Can you Believe An Atheist in Heaven?
In our ongoing sage of the evaporation of boundaries leading to an apocalypse,
one important area to watch is the disappearance of the boundary between life
and death. I’m not talking about hospitals keeping “brain dead” folks alive,
although this medical conundrum is certainly a piece of the developing collapse
of distinctions. I’m referring to the boundary between those of us living and
those of us who have “passed on.”
Spiritualism, or the attending to the dead for purposes of gaining
information and/or enlightenment, has a long history, even though it seems to
head toward a “dead end,” no pun intended. This block has to do with the
fact/opinion that survival of death can’t be proven by spiritualistic
activities, mediums, and the like. There are just too many alternative
explanations. Cayce gave one reason that on one else mentions: even without the
participation of the active spirit of the “dead” person, the thought waves
created by this person while living can enter into conversations with mediums,
even though “no body is home.” It is much like the computer counselor “Eliza.”
It seems you are talking to a real person who listens carefully to what you say.
However, you are actually interacting with the work of a computer programmer who
created Eliza and shaped her responses. There is no one home.
Leaving aside these puzzles so we can get on with appreciating what this
latest book on survival has to offer us, let’s start with the fact that the
spirit communication in this book comes from someone who is was an atheist and
did not believe in the afterlife (as if believing in God is required to believe
in survival). That the information is coming from someone who is against this
kind of information is put forward as an attribute in favor of the believability
of this account.
The account is quite long and detailed, and doesn’t make for a lot of fun
reading; instead it requires some attention and thought. For those who have an
investment in the idea of survival, the effort may be worth it. I’ll share some
of the publicity that has accompanied the publication of this book:
This 514-page hardback book, supported both by an affidavit of truth from
co-author Paul Davids and a trove of scientific findings, is a decisive
monument to afterlife evidence that is sure to challenge skeptics, followers of
afterlife research, and scientists who are experts in many fields, from
psychology to chemistry.
What happens when a steadfast atheist dies and discovers he was wrong about life
after death?
Although he was a world famous futurist and a pioneering promoter of science
fiction books and films, Forrest J. Ackerman never believed in an
afterlife of the soul, the spirit or the mind; nonetheless, he promised a few
respected colleagues that if it were to turn out that he was mistaken (which he
sincerely doubted), then if it were possible he would try to send messages from
the beyond.
In
An
Atheist in Heaven,
Paul Davids and Gary E. Schwartz, Ph.D., describe in hair-raising detail
more than 100 incidents of Ackerman s unusual and uncanny messages and
phenomena.
Readers will find impressive scientific support from contributing writers and
investigators, and a unique human story of a 45 year friendship that did not end
with death.
Scientific Evidence of Life After Death:
Messages and a Friendship from the Hereafter
by Simon Warwick-Smith
Ackerman never believed in an afterlife of the soul, the spirit or the mind;
nonetheless, he promised a few respected colleagues that, if when
he passed he discovered he had been mistaken (which he sincerely
doubted), then if it were possible, he would send messages from the beyond.
“Maybe I’ll drop you a line,” he told co-author Paul Davids.
Ackerman died in 2008, and since then, a compelling trove of scientific data has
accumulated to prove that he continues to communicate with the living, primarily
with Paul Davids, his longtime friend and former protégé. The first “line”
showed up in 2009 after a tribute
to the deceased. In life, Ackerman had been an editor of a popular magazine, and
it seems that he altered a document
using ink, while Davids was alone in his Santa Fe house. That’s how it began.
And all indications are that Ackerman has been involved, post-mortem, with the
surprising and inexplicable events that have intruded
upon and baffled university scientists who agreed to study this case.
In a new book,
An
Atheist in Heaven, Davids and his co-author, Gary Schwartz, Ph.D., describe
in hair-raising detail more than 100 incidents of Ackerman’s unusual and uncanny
messages, many of which have defied both chemical and technological
explanations.
Laying out details of almost 150 unexplained anomalies, including physical
phenomena, synchronicities, Instrumental Trans-Communication (ITC) and studies
with mediums related to these contacts from the hereafter, An Atheist in Heaven
is a 514-page, decisive “monument” to afterlife evidence. It is sure to
challenge skeptics, followers of afterlife
research, and scientists who are experts in many fields, from psychology
to chemistry.
