The Afterlife Experiments

[Deb]

The Afterlife Experiments
Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death

by Gary E. Schwartz PhD: Dr Schwartz is a professor of psychology, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and surgery at the University of Arizona. He received his doctorate from Harvard and served as a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Yale, plus more.

I just started this book and am only a few chapters in. I wasn't going to write about it until I'd gotten further along, but I just read some synchronicities so interesting that I had to share. In short: In 1993 Dr. Schwartz had met a clinical psychologist, Linda Russek PhD, at a conference. It happens they both had wanted to do research in an area generally frowned upon in their circles: the survival of consciousness after death. They did their own research in quiet for few a couple of years, then Russek moved to Tucson to be near Dr. Schwartz in 1995. The day she arrived, Schwartz found a letter from one of his colleagues in his mailbox saying Schwartz needed to contact Susy Smith, age 85, who for more than 40 years, as a journalist and layperson, had been attempting to research life after death.

Here's where it gets interesting: Susy had somehow developed an ability to communicate with the dead. One of them introduced himself as "your guide, James." Eventually he indicated he was Professor William James. Smith had produced two books about her experiences with him, The Book of James and Ghost Writers in the Sky: More Conversations with James. Considering that Jane Roberts had produced an afterdeath journal by James, he sure seems to be trying hard to communicate. And if Tam Mossman's James turned out to be William James, well, that would be the icing on the cake.

Dr. Schwartz was dubious about Susy's claims, but coincidentally he had received his PhD in the William James Hall at Harvard and had a deep respect and admiration for him and so was curious. Also coincidentally, Smith lived in Tucson. And James had been open to the possibility of "survival of consciousness" and studied some of the greatest mediums in his day.

By the time Schwartz was able to more properly meet with Smith, she had become ill and was preparing to die. She was hoping Schwartz would take on an afterlife code experiment that would start after her death. It was set up, but I don't yet know how that turned out. It may have ended after this book was published in 2002.

Then in 1997 Schwartz spoke at a conference in California, and afterwards visited a psychiatrist friend who lived nearby. His friend mentioned a woman, Laurie, who appeared to be able to communicate with the dead and was very accurate. Out of curiosity, Schwartz decided to meet her and got some unsolicited and very accurate information immediately. He wanted to redirect her away from himself and thinking about Susy Smith, he asked Laurie if she could receive information from a man named William James. Laurie didn't know who that was, but then her voice deepened and began what Schwartz called "my first trance mediumship session." Schwartz: "For almost fifteen minutes, this simple woman with no advanced education delivered a polished lecture on philosophy and soul science."

That's it for now. If the book stays this interesting and I make it to the end, I'll update. Wow, James keeps coming up. If he's that easy to communicate with, it would be a nice experiment to give myself a pre-sleep suggestion to track him down in a dream. I've only read a little of Jane's James book, that is now next on my never-ending reading list.

[jbseth]

Hi Deb,

That's really cool Deb, thanks for sharing. 


Several years ago I got his book, "The Truth about Medium". It's a small book about some of his research with Allison DuBios, the psychic who was the basis for the TV show, "The Medium". As I recall, based upon his results, Allison is the real deal.


https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Medium-Extraordinary-Experiments/dp/1571744592/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+truth+about+medium&qid=1599955747&sr=8-1



I like what he's doing. Here's someone with a scientific background, who's really trying to demonstrate, one way or the other, whether any of this is "real". He's not just blowing it all off.


I see from Amazon that he's written several other books that look interesting.

Oh, his "Medium" book is dedicated to Susy Smith 1911 – 2001.

Also, he must really like that quote from William James about the disproving the law that all crows are black, because he also used it in the "Truth about Medium" book at the beginning of the Introduction.


While on Amazon just now looking at other books by Gary Schwartz, I came across "The Afterlife Codes" and "The Book of James" both by Susy Smith. They sound quite interesting too.


-jbseth

[Sena]

Then in 1997 Schwartz spoke at a conference in California, and afterwards visited a psychiatrist friend who lived nearby. His friend mentioned a woman, Laurie, who appeared to be able to communicate with the dead and was very accurate. Out of curiosity, Schwartz decided to meet her and got some unsolicited and very accurate information immediately. He wanted to redirect her away from himself and thinking about Susy Smith, he asked Laurie if she could receive information from a man named William James. Laurie didn't know who that was, but then her voice deepened and began what Schwartz called "my first trance mediumship session." Schwartz: "For almost fifteen minutes, this simple woman with no advanced education delivered a polished lecture on philosophy and soul science."

