Afterlife Hall of Fame

Dedicated to those most brilliant scientists and dedicated mediums, psychics and researchers who made a most significant contribution towards proving the existence of the afterlife.

OPENING STATEMENT

Surveys continue to show that some 97% of the people in the United States, Southern Americas and it is estimated that in the United Kingdom, Australia and in most countries accept the possibility that life continues after physical death. But for many, the acceptance for the hereafter is based on beliefs, intuition and tradition.

Over the last century some of the most intelligent and brilliant scientists - men and women who ever walked on this planet earth have made significant contribution by using science and other evidence to provide for the absolute proof of the existence of the afterlife. No doubt, communication with those who crossed over is the most important discovery in the history of mankind. There is nothing more important, nothing as vital or significant as knowing that we survive physical death.

Information transmitted from the other side tells us that the consequences of the afterlife are enormous. Those who staked their reputation for the truth to be known and other psychic researchers deserve a place in history so that what they discovered can be related to the millions around the world. Their contribution will never be forgotten and is cherished with much love and affection by us who have come to know the afterlife truth.

Examine for yourself the evidence of just some of the most brilliant scientsts who ever walked on this planet earth:

SIR WILLIAM BARRETT, (1844-1925) – Professor of physics at the Royal College of Science in Dublin for 37 years, “I’m absolutely convinced of the fact that those who once lived on earth can and do communicate with us. It is hardly possible to convey to the inexperienced an adequate idea of the strength and cumulative force of the evidence (for the afterlife).”

Dr. Robert Hare (1751-1858) – An emeritus professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and world-renowned inventor : " I sincerely believe that I have communicated with the spirits of my parents, sister, brother, and dearest friends, and likewise with the spirits of the illustrious Washington and other worthies of the spirit world; that I am by them commissioned, under their auspices, to teach truth and to expose error."

Professor James J. Mapes (1806-1866) – A professor of chemistry and natural philosophy at the National Academy of Design in New York and later at the American Institute, “spirits can and do communicate with mortals, and in all cases evince a desire to elevate and advance those they commune with."

Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) – Co-originator with Charles Darwin of the natural selection theory of evolution: " My position is that the phenomena of communicating with those who crossed over - in their entirety do not require further confirmation. They are proved quite as well as facts are proved in other sciences."


Sir William Crookes (1832-1919) – A physicist and chemist, the most decorated scientist in his time. He discovered the element thallium and was a pioneer in radioactivity. " “It is quite true that a connection has been set up between this world and the next.”

Dr. James Hyslop (1854 -1920) was a professor of logic and ethics at Columbia University before becoming a full-time psychical researcher in 1902. In 1904, he organized the American Institute for Scientific Research, which was to be devoted to the study of abnormal psychology and psychical research. Although initially skeptical, Hyslop came to believe in spirit communication and the survival of consciousness at death.
“I have been talking with my (dead) father, my brother, my uncles... Whatever supernormal powers we may be pleased to attribute to (the medium) Mrs. Piper's secondary personalities, it would be difficult to make me believe that these secondary personalities could have thus completely reconstituted the mental personality of my dead relatives...”

Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940) – Professor of physics at University College in Liverpool, England and later principal at the University of Birmingham, Lodge achieved world fame for his pioneering work in electricity, including the radio and spark plug. " I tell you with all my strength of the conviction which I can muster that we do persist, that people still continue to take an interest in what is going on, that they know far more about things on this earth than we do, and are able from time to time to communicate with us…I do not say it is easy, but it is possible, and I have conversed with my friends just as I can converse with anyone in this audience now."

Professor Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) – A world renowned astronomer, Flammarion founded the French Astronomical Society and was known for his study of Mars. He was a pioneer in the use of balloon to study the stars. He investigated psychic phenomena, including mediumship, for more than 50 years. " I do not hesitate to affirm my conviction, based on personal examination of the subject, that any man who declares the phenomena to be impossible is one who speaks without knowing what he is talking about."

Dr. Charles Richet (1850-1909) – Professor of physiology at the University of Paris Medical School, Richet was considered a world authority on nutrition in health and in disease. He won the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his work on allergic reactions. While convinced of the reality of mediumship, he remained publicly agnostic toward survival. According to Sir Oliver Lodge, his good friend, Richet privately accepted survival before his death. " It seems to me the facts are undeniable. I am convinced that I have been present at realities."

