Explain why some people believe that the paranormal proves there is a life after death.

Explain why some people believe that the paranormal proves there is a life after death.                (8)

Many people religious or not believe that there is some form of life after death, and many people claim to have evidence for their theory, For example;  Near death experiences, ghosts, mediums (contacting the dead) or reincarnation.

Many people claim to have had near death experiences.  These have been reported by patients who have been pronounced dead or a short amount of time. People who have had an experience usually describe leaving their bodies, and seeing relatives and friends who have died or a bright light they feel they want to travel towards, convincing them that there is an afterlife. A near death experience is good evidence that there is a life after death because there are many cases where people have been able to recall exactly what happened during an operation when they clinically dead. People may argue that the person may have woken up during surgery but this would’ve been impossible as they were being monitored so carefully that if she had have started to regain consciousness the monitors would pick up this is up with her brain activity. An Example of this is; In a recent operation in American a woman with a brain tumour had all the blood drained from her brain prior to the operation (the brain was 'dead') and yet she was still able to describe the core experience and the operating room even though she was brought into the room after her brain had ceased to function.  Scientists find it difficult to rationally explain what happened to her and how she was able to describe events during her operation.

Ghosts and contacting the dead is also a very popular belief that convinces many people that there is definitely a life after death. Ghosts are thought to be the spirits of dead people who for some reason have not travelled on o the ’next place’. Ghosts can either be a physical presence which can be seen or the feeling of the presence of somebody with you. People believe that ghosts come back to haunt the living, to look after and support loved ones, or just to contact the living. People such as mediums claim they are able to contact the dead, they can communicate between the real world which we live in and the spirit world which is believed to be the home of the dead. Gordon Smith is an example of a medium and has produced hundreds of accurate and detailed messages from the dead, on many occasions.  Ouija boards are also believed to be able to contact the dead. The Ouija board consists of a flat board with the letters of the alphabet, some numbers, punctuation marks and yes and no. People using it place their fingers lightly on a pointer or an upturned glass which moves. They claim that the pointer then spells out messages. This is good evidence for an afterlife because mediums provide very accurate and detailed explanations that could not be known unless they had actually contacted the dead. E.g. the medium is capable of finding out the name of the person deceased, how they died, where they lived, what they were interested in, sentimental values and events in the family etc without knowing any information about the family, or the person they are contacting, the whole identity of them is a secret until he has spoken to the deceased. Surely if it is possible for the dead to contact the living and vice versa then there must be an afterlife? These messages can’t just come from nowhere?