Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal

by David E. Presti

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.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy, Science, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Paranormal

240 pages, Paperback

Published March 16, 2021

Reviews

[Julie Parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much like the book says, this book really does require mind beyond brain to consume it and digest everything that it suggests. It took me a really long and thorough read to actually get into it and even get it. But it's worth it.
You might not agree with all the points the author is making, but it's certainly food for thought.

This book is a sort of entertainment for the intellectual type - an idea for a Christmas present!

[Peter Clothier · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy"--Hamlet, Act I, Sc. 5

I have just finished reading with great interest a new book that arrived unsolicited in my mail box the other day. The title appealed to me immediately: Mind Beyond Brain; as did the subtitle, "Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal." As I wrote the other day in a prior entry in The Buddha Diaries, I have long been interested in the distinction between mind and brain. In the past, in the attempt to find an appropriate metaphor, I have compared the brain to the engine that drives the car through a landscape, whereas mind is not only to the entire car--including, of course, the engine--but also everything in front and behind, out to each side, above and below--all the way out to infinity. Edited, and with bookend essays by the neuroscientist David E. Presti, this book comprises essays on near death experiences, reports of past life memories (particularly by very young children), "mediums, apparitions and deathbed experiences," out-of-body experiences, paranormal phenomena, and survival after physical death, all by distinguished researchers associated with Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia.

The book's purpose is essentially a modest one: to raise enough significant questions, with enough significant evidence, to elevate this field of study to greater academic and scientific respectability. In this I think it is persuasive. The plain fact of the matter is that we humans do not understand everything, and it is appalling arrogance on our part to assume that we do--or that there is only one way to go about it. The hegemony of science and the scientific method in the past few centuries has certainly led to a greater understanding of who we are as a species, homo sapiens, and our extraordinary potential. It has nourished the brain and has led to the many diverse and astonishing accomplishments of that powerful organ. Yet it has failed, notably, to address with any seriousness and conviction, certain aspects of the greatest of all human resources: mind itself, and the mystery of a powerful consciousness that far transcends our still restricted--and likely still flawed-- field of knowledge and control.

Psychology and the social sciences aside, science has chosen to minimize or ignore a great part of human experience that can seem to threaten its authority. Near death experiences, to take but one example, have been documented in numerous instances by a variety of cultures throughout the world, with a startling commonality of detail; and yet remain virtually ignored by science. It is easier to dismiss with ridicule the possible existence of ghosts or extrasensory perception or telepathy than to develop new methodologies and explore new avenues of research that might expand our understanding of them. The reigning rules of scientific methodology require that the experience of such phenomena be shrugged off as merely anecdotal, unworthy of research--or, sadly, of the funds that would support it. And, when it comes to death and the survival beyond death of consciousness in some form, science prefers the path of scorn and categorical denial.

Buddhism, this book argues, offers us the prospect of a science of the mind; the practice of meditation opens doors to consciousness unimpaired by the kind of drugs that have been used with limited success in the West. It's no accident that one of the most passionate proponents of a mutually respectful partnership between science and religion is the Dalai Lama--a man brought up and steeped in the traditions and rituals of an ancient faith whose central practice is a rigorous exploration of the inner reaches of the mind. Mind Beyond Brain culminates in an eloquent plea not only for different, more open-minded approaches to research, but also for outreach to potential research participants--including, especially, meditators of proven skill--who might have been hitherto discouraged from stepping forward to take an active role in this neglected field of study.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

NOTE: I received an Advanced Readers Copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion of the book.

Rating: 3.5

The authors' that that this book is motivated by the notion that the contemporary encounter between Buddhism and science provides a forum in which to productively explore a more central role of mind and conscousness in our description of nature. Mind Beyond Brain describes a variety of phenomena that is not readily understood within the current explanatory framework of biophysical science. The book coveres the general state of various paranormal fields at present. Topics such as near-death experiences (NDEs), past-life memories, mediums, crisis apparitions, deathbed experiences, and extrasensory perceptions such as telepathy and psychokinesis are discussed. I found the first and last chapters to be too philosophical for my taste, however, the remaining chapters a nicely written and provide an objective (as much as possible) look at the current status of the subject. The authors try to demonstrate the existence of these paranormal phenomena, make an attempt at understanding how they work and what the implications may be for our general scientific worldview. This isn't a religious book, but spirituality, mind and brain functioning are central issues. Sections of this book come across as an attempt to gain funds for additional research for these topics. I'm all for additional research into paranormal phenomena so can someone please fund these people? Inconsistenceis between observed paranormal phenomena and the known explanatory mechanism should be reasons for excitement and result in new advances in sicentific intestigation of mind and its relation to the world of matter. The book is clearly written, interesting and provides food for thought. However, I do wish the authors had gone into more detail on some of the topics covered in this book.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think profoundly metaphysics altering even for the most stubbornly physicalist.

Meticulously referenced. A challenging and wonderful read.

Found this weird little book with a euatiful mandala cover at SfN in Chicago amidst the mind numbing buzz of the hottest & newest neuroscience.

It gave me joy and satisfaction to read there are not only others like myself looking to reconcile modern scientific methodology with the essential experience of universality, oneness an spiritual intuition but there is no inherent conflict at all and this "reconciliation" is simply a lesser known active scientific field! Will happily dig myself into the literature of the references.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

after reading this im so convinced of the limitations of our physicalist framework of consciousness it cant explain so many things but i am excited for the future of cogsci because this means we are on the precipice of discovering something big and revolutionary!!!!! i hope it happens before i die it makes me actually wanna do research.
i wish they speculated more abt what is beyond physicalism/modern theories on nature of consciousness but the research they presented was very compelling and easily digestible. felt like a short read and definitely activated some Intellectual Curiosity i didnt know i had in me, also cannot believe this guy is at UC Berkeley the fuck .

[Dale Muckerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many people tend to think that the current scientific world view will eventually explain everything. Things that don't quite fit into the physicalist framework, according to this world view, just don't exist. This book presents evidence that there are indeed events that are inexplicable in the current mainstream scientific world view. These events include near death experiences, children remembering identities other than the one they were born to, out of body experiences, etc. The book also describes the work of some scientists to use scientific methods to better understand these events.

For the most part, the book is an interesting read. At the end, however, the book focuses less on the weird events and more on how the efforts to make scientific headway in this field needs more support. I agree more support is needed but it isn't that interesting to read about it.

The chapter about children remembering apparent past lives is especially interesting. They often speak of their past life from age 3 to about age 7, and then seem to by and large forget about it. Several studies have found their memories of another identity largely valid. If you get this book and are hesitant to read it, just start by reading that chapter.

[Conrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

A scientific review of the current collection of experiences that seem to suggest that there is some aspect to mind and consciousness that is decoupled from the physical aspects of the brain. There have been quite a few recorded examples of things such as near-death experiences, out of body experiences, and general psychokinetic experiments that are really difficult to explain with the current practical worldview of the brain. The books is excellently written and seems to have lots of good references, which is probably essential.

I liked the book, but found myself glad that it was short. There isn't really anything explanatory or of a substantive explanatory nature out there. It doesn't take risks. It's a collection of stories and anecdotes and some summaries about things that are hard to describe. I'm not sure where I sit exactly, but I do think there could be some possibility here. It would be really interesting if someone were to more rigorously experiment with some of these cases, but admittedly they are super difficult to test in an exhaustive scientific manner.

[Michelle Deng · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always been curious about ideas in Buddhism about reincarnation and other super natural phenomena such as psi abilities and OBE. This book made me realize that these can and has already been studied in a relatively controlled environment following scientific investigation techniques. I agree with the book in that I also don’t believe that the physicalism realm of science is all that defines who we are and what we are, and it is exciting to see what paradigm shift future research in the “metaphysics” may bring. I finished the book with a lot of questions, and with even more curiosity to learn more. Presti is one of my favorite professors at Cal and it is exciting to see that he is encouraging more research in this field.