Dr. Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) – Professor of psychology at the University of Turin and Inspector of Asylums for the Insane in Italy, Lombroso was a pioneering criminologist. " I am ashamed and grieved at having opposed with so much tenacity the possibility of psychic facts – the facts exist and I boast of being a slave to facts. There can be no doubt that genuine psychical phenomena are produced by intelligences totally independent of the psychic and the parties present at the sittings."

Dr. Enrico Morselli (1852-1929) – An Italian neurologist, Director of the Clinic of Nervous and Mental Disease at the University of Genoa. "I was a bitter skeptic with regard to the objective reality of the phenomena. Today, furnished with an experience, after long and mature reflections on what I have seen and touched with my hand, I have changed my belief."

Dr. Gustave Geley (1868-1924) – Professor of medicine at the University of Lyons, he gave up his practice as a teacher and physician in 1919 to become director of the Institute Metaphysique International in Paris to investigate mediumship." [The facts revealed necessitate] the complete overthrow of materialistic physiology, [and that] the materialistic conception of the universe is false and cannot be reconciled with our present biological knowledge."

Dr. Julian Ochorowicz (1850-1917) – Professor of psychology and philosophy at the University of Warsaw:
" I found I had done a great wrong to men who had proclaimed new truths at the risk of their positions. When I remember that I branded as a fool that fearless investigator, Crookes, the inventor of the radiometer, because he had the courage to assert the reality of psychic phenomena and to subject them to scientific tests, and when I also recollect that I used to read his articles thereon in the same stupid style, regarding him as crazy, I am ashamed, both of myself and others, and I cry from the very bottom of my heart. ‘Father, I have sinned against the Light.’”

Dr. Carl A. Wickland (1861-1945) -- A member of the Chicago Medical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and director of the National Psychological Institute of Los Angeles:" Spirit obsession is a fact – a perversion of a natural law – and is amply demonstrable. This has been proven hundreds of times by causing the supposed insanity or aberration to be temporarily transferred from the victim to a psychic sensitive who is trained for the purpose, and by this method ascertain the cause of the psychosis to be an ignorant or mischievous spirit, whose identity may frequently be verified."

Dr. T. Glen Hamilton (1877-1935) – A graduate of Manitoba Medical College, Hamilton had a private medical practice while also teaching clinical surgery at Winnipeg General Hospital. He became interested in psychic phenomena in 1918 and conducted extensive studies on Canadian mediums. " …we hold the survival theory to be valid in accounting for every fact known in regard to the trance personalities. It accounts for their stated opinions that they were indeed deceased (discarnate) individuals. It admits of the possibility that they, as discarnate persons, shared some manner of inter-communication, which enabled them to plan, to co-operate, and to commit themselves to organized activities in the séance room, activities which extended over a period of many years."

Dr. Robert Crookall (1890-1969) – After taking his Ph.D., Crookall lectured at Aberdeen University before joining the staff of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, specializing in coal-forming plants. He resigned from his geological work in 1952 to devote the rest of his life to psychical research. "The whole of the available evidence is explicable on the hypothesis of the survival of the human soul in a Soul Body. There is no longer a ‘deadlock’ or ‘stalemate’ on the question of survival. On the contrary, survival is as well established as the theory of evolution."

Dr. Raynor C. Johnson (1901-1987) – A physicist, Johnson was educated at Oxford and received his doctorate from the University of London. He lectured in physics at King’s College, University of London, before becoming master of Queen’s College at the University of Melbourne in Australia. " For myself, I can only say that my intuition, such as it is, supports (Frederic) Myers, and my attempt to evaluate the data of psychical research and form a critical judgment leads me to conclude that if survival of death is not rigorously proven, it is nevertheless established as of that high order or probability which, for practical purposes, can be taken as the same thing."

Dr. Gardner Murphy (1895-1979) – While at Harvard, Murphy accepted the Hodgson Memorial Fund research grant. He served as president of the American Society for Psychical Research for 20 years. He taught psychology at Columbia University and served as chairman of the psychology department at City College of New York. " It is the autonomy, the purposiveness, the cogency, above all the individuality, of the sources of the messages, that cannot be by-passed. Struggle though I may as a psychologist, for forty-five years, to try to find a ‘naturalistic’ and ‘normal’ way of handling this material, I cannot do this even when using all the information we have about human chicanery and all we have about the far-flung telepathic and clairvoyant abilities of some gifted sensitives. The case looks like communication with the deceased."

