Customer Reviews

Is There An Afterlife?: A Comprehensive Overview of the Evidence

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Since becoming interested in psychical research some 15 years ago, I have accumulated a library of more than 1,000 books dealing with mediumship, channeling, near-death experiences, death-bed visions, apparations, past-life regressions, and every other aspect of the paranormal. This book is without a doubt the most comprehensive overview of the entire field that I have encountered.

The author is a professor of Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University in Great Britain and a past president as well as current vice-president of the Society for Psychical Research. Professor Fontana examines everything from the mediumship of the Fox Sisters of the 1800s to the recent
Scole experiments, including such famous cases as Patience Worth, Margery, the R-101 disaster, the cross-correspondences, to name just a few. He looks at the mediumship of Leonore Piper, Gladys Osborne Leonard, Eileen Garrett, Geraldine Cummins and many others.

So many of the earlier books present a one-sided view of various phenomena, but Fontana presents both sides, turning the evidence inside out and upside down,leaving no stone unturned. I had just recently reread a book about the mediumship of Mina Crandon, the medium in the sensational "Margery" mediumship of 1920s. I finished the book not knowing what to believe as there was strong evidence for Crandon being a gifted medium, but there was also some evidence suggesting fraud. The fact that the distinguished researcher, Dr. J.B. Rhine, was one of those concluding she was a charlatan made me lean toward that conclusion, even though I was mystified as to how so many other scientific examiners could have been duped. After reading Fontana's thoughts on the case, I am now back to believing that Crandon was a true medium, although she might have been a mixed-medium, i.e., one who occasionally cheated to please her audience when no phenomena manifested. There also seems to be the possibility that many of the mediums deemed cheaters were in fact sabotaged by malevolent spirits.

As Professor Fontana says, the question of whether or not our consciousness survives bodily death is without a doubt the most important facing us. For most religions, faith alone is seemingly all that is necessary. Perhaps that is the reason we have so much turmoil in the world today. Faith is not enough. We need conviction. That is what this book offers.

Professor David Fontana's book is certainly the best, single volume available today on the question of survival after death. It is written from the perspective of one who accepts that the available evidence does, indeed, point toward the existence of an afterlife. But, he did not come to this conclusion easily. He carefully weighs and balances all of the available competing arguments. And, he also acknowledges that, even after 150 years of investigation, the evidence is not scientifically complete. In fact, he does not hesitate to share the frustrations of researchers working in this field.

At one point, when discussing a particularly frustrating situation (George Meek's "Spiricom," at one time an excellent source of ITC data, that ceased functioning) he cites William James, who suggested "the Almighty may have decreed that we are never going to receive the final element of proof for which survival researchers have been looking, and that Spiricom was in danger of giving this proof."

As a past president of the British Society for Psychical Research, the oldest organization in the world continuously devoted to exploring the question of human survival, Fontana is eminently qualified to write about this subject. (Within the last few weeks I, myself, have joined this organization - upon learning about their excellent online library.) Fontana is also a specialist in the areas of EVP (electronic voice phenomena) and ITC (instrumental transcommunication) that are now a particular interest of mine. See my earlier blog on White Noise. I am inclined to think that if this area continues to show progress, as it seems to be doing, than it will - indeed - result in the major breakthrough that survival researchers have been seeking for 150 years.

Regular readers of my blogs will know that I have been fond of an alternative hypothesis that I call "archetypal synchronistic resonance." I think that it may have the potential to sufficient explain the existing data for human survival after death, without actually requiring an afterlife.

There is currently another alternative hypothesis, known as Super Psi. The tricky question here, from a philosophical perspective, is that there is no test that can absolutely distinguish between "survival" and "super psi." This is why many parapsychologists have simply stopped considering the question of survival after death. Nevertheless, Fontana does an excellent job of looking at the Super Psi hypothesis and showing why it seems highly implausible as an explanation in many of the cases he cites. In general, I am convinced by his arguments.

However, I am not yet convinced that "archetypal synchronistic resonance" would be so easily dismissed. But, there is no blame that David Fontana does not address my alternative explanation. The argument in behalf of "archetypal synchronistic resonance" has yet to be made in any academic journals (although one paper has been submitted). In fact, to date, my blogs on the subject are probably the most extensive place in which the topic is discussed.

Dr. Fontana's presentation is well suited to inform both the
experienced and new readers of the vast amount of research that
has already been undertaken in this area. I particularly liked
the way he presented the pros and cons of the various hypotheses
forwarded to explain the various phenomena. This is an excellent
introduction to the myriad facets of this fascinating subject.

David Fontana provides a very good overview of the evidence for survival of human consciousness/personality of the physical death of the body. He musters a considerable body of evidence from various areas of parapsychology to suggest, very strongly, that we don't die with our bodies. The literature on this subject is immense, and Fontana does a good job of surveying most of the important works. A notable and admirable feature of the book is that Fontana does not hesitate to point out weaknesses in certain arguments, though in the final analysis he clearly believes (with good reason) that the scientific evidence supports the idea of survival. The implications of survival are enormous and would likely change much about how we lived our lives if it were to be widely accepted.