[Haley · Rating 4 out of 5]

lucas gave me this book that was written by his professor...so thanks luke. the main focus was “anomalous phenomena” — questioning widely accepted scientific models in (neurobiology, classical physics, quantum mechanics, etc), AND understanding the separation between the mind and the brain as we further think about consciousness, free will, etc.

the dismissal of this research is discouraging— one because it’s just really close minded and two because it’s so freaking cool and exciting. but as beautiful psychedelic research is finding its way into the more accepted mainstream, the author thinks this research will too! woo

[Josie Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

SUCH A COOL BOOK!!!!!! Love this premise---applying scientific method to phenomenon that cannot be explained. As someone who doesn't completely buy into "psi phenomenon" this was really cool to read about. Made me think about things differently!!!!

[Joe Isler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admirable attempt to conceptualize what paranormal phenomena (albeit with varying levels of creditibility) imply for our dominant physicalist worldview. The most compelling examples to me come from Tibetan Buddhism.

[Cyrill Wiget]

Exploration of consciousness beyond traditional materialist frameworks.

[Oli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides thought provoking research into areas outside the scientific mainstream without alienating skeptics. Material on Buddhism was fairly light though, considering it is in the title.

[Zack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays focuses on things like near-death experiences, reincarnation, astral projection, psychics, etc. - with each author focusing on a particular event type. Many of the writers are academics and researchers at or affiliated with the University of Virginia Division of Perceptual Studies - a sub department of Psychology; the editor, David Presti, is at UC Berkley. The purports to link contemporary and innovative science with events typically accepted as part of the Buddhist tradition; however, the explicit connection between the difficult to explain events listed above and Buddhism is tenuous, at best. Essentially this connection boils down to: Buddhists say these things happen, and so do we. Additionally, the bulk of the evidence presented in this book comes from a "take our word for it" context. There is very little sharing of actual data and result - most likely this is due to the popular nature of the book. However, given the current state of academic publishing, simply saying "our results were published in peer-reviewed journals" doesn't carry much water. Thus, there is no demonstrated rigor in the information presented. With all this being said - science is science and it is prone to just as much dogmatism as anything else. If the phenomena which is described in this book is actually happening, and the researchers can provide demonstrable rigor in not only proving it happens, but how and why it happen, the results could shake the very foundation of biological and social science as we know it. But this is a big "if", the phenomena they are describing in this book are of a nature that skepticism will be tremendous and as a result their science must be flawless and their writing must be overwhelmingly persuasive. Unfortunately, this book, is not a good entry point. This book is written to either support confirmation bias or be easily dismissable by skeptics.

[Lynda Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until recently, the bricks-and-mortar way of understanding the world with its atoms and scientific laws seemed to be enough. But then the atom was split even further and then physics starts to get weird. Consciousness at a quantum level can actually determine things.
Psychologists and physicists may be specialists at understanding consciousness at an objective level, whilst Buddhism specialises at understading the deeper layers of subjective consciousness. The hope expressed in this book is that one day, the approaches of each will merge, then a new way of understanding reality will emerge.
Chapters here bring together the fruit of old and new research into parapsychological research first founded by William James. Empirical research carried out over a hundred years ago into such matters as the NDE (near-death experience), mediumship and children who claim to remember earlier lives. More recently, there has been the work on the latter by Ian Stephenson, for example. This kind of research, the book argues, is where the merging of Buddhism and Science will be most fruitful.
This is quite a slim volume of chapters, but sometimes more can be less. The research here is certainly being encouraged by no less that the Dalai Rama himself.
You do not need to be a Buddhist however, to enjoy this, perhaps just to have an interest in where science and mysticism - or non-dog stick spirituality - overlap. Perhaps what is most interesting is that with James, there was already a lively interest in these areas, and that somehow, this easier painstaking research was forgotten.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without imposing his ideas to the reader, David explains the three subjects with a neutral pace; Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal. This approach provide the reader the chance to triangulate the three subjects and correlate their own conclusions. I liked this balanced approach compared to other book where sciences or mysticism are the key or the explanations of everything.


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