Current
mainstream opinion in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind
holds that all aspects of human mind and consciousness are generated by
physical processes occurring in brains. Views of this sort have
dominated recent scholarly publication. The present volume, however,
demonstrates empirically that this reductive materialism is not only
incomplete but false. The authors systematically marshal evidence for a
variety of psychological phenomena that are extremely difficult, and in
some cases clearly impossible, to account for in conventional
physicalist terms. Topics addressed include phenomena of extreme
psychophysical influence, memory, psychological automatisms and
secondary personality, near-death experiences and allied phenomena,
genius-level creativity, and 'mystical' states of consciousness both
spontaneous and drug-induced. The authors further show that these rogue
phenomena are more readily accommodated by an alternative "transmission"
or "filter" theory of mind/brain relations advanced over a century ago
by a largely forgotten genius, F. W. H. Myers, and developed further by
his friend and colleague William James. This theory, moreover, ratifies
the common sense conception of human beings as causally effective
conscious agents, and is fully compatible with leading-edge physics and
neuroscience. The book should command the attention of all open-minded
persons concerned with the still-unsolved mysteries of the mind.
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