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SCIENCE AND THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE: HOW CONSCIOUSNESS SURVIVES DEATH by Chris Carter. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2010. Pp. xvi + 304. $18.95 (paperback). ISBN 978-1-59477-356-3.
In Science and the Near-Death Experience, Chris Carter explores the implications of the phenomenon of near-death experiences for our understanding of the relationship between consciousness and the brain. In the course of this exploration Carter provides a challenging and wellinformed critique of materialist philosophies of mind and a defense of the survivalist interpretation of near-death experiences against various materialist objections. Carter's book is nicely organized around three main categories. Chapters 1-6 explore the relationship between consciousness and brain functioning. Chapters 7-17, the heart of the book, examine neardeath experiences. Chapters 18-20 examine the phenomenon of deathbed visions.
Carter's Critique of Materialism
The central question explored in chapters 1-6 is whether consciousness depends on a functioning brain. Carter rightly notes that the more prominent objections to the survival of death rest on the belief that consciousness cannot exist apart from a functioning brain. Carter's general strategy is to dismantle this materialist viewpoint so as to remove a widespread objection to the case for survival based on data drawn from near-death experiences.
Carter begins in chapter 1 by outlining some of the more prominent philosophies of mind that are usually adduced as evidence against postmortem survival: epiphenomenalism, identity theory, and behaviorism, each of which entails that consciousness cannot survive the death of the brain. However, Carter presents what he considers compelling reasons for rejecting these philosophies of mind. He also draws attention to the apparent leap in logic among philosophers of mind and neuroscientists who conclude that the mind cannot exist apart from a functioning brain solely on the grounds of various correlations between mental states and states of the brain. Carter argues that the correlative data of neuroscience are compatible with two distinct models of mind-brain interaction: the productive model (favored by materialists) and transmission models (favored by dualists). According to the former, the brain produces consciousness in much the same way that a kettle produces steam. Remove the kettle, of course, and there is no steam. According to the latter, the brain transmits consciousness in a way analogous to how light is transmitted through a lens or prism. On the...