Abstract
This chapter presents the main scientific evidence relevant to the hypothesis of survival of consciousness after the death of the body: studies on mediumship, near-death and out-of-body experience, and cases of the reincarnation type. First, we present a brief history and cultural aspects concerning these subjects. Then, the main scope of this chapter, we present and discuss the main scientific evidence encompassing studies from the second half of the nineteenth century until nowadays. Finally, we discuss the strengths and limitations of the main explanations alternative to the survival hypothesis (e.g., fraud, chance, neuropsychological automatisms or disorders, and extrasensory perception) regarding the presented studies. Well-conducted studies (with strict controls and statistical analysis) show that mediums can provide accurate information and demonstrate nonverbal skills and that these pieces of information hardly could be explained by leakage, chance, extrasensory perception, or emotional fragility of a bereaved sitter. Large longitudinal studies and in-depth consistent reports of sharp mental function and veridical perceptions in out-of-body experiences during near-death experiences, despite a severely dysfunctional or nonfunctional brain, corroborate the hypothesis of an independent mind. Thousands of similar cases around the globe of very young children who spontaneously start making accurate statements about alleged previous lives, exhibiting behavior, emotional reactions, skills, and birth defects in accordance with the alleged personality (often unknown to them) strengthen the hypothesis of survival of consciousness.
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Notes
- 1.
To mention just a few remarkable examples, Dante Alighieri reveals personal encounters with some sort of spirit or angel (Alighieri, 1993, p. 23–24), Giordano Bruno considers them commonsensical (Bruno et al., 1998, p. 111–116), and J. G. Hamann even argued that the Holy Spirit of the Christians’ and Socrates’ daemon had the same origin (Hamann, 1959) so that all contacts with spiritual reality were possible sources of revelation.
- 2.
Drop-in communicators are those alleged personalities who appear spontaneously and communicate through the medium, though unknown to any sitter present.
- 3.
For a more detailed analysis of the survival evidence produced by Chico Xavier, see Rocha AC, Weiler M, and Casseb RF. Mediumship as the Best Evidence for the Afterlife: Francisco Candido Xavier, a White Crow. Essay submitted to the BICS competition, 2021. Available at https://www.bigelowinstitute.org/Winning_Essays/Alexandre_Roch_et_al.pdf
- 4.
Ability to speak a real language not normally known to the subject (Stevenson, 1974a).
- 5.
In health sciences, the most comprehensive procedure for summarizing scientific evidence, and the one often considered to be the gold standard, is the performance of systematic reviews with meta-analysis of data provided by quantitative studies.
- 6.
Usually in science, chance below 5% (or, in stricter conditions, 1%) is considered “statistically significant,” i.e., unlikely to have happened by chance.
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Moreira-Almeida, A., Costa, M.d.A., Coelho, H.S. (2022). The Best Available Evidence for Life After Death. In: Science of Life After Death. SpringerBriefs in Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06056-4_5
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