Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

The dedication of this book sort of sets the tone -- For My Parents, Wherever They Are or Aren't.

Mary Roach could have been the original doubting Thomas, except that I don't remember him being this funny. From her surprisingly wildly successful book 'Stiff' (about, well, stiffs) she felt she had left readers wondering what the soul was up to while the body was lending a helping hand (or head, or heart) to the betterment of the human race. So she's back with some interesting stories that combine extensive research, a spooky subject, and an ascerbic wit that I find simply wonderful.

As she says, this is a book for people who would like very much to believe in a soul and in an afterlife for it to hand around in but who have trouble accepting these things on faith.

Don't expect to change your mind from whatever you believe now. The religious, especially those who go around blowing people up because they don't think correctly, will go around blowing people up. Those without the FAITH of even a mustard seed will not suddenly weep with joy as scientific proof convinces every Thomas of his faith.

But from front to back you'll have a fun time reading, wondering how people could seriously do these things. Great Fun!

Having told us all about what happens to people's bodies after death in the funny and informative book -Stiff_, Mary Roach has gone beyond, to tell us what happens to their souls. Well, not exactly; there are lots of opinions on the matter, not necessarily religious ones, and she investigates the more-or-less scientific explanations in _Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife_ (W. W. Norton). And just because she has a fine sense of the absurd, she is quite at home writing about, and even visiting, the nutters who do not like our ignorance of the regions beyond death and have made it their mission to clear everything up. That they do not quite succeed is not at all surprising. There may be little scientific evidence of the actual existence of souls, and anyway, as supernatural entities they would not be fit subjects for scientific investigation. Humans have spent thousands of years wondering about what happens after death, and most religions have something to say upon the subject, but when we got to the scientific age it was time to start asking about the issue scientifically. A lot of silliness has ensued, much of it has amused Roach, and she has unflaggingly communicated her amusement to us in wisecracking prose that is just the right tone for such a subject.

Perhaps the most famous scientific investigation of the soul was the one that discovered it weighed 21 grams, an amount that has even been turned into a movie title. Actually, Dr. Duncan Macdougall, a surgeon, reported the soul to weigh three-fourths of an ounce, but as Roach says, "Who's going to go see a movie called _Point Seven Five Ounces_?" In 1901, Macdougall weighed a patient at expiration and found the expected weight drop; it did not seem to bother him that he was confusing the issues about souls by making them material substances. Such research is not dead; Roach interviews Gerry Nahum, a medical school professor, who wants to weigh and do other thermodynamic research on souls, but is having trouble getting funding, even from the Catholic Church. Spiritualism is here, of course, and Roach even goes to a weekend school for spiritualists in England. She gets advice on readings that sounds like the basics for making a television career as a medium: "Stick with the everyday. Try to be general because there's a better likelihood you'll be right." And she finds herself looking at her partner's clothes and accessories for clues. She comes away, though, with the realization that mediums are not intentionally duping their clients, but have duped themselves into thinking they are channeling information from paranormal sources, and they profit from eager and uncritical subjects. Overall, she is disappointed with what the dead are able to tell us. They ought to be bursting to tell us all about the afterlife that has been the subject of our curiosity ever since we understood what death was. Roach wants to know: "Hey, where are you now? What do you do all day? What's it feel like being dead? Can you see me? Even when I'm on the toilet? Would you cut that out?" We don't get good answers, and we don't good advice on stock tips. One spook informed us that the afterlife was just like Florida without the humidity, and that fat people are thin there.

