Immortality

As some reviewers already write, this book (initially published in 1992) is a very much academic one; it starts from the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428-348 BCE) up to modern Prof. Ian Stevenson (1918-2007 AD), the champion of academic "Reincarnation" study. I like Stevenson's idea based on his lifelong work on the subject; hence what I write below may be a little biased. In chap. 33, Paul Edwards (editor of this book) referred to a BBC program (in 1976), in which Stevenson was "interrogated" by two professors, John Taylor, professor of mathematics at London University, and John Cohen, professor of psychology at Manchester. Let me quote some of the interrogation:Taylor: Professor Stevenson, do you have any evidence, other than these reincarnation cases, that memories can survive the destruction of physical tissue?Stevenson: No. I think the best evidence comes from the reincarnation cases.---Taylor: But are you suggesting, in fact, that memories themselves are in some way nonphysically bound up, and can be stored in a nonphysical manner?Stevenson: Yes, I'm suggesting that there might be a nonphysical process of storage.Taylor: What does that mean? Nonphysical storage of what?Stevenson: The potentiality for the reproduction of an image memory.Taylor: But information itself involves energy. Is there such a thing as nonphysical energy?Stevenson: I think there may be, yes.Taylor: How can you define it? Nonphysical energy, to me, is a complete contradiction in terms. I can't conceive how on earth you could ever conceive of such a quantity...Stevenson: Well, it might be in some dimension of which we are just beginning to form crude ideas, through the study of what we parapsychologists call paranormal phenomena. We are making an assumption of some kind of process that is not, and maybe cannot be, understood in terms of current physical concepts. That is a jump, a gap, I freely admit.Edwards quoted Stevenson's answer once again in the final part of the essay: "the dimension which cannot be understood in terms of current physical concepts," and said: It must surely be dismissed as nothing but a vague picture which is of no scientific value whatsoever.Any reader sees Stevenson's position being very much jeopardized in this interrogation.The author died in 2004 at the age of 81. Obviously, he was an unbeliever of afterlife, as he wrote in the book. I recently read a book by Stafford Betty, "The Afterlife Unveiled (2011)." Stafford Betty is a Professor of Religion at CA State University in Bakersfield (according to the book's back cover). In chap. 5 Betty presents the case of Catholic priest Robert Hugh Benson (1871-1914), the author of "The Necromancers (1909)," in which he ridiculed spirit communication as `dealing with the devil,' and who allegedly tried from the other side to correct his mistake made in the book. Paul Edwards, if he still is on the other side, knows whether or not afterlife is a reality, and I wonder if he is trying to write some posthumous afterword from the other side. I recently posted my review for Betty's book, closing it with the following:Finally let me refer to a scientific paper recently published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2010 Spring Issue, Vol. 24, No.1, pp. 5-39: Rebuttal to Claimed Refutations of Duncan MacDougall's Experiment on Human Weight Change at the Moment of Death. (This volume is available from amazon.com.) Scientifically speaking, whether or not the missing 21 g (i.e., unaccountable energy balance) is the weight of a soul is quite problematic, but if the missing weight is verified authentic, the materialistic monism will be scientifically undermined.Where did the 21 g go? Maybe it's gone to a nonphysical dimension, which cannot be understood in terms of current physical concepts, as Prof. Stevenson speculated.

Although I haven't finished reading this yet, the articles I have read so far are well worth the money.

Got a book I really need in excellent condition at a low price. A+ bookseller.

Interesting book

"_Immortality_ is a compilation of numerous authors, ancient and modern, who address the question of whether or not there is a life after death. Edwards provides an excellent seventy page introduction which guides the reader through other relevant philosophical issues, such as the nature of the vehicles' for survival of bodily death, the mind-body problem, the traditional Christian concept of bodily resurrection, the evidence and arguments for and against reincarnation, and the relationship between belief in God and belief in survival of bodily death--where Edwards stresses an often overlooked fact that one can believe in either without believing in both (Voltaire, for example, was a deist who believed that the universe had a Creator because he accepted the argument from design, but rejected belief in life after death; and many modern-day parapsychologists who believe they have evidence for survival are also atheists). Edwards also emphasizes that mind-brain dependence does not entail the truthof a strict materialism that contends that mental states are identical to brain states; thus arguments against reductionist materialism are irrelevant to the factuality of the dependence of consciousness on the brain. _Immortality_ includes essays on life after death from such prominent historical thinkers as Plato, Lucretius, Tertullian, Descartes, Hume, Voltaire, and Kant to contemporary philosophers, parapsychologists, and theologians. _Immortality_ is clearly written andwell-structured, allowing both a historical survey of differing opinions on the issue and an evaluation of the state of the evidence and arguments today from authors with opposing viewpoints."

This is not a debunking work, but one to broaden our outlook into what other possibilities may exist. Who knows for sure? This book will make your brains do overtime, expand the mind, soothe the soul and caress the spirit. Paul Edwards has done an excellent job with this anthology of great thinkers.

This is an edited anthology of philosophical writings on immortality, ranging from ancient times (Plato) to the present. It includes a 70-page introduction to the main philosophical issues around immortality by the editor, a philosopher. This covers not only immortality, but also the mind-body problem and the nature of personal identity. Although these are relevant to immortality, most of his introduction (and quite a number of his selections) gets totally lost in detailed and esoteric philosophical disputes about those topics, very much aimed at the specialist - reading through, you get the impression he forgot this book was about immortality. Edwards is openly sceptical about all forms of immortality, but inappropriately dismissive and even sarcastic when writing about beliefs he does not share and writers he does not agree with.

very complete and interesting but unfortunately pages soon became very loose