Gary Schwartz, Ph.D. (1944 - ) After receiving his doctorate from Harvard University, Dr. Schwartz served as a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Yale University. " I can no longer ignore the data [on research into the survival of consciousness] and dismiss the words [coming through mediums]. They are as real as the sun, the trees, and our television sets, which seem to pull pictures out of the air. "

George Meek ( 1919?-1999) “For the first time in 8,000 years of recorded history, it can now be said with certainty that our mind, memory, personality and soul will survive physical death.”

Dr Harold Puthoff (1936- ) physicist and current Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas. He has made significant contribution towards empirically establishing the validity of psi particularly in the field of “remote viewing”. This was a term he jointly coined to describe a form of psychic functioning historically known as clairvoyance.

PROF. Erlendur Haraldsson Professor of Psychology at the University of Iceland. Has done psychic research into life after death - apparitions, children who speak of a previous life, Icelandic mediums, deathbed visions and communicating with intelligences from the afterlife.

Dr Claude Swanson has collated the "best evidence" illustrating the inadequacy of our present scientific paradigm. In his book, The Synchronized Universe, he describes scientifically controlled remote viewing and ESP experiments, demonstrations of long-range healing, psychokinesis (mind over matter), scientifically controlled experiments in levitation, teleportation and out of body phenomena (OBE). He outlines numerous examples of these strange forces being demonstrated under rigorous scientific conditions, with odds of millions or even billions to one against chance. Dr Swanson argues that there is a need for a new, truly "unified field theory" which can explain and understand both science and consciousness.

Professor Ernsk Senkowski after doing intensive paranormal and afterlife research for over twenty years repeatedly obtained positive paranormal and 'afterlife' results. His book INSTRUMENTAL TRANSCOMUNICATION: the full German version.

Professor Russell Targ is a physicist and author who pioneered the development of the laser. He was also co-founded the Stanford Research Institute's investigation into psychic abilities in the 1970s and 1980s. He authored numerous books suggesting that the mind itself reaches to the far ends of the universe and that it is this "non-local" quality, rather than any particular mechanism, that accounts for the remarkable data of parapsychology.

Professor Fred Alan Wolf , "There is evidence that suggests the existence of a non-material, non-physical universe that has a reality even though it might not as yet be clearly perceptible to our senses and scientific instrumentation. When we consider out-of-body experiences, shamanic journeys and lucid dream states, though they cannot be replicated in the true scientific sense, they also point to the existence of non-material dimensions of reality."

Ron Pearson, “For the first time the reader will now be able to judge whether the long overdue paradigm-shift in physics is made possible, so that the survival of death and the entire spectrum of the so-called ‘paranormal’ can now be accepted, even by scientists, as potentially real effects.”

Professor Amit Goswami former Professor of Physics at the Institute of Theoretical Sciences at the University of Oregon. He is currently a senior resident researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. His book Physics of the Soul--The Quantum Book Of Living, Dying, Reincarnation And Immortality defines consciousness, not materiality, as the primary reality.

Professor David Fontana Professor of Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, published a scholarly 500 page book called Is There An Afterlife which reviews some of the evidence for the afterlife accumulated during more than one hundred and fifty years of systematic research.

Professor Archie Roy Professor Emeritus of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, The Royal Astronomical Society and the British Interplanetary Society. For the best part of thirty years he has also been passionately interested in psychical research and helped to found PRISM (Psychical Research Involving Selected Mediums) which encourages, guides and funds research work with mediums. He has worked with Tricia Robertson, vice-president of the Scottish SPR, on research work which validated mediumship. Together they have published three papers on mediumship with the Society for Psychical Research.In the Introduction to Professor Fontana's book (above) Professor Archie Roy points out that as yet most mainstream scientists are simply unaware of the evidence for the afterlife. They have never done psychic research and have never read the evidence; but they are often hostile to it because they think it challenges their scientific world view.

