Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death

by Carl B. Becker

• ISBN13: 9780791414767
• ISBN10: 0791414760
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-09-06
• Publisher: State University of New York Press (SUNY Press)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(4)
Proof of Reincarnation?	5	(32)
Phenomena Not Considered	6	(4)
Deja-Vu	6	(1)
Autoprecognition	7	(1)
Child Prodigies	8	(1)
Mediumism and Spiritualism	9	(1)
Phenomena Considered	10	(10)
Spontaneous Possession	11	(2)
Hypnotic Age-Regression	13	(2)
Spontaneous Memories of Former Lives	15	(5)
Objections to the Phenomena as Evidence of Survival	20	(17)
Refusal to Accept the Evidence	20	(2)
Objections to Population Increase and Lack of Memories	22	(3)
Normal but Forgotten Memories?	25	(1)
The Super-ESP Hypothesis	25	(6)
Objections to All Super-ESP Hypotheses	31	(6)
Invisible Bodies?	37	(40)
Phenomena Not Considered	38	(6)
Hallucinations	38	(2)
Phantom Limbs	40	(1)
Poltergeists	41	(1)
Hauntings of Place	42	(2)
Phenomena Considered	44	(19)
Apparitions	44	(10)
Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs)	54	(9)
Objections to the Phenomena as Evidence of Survival	63	(14)
Refusal to Accept the Existence of the Evidence	63	(2)
Theoretical Objections about Animals and Doppelgangers	65	(2)
Normal or Physiological Explanations	67	(4)
Super-ESP Theories	71	(5)
Conclusions	76	(1)
The Heart of Near-Death Experiences	77	(44)
Phenomena Not Considered	78	(3)
OBEs	79	(1)
The Life-Review	79	(2)
Physiologically Explicable Sounds and Lights	81	(1)
Phenomena Considered	81	(11)
Deathbed Visions Down Through History	82	(2)
Visions of Departed Relatives or Friends	84	(3)
Visions of Religious Figures	87	(3)
Visions of Another World	90	(2)
Objections to the Phenomena as Evidence of Survival	92	(29)
Patients Pronounced Dead were Not Really Dead	93	(5)
Patients' Visions were Hallucinations	98	(5)
Siegel's Similarities	103	(2)
NDEs are Defense Mechanisms or Mental Disease	105	(4)
Attacks on the Veridicality of NDEs	109	(7)
Super-ESP Accounts for True Information in NDEs	116	(5)
Philosophy of Science	121	(26)
The Ontology of Modern Physics	122	(7)
Views of Physical Entities	123	(1)
Views of the ``Nature of Things''	124	(1)
Compatibility of Physics and Parapsychology	125	(2)
Unresolved Philosophical Questions	127	(2)
Rational Objections to Paranormal Evidence	129	(9)
Repeatability	129	(2)
Theory-requirement	131	(3)
Inherent Probabilities	134	(3)
Survival Research as Empirical Science	137	(1)
Nonrational Objections to Paranormal Evidence	138	(9)
Psychological Resistance to Cognitive Dissonance	139	(2)
Intellectual Resistance to Reeducation and Paradigm Shift	141	(2)
Religious Resistance to Heretical or Occult Forces	143	(1)
Social Resistance and Fear of Ridicule	144	(3)
A Model of Resistance and Change in the Sciences	147	(18)
Rejection of the Evidence	148	(3)
Refusal to Consider	148	(1)
Discrediting by Association	149	(1)
Criticism by Authority	150	(1)
Suppression	151	(3)
Limiting Opportunities for Publication	151	(1)
Suppression of Academic Fraternity, Opportunities and Funds	152	(1)
Reinterpretation	153	(1)
Independent Growth	154	(3)
Publications	154	(1)
Professional Organizations	155	(1)
Grants and Funding	156	(1)
Assimilation and Acceptance	157	(8)
Recognition without Paradigm Conversion	158	(2)
Paradigm Conversion by Personal Persuasion	160	(1)
Nonconversion and Supersession of the New Paradigm	161	(2)
Public Opinion and Scientific Change	163	(2)
What Will the Next World Be Like?	165	(24)
The Wide Range of Experiences at Death	165	(12)
Reincarnation	167	(2)
An Apparitional World	169	(1)
Ethereal Bodies Reconcilable with Materialism	170	(6)
Astral Bodies are Not Enough	176	(1)
An Idealist Next World	177	(12)
A Nonmaterialist Hypothesis?	177	(4)
Personhood and Personal Identification	181	(4)
The End: A New Beginning	185	(4)
Notes	189	(30)
Bibliography	219	(32)
Index	251