The Evidence of Afterlife Through Mediumship

The Evidence for the Afterlife in Cases of Mediumship

What happens to human beings after the physical death of the body? This issue is controversial. Nevertheless, recent studies have shown evidence for reality of an afterlife. This evidence includes cases of OBEs (out of body experiences), apparitions, alleged memories of previous lives, and information retrieved by mediums. The author of The Afterlife Experiments, Gary Schwartz, presents strong evidence for the survival of the soul after the physical death of the body using mediums. Mediumship is a phenomenon in which a person called a medium claims to contact the spirit of a deceased person. A medium typically claims to contact the deceased family members and friends of an individual, and communicates with them. Schwartz designed experiments which would investigate the veracity and accuracy of information retrieved by mediums. How could such experiments provide evidence for the survival of consciousness after the death of the body? Indeed, in most cases, mediums only present vague statements such as Ð'ЃgYour father wants you to know that he is in a peaceful place and he is okay now.Ð'Ѓh Such statements can apply to almost anyone with a deceased father. However, the experiments Schwartz conducted concentrates on measuring the accuracy of information that only the subjects, or the individuals being experimented, could have known, thus ruling out vague information retrieval. Let us explore some of the experiments conducted by Schwartz.

On his first experiment, he called upon five mediums who would convey the information from the deceased: George Anderson, Lourie Campbell, John Edward, Anne Gehman, and Suzane Northrop. Two sitters, or subjects, were chosen for the purpose of this experiment. The sitters fulfilled the following criteria: 1) the subject had experienced a loss of someone close, 2) the subject had at least six losses of relatives, friends, or family members within the past ten years, and 3) the subjects may not discuss the details of the experiment prior to the experiment with anyone. The identities of the subjects were only known to the experimenters (Schwartz and his associates), and were not revealed to the mediums prior to the experiment. During the experiment, a cloth screen separated the subject and the medium, thus preventing any visual contact. Furthermore, the subjects were only allowed to give simple yes/no answers.

During this experiment, mediums accurately described the personalities of deceased family members, identified the names of the deceased relatives, and described the cause of their deaths. The following passage illustrates actual conversation between a medium and a sitter during the experiment:

Medium: Also the name Gertrude?

Subject: No.

Medium: Are you sure? Your mother said Gerty or Gertrude.

Subject: Yes. (P.100)

Gertrude was the name of an aunt of this subject. However, since the subject always referred to her aunt as Ð'ЃgAunt Gerty,Ð'Ѓh she responded Ð'ЃgnoÐ'Ѓh originally, not understand who the medium was referring to. The following statement also took place during the session:

Medium: They both died in the same room ten months apart, ten months apartÐ'Ѓc.In the same room. (P.108)

This quotation refers to the parents of the sitter whom passed away in the same room, 10 months apart. How could the medium know where the subjectÐ'Ѓfs parents died or the name of the aunt that even the subject did not recognize? Simple coincidence could not have bred such results.

Schwartz conducted a control experiment to examine whether any normal person can Ð'ЃgguessÐ'Ѓh like this. A control group of 68 students from the University of Arizona participated in the experiment. Students were given a picture of one of the two sitters which participated in the earlier experiment, as well as a list of specific questions such as: Who in the family is dead? What was the cause of death? What was the name of the person? The control group scored an average of 36 percent accuracy of Ð'ЃgguessingÐ'Ѓh correctly, while the mediums scored an average of 83 percent and 77 percent respectably for the first and the second sitter. Also, the students in the control group were given a picture of the sitter, as well as questions to be answered, while the mediums produced their statements from the scratch. As the numbers suggest, the mediums provided specific details of subjects with high accuracy.

Schwartz soon conducted his second experiment with a new setup. Ten sitters were gathered for this experiment. Sitters remained entirely silent for the first period of the session, thus giving mediums no clues on which of the ten sitters was the subject of the particular session. The second part of the session allowed the sitters to respond to the medium, but with only a simple yes/no answers. The following quotation shows a glance of activities during the first period of the experiment:

Ð'ЃgÐ'ЃeYour momÐ'Ѓfs hands were crippled. She had a hard time using them,Ð'Ѓf she (the medium) said. Ð'ЃeTheyÐ'Ѓfre okay now.Ð'Ѓf Ð'Ѓc After reporting the presence of ChristopherÐ'Ѓfs (sitter) grandparents, Suzane (the medium) referred to a man whose name began with an Ð'ЃeHÐ'Ѓf and said, Ð'ЃgIÐ'Ѓfm seeing goats in the mountain. Does that mean anything to you?Ð'ЃfÐ'Ѓh (P.150)

ChristopherÐ'Ѓfs mother did have a crippled hand, and his grandfather named Hugh had been a sheepherder in a mountain area. In the second part of the experiment, John Edward successfully retrieved a piece of information from a conversation Christopher and his wife had before. This conversation took place after ChristopherÐ'Ѓfs mother has passed away:

(Medium) Ð'ЃgHave you ever considered raising cows or cattle?Ð'Ѓh

Stunned, Christopher did a quick mental inventory and recalled a conversation he had had with his wife while driving through rural Colorado. He had announced, only partly in jest that he might quit his job to become a cowboy.

He acknowledged to John that he had indeed considered raising cattle, and asked, Ð'ЃgDid my mother hear our conversation?Ð'Ѓh

John replied Ð'ЃgWell, your momÐ'Ѓfs teasing you about that.Ð'Ѓh(P.149)

Not many people could have heard the conversation Christopher