Afterlife

While in this life, everyone asks the question: Is death the end, or is there something of me that survives after death? What kind of existence will I have after I die? Will it be good or bad? Is there anything I can do to make it good?

While answer to these questions depends to some extent on one's culture, there is the undeniable fact that in every culture and in every time and place, people have believed in life after death. It is the unanimous testimony of all religions, as recorded in the scriptures:

"The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7

"You prefer this life, although the life to come is better and more enduring." Qur'an 87:16-17

"You do not die when the body dies... As a man abandons his worn-out clothes and acquires new ones, so when the body is worn out will a new one be acquired by the Self, who lives within." Bhagavad-Gita 2:20-22

"So it is with the resurrection from the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory... It is sown in a physical body, it is raised in a spiritual body." 1 Corinthians 15:42-44

Contemporary belief in the afterlife is also supported by near-death experiences and the not infrequent experiences of spiritual communication with loved ones on the other side. Traditional societies took it for granted that there is natural intercourse between the two worlds, as in this dance sung by the Cree people:

The Sky blesses me, the Earth blesses me;
Up in the Skies I cause to dance the Spirits;
On the Earth, the people I cause to dance.

This same spiritual connection underlies the creative accomplishments of artists and scientists, who credit their inspirations to a mysterious connection with a greater reality. In the words of Carl Jung, "A creative person has little power over his own life. He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daemon."

The afterlife speaks of an existence, which stretches on to eternity, compared to the short span of life on earth. Does how we live in this life affect that future? If so, then belief in the afterlife can profoundly affect our attitude to this life. First, there is no need to fear death, since we will survive it. Second, we would want to take care of how we live on earth so as to avoid committing mistakes that could jeopardize our future eternal life.

Most believers have a rosy view of the afterlife, believing that they will enjoy a pleasurable existence with friends and loved ones in a place called heaven. Although many believe in a place of punishment called hell, they do not believe they will live there. They believe that they will live in heaven because the power of their belief, or the promises of their religion, that they will go to heaven. Yet is that wishful thinking? Traditional beliefs in heaven and hell hold that that people have no choice but to reap in the next life the fruits that they sowed during life on earth. As Jesus taught in the parable of the sheep and the goats, this lies chiefly in how much they loved others and cared for the less fortunate.

Paradise— Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven (The Empyrean); from Gustave Doré's illustrations to the Divine Comedy.

Immortality of the Soul

From the standpoint of philosophy, there seems to be no logical ground for believing that there is life after physical death, yet the very nature of our human consciousness seems to contradict the possibility of its annihilation—at least this is the way nearly all cultural traditions have perceived it. Hence, philosophers have sought to ascertain whether the universality of the belief in the afterlife is a remnant of primitive worldviews and the expression of wishful thinking, or the expression of the intuitive awareness of a higher reality.

Christianity and other religions that believe in a personal God also believe in the absolute value of the human person as a partner—no matter how finite and inadequate—to that personal God. This naturally implies the belief in human immortality, whether for all humans or only for those who choose the right path of life.

For Eastern religions that hold to an impersonal Ultimate Reality, confidence in existence beyond physical death is based upon their perspective that the mental world as more "real" than the illusory material world. Hence death of the body is only an illusory end; personal existence continues as its essence transmigrates or is reincarnated into a new form.

Soul and Body

Then there is the question of what form immortality takes. Does the individual soul maintain a separate consciousness, or does it merge with the cosmic soul? If it maintains a separate identity and consciousness, then is the soul clothed in some sort of spiritual body? All folk beliefs in the afterlife describe spirits as embodied beings. However Christian and philosophical doctrines are more equivocal, due to the influence of Plato and Descartes.

For Plato, the essence of reality lies in the bodiless human soul. When the body dies, the soul lives on eternally in the world of ideas. This vision of the eternal soul implies that it has no body or shape of any kind and is limited to a point of consciousness. Descartes similarly drew an absolute distinction between the physical world, which has extension in time and space, and the world of the mind, which is without any extension. This philosophical position creates problems for most conceptions of the afterlife, and other problems as well, for instance how to conceive of the link between thinking and action. For Aristotle, mind and body are two sides of the same entity. He therefore believed that the soul dies with the body. This is the position of all modern materialists. Thomas Aquinas sought to reconcile Aristotle with the Christian doctrine of immortality and stated that our soul temporarily survived death before being reunited with the physical body at the resurrection. Philosophically, this solution has been considered rather artificial and involving a deus ex machina.

Spiritualists and mystics have repeatedly advocated a third position, the survival of the soul in some sort of immaterial body. The 18th-century Swedish scientist and spiritualist Emmanuel Swedenborg has offered one of the most complete explanations from that perspective.

Resurrection of the Dead

Resurrection of the Flesh (1499-1502) Fresco by Luca Signorelli, Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto.

One strand of belief in the afterlife is the resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. In this literal view, our bodies will rise from their graves and return to life to populate a new redeemed world. This belief is found in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, standing alongside conceptions of the afterlife as a state that the soul enters immediately upon physical death. Belief in the resurrection of the dead stems from scripture passages such as Ezekiel 37, which depicts the Jewish dead rising from their graves to repopulate the land of Israel. By the time of Jesus, resurrection was the dominant Jewish view of the afterlife.

The first generation of Jesus' followers were Jews holding to this view; they believed that he was the first human being to be resurrected—not resuscitated. In other words, Jesus was living as a human in a new way from the way that he had previously, not merely made alive in the same body. They also believed that they would be resurrected when they died in the same way as Jesus (1 Thess. 4:14-17). This belief continues among some Protestants, who believe that people who die rest in a state of sleep (Rest in Peace) until the end of the world when they would resurrect. Islam also holds to this view: the dead wait until their bodily resurrection at Last Judgment, when the righteous will enter the pleasures of Paradise, and the wicked will be consigned to the eternal fires of hell.

Nevertheless, there is another widespread view in these religions which contradicts the doctrine of bodily resurrection: namely that at death the soul separates from the body and quickly attains its station in the afterlife. The Hebrew Bible affirms that Job and other righteous men went to Sheol when they died. In the New Testament parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus spoke to an audience that was clearly at home with the idea that at death the soul of a certain poor man was "carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom" while the rich man who had died and was buried was dwelling in torment in Hades. (Luke 16:19-31) Saint Paul likewise spoke in anticipation of the day when his body, an "earthly tent," would be destroyed and he would be "further clothed" in a glorious new body. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)

Christ leads the patriarchs from Hell to Paradise, by Bartolomeo Bertejo, Spanish, ca 1480: Methuselah, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and Adam and Eve lead the procession of the righteous behind Christ.

For believers in an immortal soul, the resurrection of the dead that occurs in the end-times is not a bodily resurrection, but rather a jubilant uplifting of the spirit. New life in Christ is a spiritual state of grace, in contrast to the state of sin and death: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life" (Romans 6:23). The first letter of Peter alludes to a belief that when Jesus was three days in the tomb, he descended to Hades and preached to the spirits there and saved many. (1 Pet. 3:19-20). According to the author of Hebrews, Jesus brought new life not only to earthly believers, but also to the saints in heaven who waited to be further perfected in Christ: "All these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect." (Hebrews 11:39-40)

Evidence of Survival after Death

In both Western and Eastern religions, the spirit is an energy or force that transcends the mortal shell, and returns to either the heavens or the cycle of life, directly or indirectly depending on the tradition. In this section we will look specifically at evidence of personal survival after death as a spirit. This evidence is widespread, in traditional and contemporary sources.

Accounts of Scripture

From the Hebrew patriarchs who believed that the soul at death was "gathered to the fathers," the Bible provides ample support to belief in an afterlife. The Old Testament concept of Sheol, in parallel with the Hellenistic Hades, was the underworld where everyone at death, great or small, dwelt together. (Isaiah 14:9-18) An apparition of the recently deceased Samuel briefly appeared to Saul when summoned by the medium of Endor. (1 Samuel 28:3-15) The New Testament describes the heaven as a place where the saints have gathered, surrounded by angels. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

According to the Qur'an, the dead, especially those martyrs for the cause of God, are indeed alive:

Do not say, “They are dead!” about anyone who is killed for God’s sake. Rather they are living, even though you do not notice it. Qur’an 2.154

The Hindu Vedas describe heaven as a place of joy and wholeness:

Where men of goodwill and good deeds rejoice,

Their bodies now made free from all disease,
Their limbs made whole from lameness or defect—

In that heaven may we behold our parents and our sons! Atharva Veda 6.120.3

Likewise, scriptural accounts of hell are widespread in all traditions. Buddhist and Hindu depictions are particularly graphic:

Some of the sinful are cut with saws, like firewood, and others, thrown flat on the ground, are chopped into pieces with axes. Some, their bodies half buried in a pit, are pierced in the head with arrows. Others, fixed in the middle of a press, are squeezed like sugarcane. Some are surrounded close with blazing charcoal, enwrapped with torches, and smelted like a lump of ore. Some are plunged into heated butter, and others into heated oil, and like a cake thrown into the frying pan they are turned about. Some are thrown in the path of huge maddened elephants, and some with hands and feet bound are placed head downwards. Some are thrown into wells; some are hurled from heights; others, plunged into pits full of worms, are eaten away by them... Garuda Purana 3.49-51

There men were dismembering one another, cutting off each of their limbs, saying, “This to you, this to me!” When asked about it, they replied, “In this way they have treated us in the other world, and in the same way we now treat them in return.” Satapatha Brahmana 11.6.3

Out-of Body Experiences

An out-of-body experience (OBE) is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, seeing one's physical body from a place outside one's body. People often report having these experiences after suffering from trauma such as a motor vehicle accident. They are able to recall the accident as if observing from a location outside the vehicle. Whether the OBE reflects reality remains controversial. Some of those who recall the experience report having visited places and people they have never been to or seen before, only to find that they in fact do exist when they attempt to retrace their travels.

Saint Paul testifies to an OBE, which may have been his own:

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into Paradise—whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter." (2 Corinthians 12:2-4)

The interpretation of OBEs is controversial. Those who take them as evidence that consciousness can exist independently of the physical body often invoke the concept of astral projection. This is a technique to induce out-of-body experiences via visualization or deep meditation. Practitioners maintain that their consciousness or soul has transferred into an astral body, which moves free of the physical body in a parallel world known as the "astral plane." Although death is not involved, OBEs support belief in an afterlife by suggesting that consciousness can exist independent of the physical body and brain.

Near-Death Experiences

Near-Death Experiences (NDE) provide stronger evidence for an afterlife, because they occur in patients who who nearly died, or who are clinically dead and then resuscitated. Many take NDEs as experiences of the first stages of passing into the spirit world; however others believe they can be explained by hallucinations produced by the brain as it dies. The experience has become more common in recent times, especially since the development of cardiac resuscitation techniques. Popular interest in near-death experiences was sparked by Raymond Moody's 1975 book Life after Life. According to a Gallup poll approximately eight million Americans claim to have had a near-death experience.

Ascent in the Empyrean (Hieronymus Bosch)

Typically the experience follows a distinct progression, although many NDEs do not contain all these elements:

1. A sense of being dead.
2. A sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area (an OBE).
3. Pleasant feelings, calmness. A sense of overwhelming love and peace.
4. A sensation of moving upwards through a tunnel or narrow passageway.
5. Meeting deceased relatives or spirits.
6. Encountering a being of light, or a light (possibly a religious or divine figure).
7. Being given a life review.
8. Reaching a border or boundary.
9. A feeling of being returned to the body, often accompanied by a reluctance.

Some people have also experienced extremely distressing NDEs. A 'core' near-death experience reflects — as intensity increases according to the Rasch scale — peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences.

The most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time, and some of these observations are said to have been evidential. They may include elements which can best be explained by an out-of-body consciousness. In one account, a woman accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as a conversation that occurred while she was under general anesthesia. In another account, a man recovering from a heart attack apparently recognized the nurse who had removed his dentures while he was unconscious because he asked her to return them.

