Proof or Spoof? Life After Death Some of the Best Evidence

Proof or Spoof?
Life After Death Some of the Best Evidence
Author: Jan W. Vandersande Ph.D.
ISBN: 978-1-4327-2549-5
Price: $14.95 US
Publisher: Outskirts Press (2008)
Reviewer: Yvonne Perry

Is there really life after death? It sure seems that way. Even before reading this book, I believed life continues in the spiritual world. After reading it, I feel less inhibited to talk about my own experiences. I’ve never been in a séance, much less have I seen trumpets flying around the séance room, but I have seen ghosts, angels, and other bodiless energy forms.

Do you ever feel as though you are being watched? What if you actually saw or heard the entity? Vandersande’s book, Life After Death, gives many accounts of his sessions over an eight-year period where he personally witnessed such things as ectoplasm and direct voice through trance mediums and channelers. All his experiences are described in detail and with supporting strange-but-true photos.

Materializations of deceased entities are probably the most impressive evidence for life after death. He talks about materialization during sessions he calls sittings or séances in which the medium is usually in trance. This is not hard for me to believe, and probably a pretty acceptable idea to those who have lost a loved one and felt their presence near them thereafter. I have awakened during the night on more than one account to see a bluish-grey figure hovering over my bed. Things have been known to move from one place to another in my house. Thanks to Jan, I now know that these phenomena are due to spirit entities manifesting themselves. Such occurrences were so common in my life that I wrote and published a book about it in 2005.

Vandersande’s book is appropriately subtitled Some of the Best Evidence for Life After Death. The thing that captivated me about this book is how the medium or channeler was able to give exact details about a person or situation that let the seeker know that their deceased loved one was indeed speaking or communicating (in the case of a channeler) through them. There was no other way such intimate things could be revealed. The author considers alternative explanations for these psychic phenomena such as telepathy and ESP but to me, it would be just as hard (if not harder) to believe in telepathy or ESP as it would be in life after death. I’ve had readings/prophecies that were as effectively true.

He talks about a few frauds in this field, but there can be a fraud in any walk of life. Fortunately, this did not keep Dr. Vandersande from investigating the topic in depth and forming his own opinions. His beliefs are supported by his experience, which I would expect from a scientist such as Vandersande. We all want proof that our experiences are real, but we don’t to be rejected by those whose beliefs are different than ours. I think that is where many religions lead people astray; they tell people what to believe rather than teaching them to explore and accept their own truth.

I enjoyed this book and found the stories fascinating especially the ones where the medium was able to give personal details that he or she could not have known in the natural realm. I think that one of the most helpful spiritual gifts a person can have is to be able to provide comfort and emotional healing through prophecy or by providing readings that give specific and accurate information to let the inquirer know it truly was the spirit of their deceased loved one speaking.
Is this book and psychic phenomena proof or spoof? You must decide for yourself.

Listen to the interview with Dr. Jan Vandersande and Yvonne Perry on www.writersintheskyblog.com