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

~ David Fontana (Author) "It is now more than a century since serious research into ostensible paranormal phenomena began..." (more)
Key Phrases: voice mediumship, paranormal voices, other physical mediums, There An Afterlife, Drayton Thomas, Gladys Leonard (more...)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Is death the end of this existence, as some scientists seem to assume? Fontana, a British psychologist and fellow at Cardiff University, thinks not. In this manual, he marshals studies and other evidence to demonstrate the persistence of unexplained phenomena that point to the likelihood of life after death. In systematic fashion, Fontana plows through chapters on parapsychology; apparitions and visions of ghosts; hauntings (where apparitions are seen by more than one person in the same place over a long, continuous period); the history and nature of mediumship; different kinds of mediums; electronic voice phenomena; near-death experiences; out-of-body experiences; and reincarnation. Throughout, he includes case studies of alleged paranormal events from around the world, and also describes some of his own experiences, including a local Cardiff poltergeist he investigated from 1989 to 1992, and a medium who seems to have communicated with Fontana's deceased mother. It's clear that Fontana believes that many claims to the paranormal are true and that they provide credible evidence that a soul or spirit survives beyond physical death. Still, his tone is a bit more balanced than other paranormal apologetic texts. The book is indeed "comprehensive," as the subtitle indicates, and it is organized well enough that readers can easily skip to the chapters or sections that interest them rather than slogging through each chapter sequentially, since the writing can be overly detailed.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

'Scholarship, personal experience and high quality always show. This highly accessible, detailed and authoritative book will become a classic. After reading it and assessing the evidence, there can no longer be any doubt that there is life after death. David Fontana's book should be mandatory reading for all those involved in the care of the dying - and of course for the rest of us who know we will have to face it one day! Dr Peter Fenwick, Britain's leading clinical authority on Near-Death-Experience

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Product Details

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: O Books (February 25, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1903816904
ISBN-13: 978-1903816905
Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #139,744 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#52 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Occult > Near-Death Experiences

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
It is now more than a century since serious research into ostensible paranormal phenomena began. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
voice mediumship, paranormal voices, other physical mediums, good red light, mental mediumship, proxy sittings, active corner, physical mediumship, poltergeist hauntings, sensory leakage, poltergeist cases, psychokinetic abilities, genuine phenomena, earthbound spirits, infrared viewers, psychokinetic effects, surviving personality, mediumistic communications, local sidereal time, psychical research, mediumistic gifts, voice phenomena, survival hypothesis, parapsychological experiments, telepathic impressions

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
There An Afterlife, Drayton Thomas, Gladys Leonard, Eileen Garrett, Scole Group, Florence Cook, Major Poole, Harry Price, Sir Oliver Lodge, Upper Astral, Mary Lyttleton, William James, Montague Keen, Edgar Vandy, New York, Samuel Bull, Katie King, Leonora Piper, Patience Worth, Tom Harrison, Arthur Balfour, John King, Mina Crandon, Etta Wriedt, Pearl Curran

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 100 books:

Eusapia Palladino by Hereward Carrington on 5 pages
William James : Writings 1878-1899 : Psychology, Briefer Course / The Will to Believe / Talks to Teachers and Students / Essays (Library of America) by William James on 4 pages
Thirty Years Among the Dead by Carl A. Wickland on page 172, page 173, and Back Matter
Science And a Future Life by James Hyslop on page 88, and Back Matter
This House Is Haunted by Guy Lyon Playfair on page 83, and Back Matter

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Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Encyclopedia of the Strange, Mystical, and Unexplained by Rosemary Guiley

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews

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4.7 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a long overdue book, April 12, 2005

By	Michael E. Tymn (Kailua, Hawaii) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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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.

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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Certainly the best, single volume on this subject, April 12, 2006

By	Jeffrey Mishlove (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Thorough and Informative, October 31, 2005

By	E. Lipinski (Verona, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great History on topic
Dr. Fontana thoroughly investigated the history of afterlife studies. That was five stars. However, I found the book repetitive and not that interesting. Read more

Published 20 days ago by Loretta

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual Insight
Is There An Afterlife? is a serious, thoughtful, and heartwarming book for those who seek knowledge, understanding and a deeper spiritual life. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Paul F. Fendt

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive
David Fontana's books is actually a comprehensive review and examination of the evidence for an afterlife. Unlike other books on the topic, Dr. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Deya S.

5.0 out of 5 stars Not an ordinary book!
With profound wisdom and clarity Dr Fontana manages to tackle one of the most important questions facing all humans. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Seeker

5.0 out of 5 stars Knows It All!
Dr David Fontana demonstrates encyclopedic knowledge of many things psi, in many countries. If I were to teach psi, I would use this as the textbook. Read more

Published 12 months ago by David R. Powell

5.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelming and Comprehensive
David Fontana provides an enormous amount of information concerning research conducted into understanding life after death. Read more

Published 14 months ago by R. Hartung

5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting!
I'm not an author so I don't know exactly what goes in to creating a book. I can only imagine the hours that David Fontana spent doing the research for this book. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Danny Stoppenbach

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, poorly copyedited
David Fontana provides a very good overview of the evidence for survival of human consciousness/personality of the physical death of the body. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Glenn Corey

5.0 out of 5 stars the best evidence avalible
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.

Published 19 months ago by Richard Laughlin

3.0 out of 5 stars If you are a skeptic you will probably remain a skeptic
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... Read more

Published 19 months ago by B. Malave

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