In her marvelous 2010 book, Heaven, Lisa Miller weaves together contemporary reporting and historical scholarship to give us a comprehensive, engaging, and challenging study of what is one of the most fundamental issues in our lives. Following is my summary…
spirit, spirits, revelation, and reality
Religious and spiritual writings, myths, and folktales portray a dimension or realm of reality occupied by forces and beings and happenings that lie outside of or beyond the normal natural materialistic universe. Spirit and psi related phenomena are the most…
Revelaton and Channeling
Religious and spiritual writings, myths, and folktales portray a supernatural dimension occupied by forces and beings and happenings that lie outside of, or beyond, the normal natural materialistic universe. We know about this because some humans down through the ages…
Channeling
Religious and spiritual writings, myths, and folktales portray a supernatural dimension occupied by forces and beings and happenings that lie outside of or beyond the normal natural materialistic universe. We know about this because some humans down through the ages…
Allan Kardec – The Spirits Book
Spiritism owes its birth and popularity largely to the work of Allan Kardec (1804 –1869). He was raised as a Roman Catholic, earned a Bachelor of Arts degrees in science and a doctorate in medicine, and was fluent in German,…
heaven – Lisa Miller
In her marvelous 2010 book, Heaven, Lisa Miller weaves together contemporary reporting and historical scholarship to give us a comprehensive, engaging, and challenging study of what is one of the most fundamental issues in our lives. Following is my summary…
past lives therapy
In the 1960’s and 70’’s the idea gained popularity among some nontraditional mental health therapists that the recall of past lives could be therapeutically beneficial. Dr. Winafred Blake Lucas in her brief history of what has become the past lives…
Edgar Cayce
In the first half of the 20th century Edgar Cayce attracted widespread popular interest in reincarnation and psychic healing through his readings, and his work remains popular today. His story is fascinating and deserves telling. Cayce was born into a…
Newton – journey of the soul
A fascinating look at the issue of what may happen after we die is offered by psychotherapist Dr. Michel Newton, who described what is known as an interlife between incarnations. Although he was not the first to encounter this experience,…
Early Jewish and Christian History
An essay by Scott Quimby The first of great modern religions that arose within a world dominated by polytheism was, of course, Judaism. The earliest accounts of the Jews that can be placed within a historical context suggest that there…
Julie Beischel and the Windbridge Institute
Julie Beischel holds a doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology, but following the suicide of her mother and a convincing mediumship reading 13 years ago, she decided to pursue research with mediums. Currently she is the only person in this country…
channeling and new age religion
To understand New Age Spirituality as expressed primarily in the 1960’s – 1980’s it’s important to note that it drew heavily on a form of revelation known as channeling. Religious and spiritual writings, myths, and folktales portray a supernatural dimension…
spirits, shamanism, and Lakote medicine men
The notion that there are nonphysical conscious beings, that they comprise an aspect or dimension of overall reality, and that on occasion they may interact with us is an ancient and universal belief. If upon our deaths we or some…
YouTube
https://youtu.be/9roArsCwygw is an interview with author of “The Afterlife of Billy Fingers.” This is about communication, but also a picture of heaven. Annie Kagan shares her brother Billy’s amazing experience in the spirit world. It all began about 3 weeks…
organizations
Arcangel reading with medium George Anderson
Dianne Arcangel (Afterlife Encounters) offers the following account of her first contact at a luncheon with well-known medium George Anderson. While he was highly respected among her Elisabeth Kiibler–Ross colleagues because of the therapeutic value of his work, they were…
deathbed visions
In 1977 Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson published At The Hour Of Death, describing their investigations into what they termed deathbed visions. Deathbed visions are experiences reported by some patients very shortly before they die which involve such things as…
after-death communications
One of the most common occurrences involving contact with the deceased is known as an after-death communication (ADC). An ADC has been defined as “a spiritual experience that occurs when someone is contacted directly and spontaneously by a deceased family…
Arcangel – afterlife encounters
Afterlife encounters are also known as ‘after-death communications or contacts,’ terms used elsewhere on the website. In her excellent 2005 book Afterlife Encounters Dianne Arcangel defines an afterlife encounter as “any sense of being connected to, or in the presence…
metaphysical
Metaphysical beliefs about the afterlife are not widely known outside of certain spiritual groups. While the origin of the metaphysical perspective can’t be pinpointed, there is general agreement that it first appeared in written form in the ancient Indian Vedas.…
out-of-body experience
Among all of the various kinds of unusual or psychic experiences people have reported down through the ages, the one they typically describe as having a particularly strong impact is finding themselves, their consciousness, at some other location than where…
Induced ADCs
In recent years a new avenue for ADC research was rather fortuitously discovered. Psychologist Allan Botkin in his 2005 book Induced After Death Communications describes a revolutionary new therapeutic strategy for helping people resolve grief from the traumatic death of…
consciousness
A serious investigation of the reality of life after death brings us face to face with perhaps the most challenging of all issues regarding what it means to be human, the nature of consciousness. But what is consciousness? The Wikipedia…
issues
Under this heading we will explore major issues arising from or expanding or illuminating our general discussion. See the subheadings.
