much more that followed the HBO Experiment.

Future readers are in for a treat. THE AFTERLIFE EXPERIMENTS doesn't seek to convert, readers can examine the facts and draw their own conclusions. One thing is for sure -- Schwartz and Simon have raised the bar for evidence of an afterlife, and their book corroborates that there is some substance to the claim that some highly talented mediums are capable of providing highly specific information for "sitters" from loved ones who appear to have survived death.

Even the most staunch skeptics encountering this work might admit that science is playing a crucial role in redefining spirituality as evidenced in THE AFTERLIFE EXPERIMENTS.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I can understand the skepticism of the academic world when this research was begun -- but the result speaks for itself. Also very readable.

Another book in the same vein Healing Words by
Larry Dossey, MD

Enjoy

Rating:
Summary: A Scientific Approach
Review: This book details experiments on mediums conducted under the best set of scientific protocols yet attempted. Hats off to Dr. Schwartz for taking on such a controversial subject since there are so many people who want to know "Is it possible to communicate with the departed?" I was impressed that several of the high profile mediums agreed to participate in the study since it would mean personal and financial ruin if they were shown to be fakes. I decided to read the book since I was a skeptic but, at the same time, I was willing to consider the possibility of the ability of the mediums that participated in the study. When dealing with such unusual claims I feel it is a requirement that a person maintain a healthy dose of skepticism. Paraphrasing the late Carl Segan "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary data".

I felt Dr. Schwartz worked very hard to establish experiments that would eliminate the possibility of a cold reading. I suspect that no amount of evidence will ever convince certain well-known skeptics whose lively hood depends on being a skeptic nor the narrow-minded know it all that you always find around such subjects. On the other side of the spectrum are the true believers who will find this book is just preaching to the choir. Rather, this book is for the person who is not sure about the validity of such mediums but who have an open mind to the possibility of what may turn out to be a life changing learning experience.

I felt the Michael Jordan analogy was very good since Jordan is well know for his abilities as a basket ball player but he was not perfect. Rather, he was simply much better than anyone else playing the game. His lifetime shooting average was 45 percent or less than half of the time. As with those games where Jordan was exceptional there were occasions where the medium was 100% correct. In the end, the mediums did much better than control groups who were just guessing and had no physic ability. Besides, when you consider how the medium actually gets the information from the departed it would be very hard to be correct a 100% of the time but I was very impressed how often they were correct.

Just remember this book is reporting on scientific results and, consequently, can be very dry sometimes but it's just the nature of scientific reporting. However, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to decide if there is any truth to the abilities of certain well know mediums and the evidence of life after death.

Rating:
Summary: A book for all skeptics to test themselves
Review: Dr. Swartz has written a land breaking book, that hopefully will convince more skeptics to give their limited cosmology a new think.
Dr. Swartz is trained in the scientific method and makes every attempt to design and then rethink again to be sure there isn't fraud, bias or error in the readings of several people, who he terms, sitters. He gathers the so called super stars in mediumship and has each in turn read a sitter. The results are striking and should convince real skeptics something beyond mundane science is at work.
Although I consider myself to be a skeptic I am not the skeptic of the Amazing Randi class who simply would NOT accept any evidence and prides himself on simply being the atheist of all parapsychology. This type parapsychology atheist is of value for their intelligence in ferreting out fraud and error.
I am often taken with exactly what eveidence conventional science would accept as survivial after death. After all hard science cannot prove consciousness exists, which each of us experience as our being, why should it be able to without doubt prove survival beyond biological death.
The one point raised by Dr. Swartz that I myself have asked is if information is coming from some source to the mediums, can we be sure it is from a surviving personality or could it be from a kind of memory bank of the Universe or from the minds or energies of the living? That question of course ,although addressed in this book, had no immediate method for establishing the communications were actually from surviving, conscious personalities.
I enjoyed this book and will read it again and again. Its the best I have yet read proving something is going on that isn't fraud or wishful thinking when the legitimate superstar mediums are at work. Perhaps science should admit there are areas for which its methods of proof are invalid.

Rating:
Summary: Now that¿s a good book!
Review: I wish I had written this book!

This book has been adequately summarized by the other reviewers so I won't reiterate. However, I will say that as a biomedical scientist I understand 1) the professional risk Dr. Schwartz is taking, 2) appreciate his initial reluctance to take a firm stance on the meaning of his data, 3) and applaud his courage in shouting to the world - "Wake up and see what's in front of you!" Life is a lot more interesting when your eyes are open.

I'm not psychic, but when reading this book I sensed that it would long be remembered as the start of a scientific revolution, and perhaps even a spiritual revolution. This is not hyperbole - in my humble opinion this book is just that good, and that important.

From my perspective as a skeptic (but not a cynic) and as one who both writes and reviews physical and biomedical research proposals and papers, I was constantly on guard for weakness in the study and exaggeration in the book's reporting. Sure, there were a few design flaws initially, but the researchers constantly worked to improve their protocol. That's hard work - and dishonest or lazy scientists don't go to the trouble.

I have two thoughts about the book's reporting style. If I had witnessed what Drs. Schwartz, Russek and the rest of their team had seen, I also would be exuberant. In fact, in my estimation they used considerable restraint.

Secondly, scientific discourse is by nature exacting, which often makes it painfully tedious. Gary Schwartz has fulfilled his obligation to scientists by publishing his results in peer-reviewed scientific journals. To fulfill his obligation to laymen a different style is required. So I'm guessing that some of the ebullient style of writing in this book is the influence of the publisher (not a hard core science publisher) and the writer William Simon. They clearly know how to make a book accessible to the masses.

And accessible it is - I read it at every opportunity: during lunch, before going to work, and until late at night. I didn't quite finish it in one sitting; it is after all a relatively large book. But I thought about it throughout my workday, and could not wait until I got back home to resume reading. Now that's a good book!

I strongly suggest you consider the author's thought provoking question posed near the end of the book: What if this was all true? How would you, and all humanity be changed?

Rating:
Summary: Convincing and thoughtful
Review: Page after page unfolds with the earnest attempt to document an extraordinary process. The steps taken to remove any possiblity of fakery are thorough. The events are remarkable, and well documented. This book takes you to the door and unlocks it, and lets the reader experience the rest.
Of course, there will always be readers who like the world flat.