ABSTRACT
There is an extensive literature on the ostensible evidence for survival of bodily death and it will only be possible to touch on a very small part of it. A much longer, but still very incomplete, list of references is given by Gauld in 1977. The most consistently remarkable mediumistic communications of which there are full records and detailed assessments are undoubtedly those which 'came through' two mental mediums, the American Mrs Leonora E. Piper, and the British Mrs Gladys Osborne Leonard. The best-known apparent evidence for reincarnation comes from certain much-publicised cases of supposed hypnotic regression into past lives. Apparitions of deceased persons are by no means uncommon, but only a few can be regarded as constituting possible evidence for survival. The interpretations put upon the ostensible evidence for survival tend to be heavily influenced by extraneous considerations. Among recent works generally favourable to a survivalist interpretation are those by Ducasse, Stevenson and Almeder.