For me a major flaw in the book is the poor copyediting. The same name is spelled two or three different ways on the same page or within a few pages (for example, at the top of p. 167, Fontana mentions "Australian-born medium Aviva Neumann." Three lines later the first name is spelled Avival, and two pages later it's spelled Avuva), there are lots of typos, the margins go from fully justified to left justified for a few paragraphs toward the end, etc. The biggest flaw in this regard is that almost none of the in-text citations in Chapters 15 and 16 have corresponding references in the bibliography. This makes it virtually impossible to track down the works cited if one wants to read them (as I do). This sloppiness in organizing the book and poor copyediting is not only very distracting and frustrating (since I'm the type of person that would like to read other works, and the missing references happen to be on topics that interest me most in this whole area), but it could provide skeptics with an avenue for criticizing the soundness of the scholarship. In general, these kinds of omissions make me wonder about the scholarship of a particular book, but in this case I don't think it undermines Fontana's argument. But still, they are very disappointing.

Perhaps some people might think three stars is a little harsh for the issues cited, but they are important to me and detract from the book's readability.

"Fontana is a psychologist who has been doing research in survival after death over his 35-year career. I thought I knew something about this subject, but I was amazed to find so much startling research that - taken together and unless this respected university professor is a gross liar - makes it very hard to argue that death is followed by nothing more than oblivion. Fontana covers everything from apparitions (ghosts) to mental mediums, physical mediums (who evoke objects and human forms from the afterlife), discarnate voices emanating from electronic devices (there is a lot of very good research that I knew nothing of), near death experiences, out of body experiences, and reincarnation.

This 480-page, small print account goes into detail about the scientific controls for every source. It also constantly raises the question of fraud - including scrutiny by high status scientists and conjurors - and convincingly refutes the possiblity for most experiments. The text is surprisingly readable for what amounts, when described by Fontana, to a series of scientific experiments over the past 120 years. However, despite his spectacular subject matter, the author shows no flare for spellbinding writing and brings no humor into his account. The most fascinating part of the book is the last chapter where Fontana describes what voices from the afterlife have to say about exactly what the afterlife is like. I will leave this account to the pleasure of the reader. "

I felt very far removed when reading this book. What I mean about that is it is mainly based off of someones existing research from the late 1800's and early 1900's (there is some recent research also but the most compelling research seems to be based off of the past researched) with very little of the Author's own individual first hand research. Not only that, the old research is based on anecdotes of people who probably already believed in the paranormal. Not only that, most of the research presented did not really have counter rebuttals from that era, probably because back then it was more than likely accepted at face value and not truly scrutinized. Granted, the old researchers did do their best with their line of questioning but mainly we only know what the authors tells us. We really never get to know the full entire aspects of the research itself, like if there are any potential flaws or not, and this is what I mean by feeling so far removed because I am getting something from someone who got it from someone who got it from someone. I did also notice in this book that the author often builds up strawman arguments that would refute the paranormal and then tears it down. What that means is the author presents some arguments of rebuttal (not all) and tears them down, but often leaves out other valid arguments against the paranormal unmentioned.

However I do feel the strongest part of the book is the research presented of NDE's where he accurately states all the NDE's rebuttals and their research to replicate an NDE/OBE, and then proceeds to refute them quite effectively.

I went into this book very neutral on the belief in an afterlife, with hope that there is one but not entirely sure. I have left this book almost in the same place, with a slight nod to my hope being slightly more justified.

If you believe, you will continue to believe after reading this. If you are a true skeptic I do not think this book is convincing enough to sway that skepticism. If you are neutral on the matter it may make you lean towards belief. Overall a good book with decent research but can beg a lot of questions within the anecdotes/conclusions themselves.

This is a book of rare quality. It is intellectually stimulating and exhaustively researched but at the same time an unputdownable read. The subject is dealt with systematically with each chapter covering a different type of experience. The weight of evidence presented in each of them leads the reader to the all but inevitable conclusion that there is life after death and that personality survives. It is by any definition a truly excellent book. It is certainly an important one. If you only read one book this year, make it this one.

David Fontana's books is actually a comprehensive review and examination of the evidence for an afterlife. Unlike other books on the topic, Dr.Fontana examine the evidence in an unbiased, objetive and rational way, helping the readers to consider alternative scenarios and interpretations of the cases.

This book won't convince hard-nosed materialistic skeptics; but it will convince open mind skeptics that something scientifically interesting and challenging is happening in the empirical studies on the afterlife.

I'd recommend this book for scholars, philosophers and scientists interested in a balanced rational discussion of the case for survival of consciousness.

This is far and away the best evidence given for this subject I have yet seen. The author also offers irrefutable arguments against the skeptics. Highly reccommended.

With profound wisdom and clarity Dr Fontana manages to tackle one of the most important questions facing all humans. He manages to provide a comprehensive and balance work on the subject and unlike many pseudo intellectuals who are afraid to spell out their conclusions he does that with tremendous intellectual honesty and insight. Dr Fontana is not only quoting the sources but has also been a first hand witness to the phenomena and personalities involved in this field. His writing reveals good sound judgement, courage, rigour and balance as traits of his own personality. These are essential traits for someone credibly writing on this subject that is shrouded in emotions, mystery and prejudice. The best book on the subject period. Highly recommended.