Abstract

Reviews A. Gauld's (1982) book, Mediumship and Survival: A Century of Investigation. In the book, Gauld examines reports of supposed rebirth memories, apparitions, out-of-body experiences, and possession. Two hypotheses are considered in the book: (1) Findings suggestive of survival of personality after death can be dismissed as being due simply to chance coincidence, sensory cues, or cheating by the medium; and (2) the acquisition of the information comes via ESP from the living relatives or friends of the deceased or from obituaries and other information. This latter hypothesis is referred to as the super-ESP theory. The evidence discussed in the book supports the concept of existence of the personality after death. The questions of whether ESP, including psychometry involving deceased persons, is different from ESP and psychometry involving living persons, and whether this difference suggests the agency of the deceased, are considered. It was found that ostensible communications from the deceased are on the whole more accurate than ESP from the living, which may suggest that the death of the physical organism increases a person's psi abilities. (23 ref)