The Afterlife: Scientific Evidence

While we await more evidence, i.e. verifiable information on Reincarnation there is a long list of scientific studies making a good case for an afterlife. Maybe they just give us a glimpse into the eternity Gary speaks about, that the Bible says exists.

The first of these was published in 1975, by the now famous Dr. Raymond Moody, in his book "Life After Life", which describe "actual case histories that reveal there is life after death". Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, famed pioneer for her work with the terminally ill, provided the foreward. In this timeless little tome Dr. Moody describes the experience many of his patients reported to him, the common stages and the impact the experience had on those who underwent the experience. This work became known as the Near-Death Expereince wherein persons clinically, but not actually, dead revived and told of their experiences of going thru a tunnel into the light, meeting dead relatives or a religious figure and being told it was not yet their time to transit from this plane to the next.

Of interest here is that several people reported meeting Jesus, or a Christ-conscious being. At the end of his book Dr. Moody describes parallels between the experiences of his patients and the Bible, Plato, The Tibetan Book of the Dead and Emanuel Sewedenborg. The result of his research was to instill in him a deep sense of an afterlife.

Arriving in my life in 1978, Dr. Moody's book had a profound influence on my life. Coming from a strong science background I sought scientific evidence for the great mysteries of life. I had entered my "non-theist" phase of my life, having searched for the meaning of life and found none I had abandoned the search as being unimportant. His book jolted my consciousness and literally put me back on my spiritual seekers path.

Following this ground breaking book, Dr. Kenneth Ring published, in 1980, "Life At Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Expereince". Dr. Moody provided the foreward. Origially set out to debunk Dr. Moody's work, Dr. Ring was transformed by his research into a believer in life after death.

In 1982 Dr. Michael Sabom published "Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation". He provided "striking new clinical evidence on the nature and meaning on the near-death experience", at the time Dr.Sabom was a noted cardiologist and professor of medicine. He, too, was at first quite skeptical of Dr. Moody's work by after 5 years of investigation he was converted into a belief that there is more to life than we commonly believe, that death is but a transformation to a greater plane of existence.

Building upon the works of Dr's Moody, Kubler-Ross, Ring and Sabom in 1987 Ian Wilson published "The After Death Experience", a very wide ranging investigation into ancient Egyptian, Greek, Celtic, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu thought.

All of these books describe survivors of the NDE as traveling down a dark tunnel, emerging into a bright light or beautiful landscape, some seeing loved ones or religious figures, all described a sense of timelessness, a profund sense of reality, freedom from pain and often a sense of delight. Whatever they underwent most NDE survivors found their lives had changed sigificantly. Many were initially afraid to share, thinking people might think them insane, but a more has been published more folks are coming forth.

Phyllis Atwater, who experienced 3 NDE's in her life, and has published widely on the phenomena, estimates that over 8 million Americans alone have experienced an NDE. This is understandable as we Americans have available to us the most advanced medical technology, fully capable of resuscitating a person whose bodily functions have shut down. In 1986 I meet Phyllis and found her 3 NDE recalls extremely facinating and profoundly believable.

Even more astoundingly in 2002 Dr. Gary Schwartz, a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery at the University of Arizona published "The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death". He reported on the research done by him and his former collaborator, Dr. Linda Russek into the abilities of well known mediums, John Edward, Suzane Northrup, and George Anderson as well as the Rev. Anne Gehman and Laurie Campbell. They conducted rigorous double-blind experiments, carefully controlled circumstnaces where no direct contact between the sitter and the medium was allowed, thus perventing "cold readings" where the medium gained information from the sitter. Several people volunteered to be "read", to serve as "sitters" who the mediums would attempt to connect with deceased persons from the sitters life. Amazingly they has accuarcy scores as high as 93%.

In the spirit of full disclosure I have known the Rev. Gehman for some years and have found, like numerous others, her readings to be quite accurate. The only thing that gives me pause is the refusal of mediums to give what you might call forecasts of bad experiences. They say they do this not so as not to pre-program a person, to leave a thought that the sitter might then subconsciously convert into reality, to prejudice them to potential future events.

I also add the experiences my older brother Harold who clinically died 28 years ago while undegoing heart by pass surgery and a close friend Joe, who apparently died clinically while undegoing surgery. Harold was quite shaken by his NDE, told me only many years later about it. It profoundly influenced his belief in God. Joe came back madder than hell that he was told it was not his time. He wanted to stay in that place of peace and beauty.

Whatever all this means is not yet totally clear. While Reincarnation is yet to be proven scientifically we do have hard science based evidence that life does not end with physical death, that something Plato called "the soul" apparently does continue to exist on a plane of existence well beyond this one we know.