David Fontana: Is There An Afterlife: A Comprehensive Overview of the Evidence.

From the back of the book:
Do aspects of our personality survive our physical body? The fruit of many years research and experience by a world expert in the field, Is There An Afterlife? presents the most complete survey to date of the evidence, both historical and contemporary, for the survival of physical death. It looks at the question of what survives, in particular exploring the question of consciousness as primary to and not dependent on matter in the light of recent brain research and quantum physics. It discusses the possible nature of the afterlife, the common threads in Western and Eastern traditions, the common features of “many levels,” group souls and reincarnation.

The author of this fascinating work lists Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Past President of the Society for Psychical Research, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Cardiff University and much more amongst his qualifications. It is no surprise then, to find this book has a strong academic style. Extensive references are supplied for all the topics addressed and reported experiments include thorough descriptions of methodology with an emphasis on control of variables. While at times this can make for rather slow going it is worth the effort of reading such details in order to appreciate the results obtained. It is an ongoing lament of the author that there is so little academic interest (and funding) to repeat many of the experiments undertaken in the past.
The author takes great care to answer claims that much evidence of the afterlife can be dismissed as symptoms of mental illness, overactive imagination or outright fraud. While agreeing that many cases fall into these categories he searches for explanations for those that don’t and proposes that where no other reasonable explanation can be found that a paranormal one be considered.
He presents some of the more convoluted explanations for phenomena presented by critics for whom no evidence will ever be sufficient to accept a paranormal causation. He also presents paranormal explanations that have been put forward as alternatives to the concept of surviving death (some of which are almost as complex as those suggested by die-hard critics).
I have long believed in a number of parapsychological phenomena but had never given a lot of though to the details of what exactly they are, or process by which they occur. My image of the majority of investigators in the field was one of new-age hippies, gullible innocents and self-proclaimed experts of questionable pedigree, at best I imagined good academics gone bad. If nothing else, this book had opened my eyes to legitimate parapsychological research, an area I wish I’d known about twenty years ago when I was starting out on my academic career-I certainly would have pursued it then, and may still now-Lynn.

Peter Blake & Paul S Blezard: The Arcadian Cipher

From the back of the book-
This is the story of a quest, a search for a place that is not meant to exist. The elect who have been allowed to share its secret across the centuries have employed codes, secret signs, mysterious writings and works of art to ensure its location and significance e remains concealed from the uninitiated….
Fascinated by ancient history, esoteric writings and the paintings of the greatest Renaissance masters, art historian Peter Blake has watched as others have made guesses as to the codes and meanings that are embedded in them. But from the recurrent themes, symbolism and patterns Peter has discerned, he reaches quite different conclusions from those grasped at by other researchers. Not least, he has uncovered an Arcadian hillside tomb, untouched for hundreds of years.
If the clues that have led him along his trail are right, this could be the final resting-place of two of the most significant characters in the Bible.
Many books claim to have uncovered Christianity’s Greatest Secret and most of them rehash the same old theories based on the same patchwork of Biblical writings, historical record and creative guesswork, resulting in no objective ‘truth’ or convincing evidence being presented in support of, what I have come to think of as Christianity’s Worst Kept Secret.
Still these particular works hold an inexplicable fascination for me and I keep reading in hope that one day one will deliver on its promise. Sadly for me this wasn’t to be the day.
These authors focus their arguments on supposed clues that can be found in various famous works of art. Not a particularly new idea but one that has been worked a little less than others.
They go to some lengths to convince the reader that the diagrams they see actually exist within the paintings but I was not won over. I do believe that they see the various clues they claim to, but only because they are looking for them. Any five points could be joined together to form a pentagram, just as any four could make a square or six a hexagon. In spite of their arguments the points chosen seemed fairly arbitrary to me.
Likewise the rescaling and laying of the patterns found over a map to discover points and lines within the paintings match up with long standing natural features on the ground. Perhaps I don’t entirely understand the methodology used but I’m sure those same patterns could have been laid over almost any map and if the scale was right they would magically match up with other natural features.
While I can’t deny that the authors did, at some point, discover something, and that the something might have been used as a pair of tombs in the distant past, their conclusions left a lot of doubt in my mind.
There may very well be visual codes hidden within great art works but I am not convinced that those codes have been correctly uncovered here.-Lynn

Michael Baigent: The Jesus Papers

From the back of the book:

• What if everything we have been told about the origins of Christianity is a lie?

  What if a small group had always known the truth and had kept it hidden…until now?

  What if there is incontrovertible proof that Jesus Christ survived the crucifixion?

  What were the most influential social and political events of Jesus’ day?

  Who could have aided and abetted Jesus and why?

  Where could Jesus have gone after the crucifixion?

  What is the truth behind the creation of the New Testament?

  Who is working to keep the truth buried and why?

