Non-Ordinary Spiritual Experiences- some phenomena without a satisfactory explanation

Abstract

Abstract: Some non-ordinary spiritual experiences cannot be explained on a purely materialistic basis since the materialistic model could only partially explain them. The four main groups of such phenomena are: (I) Mediumship: why do some texts have accurate, verifiable information in controlled and blind studies that exclude fraud or coincidence? (II) Memories of past lives: how could some reports have precise verifiable matches, sometimes even with birthmarks from the previous persona? (III) Near-death experiences: how could a few people remember actual events that occurred in the resuscitation period when brain activity was absent? (IV) End-of-life experiences: how come people with dementia due to irreversible brain damage can experience paradoxical lucidity phenomenon? There are aspects in these phenomena that point to the survival of consciousness after death, coming from rigorous research published in peer-reviewed journals. Therefore, science needs a paradigm shift to accommodate the idea of consciousness as an element independent of the brain.