Paul Perry (1)

As someone who's always been fascinated by near-death experiences (NDEs) and the question of an afterlife, I was excited to dive into "Evidence of the Afterlife" by Dr. Jeffrey Long. While the book is filled with compelling and interesting content, I couldn't help but feel that the writing style left much to be desired. The text comes across as repetitive and lacks the polish of a seasoned author. However, considering that Dr. Long is a researcher and not a professional writer, I was willing to look past these shortcomings to better understand the intriguing subject matter.

The main issue I have with the book is that Dr. Long appears to equate the reality of NDEs with the existence of an afterlife. While he spends a significant amount of time presenting evidence for the genuine nature of NDEs, the leap to conclude that these experiences prove the existence of an afterlife seems too simplistic. While near-death experiences (NDEs) are undeniably real phenomena, shared by people of all cultures and walks of life, this does not prove the existence of an afterlife.

Some of the book's arguments piqued my interest as a skeptic who is willing to be persuaded. The accounts of NDEs and the patterns discovered by Dr. Long can be viewed as evidence of something beyond our current understanding. Unfortunately, the book stops short of offering conclusive evidence for an afterlife. It's possible that NDEs reveal a beautiful and comforting end to our existence, rather than a glimpse into an otherworldly realm.

Overall, "Evidence of the Afterlife" offers a fascinating exploration of NDEs and raises thought-provoking questions about the nature of human consciousness and the possibility of an afterlife. While the writing style and some of the author's conclusions may be less than satisfying, the book is still worth a read for anyone interested in delving deeper into the mysteries of near-death experiences.… (more)

Written in 1990, twenty-five years after the famed Kool-aid acid trips, Paul Perry pulls together interviews from the most influential mindbenders of the day: Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Ram Dass, and of course, Neal Cassady...to name a few. They look back on the time when a total of thirteen free spirits (fourteen, if you count the teenaged neighbor) called themselves the Merry Pranksters, boarded a psychedelically painted school bus, and hit the road in search of the ultimate trip. What started as acid parties in Neal Cassady's San Francisco home soon became experimentations on the road in the converted bus they christened, "Furthur." Traveling through Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, New York, and Calgary before heading home to Big Sur, California, they conducted their LSD tests, made new friends, connected with musicians like Wavy Gravy and Jerry Garcia, and rode the wave of the psychedelic revolution. By the time the Merry Pranksters got home they were never the same again.
What I am constantly wondering about is how much of the tapes and recordings of the trip survived?… (more)