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What Would Constitute Evidence for Personal Survival After Death?
Abstract
This chapter discusses what would be evidence for survival. First it shows we can have certainty and direct access only to our own minds. We know there are other minds in the world by indirect evidence: we perceive other bodies behaving in ways indicating they have minds like ourselves. They behave and express themselves as if they also think, feel, have desires and sense of being, etc. And we identify a given personality, even in a disfigured body, by a specific pattern of these qualities, a continuity of character and memory. Evidence for the survival after death of a given personality would also be the continuity of character and memory through the means he/she has at his/her disposal (e.g., a medium’s body, or a new body in cases of reincarnation), for example, memory (e.g., being able to remember facts, ideally in large number, accurate, and covering several topics; identifying people the claimed personality was acquainted with when alive), skills of the alleged personality (e.g., speaking or writing in a foreign language, handwriting, and artistic such as poetry, prose, and painting styles), and personality traits (e.g., temperament, character, personal style). If this sort of evidence is consistently found, especially by different investigators using different methods and investigating different phenomena, they would falsify physicalist views of mind and point to its survival to bodily death.KeywordsSurvival after deathSurvivalEvidenceEpistemologyProofPersonalitySoulMindConsciousnessLife after death
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Resumo: Não apenas pela natureza sistemática do projeto hegeliano como pela importância que a teoria da subjetividade inconfundivelmente assume para ele, a filosofia da história, como outros elementos, não pode ser satisfatoriamente compreendida sem uma análise conjunta do caráter histórico da subjetividade. Uma vez que subjetividade e intersubjetividade se sustentam e justificam mutuamente, toda teoria da história é sempre e necessariamente também uma teoria sobre as biografias, individuais, e as formas da cultura, das coletividades. Ao passo que estes finitos não produzem o todo, o todo tem de poder ser neles encontrado, de maneira que os princípios gerais, como o da história, estão sempre implícitos nos sujeitos e suas comunidades específicas. Somente assim entende-se que a filosofia da história é capaz de resistir às muitas críticas de anulação da individualidade e da incerteza quanto ao destino, oriunda do livre-arbítrio humano. Apresentaremos, portanto, alguns dos intérpretes contemporâneos do hegelianismo buscando enfatizar suas teorias da subjetividade como imprescindíveis para esboços de filosofia da história que preencham os critérios mais atuais.Abstract: Not only for the systematic nature of the Hegelian Project but also for the importance that the theory of subjectivity unmistakably assumes for Hegel, the philosophy of history, as well as other elements, cannot be understood satisfactorily without a parallel analysis of the historical character of subjectivity. Since subjectivity and intersubjectivity are mutually supportive, any theory about history is consequently and necessarily also a theory of biographies (individuality) and of the forms of culture (collectivity). Although these finitudes do not make the whole, the whole has to be found in them, so that the general principles, like history, are always implicit in individuals and specific communities. This seems to be the only way the philosophy of history can resist the many charges of annihilation of individual freedom and the uncertainty of destiny deriving from human free-will. Thus, we will present some contemporary Hegelian interpreters, in order to highlight their theories of subjectivity as instrumental to outline a philosophy of history that meet the more recent criteria.
Traditional textbooks on the history of psychiatry and psychology fail to recognize William James's investigations on psychic phenomena as a legitimate effort to understand the human mind. The purpose of this paper is to offer evidence of his views regarding the exploration of those phenomena as well as the radical, yet alternative, solutions that James advanced to overcome theoretical and methodological hindrances. Through an analysis of his writings, it is argued that his psychological and philosophical works converge in psychical research revealing the outline of a science of mind capable of encompassing psychic phenomena as part of human experience and, therefore, subject to scientific scrutiny.
