Science of Life After Death

This book examines the best available empirical evidence regarding one of the most challenging and pervasive questions throughout ages, cultures, and religions: the survival of human consciousness after death. It begins with a contextual overview of belief in personal survival and refutes misguided historical and epistemological arguments against the notion of survival after death (e.g., irrational, purely religious, impossible to be addressed by science, that has been proved false by neuroscience). The book provides an overview of the scientific evidence regarding the survival of human consciousness after death, focusing on studies on mediumship, near-death and out-of-body experiences, and reincarnation.

Featured topics of coverage include:

• The belief in life after death in the contemporary world as well as in the history of religions and philosophy.
• The key misguided arguments and prejudices against the academic study of afterlife survival.
• What constitutes empirical evidence for survival after death?
• The main explanatory hypotheses alternative to survival after death.
• The chief cultural barriers to a fair examination of the available evidence for survival of consciousness after death.

Science of Life After Death is an essential resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, therapists, and other professionals in developmental and clinical psychology; spirituality, religious. and consciousness studies; psychiatry; neuroscience / neurology; phenomenology / philosophy; complementary and alternative medicine; and all interrelated disciplines.

Chapter 1. Introduction to the Science of Life After Death.- Chapter 2. The Idea of Survival of the Soul in the History of Religions and Philosophy.- Chapter 3. Main Arguments Against Survival After Death.- Chapter 4. Defining Evidence for Survival After Death.- Chapter 5. Best Available Evidence of Life After Death.- Chapter 6. The Weight of the Whole Body of Evidence of Life After Death.- Chapter 7. Cultural Barriers to a Fair Examination of the Available Evidence of Life After Death.- Chapter 8. Future Directions in the Scientific Research of Life After Death.

Alexander Moreira-Almeida, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES), School of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brazil. Chair of the Section on Spirituality of the Latin American Psychiatric Association (APAL). Former chair of the Sections on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA 2014-20) and the Brazilian Psychiatric Association (ABP 2014-21). He has worked on the scientific investigation of spiritual experiences for more than 25 years, authoring more than 170 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. His primary emphasis in the last decade has been the investigation of evidence of consciousness’ activity beyond the brain, especially for evidence for survival of human consciousness after death. Editor of the books Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship (Springer, 2012) and Spirituality and Mental Health Across Cultures (OUP, 2021).

Marianna de Abreu Costa, M.D., Ph.D., is a psychiatrist, member of the psychiatry and spirituality department of the Psychiatry Association of Rio Grande do Sul, DPE – APRS and of the Section on Spirituality of the Brazilian Psychiatric Association, ABP. She obtained her doctorate in Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS, Brazil (2019), conducting a randomized clinical trial (RCT) evaluating the efficacy of a mindfulness-based intervention. In addition, her studies emphasize the integration of spirituality and religiosity in psychotherapy. Currently, her interest has been more focused on anomalous experiences and the study of the mind-brain relationship. She is currently conducting a large national genetic study with spiritist mediums, coordinated by Professors Alexander Moreira-Almeida, M.D., Ph.D. (UFJF) and Wagner Farid Gattaz, M.D., Ph.D. (Universidade de São Paulo, USP).

Humberto Schubert Coelho, Ph.D., is Associate Professor for Metaphysics and Modern Philosophy of the Department of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES), at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, and holder of the chair Nr. 23 of the Brazilian Academy of Philosophy. He is a visiting researcher at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, Oxford University (2019-2020). Dr. Coelho's research is devoted to the metaphysical ground for meaning and purpose in life, which includes a series of proofs for the existence of God and the immortality of the soul, along with cultural analyses of the relationship between philosophy, religion, and science.