Deb, thanks for recommending this book, which I have now downloaded. I was attracted to this chapter: "THE FIVE WORDS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE". It is a story about the psychologist Linda and the medium Laurie:

"When Linda answered, I told her something "interesting" was taking place and asked her
not to say anything, just to listen. I then handed the phone to Laurie, who immediately said, "I'm
receiving communication from your father. He wants me to tell you, 'Thank you for the music.' "
"Thank you for the music?" I said to myself. "What could that possibly mean?"
I later learned that at the moment Linda heard these words, she collapsed into the chair.
Those five words echoed in her heart and throughout her entire being. Simply put, she was shocked
to the core.
Upon my return home, the enormous meaning of "Thank you for the music" was explained.
This is Linda's story: In May 1990, her father had been on a ventilator in a hospital
intensive care unit. Though the doctors were certain he was unconscious of his surroundings, Linda
was determined to do anything that might help. She brought in a pillow speaker and tape recorder,
and softly played specially recorded tape cassettes for her father. Only the friend who prepared the
tapes, Linda's mother and sisters, the doctors, and a few nurses knew that Linda played him this
music during the last five weeks of her father's life.
So the words "Thank you for the music" had a dramatic impact on Linda. No longer just a
scientist on a quest, she had been reminded that she was her father's daughter, and this was where
her quest had begun. With just those five simple words, Laurie had brought Linda back to the most
painful time in her life, when her father lay dying."

[Deb]

Also, he must really like that quote from William James about the disproving the law that all crows are black, because he also used it in the "Truth about Medium" book at the beginning of the Introduction.

He put that quote at the beginning of this book too, it's perfect representation of his own attitude toward this type of research. He writes in the Preface that he was trained to look at the world as an intellectual and scientist, "In science we hypothesize; we do not believe." And then goes on describe a scene from the movie Contact: Dr Ellie Arroway, explaining that she needs scientific evidence in order to believe—so he could relate with her science-only attitude. Then a spiritual scholar asks Arroway, "Did you love your father"? Yes. "Prove it." How perfect! Schwartz feels that science should be able to prove things like love, consciousness and consciousness survival as surely as it does the existence of gravity, electrons and photons.

I was attracted to this chapter: "THE FIVE WORDS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE". It is a story about the psychologist Linda and the medium Laurie:

Yes, that was great! I had just finished reading that when I decided to start this topic. It's been a while since I've found a book that pulled me in as quickly as this one. Schwartz is an engaging writer, and the fact that his background is so strong in science and yet he's willing to be open to something like consciousness survival really makes the book even more appealing.

By the way, I couldn't access the article in your link, I got a message that EBSCO is only permitted to "patrons of subscribing institutions." Is the article in PDF form? Any way you can download it and attach it here?

[Sena]

By the way, I couldn't access the article in your link, I got a message that EBSCO is only permitted to "patrons of subscribing institutions." Is the article in PDF form? Any way you can download it and attach it here?

Deb, the file is too big to upload here, so I have put it on mediafire:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/dfn83xl6l1vjptc/Susy+Smith.pdf/file

A full report on one of the important experiments is here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20030803125419/http:/www.survivalscience.org/schwartz/frame1.htm

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi Sena, Hi All,

In the book, "The Truth about Medium", written by Gary E. Schwartz, I suspect that there's some similar stories to those found in "The Afterlife Experiments" book.

Gary says that this "Medium" book was primarily written to support Allison DuBois, who at the time was becoming famous as the person who was the basis for the TV show, "The Medium". However, Allison didn't want the book, just written about her. She wanted it to include results from other mediums as well.



In Chapter 2, he lists the names of 19 other psychics besides Allison DuBois that he's worked with. Some of these who I've heard of previously are: John Edward, Suzanne Northrop and George Anderson. He also lists Susy Smith, Laurie Campbell and Mary Occhino, psychics who may be talked about in his Afterlife book, as part of these 20 psychics.



In Chapter 3 he talks about a reading for Deepak Chopra, that Allison, Laurie and Mary participated in.  Deepak believes in reincarnation and he also believes in science. Shortly before the Afterlife book was published, Deepak's father died.  The results that they got from these psychics were all pretty good.