For more scientists and the afterlife click on BOOK top right - chapter 2- Respected Scientists who Investigated and on chapter 25 -Quantum Physics and the Afterlife and Michael Tymn's Distinguished Researchers who found evidence of survival.

A GIANT OF AFTERLIFE SCIENCE: SIR OLIVER LODGE: a statement which needs an answer: ‘Victor, you are relying on those with high status, such as Sir Oliver Lodge to persuade the uninformed about the afterlife?

Victor: And what’s wrong with that? When someone such as Sir Oliver Lodge, one of the most intelligent and most brilliant people who ever walked this planet earth and as a scientist after he investigated the afterlife he fully accepted that the afterlife exists. He told us why he accepted the afterlife. His qualifications are typical of some of the brilliant scientists who accepted the afterlife after they investigated the afterlife: Sir Oliver Lodge Fellow of the Royal Society; D.Sc.(Lon); Hon. D.Sc.(Oxon); Hon.Sc.D (Cantab.); Hon.LL.D (Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Adelaide, Toronto); Hon. M.A. (Birmingham); Mem.Inst. Elec. Engineers; Hon.Mem.Lit.Phil.Soc. (Manchester); Corr.Mem.Amer.Phil.Soc.(Philidelphia) Corr.Mem.Accad.Sci.dell’Istituto (Bolognia); Corr.Mem. Bataafsch Genoots (Rotterdam); Hon.Mem. Inst. Elec.Engineers;President of the Radio Society; Rumford Medallist of the Royal Society; Albert Medallist of the royal Society of Arts, as pioneer in Wireless Telegraphy; President of the Physical Society. President of the British Assn., President of the Rontgen Society. Professor of Physics University of Liverpool; Principal of the University of Birmingham. Knighted.

RESEARCHERS and WRITERS

Arthur Findlay
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Maurice Barbanell
Dr Ian Stevenson
Dr Glen Hamilton
Air Chief Marshall Lord Dowding
Allison Dubois
Dr Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Emanuel Swedenborg
Dr Mark Macy
Dr Konstantin Raudive
Sonia Rinaldi
Sarah Estep
Suzie Smith
Archie Roy
Arthur Balfour
William James
Dr Charles Richet

(randomly listed - not listed in any order of merit or importance)

FREDERICK W.H. MYERS
The originator of the 'cross-correspondences' (a series of messages from the other side to different mediums in different parts of the world that on their own would mean nothing but which when put together would make sense) - 'the most persuasive evidence for the existence for the afterlife' according to Colin Wilson, psychic writer. He was a Cambridge Classic scholar and writer at the turn of the Twentieth Century. He was also one of the pioneers who founded the British Society for Psychical Research and was heavily involved in investigation of the afterlife.

ARTHUR FINDLAY
Perhaps the greatest psychic historian ever and the committee's selection as the 'psychic personality of the twentieth century'. See his especially most insightful and greatest research THE CURSE OF IGNORANCE Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Other vital contributions: On The Edge of the Etheric; The Psychic Steam. In his time, some closed minded conservatives tried to attack him stating that they will be rebutting everything he stated about the afterlife. As Arthur Findlay stated in one of his books - words to the effect, 'I've waited now sixteen long years, and so far no has been able to rebut the evidence I produced in my published research.' No one has ever rebutted Findlay's works - especially his classic work, ON THE EDGE OF THE ETHERIC. Well done Arthur! We will always remember you!

SIR WILLIAM CROOKES
A true giant amongst scientists of his time. He was chosen by the closed minded skeptics to dismiss psychic phenomena - but because Sir William had high integrity, honesty and was exceptionally decent he reported the truth - that his scientific investigations repeatedly showed that the afterlife exits. In England one of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research, a fellow of the Royal Society - a very prestigious association of the most learned scientists elected by their peers - and later its president. Sir William discovered six chemical elements including Thallium. He was showered with university degrees by many universities from different countries.

SIR OLIVER LODGE
Pioneer of radio, physicist, professor, one of the greatest scientists of his time. He was able to make contact with his deceased son Raymond - something which gave him the ultimate authority when writing about the afterlife. He was also one of the first to write about the sub-atomic particle for the hereafter. Lodge's scientific work in physics includes investigations of lightening, the voltaic cell and electrolysis and electromagnetic waves. He also studied the nature of ether, a medium permeating all space and of the ether drift, the supposed relative motion between the ether and any body with in it.

