“In The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life after Death, Michael Martin and Keith Augustine collect a series of contributions that redress this imbalance in the literature by providing a strong, comprehensive, and up-to-date casebook of the chief arguments against an afterlife.”

 

“Fully interdisciplinary, The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life after Death brings together a variety of fields of research to make that case, including cognitive neuroscience, philosophy of mind, personal identity, philosophy of religion, moral philosophy, psychical research, and anomalistic psychology. As the definitive casebook of arguments against life after death, this collection is required reading for any instructor, researcher, and student of philosophy, religious studies, or theology. It is sure to raise provocative issues new to readers, regardless of background, from those who believe fervently in the reality of an afterlife to those who do not or are undecided on the matter.”

“Its rigor, relentless argumentation, and careful attention to the evidence and possible objections make it a major and unique contribution to a topic long neglected by scientists. Its main virtue, in fact, is simply to take the idea of the afterlife and its consequences seriously, and see where this leads.”
Sebastian Dieguez
Cognitive neuroscientist, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Skeptic Magazine

“(…)marshals overwhelming evidence against the idea that human consciousness can survive physical death.”
Tom Flynn
Editor, Free Inquiry

“What all these papers show is how quickly a range of insurmountable problems arise as soon as implications are drawn out from the unconsidered and cosseted beliefs of those devoted to rebirth and survival. As long as people pick and mix their ideas without acknowledging the logical relations between them, they will wallow in delusions. The arguments in this excellent book should sway the open-minded. It is also bulky enough for self-defence.”
Paul Taylor
The Skeptic Magazine (UK)

“Claus Flodin Larsen provides an amusing account of the subterfuges used by mediums to establish their claims and of the poor quality research that is sometimes called upon to vindicate those claims.”
William Hasker, Huntington University
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

“Ultimately, the value of The Myth of an Afterlife lies in its comprehensiveness.  It recognizes that “…a volume that focuses on arguments against an afterlife is essential for revealing the full force of the case against life after death,” (xxix) and in this capacity, it delivers.  For the novice, it serves as an advanced but approachable introduction to the facets and literature of the survivalist-mortalist debate across a wide variety of disciplines, with especially helpful introductions and overviews provided by the editors.  For the more advanced scholar, it serves as a reference work, providing convenient summaries and surveys of the literature and studies in addition to the proffered arguments.  Lastly, for any intellectually honest survivalist, it is a catalog of the myriad challenges against his or her view that must be neutralized in order to render the view defensible.”
C.M. Lorkowski
Metapsychology Online Reviews

“Likewise, the world of mediumship has been notoriously fraudulent, and this is aptly addressed by Augustine and his peers. Mediums have many tricks to give the impression that they know something they could not have known by natural means.”
…
“The present volume, then, is a great resource for anyone interested in one of the greatest question humanity has ever asked: is death truly the end? Its chapters make a convincing case against the survival hypothesis.”
Dr. Gabriel Andrade

Steven Pinker
Cognitive scientist, Harvard University