The 3 mediums did not know who the sitter was (Deepak) or where the sitter was located. Nor did they know who the other mediums were. On top of this, they also didn't even know who the deceased person was. All they knew was that they were to contact Susy (Smith) who was dead, a day or so before their scheduled phone reading and have Suzy bring in the de3ceased person (Deepak's father).  In addition to all of this, Deepak had no idea who the mediums were either.

The results that theses 3 mediums picked up in this way were pretty good. Deepak was convinced that, at least these 3 psychics, could get detailed information about his father.



In Chapter 6 he talks about a triple blind experiment that Allison participated in. The experiment was very complex in its triple blind nature. Not only did the experiment work but Allison's results were really good. The results indicate that psychics can pick up data that can't be explained as fraud, error, bias, or even mind reading of the physically alive. 



In Chapter 7 Dr. Schwartz talks about being invited as the guest of a new show where he, Suzanne and Allison were to talk about some of the work that they've all done. Just before the show, Susy (Smith) came to Allison and warned her that they are about to be ambushed.  Because of this warning, they were all somewhat prepared when, in fact, the show's host did aggressively verbally attack them about what they claim to have done.  Thanks to Susy's warning, they all managed to come out of it, a lot better than they would have, had she not warned them.



In Chapter 9, Dr. Schwartz, talks about the skeptics that he's dealt with and the claims that some of them make. This includes James Randi, who comes across as a real piece of work.

This is an interesting little (around 150 pages long) book.


-jbseth

[chasman]

thank you Deb. this sounds incredibly interesting.

and thank you jbseth and Sena for your excellent posts. 

[jbseth]

Hi All,

On at least 2 separate occasions, Jane herself attempted to contact a survival personality. In TES8, Sessions 389 through 392, we learn about this.  Like several other things having to do with Seth, Jane or Rob, I never knew about this until I read the TES books.

In S389, we learn that a friend of Jane's, Blanche Price, had died the year before, in 1967. Session 390 consists of Rob's notes regarding a non-Seth session where Jane tried to and did make contact Blanche, who at this point was a survival personality.

Session 391 consists of Rob's notes where Jane first tried to deliberately contact a survival personality for someone else. In this session, we learn that Jerry found a note in her elderly father's clothes to be cleaned. This note was from Billie, Jerry's stepmother who had died in 1965. Jerry wondered if Jane could pick up any impressions from this note. On the spur of the moment, Jane decided to see what she could get on her own without Seth.

At first Jane picked up some impressions and then Billie apparently came through. This turned out to be a pretty intense experience for Jane. Billie apparently was a very angry person who talked like a sailor and when she came through Jane, she hammered her fist (Janes fist) down on the table several times so hard that Rob thought that Jane would break her hand. Jane herself was quite shocked by this experience.

Jerry said that emotionally, Jane acted just like Billie, and that there was good contact here. Jane said that she felt that she had been controlled by someone else.

Then, at the beginning of Session 392, Seth confirms the legitimacy of this experience where he says:

"First of all, the affair with the woman, Billie, was quite legitimate. I was present, as an overseer, and Ruburt did well. His abilities here will improve as his faith in them improves."


-jbseth

[Deb]

Deb, the file is too big to upload here, so I have put it on mediafire:

Sorry for the delay, I've been busy the past couple of days. Thank you for the links. I downloaded the PDF and also did a "Save As" on the archived web page as the actual website is gone and I want to preserve it.

I was a little more curious about Dr Schwartz, and found this wiki for him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Schwartz Apparently his interest in psychic ability began when he was in a car accident and "heard a voice" tell him to put his seat belt on right before impact. The wiki page lists 8 different research projects he's done. There's also a short section on Controversies, in which James Randi was mentioned. Sounds like Randi has it out for him.

On at least 2 separate occasions, Jane herself attempted to contact a survival personality. In TES8, Sessions 389 through 392, we learn about this.  Like several other things having to do with Seth, Jane or Rob, I never knew about this until I read the TES books.

Thanks for sharing that, I'm so glad the TES books were produced, there's so much useful and interesting information in them.

Wow, interesting experiences with survival personalities. I wonder if they were personality fragments, or more like Jane tapping into the world views. I can't imagine someone like Billie coming through from F2, only because my vision of F2 is that such a negative emotion as strong anger would not be carried into that realm. Or at least not for long (thinking here about the deceased Arab with Seth/Moses being a guide).

I'll take a look at those sessions later today. And hopefully get back to reading the Schwartz book.