Can Science Prove There Is an Afterlife? A patient's near-death experience and a series of eerie events send Dr. Louis Villalba on a search for scientific proof of the Afterlife. In 1990, 29-year-old Jessica LaCoppola suffers a severe car accident and dies in the ICU at a hospital in Chicago. Five years later on an expressway in Chicago, a semi-trailer truck lashes against a car driven by 53-year-old Connie Calderone. She goes into a deep coma. In her unconscious state, Connie has a near-death-experience. During this vision, she meets Jessica LaCoppola, whom she barely knows and happens to be the deceased daughter of her best friend. Jessica LaCoppola and Connie Calderone have a conversation. Jessica tells Connie that she, Jessica, is getting everything ready to receive one of her own close relatives who will soon die. Connie eventually recovers. Six months later, the prophecy comes true. One of Jessica's perfectly healthy relatives dies. All three are patients of Dr. Louis Villalba, a professor of neurology, who narrates this true story in "Afterlife Tracks." All the protagonists of the story, members of two Italian-American families, file through his office for more than a decade, unveiling their lives as he juggles the roles of healer and friend. Villalba describes his own paranormal experience at the wake in front of the corpse. "I felt as if a new dimension had opened its door for me to peek into," Villalba writes. "Apparently, the window to this other world was there, displayed before everyone's eyes at the chapel." "For the first time in a near-death experience, a prophecy was issued that came to pass," he adds. "This is why I decided to study these events, using my knowledge of the workings of the normal and abnormal brain." His findings will comfort the dying and those who have lost loved ones. The last third of the book relates "Glimpses of the Occult." This section contains fourteen short paranormal stories based on the supernatural incidents that Villalba encountered throughout his 40-year neurological career. The following accounts are among them: a daughter sees silvery rays shoot up from her mother's body at the very moment of her mother's death; images of a corpse in the bathroom of an apartment besieged a new occupant; a healthy young woman announces her own death several months in advance; a woman notices a halo around her uncle's head and knows of his imminent departure; a moribund lady greets her late relatives that stand at her bedside before her final journey; a comatose man briefly regained full alertness to bid goodbye to his loved ones and sink again into unconsciousness and death; a fortuneteller foretells a husband's demise on an upcoming trip; an amulet causes havoc at an Ouija session, the participants fleeing out of the room in panic. The book has won praise from reviewers: "His philosophy of life comes through very strongly and makes the book very appealing. So much so, as a matter of fact, that I would recommend many in his profession read this to see what it's all about." -- Professor Donald Cassiday of North Park University in Chicago "It's a wonderful book, which tells excellent stories, as well as conveying strong spiritual meaning, in the very best sense." -Professor Fred Shafer of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL