I would say the near-death experience (NDE) comes closest to proving that human consciousness continues posthumously but even so one might wonder how this is reassuring to necrophobes. Consider that despite there being many people who fear death on account of a secular/materialist worldview, what is seldom considered are those who know in their gut that death is not the end and fear what may follow; say, in the form of a punitive and/or horrific hereafter. Even so, personal testimonies of, and supposed scientific evidence for, the NDE remain as popular as ever, as is recently shown by the number of ratings and reviews on this site of the documentary film, "After Death" (2023).
Released in 1976 (about the time of Raymond Moody's pioneering publication), WORLD BEYOND DEATH also seeks to prove that death is not to be feared in the sense of it being thought of as the final nail in one's coffin, but the evidence it offers for this isn't near as convincing as a good NDE story.
The late Swiss psychiatrist and thanatologist, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross is briefly featured in this and she's about the only interviewee worth seriously listening to, who has something relatively substantial to say on the subject. As far as I could tell, there was no ectoplasm emanating from her nostrils, which is more than can be said for a few b&w snapshots shown in the video of what clearly appears to be the work of apparent charlatans. (Facial tissue, anyone?)
One of my favorite researchers and authors of all things unexplained was the late Brad Steiger, of which the end credits inform helped in the writing of the video, and although much of the content contained in WORLD BEYOND DEATH is fascinating from a paranormal perspective, suffice it to say none of it comes close to 'proving' the existence of an afterlife...but if anything, the possibility that talents and even what so-called experiencers believe to be their own out-of-body memories may be nothing other than the transferred/instilled skills and thoughts of nonhuman intelligences.
So we listen to a doctor tell of a diving experience in which while underwater and injured he says he left his physical body and traveled through the cosmos. Okay, and...? Unless you're an astronaut or a sci-fi buff, how is this in any way of comfort in knowing? Elsewhere in the video we meet an untrained pianist who claims to be a conduit for several a long-deceased Classical composer, who allegedly use her hands to play through her. Just when you thought the phenomenon of automatic writing 'proved' that life continues after death, along comes automatic piano-playing to convince only the gullible of this. Naturally, no video on the survival of human consciousness would be complete without the inclusion of a self-professed spirit medium and so, voila, there she appears in front of a gathering of woefully credulous and teary eyed believers, conducting what skeptics would describe as a 'cold reading.' As for the scene of a man who under hypnosis is treated to a past-life regression, the word hooey comes to mind. With perhaps the most interesting of all those featured in this being a man by the name of William Welch, of whom it is said managed to capture over 20,000 discarnate voices on audiotape in his lifetime.
As someone who would not find postmortem nothingness the least bit disagreeable but who nevertheless intuits that the human spirit/soul lives on in some form or another, needless to say I did not go into this viewing hoping to be converted to its message. More than anything, I found WORLD BEYOND DEATH to pure, enjoyably corny entertainment, unintentionally amusing in parts, and for that I give it a generous rating.
In an opening scene we listen in as a minister (curiously) teaches evolutionary theory from the pulpit, if only to illustrate that death is akin to a lifeform that inevitably transforms from its original condition into a full-grown butterfly. Doubtless such a warm-and-fuzzy concept is for many people enough to make them look at a corpse in an entirely different light.
Released in 1976 (about the time of Raymond Moody's pioneering publication), WORLD BEYOND DEATH also seeks to prove that death is not to be feared in the sense of it being thought of as the final nail in one's coffin, but the evidence it offers for this isn't near as convincing as a good NDE story.
The late Swiss psychiatrist and thanatologist, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross is briefly featured in this and she's about the only interviewee worth seriously listening to, who has something relatively substantial to say on the subject. As far as I could tell, there was no ectoplasm emanating from her nostrils, which is more than can be said for a few b&w snapshots shown in the video of what clearly appears to be the work of apparent charlatans. (Facial tissue, anyone?)
One of my favorite researchers and authors of all things unexplained was the late Brad Steiger, of which the end credits inform helped in the writing of the video, and although much of the content contained in WORLD BEYOND DEATH is fascinating from a paranormal perspective, suffice it to say none of it comes close to 'proving' the existence of an afterlife...but if anything, the possibility that talents and even what so-called experiencers believe to be their own out-of-body memories may be nothing other than the transferred/instilled skills and thoughts of nonhuman intelligences.
So we listen to a doctor tell of a diving experience in which while underwater and injured he says he left his physical body and traveled through the cosmos. Okay, and...? Unless you're an astronaut or a sci-fi buff, how is this in any way of comfort in knowing? Elsewhere in the video we meet an untrained pianist who claims to be a conduit for several a long-deceased Classical composer, who allegedly use her hands to play through her. Just when you thought the phenomenon of automatic writing 'proved' that life continues after death, along comes automatic piano-playing to convince only the gullible of this. Naturally, no video on the survival of human consciousness would be complete without the inclusion of a self-professed spirit medium and so, voila, there she appears in front of a gathering of woefully credulous and teary eyed believers, conducting what skeptics would describe as a 'cold reading.' As for the scene of a man who under hypnosis is treated to a past-life regression, the word hooey comes to mind. With perhaps the most interesting of all those featured in this being a man by the name of William Welch, of whom it is said managed to capture over 20,000 discarnate voices on audiotape in his lifetime.
As someone who would not find postmortem nothingness the least bit disagreeable but who nevertheless intuits that the human spirit/soul lives on in some form or another, needless to say I did not go into this viewing hoping to be converted to its message. More than anything, I found WORLD BEYOND DEATH to pure, enjoyably corny entertainment, unintentionally amusing in parts, and for that I give it a generous rating.
In an opening scene we listen in as a minister (curiously) teaches evolutionary theory from the pulpit, if only to illustrate that death is akin to a lifeform that inevitably transforms from its original condition into a full-grown butterfly. Doubtless such a warm-and-fuzzy concept is for many people enough to make them look at a corpse in an entirely different light.
