"Oh please so thoroughly debunked by mainstream science...."
As I note in the Introduction to "It's a Wonderful Afterlife: Further Adventures into the Flipside"this research is not for everyone.
One fellow wrote that I was deluded by my own fear of the unknown, and had somehow created this fantasy of an afterlife.
Today I got the above note from someone who watched my book talk (posted below) "It's a Wonderful Afterlife."
So here's my reply:
"Ah, finally, someone weighs in from main stream science!
Hmm. Let's see. How main stream can we get? "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" features Dr. Bruce Greyson, psychiatrist, author of "Irreducible Mind" from University of Virginia discussing "Is Consciousness Created by the Brain" (free on youtube, I suggest you watch it).
Then we have Gary Schwartz PhD ("Sacred Promise") (Harvard/Yale PhD, now teaching at University of Arizona talking a scientist talking about the science behind his research in consciousness). Then we have neuroscientist Mario Beauregard PhD ("Brain Wars") from University of Montreal, now teaching University of Az, talking about post materialist science, disproving that NDEs can be assigned to part of the brain. So who is in the main stream?
Dr. Eben Alexander's also a Harvard Neurosurgeon, and his near death experience is just one of thousands that are equally powerful and revelatory. Let's start with the definition of skeptic. I'm sure you know what that is - someone who doesn't "believe in the prevailing school of thought" - the prevailing "school of thought" might also be called "main stream."
But of course, the main stream science is predicated on the belief that the brain is the source of all consciousness. And I'm sorry to inform you, that's just not the case. It's not in the science. It's not in the data. So we can go around and around the circle of what constitutes science - but I defer to Gary Schwartz's definition, as he put it in "Flipside:"
"According to the prevailing views of mainstream science, there can be no such thing as the incarnation of consciousness because the brain is the sole creator of consciousness... (however) an emerging body of consciousness research.. when combined with contemporary quantum physics, seriously challenges (that belief). This new evidence requires we consider the idea of the incarnation of consciousness, and by extension, the plausibility (if not probability) of reincarnation.... this is the kind of book where once you have read it, you will no longer be able to see the world in the same way again..."
As Gary so aptly points out, 100 years ago, 5 people watched the Wright Bros fly a plane, up to then, an impossible feat. Did any of those 5 imagine that 100 years later flights would be ferrying millions of passengers every day? In like form, 100 years from now, the study of consciousness - and the verification that life doesn't end with death, will be as commonplace as a trip to starbucks for your cappuccino.
The ability to understand, and converse with those who are no longer on the planet will be as commonplace as using a cellphone. And the insights that they will allow us to access, which will alter the face of the planet on every level, will be as commonplace, and considered to be "main stream" as apple pie, baseball, and instead of posting on youtube, mind mail where I can reply without having to use these lazy fingers. My two cents."
