Is there life after death? This is the question asked by journalist Stéphane Allix, who has investigated the issue for fifteen years. He delivers the conclusions of his work in a book, Death Does Not Exist (Harper Collins Editions). It all started in 2001, when his brother disappeared, while he was still a war reporter. "I was an investigative journalist and one day in April 2001, in Afghanistan, I lost one of my brothers in a car accident, right in front of my eyes," the 55-year-old told "Buzz TV" broadcast on Friday.
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"It was before the fall of the Taliban, before September 11, we were working on the archaeological heritage of Afghanistan, he was the logician of the mission I led," says Stéphane Allix. A cataclysmic event for his family that will trigger in him the desire to question death. "Not as a philosopher or a theologian, but as a journalist," he said. "And, to my great surprise, I saw a lot of certainties being deconstructed," confides the former presenter of the documentary series "Les Enquêtes extraordinaires" on M6. Thinking that "after death, there is nothing" is "a belief" according to him.
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Stéphane Allix admits that the title of his book - Death Does Not Exist - is "perhaps provocative" but that "it is a reality". The journalist attempts to demonstrate this claim through the near-death experience. "Exits from the body and extrasensory perceptions during these exits are a reality," he continues, citing the example of people who, in a coma, testified that they perceived what was happening in the next room. "Those who tell you there's no evidence haven't met a witness or a study. And yet, there are hundreds of them available. I did not work on beliefs but on investigations of the existing evidence and I made a synthesis. Obviously, it sounds astounding," he says.
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Stéphane Allix
To those who would describe him as "enlightened", Stéphane Allix replies: "They are the most irrational. We are imbued with beliefs, we feel that science is a bit magical and that it gives us answers to everything. In the book, a lot of scientists tell me that life goes on after death," he says. "Our consciousness is not reduced to our brain activity." He added: "It's normal for it to be contested, science is not a citadel where everyone agrees. Science is a community of people who have diametrically opposed ideas in the face of the same facts," he said. Optimistically, Stéphane Allix is convinced that "in a few years' time, the hypothesis that the brain does not produce consciousness and that consciousness survives the death of the body, will impose itself in a masterful way and become obvious to everyone".