Mind Beyond Brain : Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal

238 Pages·2019·2.026 MB·English

by  David Presti

MIND BEYOND
BRAIN

MIND BEYOND
BR AIN
BUDDHISM, SCIENCE,
AND THE PARANORMAL
DAVID E. PRESTI
with
BRUCE GREYSON, EDWARD F. KELLY,
EMILY WILLIAMS KELLY,
AND JIM B. TUCKER
Columbia University Press New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2018 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Presti, David E., editor.
Title: Mind beyond Brain : deepening the dialogue between science
and Buddhism / [editors] David E. Presti with Bruce Greyson,
Edward F. Kelly,
Emily Williams Kelly, and Jim B. Tucker.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018010141 (print) | LCCN 2018029059 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231548397 (electronic) | ISBN 9780231189569 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Parapsychology—Religious aspects—Buddhism. |
Occultism—Religious aspects—Buddhism. | Religion and science. |
Buddhism.
Classification: LCC BQ4570.P75 (ebook) |
LCC BQ4570.P75 M56 2018 (print) |
DDC 294.3/365—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010141
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Guerrilla Design
Cover illustration: Mandala painting by Anil Thapa,
Lumbini Buddhist Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA
The spectacular progress of the physical sciences since the
seventeenth century was made possible by the exclusion of
the mental from their purview. To say that there is more to
reality than physics can account for is not a piece of mysticism:
it is an acknowledgment that we are nowhere near a theory
of everything, and that science will have to expand to
accommodate facts of a kind fundamentally different from those
that physics is designed to explain. It should not disturb us that
this may have radical consequences. . . . Materialism remains a
widespread view, but science does not progress by tailoring the
data to fit a prevailing theory.
Thomas Nagel
Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is
because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and
therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.
Max Planck
There does not exist anything
That is not dependently arisen.
Therefore there does not exist anything
That is not empty.
Nāgārjuna

CONTENTS
Foreword ix
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Prologue: Deepening the Dialogue xiii
David E. Presti and Edward F. Kelly
1 Scientific Revolution and the Mind–Matter Relation 1
David E. Presti
2 Near-Death Experiences 22
Bruce Greyson
3 Reports of Past-Life Memories 45
Jim B. Tucker
4 Mediums, Apparitions, and Deathbed Experiences 69
Emily Williams Kelly
5 Paranormal Phenomena, the Siddhis, and an Emerging Path
Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality 91
Edward F. Kelly
6 An Expanded Conception of Mind 121
David E. Presti
viii (cid:89) Contents
Notes 147
Bibliography 173
Acknowledgments 195
Contributors 197
Index 201
FOREWORD
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
When I first met a few years ago with the research-
ers who contributed to this book, I was excited
to learn about their work. These different areas of
study—near-death experiences, memories of past lives, appari-
tions, siddhis—reflect a principle that Tibetan Buddhists have
explored for centuries. We believe that mind is not just condi-
tioned by the physical brain and body, or even by the properties
of time and space. Mind is also beyond all these. Even after the
dissolution of the physical body at the time of death, Tibetan
Buddhists believe that mind persists and is reborn continuously
into new forms.
Mainstream science has been slow to acknowledge the
dimensions of study described in this book. Given the rele-
vance of these topics to the contemporary encounter between
Buddhism and science, in 2010, I invited these researchers to
participate in a Buddhism-science conference at Serenity Ridge,
Virginia—the retreat center where I focus my own worldwide
efforts in research, study, and teaching (Ligmincha Interna-
tional). This setting permitted engaging in open, lively dialogue,
and the presentations at that conference were the inspiration for
this book.