Reimagining the soul : afterlife in the age of matter

217 Pages·2014·1.21 MB·English

by  Stokes

Reimagining
the Soul
ALSO BY DOUGLAS M. STOKES
The Conscious Mind and the Material World:
On Psi, the Soul and the Self (McFarland, 2007)
The Nature of Mind: Parapsychology and the
Role of Consciousness in the Physical World
(McFarland, 1997; paperback 2014)
Reimagining
the Soul
Afterlife in the Age of Matter
DOUGLAS M. STOKES
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Stokes, Douglas M., 1947–
Reimagining the soul : afterlife in the age of matter /
Douglas M. Stokes.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-7707-4
♾
softcover : acid free paper
1. Soul. 2. Future life. 3. Religion and science.
I. Title.
BL290.S76 2014
129—dc23 2013042385
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2014 Douglas M. Stokes. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover: human head graphic (iStockphoto/Thinkstock)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To my daughter Rachel,
who now begins
her own quest
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T C
ABLE OF ONTENTS
Preface 1
Introduction 5
1. Consciousness and Determinism 9
2. A Taxonomy of Souls 14
3. The Realm(s) of the God(s) 27
4. Consciousness and Matter 40
5. The Question of Psi Phenomena 81
6. Afterlife #1: Physical and Quasi-Physical Resurrection 96
7. Afterlife #2: The Dream World 102
8. Afterlife #3: The Collective Mind 123
9. Afterlife #4: Reincarnation 133
10. Souls, Microsouls, Macrosouls, Megasouls, and Gods 161
11. Fundamental Questions 176
Conclusions 181
References 185
Index 199
vii
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P
REFACE
This book explores conceptions of the soul and the afterlife that are con-
sistent with the findings of modern science. We will take many angles of
approach: religious, philosophical, scientific, q uasi-s cientific, and even (just
to be fair) pseudoscientific. This book will review the history of religious,
philosophical and scientific conceptions of the soul and the afterlife—but,
unlike most such reviews, which abound on the shelves of college libraries,
this work is primarily directed at determining which of these views is actually
true, rather than merely tracing the history of their evolution.
Many types of afterlives will be discussed, ranging over
(a) physical resurrection (whether supernatural, biological, or
cybernetic),
(b) the present physical world (assuming some form of reincarnation),
(c) another physical world or universe,
(d) a collective dream,
(e) existence within a collective mind,
(f) a state of pure consciousness,
(g) a state (or perhaps non- state) of nonexistence, and
(h) the realm of the gods (or partial gods, if such there be).
Philosophical and scientific doctrines regarding the relationship between
conscious experience and the physical world will also be reviewed; these
include
(a) idealism (everything is mind)
(b) physicalism (everything is matter),
(c) double- aspect theory (mind is matter),
(d) epiphenomenalism (mind doesn’t matter),
(e) dualistic interactionism (mental and matter interact),
(f) panpsychism (all matter is mind),
1