Consciousness Unbound

'Consciousness Unbound' is a book, like the earlier volumes, that is unashamedly metaphysical. The main purpose of 'Irreducible Mind' was to show that physicalism is completely inadequate as a way of explaining human experience and the world. The book showed that physicalism cannot account for phenomena such as consciousness and the influence of the mind over the body. It showed that there is a vast range of 'rogue' phenomena that physicalism cannot make sense of, and therefore either denies or explains away, such as psi phenomena, near-death experiences and mystical experiences. 

We might say that, while the purpose of 'Irreducible Mind' was to clear the ground, the purpose of 'Beyond Physicalism' and now 'Consciousness Unbound', has been to build on that ground – that is, to find a different worldview that can adequately explain the world and human experience. In other words, the purpose of the books has been to explore the viability of various non-physicalist metaphysical worldviews. 

In this constructive sense, 'Consciousness Unbound' is as much of a magnum opus as 'Irreducible Mind'. The first three chapters are essential reading, in that they offer concise summaries of the contemporary understanding of three different phenomena that defy the assumptions of physicalism. There is a chapter on near-death experiences by Bruce Greyson, a chapter on 'cases of the reincarnation type' by Jim Tucker and a chapter on precognition by Bob Rosenberg. All three chapters present evidence that any open-minded person would find extremely compelling. Particularly striking is the evidence from cases of the reincarnation type presented by Jim Tucker, including young children who (usually beginning around the age of 3 and continuing until around the age of 6) have recalled incredibly specific details about previous identities, which have later been rigorously examined by investigators. Ian Stevenson collected many examples of such cases from Asian cultures where reincarnation is an accepted belief, but in some ways Tucker’s cases are more striking because they mostly concern American children, with Christian parents who initially struggled to accept the notion of reincarnation. Likewise, Greyson presents a compelling argument that NDEs cannot be explained in neurological or physicalist terms, and clearly indicate the possibility of survival. Rosenberg’s chapter shows that the evidence for precognition has been so consistent over such a long period of time that the issue is not whether the phenomenon exists but how we can account for it, and what it implies about the nature of reality.

The book’s philosophical chapters build on this foundation. The editors state that each philosophical approach should be judged on its ability to explain the above phenomena, as well as others such as consciousness and the mind-body relationship.

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