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
Writer, psychic researcher. He was able to make contact with entities from the afterlife. Many people know him for his great writing skills such as his creation of Sherlock Holmes - but Sir Arthur's greatest gift was when he conducted research into the afterlife. He wrote a magnificent History of Spiritualism book 1 and 2; also he wrote The Wandering of a Spiritualist - but his best books ever were dictated to medium Grace Cooke from the other side, The Book of the Beyond and The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle.

MAURICE BARBANELL
Highly gifted medium who was the medium used by SILVER BIRCH, a highly credible spiritual teacher from the other side to relate some most important and significant books on the afterlife which passed the test of time and which have proved to be life-changing.

DR IAN STEVENSON
Scientist who wrote with much power, eloquence and science about reincarnation. The scientific research into reincarnation by Dr Stevenson, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia Medical School has not been rebutted especially his studies in 'spontaneous past life recall'. He has also made a most memorable contribution towards the existence of the afterlife to be found in his especially brilliant book XENOGLOSSY
(see Chapter 22 of 'A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife').

DR GLEN HAMILTON
A physician and member of the Canadian Parliament. In his laboratory under strictly controlled conditions he had a battery of fourteen electronically controlled flash cameras which photographed apparitions simultaneously from all angles. Observers present at his experiments included four other medical doctors, two lawyers and both an electrical and a civil engineer. Each of the witnesses stated strongly and unequivocally that, 'time after time, I saw dead persons materialize.' Meticulous records of his research and his collection of photographs are on public display at the University of Manitoba, Canada.

AIR CHIEF MARSHAL LORD DOWDING - the most respected World War II hero who brilliantly masterminded the defeat of the German onslaught in the decisive Battle of Britain. Lord Dowding accepted the objective, empirical evidence for the afterlife (life after death) and himself was able to communicate with those who crossed over. His most informative book about the afterlife: MANY MANSIONS. He showed tremendous courage articulating the objective evidence for the afterlife in Britain in the forties and fifties. He was also was most inspirational to millions of Britons to continue to pursue their afterlife studies, research and reading. We will never forget you Lord Dowding!

GEORGE MEEK
An American inventor, designer and manufacturer of devices for air conditioning. Meek undertook an extensive library and literature research program and travelled the world to locate and establish research projects with top medical doctors, psychiatrists, physicists and others. He established the Metascience Foundation in Franklin, North Carolina, which sponsored the famous Spiricom research. This demonstrated extended two-way instrumental communication between people alive here on earth and people living in the afterlife dimension. He authored a number of books including his famous After We Die What Then. Picture also shows George Meek's wife Jeanette who transmitted accurate information from the aftrerlife when she passed on and George was still on the earthplane.

DR R.D. PEARSON BSc., *C.Eng.M.I. Mech.E 5 March 2003
* -Prior to retirement and switch to physics
This theory has achieved publication in Russian conference proceedings (3 & 4) of 1991 and 1993, and in the peer-reviewed journal "Frontier Perspectives" (5) in 1997. Two books by Pearson (6 & 7) provide further detail. Furthermore the theory was supported by Dr Peter Wadhams, Professor of Ocean Physics at Cambridge University, on the Jeff Rense Radio Show (8) in 2001.

DR ELIZABETH KUBLER-ROSS
A medical doctor and psychic researcher. She has had global impact on the way dying people are treated and became convinced about the existence of the afterlife. She wrote five books about the afterlife and was particularly brave disseminating the afterlife information against other materialist doctors. Her work includes: On Life After Death, The Facts of Life After Death, The Wheel of Life, Death is of Vital Importance.

EMMANUEL SWEDENBORG
One of the leading scientists of his day, 1688, he wrote 150 works in seventeen sciences. At the University of Uppsala he studied Greek, Latin and several other European languages. Swedenborg was a very highly gifted clairvoyant who spent more than twenty years investigating the afterlife. He recorded that he was able to make contact with intelligences from the afterlife, writing several books about the afterlife.

