Is There An Afterlife?

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 refers to William James, suggesting that "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." (Note: William James, of course, died decades before the development of Spiricom.)

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 sufficiently 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.