Dr. Michael Sabom reports a case about a woman who underwent surgery for an aneurysm. The woman reported an out-of-body experience that she claimed continued through a brief period of the absence of any EEG activity. If true, this would seem to challenge the belief by many that consciousness is situated entirely within the brain.

A majority of individuals who experience an NDE see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife. This includes those with agnostic/atheist inclinations before the experience. Many former atheists have adopted a more spiritual view after their NDEs.

As Greyson notes: "No one physiological or psychological model by itself explains all the common features of NDE. The paradoxical occurrence of heightened, lucid awareness and logical thought processes during a period of impaired cerebral perfusion raises particular perplexing questions for our current understanding of consciousness and its relation to brain function. A clear sensorium and complex perceptual processes during a period of apparent clinical death challenge the concept that consciousness is localized exclusively in the brain."

Research on NDEs occurring in the blind have also hinted that consciousness survives bodily death. Dr. Kenneth Ring notes in the book "Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind" that up to 80% of his sample studied reported some visual awareness during their NDE or out of body experience.

Some people who have had an NDE report encounters with deceased persons. Ken Mullens (1992;1995), who was clinically dead for more than 20 minutes, reported spiritual encounters in his life after his NDE. The deceased persons he communicated with were often unknown to him, but were connected to people he met at a later point. While skeptics attempt to discredit such reports, they remain a mystery, with no apparent medical or physical explanation.

NDE's can also lead to long-lasting spiritual effects. The mathematician John Wren-Lewis (1985), after his NDE, felt himself in a more or less permanent state of equanimity, feeling contact with the void and with no separate existence from the whole.

Judgment

Contemporary 21st century western culture frequently seeks to escape responsibility for action through a scientific explanation for action. Ancient cultures, and the religions that originated within these cultures, affirmed that we are responsible for all our actions and these actions are part of who we are. We are a good person or a bad person dependent upon what we have done. Contemporary Jews, Christians, and Muslims include in the understanding of a good person the intent and wish of that person to do something good as well as bad. Most legal systems are based on intention, willfulness, and what the person has actually done. One religious symbol of our continuing into the afterlife as a good person or a bad person is the act of Judgment by God or one of God’s delegates, for example, an angel.

File:Torcellomosaic.jpg

Last Judgement. 12th-century Byzantine mosaic from Torcello Cathedral.

All three religions have some version of a judgment scene - either upon the moment of the individual’s death or at the end of the world before or after resurrection. Since the concept of “soul” did not exist in ancient Judaism, judgment was first seen in reference to the nation of Judaism being judged as it carried out its covenant duties with God. As the idea of resurrection developed, so did the concept of a judgment at the end time that resulted in either resurrection to life or damnation to destruction. (Ezek 37:11-14. Dan 12:1-2). Christianity inherits and elaborates upon these images of judgment from its understanding of Jesus’ role as Messiah. The last book of the Christian Bible, Revelation, provides an especially vivid judgment scene and description of the place where God dwells, the heavenly Jerusalem(Rev. 21; 22). One is judged in Christianity as well as in Judaism according to how they have kept the covenant obligations. Of these obligations one obligation in particular is highlighted in both religions’ visions of judgment: how the nation and/or the individual cares for the poor. The judgment scene in the book of Matthew in the Christian Bible perhaps summarizes this emphasis the best when it describes Jesus coming at the end of time and all the people gathered around his judgment throne. He begins to divide people according to whether they gave drink to the thirsty, food to the hungry, and clothes to the naked. Those who were rejected asked “When did we see you like this?” and the judge, Jesus, says “When you didn’t do it for the least of those near you, you didn’t do it to me.”

As both Judaism and Christianity entered more deeply into a culture and language that emphasized the individual and accepted the concept of the soul, the vision of judgment at the end of the world began to be applied to the individual immediately after death. This judgment also began to reflect the dominant issues of the time. In Christianity, for example, the Ten Commandments were not central to norming the moral life for the first fifteen hundred years of the Christian tradition. Until the Protestant Reformation the Seven Deadly Sins were central in envisioning how people would be judged. From the sixteenth century onward the Ten Commandments held center stage. Among the Ten Commandments, the ones dealing with stealing and justice were more important (129 pages) than those dealing with sex (12 pages). An example of this is a comparison between moral manuals used by Catholic priests: in those used between 1598 and 1716, the seventh commandment had eighty-eight pages and the tenth, thirty five. The eighth had thirty one. The sixth had twelve and the ninth had none. God’s judgment at death and resurrection, therefore, would reflect these norms.