MARK MACY
Mark Macy from Boulder, Colorado USA, is an independent researcher who has been investigating the afterlife for many years and was able to communicate for thirteen minutes with the deceased scientist Dr Konstantine Raudive through Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) - (for full explanation of ITC go to any major search engine and type ITC or Mark Macy). Mark Macy is the founder of the Continuing Life Research to encourage empirical investigations. He has been influencing people about the afterlife from around the world with his stunning ITC evidence meticulously presented. Contact him for a list of ITC receiving stations and organizations around the world and for information about an English translation of Cercle d'Etudes sur la Transcommunication - Luxembourg's Infonews.

DR KONSTANTINE RAUDIVE
His classic Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) research under the English title 'Breakthrough' was based on 72,000 'spirit voices' he tape recorded. He has been highly influential on a global level lecturing about EVP. He has been active communicating from the spirit world to researchers here on earth. There is a classic two-way 13 minute tape recorded conversation between Mark Macy who took over from George Meek (see above) and Dr Konstantine Raudive.

SONIA RINALDI
One of the leading psychic researchers today is Sonia Rinaldi who leads the biggest *Instrumental Transcommunication (see Chapter 4 of 'A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife'). Her work is based on scientific control and her site contains scientific declarations issued by the most respected University in Brazil - USP. Recently the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) - an organisation founded by the former lunar astronaut Dr Ed Mitchell to bridge the gap between science and religion - announced that it will be working with Sonia in a project to examine claims of Instrumental Transcommunication.

SARAH ESTEP a highly dedicated pioneer in Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) in the United States. She founded the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena and was its director for eighteen years until her retirement, when she handed it over to Tom and Lisa Butler. Her ability to obtain spirit voices on tape provided extremely important objective evidence for the existence of the afterlife. Sarah has traveled to Egypt to continue her refinement in EVP and has traveled and given talks through many parts of the United States so that she could help people understand that life goes on when we cross over - the most important information one can ever have on this planet earth. Her tremendous contribution is greatly appreciated by many EVP researchers and by countless others around the world who benefited from her leadership in researching this most important paranormal phenomenon. Sarah Estep wrote Voices of Eternity, which is still available as a free download from http://aaevp.com/resources.html Her new book, Roads to Eternity, will be published by Galde Publications, watch aaevp.com for the publishing date.

THE FABULOUS SUZIE SMITH: the AFTERLIFE CODES, 'Searching forEvidence of the Survival of the Soul.' The author of 30 books, Suzy Smith has been vitally interested in ESP, parapsychology and psychic research since the 1950's. In her many popular books she as shared her enthusiasm with investigating and communicating with the spiritual worlds BOTH AS A MEDIUM AND A RESEARCHER. A former resident of Tucson, Arizona, Smith used to oversee the Survival Research Foundation which she established in 1971 to procure scientific evidence for the survival of consciousness beyond physical death.

ARCHIE ROY
Professsor Archie E Roy(BS.c., Ph.D., F.R.A.S., F.R.S.E., F.B.I.S.) Professor Emeritus of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, The Royal Astronomical Society and the British Interplanetary Society. Member and former President of the Society for Psychical Research and the Scottish Society for Psychical Research, Founding-President of the latter. Member of the International Astronomical Union, honouring him by naming an asteroid after him. Elected a member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and the Humanities. He is a Patron of the Churches Fellowship (Scotland) for Psychical and Spiritual Studies and a member of the Scientific and Medical Network. He has published 20 books, six of them novels, some 70 scientific papers and scores of articles. Directed Advanced Scientific Institutes for NATO.

ARTHUR BALFOUR
BALFOUR, Lord Arthur (KG, OM) 1848-1930.Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Devoted himself to philosophical studies for many years. First went to Parliament in 1876. Published "A Defense of Philosophic Doubt" in 1879, pleading for individual freedom of thought as against the increasing dogmatism of science. Through his sister, the wife of Prof. Henry Sidgwick, the first president of the SPR, he became interested in psychic phenomena and the question of survival in 1882. In 1894 he occupied the presidential chair of the SPR. Especially interested in telepathy as it lent itself to experimental work. President of the SPR in 1893. President of the British Association in 1904. Served as the British Prime Minister from 1902 to 1905, also Secretary of State. His paper on the Ear of Dionysuis cross correspondence (attributed to the discarnate minds of Prof. Butcher and Prof. Verrall) which he read before the SPR in November, 1916, is a most constructive presentation of an excellent piece of evidence for survival.

