Scientific Exploration into the Afterlife

          "When Galileo showed the Pope the telescope and told him that it would prove
     Galileo's view of the universe, the Pope called the telescope 'the work of the devil' and
     refused to look through it." Victor Zammit, attorney and researcher.

     There seems to be a growing recognition that science cannot always provide us with answers to life's fundamental questions. The search for greater meaning in life may therefore become more important.

     Currently, Dr. Gary Schwartz, professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry, and surgery at the University of Arizona, and director of its Human Energy Systems Laboratory, is out in front with his groundbreaking experiments in scientific evidence of life after death. His research into the afterlife began when he was a professor at Yale University and discovered an hypothesis about how systems store information. It forced him to wonder about the possibility that consciousness might survive after death. His book, The The Afterlife Experiments is dedicated to documented experiments that give more credibility to the existence of an afterlife and methods of contact with the "dead."

     Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a world-renowned medical doctor, psychiatrist, and thanatologist was known for her work with children and AIDS patients. She brought the hospice movement to the U.S. In her book, Wheel of Life, she tells of her intuitive guidance to visit an old friend while on her way to a lecture in Seattle. On being welcomed into the home of her friend, what she thought might be an afternoon visit over tea turned into a channeling session with her friend's husband being the channel. The message from the spirit being channeled was, "Your work with death and dying is completed. It's now time for you to begin your second assignment. It's time for you to tell the world that death does not exist." Her lectures and workshops took new paths and gained in popularity. People were more than ready to accept life after death. Many shared that they were having out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and traveling toward a bright light, and they were relieved to have their experiences confirmed.

     I was privileged to hear Dr. Kubler-Ross in person in the early 1990s, and she shared this experience that made the afterlife a reality to her - a professed skeptic. She was talking with a colleague in a hallway at the U. of Chicago when she noticed a woman standing in front of the elevator. She recognized the woman but couldn't recall how she knew her. When her colleague entered the elevator, the woman walked over to Dr. Kubler-Ross and said, "Dr. Ross, I had to come back. Do you mind if I walk you to your office?" She then recognized the woman as Mrs. Schwarz, a woman she had worked with and who had died ten months earlier. Mrs. Schwarz opened the door for Dr. Kubler-Ross and said, "Dr. Ross, I had to come back for two reasons. One, to thank you and Rev. Gaines - to thank you and him for what you did for me. But the other reason I had to come back is to tell you that you cannot stop this work on death and dying, not yet."

     Dr. Kubler-Ross had trouble making sense of it all. She knew Mrs. Schwarz had been buried for ten months, and this went beyond the comfort zone of her belief system. She then found herself touching everything that was 'real' to her - her desk, her chair, her pen - but the woman was still there. She was real, too. The scientist in her wanted proof that Mrs. Schwarz was in actuality there in front of her, and she said, "You know Rev. Gaines is in Urbana now. He would just love to have a note from you. Would you mind?" She handed Mrs. Schwarz a piece of paper and a pencil. Mrs. Schwarz took the paper and wrote a note, then she got up and on leaving, she said again, "Dr. Ross, you promise?" Dr. Kubler-Ross promised, and Mrs. Schwarz disappeared. Dr. Kubler-Ross kept the note to remind her of her personal proof of the reality of life after death.

     "I tell you we do persist. Communication is possible. I have proved that the people who    communicate are who and what they say they are. The conclusion is that survival is scientifically proved by scientific investigation." . . . . . Sir Oliver Lodge, scientist.