Science thrives when there is an open, informed discussion of all evidence, and recognition that scientific knowledge is provisional and subject to revision. This attitude is in stark contrast with reaching conclusions based solely on a previous set of beliefs or on the assertions of authority figures. Indeed, the search for knowledge wherever it may lead inspired a group of notable scientists and philosophers to found in 1882 the Society for Psychical Research in London. Its purpose was “to investigate that large body of debatable phenomena… without prejudice or prepossession of any kind, and in the same spirit of exact and unimpassioned inquiry which has enabled Science to solve so many problems.” Some of the areas in consciousness they investigated such as psychological dissociation, hypnosis, and preconscious cognition are now well integrated into mainstream science. That has not been the case with research on phenomena such as purported telepathy or precognition, which some scientists (a clear minority according to the surveys conducted http://en.wikademia.org/Surveys_of_academic_opinion_regarding_parapsychology) dis-miss a priori as pseudoscience or illegitimate. Contrary to the negative impression given by some critics, we would like to stress the following:
- Reviews recent research findings from neuroscience and neurotechnology
- Examines the relationship between mind and brain through both scientific and philosophical perspectives
- Provides a unique window through which researchers can glimpse the intricate workings of the human brain
- Explores the scientific advances – and limitations – that currently exist in understanding the human mind
- Addresses controversial and challenging topics about the mind-brain problem often neglected in academic debates
- Provides an excellent opportunity to gain a more precise and comprehensive understanding of the human mind
The conscious mind defines human existence. Many consider the brain as a computer, and they attempt to explain consciousness as emerging at a critical, but unspecified, threshold level of complex computation among neurons. The brain-as-computer model, however, fails to account for phenomenal experience and portrays consciousness as an impotent, after-the-fact epiphenomenon lacking causal power. And the brain-as-computer concept precludes even the remotest possibility of spirituality. As described throughout the history of humankind, seemingly spiritual mental phenomena, including transcendent states, near-death and out-of-body experiences, and past-life memories have recently been well documented and treated scientifically. In addition, the brain-as-computer approach has been challenged by advocates of quantum brain biology, who are possibly able to explain, scientifically, nonlocal, seemingly spiritual mental states.
Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship argues against the purely physical analysis of consciousness and for a balanced psychobiological approach. This thought-provoking volume bridges philosophy of mind with science of mind to empirically examine transcendent phenomena, such as mystic states, near-death experiences and past-life memories, that have confounded scientists for decades. Representing disciplines ranging from philosophy and history to neuroimaging and physics, and boasting a panel of expert scientists and physicians, including Andrew Newberg, Peter Fenwick, Stuart Hameroff, Mario Beauregard, Deepak Chopra, and Chris Clarke the book rigorously follows several lines of inquiry into mind-brain controversies, challenging readers to form their own conclusions—or reconsider previous ones. It is essential reading for researchers and clinicians across many disciplines, including cognitive psychology, personality and social psychology, the neurosciences, neuropsychiatry, palliative care, philosophy, and quantum physics.
This essay considers the origins of theoretical understanding in lived experience and the implications this principle might have on our understanding of Mircea Eliade's approach to religion. It inspects possible sources of Eliade's theoretical understanding of religion in his descriptions of his lived experience and considers whether specifically ‘religious’ experience would be most likely to be determinative. This necessitates some analysis of the relation of experience to expressions of that experience and of the iterations of the scholar using one to elucidate the other. It suggests that the scholar's own understanding must be open to transformation rather than automatically redescribing the expressions of subjects of research. The main claim of the article is that Eliade can be appropriately termed a ‘secular mystic’ because of the effective openness that he maintains to the transformative potential of the experience of the world of the other. The Eliadean identification of the sacred and the real, far from being a normative assumption, is a principle of hermeneutical openness, comparable in secular terms to openness to mystical experience.
O termo transcendência tem conotações fortemente dualistas na concepção do senso comum, na qual ele é oposto de maneira dualística à imanência. Consequentemente, tanto concepções populares quanto especializadas do transcendente atribuem-no ao celestial, supramundano ou espiritual, e, portanto, matéria do discurso poético ou religioso. Ao passo em que este entendimento usual do termo justificou (historicamente) e é de fato incompatível com as tentativas de domesticação ou eliminação da metafísica da meditação filosófica contemporânea, outras significações são possíveis. Uma famosa e bem-sucedida visão sobre a transcendência é a hegeliana, segundo a qual a transcendência não apenas é constituída intersubjetivamente como a universalidade das coisas como também dialeticamente codependente do concreto e do imanente. Palavras-chave: Transcendente; Objetividade; Concretude; G. W. F. Hegel.
This dissertation examines the co-emergence of psychical research and modern professionalized psychology in the late nineteenth century. Questioning conservative historical accounts assuming an inherent incompatibility of these disciplines, this thesis argues that from the early 1880s to ca. 1910, it was often difficult if not impossible to draw a clear distinction between psychology and psychical research. Chapter 1 forms the integrative framework of the thesis through a historiographical review of changing attitudes to ‘occult’ properties of the mind in natural philosophy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Chapter 2 provides a study and comparison of concerns and epistemological presuppositions of the instigators and leading representatives of psychical research in England, France, Germany and the USA. Chapter 3 outlines competing methodological maxims in early experimental psychology, explores the work of the Society for Psychical Research in England and psychological societies conducting psychical research in Germany, and discusses the active involvement of the ‘father’ of modern American psychology, William James, in psychical research. Formulations of transcendental-individualistic models of unconscious or subliminal cognition by Carl du Prel in Germany and Frederic W. H. Myers in England, which informed the mature psychological thought of James in America and Théodore Flournoy in Switzerland, are discussed as landmarks in the history of concepts of the unconscious. Chapter 4 presents case studies of early professional psychologists repudiating psychical research from the territories of fledgling psychology, identifies recurring rhetorical patterns in these controversies, and connects them to wider cultural and historiographical developments studied in Chapter 1.
Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) was an English anthropologist who is widely considered the founder of anthropology as a scientific discipline. He was the first Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oxford from 1896 to 1909, and developed a broad definition of culture which is still used by scholars. First published in 1871, this classic work explains Tylor's idea of cultural evolution in relation to anthropology, a social theory which states that human cultures invariably change over time to become more complex. Unlike his contemporaries, Tylor did not link biological evolution to cultural evolution, asserting that all human minds are the same irrespective of a society's state of evolution. His book was extremely influential in popularising the study of anthropology and establishing cultural evolution as the main theoretical framework followed by anthropologists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Volume 2 contains Tylor's interpretation of animism in society.
Frederic William Henry Myers (1843-1901) was a classical scholar who in mid-career turned to the investigation of psychic phenomena. After studying, and later teaching, Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge he resigned his lectureship in 1869, became an inspector of schools, and campaigned for women's higher education. With the encouragement of former colleagues he began a scientific investigation of spiritualism and related phenomena, and in 1882 he helped to found the Society for Psychical Research. This two-volume work, first published posthumously in 1903, contains the fullest statement of Myers' influential theory of the 'subliminal self', which he developed by combining his research into psychic phenomena with his in-depth reading about the latest advances in psychology and related fields. His deeply intellectual approach is evident throughout the book, which analyses a huge amount of interesting data. Volume 2 discusses apparitions, trances and bodily possession.
Mediumship, an experience widespread throughout human history, can be defined as an experience in which an individual (the so-called medium) purports to be in communication with, or under the control of, the personality of a deceased. Since the nineteenth century, there is a substantial, but neglected tradition of scientific research about mediumship and its implications for the nature of mind. This chapter will review studies investigating the origins, the sources of mediumistic communications. Since one crucial aspect of mediumistic experience is the claim for the persistence of mind activity and the communication of personalities after bodily death, I discuss what would be the evidence for personal identity and its persistence beyond the brain. After that, empirical evidence provided by studies on mediumship is presented and analyzed, including a brief biography of two very productive mediums: Mrs. Leonora Piper and Chico Xavier. Finally, I discuss the implications of these data for our understanding of mind and its relationship with the body. Applying contemporary research methods to mediumistic experiences may provide a badly needed broadening and diversification of the empirical basis needed to advance our understanding of the mind–body problem.
The word "hallucination" was used originally (and with etymological correctness) to refer to the unshared sensory experiences of persons who are mentally ill. However, many persons who are not mentally ill also have unshared sensory experiences. A few of these convey information paranormally, but the longstanding association of "hallucination" with mental illness inhibits many persons who have such experiences from reporting them so that they can be studied. The author suggests a new word, "idiophany," to designate all unshared sensory experiences. The word "hallucination" could then be restricted, as it originally was, to the unshared sensory experiences of the mentally ill.
Spiritism is widely accepted in Brazil and influences psychiatric practice, especially through religious-oriented hospitals. However, during the first half of the twentieth century it was considered an important cause of mental illness. This paper first reviews opinions on 'Spiritist madness', written by the most eminent psychiatrists of the time, and then discusses the epistemological factors that have contributed to the conflict between medicine and Spiritism. We critically examine the appropriateness of the methods used in the debates, and how this has led to inferences about associations and causal relationships.
We review a diversity of studies of human social interaction and highlight the importance of social signals. We also discuss recent findings from social cognitive neuroscience that explore the brain basis of the capacity for processing social signals. These signals enable us to learn about the world from others, to learn about other people, and to create a shared social world. Social signals can be processed automatically by the receiver and may be unconsciously emitted by the sender. These signals are non-verbal and are responsible for social learning in the first year of life. Social signals can also be processed consciously and this allows automatic processing to be modulated and overruled. Evidence for this higher-level social processing is abundant from about 18 months of age in humans, while evidence is sparse for non-human animals. We suggest that deliberate social signalling requires reflective awareness of ourselves and awareness of the effect of the signals on others. Similarly, the appropriate reception of such signals depends on the ability to take another person's point of view. This ability is critical to reputation management, as this depends on monitoring how our own actions are perceived by others. We speculate that the development of these high level social signalling systems goes hand in hand with the development of consciousness.
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