Is There Life After Death? An Examination of the Empirical Evidence

257 Pages·2005·0.95 MB·English

by  David Lester

Is There Life
After Death?

Is There Life
After Death?
An Examination of the
Empirical Evidence
D L
AVID ESTER
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Lester, David, ¡942–
Is there life after death? : an examination ofthe empirical
evidence / David Lester.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7864-2¡¡6-9 (softcover : 50# alkaline paper)
¡. Future life. 2. Death. 3. Thanatology. 4. Religion and
science. 5. Near-death experiences. 6. Reincarnation. I. Title.
BL535.L435 2005
129—dc22 2004029515
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2005 David Lester. All rights reserved
No part ofthis book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover illustration ©2005 Brand X Pictures
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Table of Contents
Preface 1
PART ONE—VIEWS ON LIFE AFTER DEATH
1. Religious Views on Life After Death 11
2. Who Believes in Life After Death? 18
PART TWO—NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES
3. Near-Death Experiences: Descriptions,
Frequency and Types 27
4. Critical Research on Near-Death Experiences 40
5. Other Research on Near-Death Experiences 57
6. The Impact of Near-Death Experiences 62
7. Explanations for Near-Death Experiences 70
8. Does This Show There Is Life After Death? 90
PART THREE—REINCARNATION
9. Introduction to Reincarnation 101
10. Research on Reincarnation 113
11. Reincarnation and Hypnosis 132
v
vi Table ofContents
12. Phenomena That the Theory of
Reincarnation Can Explain 141
13. Conclusions About Reincarnation 147
PART FOUR—OTHER PHENOMENA
14. Apparitions of the Dead 157
15. Widow Hallucinations 174
16. Deathbed Visions 178
17. Possession 183
18. Mediums 194
19. Poltergeists 201
PART FIVE—CONCLUSIONS
20. Is There Life After Death? 207
Notes 215
Bibliography 221
Index 239
Preface
This book is about life after death. Does it really exist? And ifit does
exist, what is it like?
I have been carrying out research into death and writing about death
for almost 40 years now. I have studied suicide and murder, and I plan to
write books in the next few years on war and genocide. I have devised two
scales to measure a person’s fear of death, scales on which I obtain very
low scores.
I have often wondered what led to my preoccupation with death, and
then a few years ago I realized one ofthe sources ofmy interest. I was born
in ¡942 in London, England, and I spent the first three years of my life
sleeping each night in an air raid shelter in the living room ofour house.
My mother told me that I was very anxious about the bombs and would
anticipate the air raid sirens, announcing an impending raid before the
sirens went o› to warn us. So that little child has spent his adult life try-
ing to obtain mastery over his fear ofdeath by studying it. It was a pretty
good tactic since intellectualization is an excellent defense mechanism.
My parents were ofdi›erent religions, my mother Church ofEngland
and my father Jewish, and so they compromised by giving me no religious
orientation. By the time I was a teenager, I was an atheist. I still am. But
I am drawn to Zen Buddhism, and so I tell people that I am a lapsed Zen
Buddhist.
As I grow older, I am developing some anxiety about that thorny issue
ofwhether there is life after death. I do not believe that there is, but I do
admit that it is inconceivable to me that my mind will stop functioning
one day. I try to reassure myself by using the analogy of sleep. If we did
not wake up, we would not know that we had fallen asleep. As I child, I
used to try to be aware ofthe moment at which I fell asleep so that I would
1
2 Preface
know that I had done so. I always failed. I simply woke up the next morn-
ing with no awareness ofhaving fallen asleep the night before. Death could
be like a sleep from which we never awake, and so we will not know that
we have died.
But is that the case?
I am a psychologist, and I am good at carrying out and critiquing
research. This book explores what social science research has discovered
that is relevant to the question of whether there is life after death. What
do social scientists say about the issue of life after death? What research
have they conducted? Have they produced any evidence for or against it?
We may not be able to answer definitively the question ofthe existence
oflife after death. However, there is a great deal ofresearch on topics that
are relevant to the question, research ofwhich most people are not aware.
Many of the popular books on life after death assume that there is
such an existence, and the books are written for believers. Such books do
not, ofcourse, convince the skeptics, including me. For example, Shirley
MacLaine (¡988) may be convinced that she has had previous lives, but
she has not convinced me!1
The proliferation ofpopular books on the topic oflife after death is
perhaps a reflection ofour time. Grosso (¡989) has argued that a new set
ofideas and experiences have combined to form a new mythology ofdeath.
There are several components ofthis new mythology:
¡. Thanatology has become a recognized discipline concerned with
the study of death. This has opened up the topic of death to respectable
scientific scrutiny.
2. Interest has grown in parapsychological phenomena such as
extrasensory perception and psychokinesis. Although parapsychological
phenomena are sometimes used to provide alternative explanations for the
evidence that seems to suggest life after death, the interest in these phe-
nomena has raised the possibility that some objects may not be sensed by
the traditional five senses and that not all phenomena can be explained by
traditional (“normal”) scientific explanations.
3. Carl Jung’s analytic psychology also raised the possibility that our
conscious experience (and even our Freudian unconscious) may not com-
prise even the major part of our mind. Jung argued that our minds con-
tains elements beyond our conscious apprehension and beyond the simple
desires and thoughts that we had as children but which we have forgotten
(or repressed). Jung proposed that we have a collective unconscious, filled
with themes that we share with every other person, and that there is a syn-
chrony, or connection, between all components ofthe universe.
Preface 3
4. The growth of spiritualism as a religion has had a major impact
on this new mythology since it is based on the notion that there is a life
after death. Many spiritualists try to communicate with the spirits of
deceased people, and they believe that they succeed.
5. The recent interest in and research on near-death experiences
has also presented the possibility of proving the existence of life after
death.
6. This, in turn, led to an interest in general out-of-body experi-
ences, not only those associated with death. Ifthe mind can leave the body
at any time, then perhaps it can leave the body at death (and possibly sur-
vive death).
7. There has been a growth of interest in the phenomenon of chan-
neling, in which people of a “higher order” communicate to us through
mediums. While spiritualism focuses on survival after death, channelers
are concerned more with advising us while we are alive.
8. Apparitions of the Virgin Mary have become increasingly com-
mon, and several shrines have arisen to which Christians flock in the hopes
ofseeing an apparition.
9. The growth of interest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) has
raised the possibility that traditional science may be incorrect (in reject-
ing the supposed evidence for UFOs) and that the possibilities in our uni-
verse encompass more than we ever thought.
These modern trends indicate a dissatisfaction with the answers that
modern science has given us and provoke us to search for a basis for the
beliefin life after death.
What Is the Evidence for Life After Death?
In this book we will review the research on many phenomena rele-
vant to the existence oflife after death, including:
• reincarnation
• near-death experiences
• death-bed visions ofthose who are still conscious
• cases ofpossession by dead spirits
• apparitions ofthe deceased
Kastenbaum (¡979) briefly reviewed these sources ofevidence for life
after death. He noted first ofall that people have believed in life after death