Islam also has the symbols associated with judgment. As we’ve seen, it also reflects more of the Greco-Roman world that surrounded it. Both the judgment of the soul, as well as the resurrection of the body, is present within the Qu’ran. The souls of the wicked are torn out of their body and questioned immediately upon death. Not recognizing God or his prophet they are condemned to the fires of Jahannam. The good person’s soul is not interrogated by the angels of death but gently released and led into the sleep of the faithful until the resurrection. According to some accounts, the good soul is led by the angels into the garden of life to await the resurrection. (Surah 16:28-32). The original judgment is affirmed at the resurrection and the consequent afterlives described as living in the garden of sensual delights for the good and the horrible tortures of Jahannam for the evil ones.

Eastern Culture

Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto

Today the pluralism of past Western cultures is matched by the pluralism of easily assessable visions of contemporary cultures and religions. One culture, however, only becomes visible to the other culture by adapting its language and way of life to the receiving culture. The result is that the symbols of the other culture may easily be understood through the concepts of the receiving culture as well as seen as meaning the same thing as in the receiving culture’s ideas. We have seen how Judaism and Christianity adapted to the Greco-Roman culture’s view of the soul. There were many other ideas and ways of life that were modified as Christianity became part of the Greco-Roman culture and, later, the cultures of Europe. Similar changes happen as the non-Western cultures enter the Western world through such avenues as the English language. Four adaptations, or translations, have special consequences for discussions of afterlife in the English language: the nature of the “I” that lives in the afterlife; the relationship of the afterlife to this life; the nature of ultimate reality; the manner through which the afterlife becomes better than this life.

File:Wheel life 01.jpg

The 'Wheel of Life' as portrayed within Buddhism, showing the cycle of Samsara, or reincarnation.

When those in the West ask the question “Do I exist?” They usually identify “I” with an awareness of the world around them, an ability to think, to desire, to will to do things, to remember, and to wish for a future that is beneficial to the one who is thinking, desiring, willing, and remembering. If they are members of one of the Western religions they believe that God is somewhat like them and possesses some of these same characteristics while still being completely different. Humans are not God. As members of these religions they believe that what they do and believe in this life effects their life in the next; they have only the one chance of this life to prepare for the next life. Time is linear. God is totally different from humans. There is an actual afterlife with this God.

Eastern religions do not look at life or afterlife in any of the ways we described above. The “I” as such does not exist since we are really all one. The universe, both seen and unseen, is one. Time is cyclical. The western word “God” is not applicable to ultimate reality. There is no afterlife as such, only this life lived in the right or wrong way which we live over and over till we get it right. A life lived correctly enables one to become one with the universe of which they are a part.

In Hinduism (3500 B.C.E.) the real “I” is eternal, is divine, and is actually the universe. Everything we sense is false and leads us away from the true reality of this universe. Death, too, is a moment marking the false world we have and are creating. Everything we do creates our future. Until we act and think correctly we are destined to live forever, incarnate in this false world we create. Life after life, reincarnation after reincarnation, follows our inability to rid ourselves of our karma, our creation of false lives. Only through liberating knowledge will we discover the true nature of the world we are a part of and break the endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. In experiencing the knowledge that we are the divine we, as a conscious, sensing, thinking, willing, remembering, entity ceases to exist. Various types of meditation enable us to have this experiencing knowledge. Another way to stop this false existence is through the way of devotion. In this instance, one focuses one’s attention on one of the many gods in the Hindu religion. In the Bhagavadgita, for example, Krishna promises freedom from this illusory world if one fixes their attention on Krishna alone and follows his way of life..