WILLIAM JAMES
JAMES, Professor William (MD) 1842-1910 Professor of psychology at Harvard University, achieved his MD in 1869 and later taught physiology and philosophy. One of the founders of the ASPR, president of the SPR in 1894-5, vice-president from 1890-1910. The discovery of Mrs Piper's mediumship for the SPR was due to Prof. James. "My impression", wrote James after his first visit to Piper with his wife, "was that Mrs P. was either possessed of super-normal powers or knew the members of my wife's family by sight and had by some lucky coincidence become acquainted with such a multitude of their domestic circumstances as to produce the startling impression which she did." James was very careful not reveal his and his wife's name. He went on to say, "My later knowledge of her sittings and personal acquaintance with her has led me to absolutely reject the latter explanation, and to believe that she has supernormal powers."
For 18 months after his first experiments Prof. James was virtually in charge of all arrangements for Mrs Piper's sittings. When, owing to other duties, he dropped his inquires for a period of two years, he wrote to the SPR and induced them to engage Mrs Piper for experiments. "The result (he wrote of his personal investigations) is to make me feel as absolutely certain as I am of any personal fact in the world that she knows things in her trances which she cannot possibly have heard in her waking state." He admitted that a strong presumption in favour of survival exists when the following message, obtained while Miss Robbins had a sitting with Mrs Piper, was submitted to him: "There is a person named Child, who has suddenly come and sends his love to William and to his own wife who is living. He says L..." Neither Miss Robbins nor Mrs Piper knew Child who was an intimate friend of William James and whose Christian name begins with L.
In the autumn of 1899 Mrs Piper paid Prof James a visit at his country house in New Hampshire. There he learned to know her personally better than ever before. "It was in great measure," writes Alta L. Piper in her biography of Mrs Piper, "due to his sympathetic encouragement and understanding of the many difficulties, with which she found herself confronted in the early days of her career, that my mother was able to adhere unfalteringly to the onerous course which she had set herself to follow."
In an oft-quoted lecture in 1890 Prof James declared: "To upset the conclusion that all crows are black, there is no need to seek demonstration that no crow is black; it is sufficient to produce one white crow; a single one is sufficient." He proclaimed Mrs Piper as his "one white crow".
At Oxford in 1909, in a lecture, he announced his firm conviction that "most of the phenomena of psychical research are rooted in reality."
His most famous works included "The Varieties of Religious Experience" and "The Will to Believe" which were both published in London in 1902.

Dr CHARLES RICHET
Dr Charles1850-1935 Very distinguished French physiologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1913 for his discovery of anaphylaxis. Professor of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, member of the medicine and Academy of Science and Honorary president of the Paris-based Institut Metapsychique International in 1919. Richet's insatiable curiosity also led him to explore other fields outside medicine, and with as much of passion. Indeed, he was at the same time a novelist, poet, playwright, sociologist and even pioneer of aviation!
Extensively investigated a wide range of phenomena such as telepathy, hypnosis, psychokinesis and ectoplasm (a term first coined by Richet), which he whole-heartedly accepted as real but could only interpret them in a materialistic manner. Founded the Annales des Sciences Psychiques in 1890 (the first issue appeared in 1891), whose title subsequently changed to Revue Metapsychique in 1920. He worked with colleagues of different nationalities including Dr. Gustave Geley, Sir Oliver Lodge and Prof. Baron von Schrenck-Notzing and with various mediums, including Mrs. Piper, Eusapia Palladino and Marthe Beraud. He summed up his general conclusions in "Thirty Years of Psychical Research", which was translated to English in 1923 by Stanley de Brath.

DR MICHAEL SABOM M.D.
A cardiologist whose first book, Recollections of Death, is considered to be a landmark in the field of near-death research. He is a leading authority with over twenty years in the field. In 1994, he founded the Atlanta Study which is the first comprehensive investigation of its kind into NDEs. Its purpose was to document the life-and-death dramas played out in operating rooms and hospital beds - and the simultaneous events unseen by medical personnel but reported with astonishing clarity and conviction by nearly 50 individuals who returned from death's door. Dr. Sabom's latest book, Light and Death, shares with the world his findings from the Atlanta Study. Sabom, also a born-again Christian, scrutinizes NDEs in light of what the Bible has to say about death and dying, the realities of light and darkness, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.