Jesus' Resurrection and Apparitions

Book excerpt: Did Jesus rise physically from the dead, or did he rise as a real, non-bodily apparition, like those reported in the parapsychological literature? In this book, which is the first book-length examination of the question in over fifty years, Jake O'Connell argues in favor of the physical resurrection hypothesis. In order to do so, he employs Bayes' Theorem, a mathematical theorem which encapsulates the way humans think when they analyze the probability of a hypothesis. In addition, he provides a thorough overview of the evidence for the reality of apparitions of the dead.