Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal

Among the most profound questions we confront are the nature of what and who we are as conscious beings, and how the human mind relates to the rest of what we consider reality. For millennia, philosophers, scientists, and religious thinkers have attempted answers, perhaps none more meaningful today than those offered by neuroscience and by Buddhism. The encounter between these two worldviews has spurred ongoing conversations about what science and Buddhism can teach each other about mind and reality.

In Mind Beyond Brain, the neuroscientist David E. Presti, with the assistance of other distinguished researchers, explores how evidence for anomalous phenomena―such as near-death experiences, apparent memories of past lives, apparitions, experiences associated with death, and other so-called psi or paranormal phenomena, including telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition―can influence the Buddhism-science conversation. Presti describes the extensive but frequently unacknowledged history of scientific investigation into these phenomena, demonstrating its relevance to questions about consciousness and reality. The new perspectives opened up, if we are willing to take evidence of such often off-limits topics seriously, offer significant challenges to dominant explanatory paradigms and raise the prospect that we may be poised for truly revolutionary developments in the scientific investigation of mind. Mind Beyond Brain represents the next level in the science and Buddhism dialogue.

• Foundational Concepts in Neuroscience: A Brain-Mind Odyssey (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)
• The Idea of the World: A Multi-Disciplinary Argument for the Mental Nature of Reality
• Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century
• Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science, and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe
• Consciousness Medicine: Indigenous Wisdom, Entheogens, and Expanded States of Consciousness for Healing and Growth
• The Source and Significance of Coincidences: A Hard Look at the Astonishing Evidence
• The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys
• Connected: The Emergence of Global Consciousness
• Spontaneous Creativity: Meditations for Manifesting Your Positive Qualities
• In Love with the World: A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying