DESC: In STIFF, Mary Roach examined what happens to the body when a person dies. Now she takes the next logical step, and undertakes a humorous, skeptical, but ultimately hopeful search for verifiable scientific evidence of the afterlife and the soul, studying historical accounts and investigating current research into reincarnation and near-death experiences, and weighing or measuring the soul (on a scale, with X-rays, with quantum physics). She also examines a piece of "alleged ectoplasm" (it's actually regurgitated cotton cloth) stored at the Cambridge University Library, enrolls in a seminar for mediums, and goes ghost-hunting.