Table of Contents

1. Have You Ever Perceived the Presence of a Person Who Has Died? 2. Visual Experiences 3. Auditory Perceptions 4. Someone Touched Me! 5. That Smells Familiar 6. Sensing an Invisible Presence 7. Experiences at the Moment of Death 8. How soon after Death were the Deceased Encountered? 9. Who were the Deceased Persons? 10. Who or What is the Source of the Apparitional Experience? 11. Accidents and Violent Deaths: Sailors and Death by Drowning 12. Accidental Deaths on Land 13. Suicide 14. Murder or Manslaughter 15. Circumstances, State of Mind and Consequences 16. Widows and Widowers 17. How did the Phenomena Appear and Disappear and How Long Did it Last? 18. How Physically Real was the Experience? 19. Was the Whole Body Visible or only Part of It? 20. Unusual Behaviour of Animals 21. Meaning and Messages 22. Experiences from Childhood 23. Localized Apparitions 24. Person-Centered Apparitions 25. Warnings and Rescue at Sea 26. Guidance and Words of Warning 27. Healers and Cures 28. Mediums and Psychics 29. Is Someone Watching Over Us? 30. I've Got a Bad Feeling About This 31. They Showed up For Their Funeral 32. Obtaining Information Unknown Before the Encounter 33. Multiple Witnesses 34. Indirect Verification 35. Representative Surveys on Approaches to the Afterlife 36. Belief in Life After Death Among Participants 37. Crucial Features of After-Death Encounters 38. Arguments For and Against an Afterlife 39. Personal Experiences. Appendix A: Comparison of the two surveys References Acknowledgements Appendix B: The Questionnaire

About the Author

Erlendur Haraldsson is a Professor emeritus of psychology at the Faculty of social science at the University of Iceland who, despite having retired from his former post at the University of Iceland, continues to be an active academic. He has published work in various parapsychology journals, and done work with Ian Stevenson and Karlis Osis on reincarnation research. As well as doing work in Iceland, Haraldsson worked in the United States and at the University of Freiburg, in Germany. While in the United States, he worked with J.B. Rhine. He has written several books including Modern Miracles: An investigative report on psychic phenomena associated with Sri Sathya Sai Baba (1997), At the Hour of Death (1997), and The Departed Among the Living: An Investigative Study of Afterlife Encounters (2012)

Reviews

The Departed Among the Living is a profound challenge to the assumption that human consciousness is annihilated with the death of the brain and body. Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson's meticulous, fascinating research will validate those who already believe in life after death, and should stimulate serious reflection in those who do not. This book will almost certainly become a classic in the field of survival research. - Larry Dossey, M.D. Author of "Healing Words" and "Reinventing Medicine" With nearly three quarters of Icelanders stating a belief in some form of survival of bodily death, we might expect a substantial amount of evidence to be reported. Thanks to Erlendur Haraldsson, one of the outstanding field researchers of our time, much of this evidence is now available to us, in one of the most important books of its kind since the classic 1886 survey Phantasms of the Living. - Guy Lyon Playfair, author of The Flying Cow and Twin Telepathy "When you start thinking about the meaning of your life and the best way to live, the question of whether it's all material, you die and everything is over, versus whether we continue on in some form as part of a spiritual existence, becomes very important. Do I really care about meaning and the consequences of my actions since it all ends suddenly and I'm gone, no regrets, no real satisfactions? It would mean a lot to think you can plan for a long existence of spiritual evolution, but is that all a myth as we think science says, an opiate for the masses to keep them obedient while the smart exploit them? Genuine science says investigate, not dogmatically affirm or deny survival, and while the survival question is generally ignored by those supposedly practicing science, a very few scientists, of whom Erlendur Haraldsson is a sterling example, search out and analyze the relevant evidence suggesting survival. You will, to put it mildly, be fascinated by what he presents in this book - and perhaps the plan of your life will be changed. - Charles T. Tart, Ph.D. Author of "The End of Materialism" Known as a worldwide respected researcher of deathbed visions and past life memories, Erlendur Haraldsson has now published a very well-documented, and a highly inspiring and convincing book about encounters with deceased relatives, again referring to the probability of a continuity of consciousness after physical death. Highly recommended. - Pim van Lommel, Cardiologist. "Author of Consciousness beyond Life." The closed-minded skeptic will refer to the many interesting and intriguing stories collected by Dr Haraldsson for this book as anecdotal and dismiss them as the products of hallucinations, illusions, or wild imaginations, but the open-minded, discerning skeptic will see them as possible cumulative evidence of, as Haraldsson calls them, "afterlife encounters." - Michael Tymn, Vice-President, Academy of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies, and author of "The Afterlife Revealed"