Physicalism is the doctrine that the real world consists simply of the physical world. It is the close cousin of materialism, the creed that nothing exists except matter, its movements and modifications, as well as the doctrine that consciousness and will are wholly due to material agency.
So far, science has been dominated by this recalcitrant materialism, but this articles is the proof it has its days numbered. If we want to advance in the scientific knowledge we have to search for new lines of thought, we must leave physicalism behind and admit there is something we can’t explain: the existence of consciousness and its more than likely survival after physical death. This is a mantra I have been repeating over and over again in various places on the internet. In the nearly five years I have been investigating reincarnation and remembering past lives, I have had multiple arguments with skeptics. The most blatant are those I have had with scientists... but the most surprising thing is that they were not skeptics, but believers in reincarnation. However, they were totally incapable of leaving behind obsolete theories that don’t lead anywhere and are not useful to explain all the paranormal phenomena that are mentioned in the article.
Reading it, I have realized I am not the only one that thinks this way. Maybe they can call me an extremist, they can ignore me or think I don’t have the sufficient knowledge to elaborate hypotheses on the mechanics of reincarnation just because I don’t hold any chair in a university, but it seems I haven’t made this up. What I say is true, and maybe that is why it hurts. Let’s remember that beside being a researcher, I remember past lives, and that makes me someone who must be considered as crazy in the great majority of scientific communities, and my opinion has no validity, because I haven’t published any paper in any scientific journal. At the same time, I realize my hypotheses keep being one of the most advanced to explain how it is that our consciousness can return in a new body and not only that, but also how out-of-body experiences, NDE’s, precognition or déjà vus are possible. Anyway, my hypotheses are not completely original. I just share the same viewpoint with many other unorthodox researchers.
But the objective of this post is not to speak of my hypotheses but the article, as it matches a lot of my thoughts. The complete article can be found here: https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/267/2016/01/Dossey-BP-review-for-Explore2.pdf. It was published in August this year, so it is one of the most recent works we have. I think it gives a quite accurate vision about the point in which science is at the moment, in regards to all these supposedly paranormal phenomena that are related to consciousness. I have extracted the excerpts I consider more interesting, and I have added my personal comments. To ease the reading, I have highlighted in colour the parts I find more interesting.