Available as a Google eBook for other eReaders and tablet devices. Click icon below...
Summary
"This book is lucidly written, well organized, and succinct as an overview of the empirical evidence for survival. The author efficiently summarizes the arguments and counterarguments surrounding alleged cases of reincarnation, apparition, out of body experiences and near death experiences. Some of the theoretical material is superb. For these reasons, it is a book I want on my shelf. Most other studies of this kind are hopelessly partisan; this study is highly reputable. The author deftly distinguishes between different facets of paranormal phenomena, and thus clarifies discussion that is usually muddied." -- Carol Zaleski, Smith College
Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death amasses data and surveys from a century of research on the paranormal on four continents: Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Studying the tensions between religious and scientific perspectives, Becker reviews numerous substantiated accounts of demon-possession, of memories of pastlives, of ghostly apparitions, and out-of-body experiences. He analyzes the medical evidence and what such experiences imply about survival after death. The author then looks at the reasons for the taboos on scientific discussion of such research within the social sciences, and proposes a new paradigm for a more holistic view of the field.
Carl B. Becker is Professor of Comparative Thought at Kyoto University, Japan. He has also written Survival: Life After Death in Christianity, Buddhism, and Modern Science; American Ideals; and Communication: East and West.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Proof of Reincarnation?
Phenomena Not Considered
Déjà-Vu
Autoprecognition
Child Prodigies
Mediumism and Spiritualism
Phenomena Considered
Spontaneous Possession
Hypnotic Age-Regression
Spontaneous Memories of Former Lives
Objections to the Phenomena as Evidence of Survival
Refusal to Accept the Evidence
Objections to Population Increase and Lack of Memories
Normal but Forgotten Memories?
The Super-ESP Hypothesis
Objections to All Super-ESP Hypotheses
Chapter 2: Invisible Bodies?
Phenomena Not Considered
Hallucinations
Phantom Limbs
Poltergeists
Hauntings of Place
Phenomena Considered
Apparitions
Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs)
Objections to the Phenomena as Evidence of Survival
Refusal to Accept the Existence of the Evidence
Theoretical Objections about Animals and Doppelgängers
Normal or Physiological Explanations
Super-ESP Theories
Conclusions
Chapter 3: The Heart of Near-Death Experiences
Phenomena Not Considered
OBEs
The Life-Review
Physiologically Explicable Sounds and Lights
Phenomena Considered
Deathbed Visions Down Through History
Visions of Departed Relatives or Friends
Visions of Religious Figures
Visions of Another World
Objections to the Phenomena as Evidence of Survival
Patients Pronounced Dead were Not Really Dead
Patients' Visions were Hallucinations
Siegel's Similarities
NDEs are Defense Mechanisms or Mental Disease
Attacks on the Veridicality of NDEs
Super-ESP Accounts for True Information in NDEs
Chapter 4: Philosophy of Science
The Ontology of Modern Physics
Views of Physical Entities
Views of the "Nature of Things"
Compatibility of Physics and Parapsychology
Unresolved Philosophical Questions
Rational Objections to Paranormal Evidence
Repeatability
Theory-requirement
Inherent Probabilities
Survival Research as Empirical Science
Nonrational Objections to Paranormal Evidence
Psychological Resistance to Cognitive Dissonance
Intellectual Resistance to Reeducation and Paradigm Shift
Religious Resistance to Heretical or Occult Forces
Social Resistance and Fear of Ridicule
Chapter 5: A Model of Resistance and Change in the Sciences
Rejection of the Evidence
Refusal to Consider
Discrediting by Association
Criticism by Authority
Suppression
Limiting Opportunities for Publication
Suppression of Academic Fraternity, Opportunities and Funds
Reinterpretation
Independent Growth
Publications
Professional Organizations
Grants and Funding
Assimilation and Acceptance
Recognition without Paradigm Conversion
Paradigm Conversion by Personal Persuasion
Nonconversion and Supersession of the New Paradigm