Buddhism (531 B.C.E.) , with its origins in Hinduism, looks at the individual’s future in much the same way: affirming the ideas of continual rebirth or reincarnation; the falsity of this world as we sense it and become attached to it; and, the need to escape from this false existence. While Hinduism emphasizes that ignorance binds us to this falsity, Buddhism emphasizes the fact that our desires create and bind us to a false mode of existence. We must extinguish all desire to be conscious, thinking, willing, remembering, and feeling. When we are nothing we are in nirvana, saved from all craving.

A Japanese graveyard in Kyoto. The thin wooden tablets behind the graves show the Buddhist name the deceased receives after death.

In both Hinduism and Buddhism many false worlds exist. These may be seen as various types of post death existences. Some of these occur while we are dying, others immediately after death, and sometimes for long times after death before we are re-born into the false world that surrounds us right now. These worlds are populated with various beings who try to pull us into their false worlds.

Daoism understands ultimate reality as harmony resulting from the two complementary and interdependent forces of Yin and Yang: the positive and negative; being and non-being; light and darkness. Humans are one aspect of the Dao whether alive or dead. Death is part of the everlasting harmony of the universe. Our will, desires, memory, feelings, freedom and body do not continue beyond death. One’s present life may be extended by such actions as living a moral life, regulating our eating, esoteric sexual activities, and interaction with others. Confucianism is much like Taoism in its emphasis upon harmony, the extension of this life by natural means, and the denial of an individual’s soul existence after death.

Shinto understands ultimate reality as kami, a spiritual force that transcends and is expressed in all things. Life is a mirror of this kami energy; death is its mirror opposite. It is important for one to live a life worthy of being remembered as a famous ancestor. Those who were famous enough as an ancestor would be remembered by all as worthy of becoming part of the eight hundred kinds of kami in the spirit world.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Lifton, Robert Jay. 1979. Broken Connection: On Death and the Continuity of Life. Simon and Schuster ISBN 0671225618

• Chidester, David. 2002. Patterns of Transcendence: Religion, Death and Dying. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. ISBN 0534506070

• Matlins, Stuart M. and Magida, Arthur J. 2006. How to Be a Perfect Stranger: A Guide to Other People’s Religious Ceremonies. 6th ed. Woodstock, VT Skylight Paths Publishing. ISBN 1594731403

• McDannel, Colleen and Lang, Bernhard. Heaven: A History New Haven, Yale University Press. ISBN 0300091079

• Swedenborg, Emmanuel. 2006. Heaven and Hell. Swedenborg Foundation ISBN 0877854769

• Fiore, Dr. Edith. 1987. The Unquiet Dead, Ballantine. ISBN 0345350839

• Borgia, Anthony. 1993. Life in the World Unseen. M B A Publishing. ISBN 0963643509

• Lee, Dr. Sang Hun. 1998. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth. Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. ISBN 091062190X

• World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts. Paragon House. ISBN 0892261293

External links

• Edward N. Zalta, (ed.), "Afterlife", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Retrieved February 18, 2007.
• "Death and Immortality", The Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library , Retrieved February 18, 2007.
• Denosky, J. 2000-2005. "After-Death Experience", SpiritualTravel.org Retrieved February 18, 2007.
• "About Reincarnation", Jayadvaita Swami, Retrieved February 19, 2007.
• "NDEs and the Afterlife", Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife, Retrieved February 19, 2007.
• Michael Martin, 1997; "Problems with Heaven (1997)" Retrieved February 19, 2007.
• "VERITAS Research Program", University of Arizona. 2007, Retrieved February 19, 2007.
• William Rounseville Alger, 1878; "The Destiny of the Soul: A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life", Project Gutenberg, Retrieved February 19, 2007.
• "Home Page", Experiences of the Afterlife, Retrieved February 20, 2007.
• "Eternity", Eternal Perspective Ministries, Retrieved February 20, 2007.
• Victor J. Zammit, 2006; "A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife", victorjzammit.com, Retrieved February 20, 2007.
• Nell Gavin, 2002. "Reincarnation, Fact or Fantasy?", nellgavin.com, Retrieved February 20. 2007.

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