Brooke Moore, Ph.D., is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Chico, where he has been a member of the Philosophy Department faculty since 1970. There he served on the Academic Senate, and was a University Master Teacher, a Department Chair in both the Philosophy Department and History Department, the university’s Outstanding Professor, the Director of the Critical Thinking Program, and a University Faculty Mentor. He has authored several books, including The Philosophical Possibilities Beyond Death, The Cosmos, God, and Philosophy (with Ralph J. Moore), Making Your Case (with Pamela Spoto), Moral Philosophy: A Comprehensive Introduction (with Robert Stewart), Philosophy: The Power of Ideas, in eleven editions (with Kenneth Bruder), and Critical Thinking, in thirteen editions (with Richard Parker). Moore received a B.A. in music at Antioch College in 1966, and a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Cincinnati in 1971.
CONTENTS
Preface
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Personal Survival
2. Theories of Survival
3. Scientific Survival
PART II: PHILOSOPHICAL REFUTATIONS
4. Refutations of Disembodied Survival
5. Can the Mind Be Nonmaterial?
6. Two Views of Self and Disembodied Survival
7. It Isn't Chess Without the King
8. Refutations of Reincarnation
9. Resurrection and Identity
10. The Description of Astral Bodies
PART Ill: THE EARLY EVIDENCE
11. Religious Evidence
12. The Ultimate Mediums
13. Difficulties With the Piper and Leonard Cases
14. Cross-corresponding Communications
15. Drop-in Communicators: Runolfur Runolfsson
16. Gauld's "Drop-ins"
17. Apparitions
18. Proof or Corroboration?
PART IV: THE LATE EVIDENCE
19. Visions at the Brink of Death
20. Other Studies of Near-death Experiences
21. Out of Body Phenomena
22. The Electronic Voice Phenomenon
23. The Reincarnation Cases
24. Xenoglossy
25. Reincarnation Workshops
26. What Are the Probabilities?
Bibliography
Index
The Philosophical Possibilities Beyond Death
Exploring the Evidence
from Psychical Research
In this engaging and comprehensive book, the philosopher Brooke Noel Moore provides a unique synthesis of the philosophical and parapsychological aspects of belief in life after death. He explains the various theories of personal survival after physical death, discusses the mind-brain relationship, personal identity, the possibility of disembodied existence, reidentification of spirits, and alternative concepts of self. By exploring the theoretical philosophical approaches to life after death alongside a critical examination of the accumulated empirical evidence of 100 years of psychical research, Moore explains, critiques and integrates both areas of study into a complete assessment of the possibilities beyond death.
Although skeptical of much of the evidence for survival, Moore retains a level-headed perspective throughout, prioritizing reasoning and rationality over any personal prior religious or philosophical commitments. Such balance and intellectual honesty are rare in contemporary parapsychology, and Moore’s book should be seen as a model of fairness and open-mindedness for both skeptics and believers alike. Moore’s assessments of mediumship, reincarnation, xenoglossy, deathbed visions, electronic voice phenomena, out-of-body experiences, and near-death experiences are essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the ultimate meanings of these extraordinary phenomena.
Selected by the Blavatsky Study Center as one of the
49 “Cream of the Crop” Titles on Life After Death.
“An excellent book which deserves to be better known.” – Paul Edwards
“The book is excellent. It makes a good textbook for a philosophy course on the subject, and provides a good source book for the critical literature on those issues surveyed.” - Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.