Both Davids and Schwartz are renowned investigators and authors on the topic of
unexplained phenomena. Davids is also well-known as the producer of films
including Showtime’s Roswell, NBCUniversal’s The Sci-Fi Boys (the Saturn award-
winning story of how Forrest J Ackerman brought together the fan boys who became
the leaders of contemporary sci-fi filmmaking), Jesus in India
and a soon to be released feature documentary: Marilyn Monroe
Declassified. And he has
co-authored six books (1992-1993) continuing the Star Wars saga for Lucasfilm,
and is one of the founders of the original Transformers TV series.
Professor of Psychology, Medicine, Neurology, Psychiatry and Surgery at the
University of Arizona, Dr. Schwartz didn’t just take Davids’ word for the
astounding series of contacts with the deceased Ackerman. At his Laboratory for
Advances in Consciousness and Health, Schwartz discovered that Ackerman’s
messages were technologically
measurable in ways that are part of new exploratory techniques, new
breakthroughs in afterlife research. The book also includes the report of a
three-year, in-depth chemical analysis of that first “line” that Ackerman
dropped to Davids - the mysterious ink obliteration message that continues to
mystify scientists. Further, it includes studies of state of the art sensors
that are used with computer software to obtain responses from spirits, including
the late Ackerman and others. (A Ph.D. from Harvard, Schwartz is also the author
of The G.O.D. Experiments, The Afterlife Experiments, and The Sacred Promise.)
The Ackerman case has offered many testable challenges for laboratories at
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), the College of New
Jersey and the University of Arizona, resulting in numerous studies, reports and
findings that are included in An Atheist in Heaven, along with Davids’ sworn
testimony that his
account is true.
Besides the scientific content, the book is also an extraordinary personal story
of the relationship between the two men. As a teenager making amateur 8mm
dinosaur and dragon films in the 1960’s, Davids met Ackerman, who at the time
was a Hollywood sci-fi editor and the envy of everyone who wanted to write
science fiction books or make sci-fi films; in fact, it is well
established that Ackerman is the first person to coin the term “sci-fi.” His
colossal collection of memorabilia
from sci-fi and horror movies was called “The Fort Knox of Science Fiction” by
Ray Bradbury.
Paul Davids said: “An Atheist in Heaven is about a remarkable man whom I knew
and loved for more than fifty years, and who I believe has been sending me
messages since he passed away. I have come to believe this based on precise and
provable incidents that, as it turns out, challenge science and current theories
and ideas about after death communication.”
The older professional took the young man under his wing, and continues to do
so, after his death, even today! In 2013, Davids made a documentary film about
his friendship with Ackerman and the extraordinary messages. The Life After
Death Project was shown nationwide by NBCUniversal and Syfy.
The Society for Psychical Research has written that this research and ongoing
study of the Ackerman case is “an important contribution to the database of
possible candidates for survival of bodily death.” And, the publisher of Skeptic
magazine, Dr. Michael Shermer, who appears in The Life After Death Project,
wrote that he respects Davids’
integrity and his honest search.
Shermer also wrote, in Scientific American in 2015, that it is the “convergence
of evidence” from different sources that ultimately
moves scientific understanding forward. The co-authors of An Atheist in
Heaven conclude that the convergence of evidence of apparent post-mortem contact
from Ackerman is both comprehensive and compelling,
and that their accounts and the investigation
moves scientific understanding forward.
Professor Charles Tart, Ph.D., the author of
The
End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal is Bringing Science and
Spirit Together, said that this case is so complex and substantive that it
required more than a documentary
film. It had to become a book for the evidence- based mind.
And Jay Siegel, Ph.D., former Chairman of the Chemistry Department of IUPUI and
author of many forensic chemistry books for criminologists, states: “Sometimes
there are circumstances which simply cannot be explained by our five senses or
by all the tools of science, and I
would say that this case falls into that category.”
To
explore An Atheist in Heaven at Amazon.com, click here!