Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

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Product Description
What happens to the spirit after the body dies?

In Life After Death, Deepak Chopra draws on cutting-edge scientific discoveries and the great wisdom traditions to provide a map of the afterlife. He tells us there is abundant evidence that “the world beyond” is not separated from this world by an impassable wall; in fact, a single reality embraces all worlds, all times and places.

“A must-read for everyone who will die.”
—Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., author of Molecules of Emotion

“A penetrating and insightful investigation into the greatest mystery of existence. This is an important book because only by facing death will we come to a deeper realization of who we are.”
—Eckhart Tolle, author of A New Earth and The Power of Now

“If I had any doubts about the afterlife, I don’t have them anymore. Deepak Chopra has cast his inimitable light on the darkened corners of death. I think this is his greatest contribution yet.”
—Marianne Williamson, author of The Age of Miracles and The Gift of Change

Customer Reviews: Read 93 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A Wonderful Fusion of Science and Spirituality October 29, 2006
144 out of 159 found this review helpful

In this book, Deepak Chopra gives us an intriguing look at both the scientific and spiritual aspects of life after death. For several years I've been looking for a book that helps to reconcile the afterlife with what we are learing in the field of quantum physics and this book comes as close to offering a cogent analysis as anything I have seen. Using a Hindu folk tale about death as a springboard, Chopra examines issues related to Near Death Experiences, Reincarnation, Remote Viewing, ESP and many more by examining the areas in which Science and the Vedic Tradition merge. This book is enjoyable to read, but requires a little time to digest. Although written from a Hindu perspective, Chopra takes the time to discuss other spiritual traditions, including Christianity and Buddhism. This will be a wonderful addition to your collection of philosophical works.

4 out of 5 stars

A Book of Meaning. October 17, 2006
91 out of 113 found this review helpful

Deepak Chopra has presented in his latest book 'Life After Death: The Burden of Proof' the one question mankind has commonly been concerned with since our existance: what happens to the spirit and soul after our physical death here on earth? Drawing from his life's work, Chopra positions the reader to take interest in his conclusions through his gifted ability as a storyteller; however, what is more important is his hard conclusion that the soul continues on in journey through presenting concepts that we can all understand. Chopra eagerly points out that death is miraculous and a "doorway to a far more important event--the beginning of the afterlife" and "can be as creative as living."

Overall, this is a spiritually uplifting book that will make readers pause and reflect. I was able to actually hear my heartbeat slow down a bit. If you are interested in further study, I highly recommend Robert J. Geis' book titled 'Personal Existence After Death: Reductionist Circularities and the Evidence'. Chopra touches on what Geis layed out in easy but much more evidentary detail: arguments against immortality have little proof value, while the argument for immortality has concrete data one can examine: long-term memory seems to be non-localizable, hence giving man a possible non-spatial dimension. Consciousness requires a unifying principle to hold together simultaneously all the billions of data bits entering awareness.

2 out of 5 stars

Silly Westerner! Convert to Hinduism and Accept Chopra As Your Guru! December 28, 2006
49 out of 74 found this review helpful

A better title: "Silly Westerner! Convert to Hinduism and Accept Deepak Chopra As Your Guru!"

Five problems:

1.) the book misrepresents the Western, Judeo-Christian tradition,

2.) it whitewashes Hinduism,

3.) it fudges near death experiences,

4.) its intellectual foundation is a mishmash of cherry-picked anecdotes and factoids, and

5.) Chopra's ego.

According to Chopra, you should convert to Hinduism from the Christian / Western worldview because that worldview makes an enemy of death (17), The Christian God spends his time as an accountant adding and subtracting good and bad human deeds (71), Christians refuse to take responsibility (75), Christians make Satan real by believing in Satan (75), Christianity is just another version of Akasha, a Hindu concept (88), and, most ironic of all, people in the West are too driven by ego needs (262).

Chopra's take on Christianity is contemptuous, but more importantly, it is distorted.

Let's just take one falsehood. Christianity, like all cultures, Chopra says, "believes that bad deeds are inescapable." This is such a whopper, one wonders about the editors who passed it. The foundational, and well-known, promise of Christianity is that Christ offers redemption to all from all sin.

Chopra pits superior Hinduism against inferior Christianity like a promoter urging on his champion at a cockfight. Chopra's take on Hinduism includes the following:

* our lives are, most importantly, illusions, comparable to dreams or theatrical plays,

* we create our own reality by what we think. We can operate light switches or bring on world peace by thinking the right thoughts,

* focus on the self is central to the highest good, since the self is one with God. "The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgment" (231).

In 282 pages, Chopra never so much as alludes to the inarguable downside to the above beliefs.

I have great respect for the best in Hinduism, having spent years in the Indian subcontinent. Hindus were my neighbors, coworkers, and friends, and I honor them. At the same time, if you read penetrating cultural critics like V. S. Naipaul, you have to admit that, at their worst, these beliefs have included the following downsides:

* a conviction that life is just a theatrical play or dream with no reality has often lead to a lack of compassion and rejection of responsible action.

Chopra presents an image of war-ravaged villagers. With a wave of his hand, Chopra dismisses those villagers as a mere show (119-120). The villagers' suffering does not matter, because they are not, in any important sense, real; they exist only for the edification of the observer.

Even atheist historians argue for the Judeo-Christian tradition's centrality in introducing and cultivating the concept of the individual. When you see those villagers as individuals important in the eyes of God, their slaughter, so cavalierly dismissed by Chopra, becomes an issue of note; when you see yourself as an individual capable of agency, that can inspire compassionate, engaged action.

