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Phrost
5th March 2004, 06:11 AM
Apologies in advance if this has already been posted here somewhere.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=387&ncid=387&e=11&u=/ibsys/20040304/lo_wews/2034134

What happens after we die -- do we continue on or is this life the end?

Many of us hope there is an afterlife, and now some Arizona scientists say they have proof through their afterlife experiments.

There are many people who say they have died and come back to life. They claim to have experienced an afterlife, even if for only a short time.

Scientists at The University of Arizona have done extensive research, and say that they have the proof that when we die we continue to live beyond our physical bodies.

"Almost anyone who sees the data says there's something real here," said one of the researchers.

Allison Dubois is a spiritual medium, or someone thought to be able to communicate with the dead.

Christine Vettore was brought in for a reading with Dubois, who attempted to contact Vettore's dead relatives.

"I'm hopeful that there's an afterlife so I can see everybody I've lost already," said Vettore.

It doesn't take long -- within seconds, Dubois says Vettore's daughter is coming through.

It is a gift Dubois says she's had her whole life, but it comes with a lot of criticism.

"I think there are some people that are Charlatans, and with any profession there's going to be some bad apples, so I mean that just goes with the territory, so the ones that are accurate and are legitimate just have to prove themselves," said Dubois.

This reading is part of a science experiment -- Dr. Gary Schwartz, of the University of Arizona, is observing.

The Harvard-trained doctor looked for what he calls hits and misses, or the accuracy of the reading.

He's building on his hypothesis that there is life after death, and that mediums can talk to those who have died. After Vettore's daughter is contacted, Dubois contacted Vettore's brother and mother. She is able nail facts, giving details about the relations that she could not have known beforehand.

For instance, Dubois tells Vettore that her mother knows there's a carrot cake and a bowl of peanuts in her house.

"None of those things do I ever have in my house. I have those things in my house this month, carrot cake and peanuts, so that was weird," said Vettore.

The accuracy is amazing to Vettore, because she had never met or talked to Dubois before. She said Dubois was accurate in 80 to 90 percent of everything she said.



Skeptics say that Dubois is just guessing, but Schwartz says it is impossible for someone to guess and be that accurate.

For the past seven years, he has been testing mediums and other things tied to death, using science to explain what happens when we leave our physical bodies.

"Saying that this is against the grain with academia sort of puts it mildly," said Schwartz.

Schwartz has done multiple experiments under very controlled conditions. One of the most intriguing studies included five of the most respected mediums in the world, hooked up to monitors and computers.

In the experiment, 10 people were read by the five mediums. In lab conditions, a medium sat down with an individual and there would be a divider between them.

When that medium finished, the next would come in, until all five mediums had given a reading for the individual.

Schwartz and his staff would then compare the readings. They were astonished to find that in most cases, the mediums would bring through the same people and the same messages, with an 80-90 percent accuracy rate.

"There are so many people that are going to try to find holes in what we've done there is not a hole to find when we agree, or get a final protocol done," said Schwartz.

The scientists call their findings survival of consciousness -- meaning our physical bodies die, but we continue on.

The research continues with studies that include near-death survivors.

Schwartz says near-death experience research completely dovetails and supports what's coming from the mediums.

He says he will continue his research, and that the data doesn't lie.

"When you look at the totality of the data from our laboratory, the simplest explanation is actually that survival of consciousness is real," said Schwartz.

I've got an open mind to just about anything, but someone needs to sind this guy a link to the $1M Challenge.

I'll wait until his work has been peer-reviewed before I draw a conclusion on this.

!Xx+-Rational-+xX!
5th March 2004, 06:15 AM
All I have to do is quote Pyrrho who already disproved anything considered paranormal with one statement!

“Paranormal abilites are impossible” (Pyrrho)

Dismissed!

Clancie
5th March 2004, 06:20 AM
I guess Schwartz's career isn't over after all.

Tanja
5th March 2004, 06:20 AM
If I was a spirit of a deceased person, I hope I would have something more meaningful to say to my loved ones rather than: there are some peanuts and carrot cake in your house.

I am amazed that people actually buy that sort of crap. It must surely be some sort of anti-climax for a person in bereavement to hear the "spirit" say some utter nonsense like that.

As far as I know, Randi has made several attempts of trying to persuade Schwartz to take the challenge. There have been quite a few threads about it.

Marc
5th March 2004, 06:39 AM
Originally posted by Clancie
I guess Schwartz's career isn't over after all.

Technically his career would never be 'over', but his time in the limelight is in question. Look at the article, is there anything new here? Is there anything to distinguish it from one written about him 4 years ago? The only thing that has changed is the medium involved. (perhaps similar to doing the same test with new toys, like I pointed out with PEAR?) All he really has to say is from his tests mediums are highly accurate. Big deal, the believers already believed that, this is just a validation for them.



Hi Phrost,

Schwartzy is well known to us. He had been in communication with JREF long ago, and has done his best to dodge taking the challenge and avoid using suggestions made by skeptics. He has two books out dealing with his research. Living Energy Universe, which you can read a review of here (http://www.skeptic.com/archives47.html), and The Afterlife Experiments.

You can do a search of the JREF site on Schwartz to see some of the history with this guy.

Phrost
5th March 2004, 06:42 AM
Awesome. Thanks Marc. I've got some reading to do.

Neal "Phrost" Fletcher
Site Director, Bullshido.com
Fighting Fraud in the Martial Arts

Ipecac
5th March 2004, 06:46 AM
Schwartz is a poor scientist.

Clancie
5th March 2004, 06:53 AM
Marc,

re: The Living Energy Universe.

On the other thread, you mentioned that Schwartz had described some of his earlier mediumship studies in this book. I didn't see any mention of them in your review. Did I miss them? Could you give a bit of detail what they were?

Tx.

Marc
5th March 2004, 07:01 AM
Originally posted by Clancie
Marc,

re: The Living Energy Universe.

On the other thread, you mentioned that Schwartz had described some of his earlier mediumship studies in this book. I didn't see any mention of them in your review. Did I miss them? Could you give a bit of detail what they were?

Tx.

The mediumship studies was only a small part of that first book. It was primarily on promoting his Systemic Energy Theory. The ones he did mention there was usually quite a bit of detail missing. One was of a medium contacting several people, and making a drawing under the direction of the spirit. Then another medium would get the drawings and try to match them to the spirit. Details are vague though I do recall mention somewhere of the second medium getting several tries to match them up.

There was also mention of the readings done for the HBO special

Upchurch
5th March 2004, 07:40 AM
I've got a very good friend who is in grad school in the Psychology department at the University of Arizona, where Schwartz works. Different department, though.

She's crazy too. Fun, but crazy. :D

edited to add:

Sorry, same department, different area of focus.

Ed
5th March 2004, 09:08 AM
I fear that anything that S. says suffers from his self-administered lack of objectivity and credibility. Only in the swirling world of paranormal "research" is incompetence ignored.

Dancing David
5th March 2004, 05:55 PM
No real explanation of what the data is that has an 80-90% accuracy.

I still think that the dead would want to unload all thier angst on the living.

"You never paid much attention to me in life..."

Yahweh
5th March 2004, 10:27 PM
So who verifies that this information is correct?

Do they ask the spirit? Surely he is the one who knows all the correct answers (hope he's not a gullible spirit at least)...

Zep
6th March 2004, 01:44 AM
Usual cold-reading ****. Schwartz can't afford to allow this to be the case or else he will be out of a job. So he probably uses his efforts to try and get some results just to keep himself paid and on the book-and-lecture circuit. Even controversy with Randi and JREF is publicity grist for his mill.

As I've said before: It's all about money.