Roach goes to India to investigate those who are researching the return of spirits to new bodies, in a chapter delightfully titled "You Again: A Visit to the Reincarnation Nation." Beware if you are a rogue Brahman, as the pertinent scriptures say you may reincarnate as "the ghost Ulkamukha, an eater of vomit." She comes across people who feel that spirits are communicating with them by means of anomalies in their computers' spell-checkers, and find that explanation "less far-fetched than a software glitch." She goes to the Donner Camp Picnic Ground (which is a real place) with researchers who think that electronic gadgets might pick up the voices of the cannibalized dead. There are indeed sounds recorded on the outing, but their significance is uncertain: the enthusiast with her heard, "I need more milk," while she herself heard "a rapid, metallic `gobba-lobba-ob.'" She is a generous interviewer, wide-eyed but not credulous. In fact, she applies a sensible skepticism to all her research, but comes to the conclusion that such a stance isn't much fun; when she jokes, "The debunkers are probably right, but they're no fun to visit a graveyard with," she is merely confirming that science is going to have little to say in affirmation of the issue, but we will keep wondering. It's a fine end to a book that has a huge amount of arcane knowledge and good humor in it. Where else, after all, are you going to find out that Elizabeth Taylor reported a near-death experience, but was pushed out of the spirit world and back to Earth by her husband Mike Todd who had gone before her. Roach adds, "Whether this was done for her benefit or his is not clear."

My husband and I heard the interview with Mary Roach on NPR independently of each other. It was the first time either one of us felt compelled to buy a book immediately. We were going by a book store that night so popped in and purchased it (after much searching with staff help). Spook was not disappointing! Roach's witty but irreverent style of writing is most entertaining. She tackles, from a very unscientific position, science's search for the soul, ghosts, spiritual mediums, reincarnation, out-of-body experiences and the like. I laughed the whole time I was reading it and not until the last line do we find out if she is a believer or skeptic. I am going to recommend this to my book club even. I've already recommended it to a number of friends.

After finishing Spook, I went out and bought her book, Stiff. I enjoyed learning about what happens to cadavers but I don't think my book club would be as keen on it. It maybe a touch gory for some.

I certainly look forward to Roach's next book. My hope is that she writes about consciousness next!

If Woody Allen were to write a science book, this would be it. Mary Roach utilizes her enormous wit to make her sometimes highly technical investigations fascinating and fun. She admits to being a skeptic, but suspends disbelief as she investigates the supernatural world. She is enormously fair. She readily admits that the skeptics may be right "but they are no fun to go to the graveyard with." So she maintains that spirit of wonder as she exacts the high standard of proof that science demands. If you are looking for validation that ghosts, without a doubt, are watching you sleep, she will not provide that certainty. But she will tell you about the sometimes ingenius ways that spiritualists and paranormal specialists are going about trying to prove it. So her book is somewhat like Lewis Thomas' NOTES OF A BIOLOGY WATCHER in that you get a layman's education on how the soul has been searched for. You get Woody Allen's wit and Carl Sagan's concern for unbiased evidence as you travel through this fascinating culture of afterlife specialists who just may, in the end, be privy to dimensions the rest of us cannot see.

Whatever the topic or format, Ms. Roach brings to her work a wonderfully wry sense of irony. This book is no exception; it will keep you laughing and leave you wondering how we humans survive our own bizarre preoccupations and ambitions. Ms. Roach also has a unique gift of compassion and empathy, seasoned with rigorous skepticism, and is apparently completely without pretense. She gets quickly to the heart of any matter without ever losing heart or rubbing the noses of fools in their own folly.

This book is similar in format to her first book, Stiff; it is comprised of a series of chapters in which Ms. Roach looks over someone's shoulder as that person goes about business. In Stiff, we learned of the many ways cadavers are used; in Spook, we learn of attempts to validate the existence and nature of the soul, or some entity that endures beyond a single body's mortal life. While the subjects in Stiff were mostly to be admired for pursuing valuable science no matter how revolting, the subjects in this book are often far afield anything most readers would call science or, in some cases, reality. To appreciate the work of the denizens of Spook, one must value the subjects for their hearts and aspirations instead of appreciating their scientific contributions.

In Stiff, each chapter brought us to a new and different question of scientific process and ethics. In every new setting, a remarkable wealth of collateral information, fascinating asides, and thoughtful consideration illuminated the purpose and value of some individual's unique and arcane pursuit. Spook is similarly packed with information, all of it delightful and surprising. Due to the nature of the topic, the author's research took her to a far broader set of disciplines than just science and ethics. This is truly a work of cultural history and psychology as well as a study of how people use and abuse scientific methods.

Whether your background and affinities lean towards or away from science, this book will entertain and inform you. It is a delightful consideration of, and example of, the human capacity to explore, connect, hope, dream and laugh.