Chopra argues for the Hindu concept of karma. Karma has been used to justify, indeed, to sacralize, the world's longest-running human rights atrocity: the treatment of Untouchables and women in Hindu societies. As long as you believe that all suffering in this life is sacred punishment for immorality in a previous life, the horrific mistreatment of Untouchables and women becomes, not just acceptable, but holy. Chopra doesn't touch this with a ten-foot pole.

Again and again, Chopra advises his reader that one must focus on the self. If you believe that everything is a manifestation of the divine human mind - thought alone can operate a light switch, or cause or cure cancer - this focus on the self becomes understandable. If you don't believe that, by thinking, you can operate a light switch, this focus on the self is obnoxious, egotistical, poison. But advising followers that indulging their own narcissism sells books.

Yes, other faith traditions, like Hinduism, have downsides - the difference is that anyone urging you to convert to Christianity would have to own up to, and answer for, the dark side of the Christian tradition. Chopra doesn't even acknowledge a dark side to the Hindu tradition.

Chopra's summation of Near Death experiences is inaccurate. One small example: to support his own belief that the mind creates everything it encounters, Chopra argues that people always have NDEs representing their own tradition. That's simply not true. Jews have seen Jesus. Christians have seen the Bab. People have seen visions that do not correspond to any known tradition. Children report visions that do not correspond to their parents' beliefs.

Chopra's intellectual scaffold is a hodgepodge of scholarly and non-scholarly sources and anecdotes. He cites scholars, like Richard Dawkins, who certainly disagree with him; he tries to harness physics to support what he says. A physicist friend of mine reported to me how sick physicists are of non-physicists trying to lasso their work into saying something it does not.

What's perhaps most obvious, and most indigestible, in this book is Deepak Chopra's ego. Before you can even get to the text you have to wade through *thirteen pages* of embarrassing encomiums, wherein hosannas declare Chopra the best thing since sliced bread. A person with a normal-sized ego would never let those pages go to press.

Chopra's alter ego in the book is an all-knowing guru named Ramana who educates a nubile princess, Savitri. "I am deeply grateful for all you have taught me," Savitri coos. His great love for humanity causes Ramana to incarnate to educate us. Deepak Chopra dismisses Christianity, one guesses, because its central truth interferes with his own Messiah complex.

PS: I just read, at the Skeptic website, Deepak Chopra's full response to Michael Shermer's critique of this book.

I thought Chopra's response was very good, very worth reading, and very different from this book.

In his response to Shermer, Chopra avoided all the pitfalls of this book -- Chopra didn't misrepresent Christianity or Hinduism, and he didn't lead with his ego.

Rather, in his debate with Shermer, Chopra focused on presenting his best evidence to refute Shermer, and ruthlessly pointed out the weaknesses in Shermer's argument. Chopra was often sharp, even sarcastic, and that worked better for me than the mushiness of the folktales in his book. He wasn't the compassionate guru. He was the impatient seeker of truth who does not suffer fools. I liked that.

So, I'd give Chopra's response to Shermer, on the same topic as this book, four stars. I wish his book had revealed the same focus.

5 out of 5 stars

The science behind consciousness December 27, 2006
42 out of 45 found this review helpful

This book presents a very good discussion of the principles of quantum theory that support ancient Vedic beliefs about the consciousness of the universe. Earlier titles that covered similar ground include The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav, The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra and The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, but Chopra's new work is worth reading because it includes scientific information that was not yet discovered when these other books were written.

Chopra neatly articulates a few of the basic Vedic beliefs about the continuance of human consciousness after the death of the physical body, and then marshalls evidence from quantum physics to support these ancient ideas. This includes the classic idea that human souls "devolve" and incarnate in physical form in order to experience life lessons that are charted while in between lives, a state that the Tibetans called the Bardo. (You can read a lot more about this in a first-rate book by Michael Newton called Journey of Souls.)

The sub-title of the book, "the burden of proof," is somewhat misleading, as Chopra doesn't actually attempt to "prove" anything. Instead he focuses on the quantum concept of randomness at the most minute, sub-atomic levels of the universe and the role that consciousness plays in influencing how that randomness eventually plays out in either/or choices. He eventually leads the reader to the BIG IDEA of the book -- that the whole universe and everything in it is conscious, and that together all conscious beings create reality. That includes rocks, trees, cosmic dust, the works. By the time Chopra gets to this rather awesome statement, the reader (or at least this particular reader) is ready to believe that it could not only be possible, but even likely.

It's a tough topic to summarize effectively in a review, so I will say only that I have read many, many books on the topic of life after death, as well as issues related to it, and this book is above average. I have only one reservation: It is a bit slow going in the beginning of the book, not helped by the fact that Chopra introduces the book by telling an old, rather rambling parable about a woman who tries to cheat death. Stick with it, though, and you will be rewarded because the text picks up speed at the book's mid point, and ends up offering a wealth of ideas to consider regarding post-death survival.

5 out of 5 stars

At last! October 20, 2006
36 out of 48 found this review helpful

I got this book the instant it came out.This is the topic I have been looking for from Deepak. I've always felt that his background in medicine, spiritual experience and wisdom traditions puts him in an almost unique position to really dig into the subject of the afterlife. He really delivers. This is a facinating read for the intellectually and spiritually curious.

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