NEXT to the existence of God, the existence of the soul is one of the most contested topics in philosophy. Are humans entirely material realities, fleetingly gifted with consciousness, but destined for oblivion at death? Or is there a ghost in the machine, a soul that goes marching on long after our bodies lie mouldering in the grave?

There are almost as many claims about the nature of life after death as there are religious traditions. Do our souls get constantly recycled or reincarnated into other life forms, as the Hindu tradition maintains, until we achieve the kind of perfection that guarantees us final release into Nirvana?

If we reject reincarnation and opt for the Christian doctrine of one unique soul per person, "here for a season, then above", as the hymn puts it, what is the precise nature of the "above"? Is it a state that precludes contact with those who are left below, or are the departed able to get in touch with us at séances, even if only to inform us that they like the oak-veneered units we've chosen for the kitchen? And can we prove any of this?

If you are interested in these questions, this is the book for you. Mary Roach tells us that it is "for people who would very much like to believe in a soul and in an afterlife for it to hang around in, but who have trouble accepting these things on faith. It's a giggly, random, utterly earthbound assault on our most ponderous unanswered questions. It's spirituality treated like crop science." Giggly it certainly is, sometimes irritatingly so, but it is also engaging, thoughtful and, finally, a serious study of the question.

During the year it took her to research the book, she spent a week in India with Dr Kirti S Rawat, director of the International Centre for Survival and Reincarnation Researches, who investigates claims of reincarnation, most of which seem to come from village children aged three. Roach neither scoffs at, nor is she persuaded by, these claims. Still on the hunt for proof, she explores attempts to weigh the soul, investigates the nature of ectoplasm, enrols at a college for mediums and speaks to an expert on near-death experiences.

She asks herself if her year among the evidence-gatherers has left her believing in anything she didn't believe before: and says it has. She believes something an expert in near-death experiences told her. She asked him if he believed these experiences provided evidence of life after death. "He answered that what he believed was simply that they were evidence of something we can't explain with our current knowledge... It's not much, but it's more than I believed a year ago." You may or may not agree with her conclusion, but you'll enjoy the way she reached it.

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on Scotsman.com