Assante – the last frontier
Julia Assante is unique in being both a psychic/medium as well as a scholar (PhD) specializing in ancient Near Eastern magic, cult, and religion. Her 2012 book “The Last Frontier: Exploring the Afterlife and Transforming Our Fear of Death” is…
Fontana – Life Beyond Death
In his book 2009 book Life Beyond Death Fontana reviewed and synthesized insights to the nature of the afterlife from many sources including communications from mediums, whose contacts with the deceased are known on good authority to be genuine, near-death…
major books
Under this heading important books are summarized.. Julia Assante – The Last Frontier David Fontana – Life Beyond Death
Pam Reynolds
Pam Reynolds in 1991 experienced a near-death encounter which has been one of the most significant examples of consciousness functioning while the body and brain were shut down. Reynolds, an Atlanta-based singer and songwriter, began feeling extremely dizzy, lost her…
alien contacts
Inquiries into nonmaterial phenomena, of which afterlife phenomena occupy a prominent role, often open vast and seemingly limitless realms that in some ways appear to intersect to offer us glimpses into what may comprise reality itself. Spiritual and psychic phenomena…
electronic voice phenomena
Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are usually defined as sounds found on electronic recordings that are thought to be voices of spirits that have been unintentionally recorded or intentionally requested and recorded. They are typically brief, usually the length of a…
why is psi research not better known?
I would not be surprised that a general ready who might be very knowledgeable about science, religion, and psychology, after pursuing a good discussion of psychic research could be left with the question, “Why wasn’t I ever exposed to this?”…
mental/spiritual influences in healing
Healing involving the help of spiritual agencies or powers has a very long history going back to hunter gatherer groups predating the rise of agrarian societies. Healing the sick was one of the principle activities of Jesus, and healing through…
field consciousness
In speculating about the nature and limits of psi phenomena parapsychologist Dean Radin posed an intriguing question. Are we dealing with a personal perceptual skill that can be used to our private advantage, like an improved form of visual acuity…
psychokinesis (mind over matter)
The fact that our thoughts influence our behavior is a fundamental principle in psychology. And in an indirect fashion though our behavior our thoughts can influence others and the material world. This can also occur on an unconscious level. If…
precognition
One of the most widely reported characteristics of ESP is that it operates across time as well as space. This raises fundamental questions. Nothing seems so basic to our sense of reality than that time flows in one direction from…
remote viewing
Probably no area of psi research in recent years has attracted as much popular attention as what is known as remote viewing. These experimental investigations of clairvoyance actually have a long history dating back to picture-drawing studies published by psychical…
psi in ganzfeld experiments
Charles Honorton was intrigued by the evidence for psi in dreams and other altered states of consciousness. To make sense of this he developed the theory that psi might operate as a weak signal that is normally masked by the…
psi in dreams
Psi in dreams During the many years the Rhines conducted their research people from all over the US upon hearing about it began sending them anecdotal stories of their own spontaneous psychic experiences. In 1948 Louisa Rhine began to systematically…
esp. parapsychology, and the Rhines
We are fascinated by stories of unusual things that we think of as supernatural or paranormal, ghosts, contact with deceased loved ones, direct awareness of people’s thoughts, glimpses of the future, and the like. Many of us who view ourselves…
parapsychology, esp, Rhine, psi in dreams
We are fascinated by stories of unusual things that we think of as supernatural or paranormal, ghosts, contact with deceased loved ones, direct awareness of people’s thoughts, glimpses of the future, and the like. Many of us who view ourselves…
ghosts, hauntings,and poltergeists
Hauntings and ghosts Among the oldest and most universal phenomena associated with life after death, accounts of hauntings and ghosts provide the gist for stories that intrigue us with questions as to whether they’re just fiction or could possibly be…
science and ndes
Before leaving our discussion of the NDE literature, a recap of what scientifically oriented critics have to say will be informative. Some of these criticisms apply equally to other types of spirit related experiences. Perhaps most obvious is that because…
Eben Alexander nde
Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon, wrote a 2012 bestselling book, Proof of Heaven, in which he described his remarkable near-death experience. This account is highly significant for several reasons, primarily because it occurred to a neurosurgeon. Alexander’s background was described in…
Howard Storm nde
Howard’s NDE has personal significance for me because at the time it occurred he and I were both professors at Northern Kentucky University, and we talked a good deal about it, in the process becoming friends. In the summer of…
George Ritchie nde
George Ritchie, who was later to become a psychiatrist, experienced a profound NDE in 1943 which he later described in his 1978 book “Return from Tomorrow”. Ritchie’s encounter with spirit occurred three decades before Moody coined the term NDE and…
negative ndes
Recall that in Gallup’s 1982 survey five percent of his sample or around 7.7 million in the total adult population reported having had an NDE. One percent of those described very negative or even hellish elements, quite different from anything…
nde’s and cardiac arrest patients
The studies discussed thus far that included people reporting NDEs during cardiac arrest were retrospective in design. They involved questioning people about their experience and looking at their medical records some time after they actually happened. A much better research…
near-death experiences – early research
Interest in what came to be known as near death experiences (NDEs) pretty much began with the publication in 1975 of” “Life After Life ” by psychiatrist Raymond Moody. Moody, described some 150 accounts of what he called the “near-death…
strong cases involving hypnosis
Although cases of children’s spontaneous past life memories no doubt provide the strongest evidence for reincarnation, such cases are relatively rare, particularly in this country. A second, and much more common broad group of past life memories are those emerging…
children’s past lives – James
Jim Tucker, M.D, an associate professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia, has been continuing the work of Ian Stevenson. He described his work in two books, Life Before Life: Children’s Memories of Previous Lives (2005),…