This is another offering from the best-selling co-author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail-first published over twenty years ago and used as a source for Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code (just thought I’d get that fact in nice and early-not that the introduction labours the point or anything).
I’ve always loved a conspiracy theory and a well presented, well argued and well supported religious conspiracy theory is not to be passed by. My memories of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, distant though they are, are for the main part positive so I went into this book with expectations of finding reasonable speculation with a possible, if unsubstantiated, logical base.
And it is there in the claim that (mysteriously disappeared) documentation exists strongly suggestive of Jesus’ survival, but in nowhere near the detail I had hoped to find it.
Much of this book is devoted to chronicling the known history of the period-interesting enough in itself but by no means necessary for even a casual scholar of the period. There is also some rehashing of old arguments about whether Jesus was really a victim of the Jews or the Romans (for the sake of this argument there is no question of his existence in appropriate place and time). Nothing revolutionary here. A nod is given to the creation of the New Testament by the church and mention made of much that was left out. Again, hardly a new, or controversial, idea.
The bulk of the book focuses on Egyptian mystery cults and the possibility that Jesus was an initiate. And while it is an interesting theory, evidence is thin on the ground and discussion is predominantly about the cults, not about Jesus’ possible association with them.
Certainly I didn’t see any incontrovertible proof that Jesus survived the crucifixion, any indication of who may have aided and abetted him or where he might have spent the rest of his life.
Part way through the book the author does go off on an unexpected tangent about his travels in Baia. I am yet to see how this relates to Jesus in any way.
Reading the above you could be forgiven for thinking I didn’t particularly like this book. The truth is, it’s not that bad. I just felt that it didn’t fulfil the promises it made by way of answering the questions it posed on the jacket. For a newcomer to Christian conspiracy theory it’s a good enough place to start. But, honestly, there’s little here that hasn’t been seen before. -Lynn

After-Death Communication – Emma Heathcote-James

Some people who have experienced the death of someone close have vivid dreams about them; sense the strong presence of the dead person (or pet); smell a distinctive scent; or see butterflies or other creatures. In this book Heathcote-Jones, apparently a journalist, whose previous books include Seeing Angels, Psychic Pets, and They Walk Among Us, (sao you know what you're getting yourself into) has collected dozens or more of these experiences, which some believe are deliberate messages of comfort from beyond the grave, also known as After Death Communications (ADCs)
Heathcote-Jones has separated them into thematic groups that include: visions at the point of death (either a vision experienced by the dying person, or a visitation from the dying person to a relative unaware the person is dying); dreams (or “sleep-state ADCs” that are categorised as being extraordinarily vivid); symbols (like butterflies and wind) and signs (like stopped clocks); non-visual senses (scents, auditory communications, strokes or embraces), among others.
Apparently most of the people who experience ADCs feel comforted and at peace as a result of their message, and if that helps them in the grieving process it’s all to the good. That said, apparently somewhere between one in five and one in seven experiences are negative but underreported. There are, sadly, none of these more interesting stories compiled in After-Death Communications.
This is not an academic investigation, in that there is no critical analysis of these communications, merely a reporting of both the stories and of the Guggenheim After-Death Communication Project (a group I was heretofore unaware of). In her introduction Heathcote-Jones states that she has not had an experience like this herself, but was captured by the concept when she first heard of it, and felt compelled to bring this information to a wider audience. According to Heathcote-Jones “a shift is taking place... that is taking us away from science being the be all and end all, and into a more spiritual dimension. Anthropologically speaking, we have developed through differing eras – one of magic, followed by religion, then science… I would argue that, here and now, we are in the process of leaving the scientific era and heading toward a more spiritual outlook.”
Wow. Science didn’t get very long.
I’m not denying that the bereaved may have these experiences, and I certainly can’t categorically deny that the dead decide to visit some people, but I’m highly sceptical that these experiences aren’t a combination of wishful thinking and coincidence. Certainly people are more likely to be visited by dead pets if they rank their relationship with the pet as equal to or higher than other members of their family. My position is strengthened by never (in almost twenty years of being present while people are dying) seeing anyone reaching for loved ones not present, or talking to invisible persons who’ve already passed over, or being relieved by peace moments before death. Perhaps I’m just envious that none of the over a dozen people I’ve known well in my personal live have ever decided to send me a sign.
Or maybe they have and I just haven’t realised that thinking of someone around the anniversary of their death, or seeing a small host of butterflies, or having an olfactory memory unexpectedly waft by “is” a sign. But I have equally strong thoughts of people who are alive, have very vivid dreams that are unrelated to anything or anyone dead or dying, and get gustatory and olfactory ‘wafts’ that are unrelated to anyone dead.
Heathcote-Jones closes with a list of positive benefits of ADCs, all directed toward relieving the grief experienced by the bereaved person – expressing emotions, accepting death, “establishing a new relationship with the deceased loved one,” creating new rituals etc. There isn’t any discussion about what benefit there may be for the 14 – 20% (perhaps more, if they’re so underreported) people whose ADCs are unpleasant. Maybe I should be glad my dead loved ones have left me alone. - Alex