Conscious Self after Death - PE after death: Self, Death & Afterlife

Existence as a conscious self after death

- Plato & soul's natural immortality

- Price & disembodied souls

- Swinburne

- Reincarnation

- Near-death experiences (NDE)

Plato & soul's natural immortality

- Believed soul = eternal & belonged to World of Forms

- Argument from Opposites

- Argument from World of Forms

- Believed in the transmigration of souls

Transmigration

The passing of a soul into another body, form of life, or physical vessel after death.

Plato's Argument from Opposites

- Everything comes into existence from its opposite

- As living beings die, life must come from death

Plato's Argument from World of Forms

- Knowledge = Not about learning new things, but about remembering

- Soul remembers things it observed in World of Forms

- It is an imperfect memory because of trauma of again becoming imprisoned in a body

Plato Criticism

His theory is dependent on the validity of parapsychology, which is challenged by many.

Price & Disembodied Souls

- Modern version of Plato's views

- Analogy of a dream

- Influenced by his studies in parapsychology

Price's Analogy of a dream

- Dream = State in which we perform physical actions

- Similarly, the environment of the souls disembodied after death would be a reflection of their desires & memories

Parapsychology

Scientific study of alleged psychic phenomena and anomalous experiences, that defy conventional scientific understanding.

Influence from parapsychology

Price suggested that disembodied souls would communicate & recognise each other through telepathy

Swinburne's Lightbulb Analogy

- Used to suggest that soul = different from brain

- Whether embodied / disembodied, it can survive death, retaining memories and desires and with the same identity

- All the soul needs is something to replace the function performed by the brain in its earthly life

Why is Swinburne's Lightbulb Analogy possible?

Because God is omnipotent

Aim of Swinburne's Lightbulb Analogy

Pointing to logical possibility rather than claiming fact

Reincarnation Origin

Hinduism

Reincarnation

- Atman - Eternal, indestructible & unchangeable

- Sharira = Created, mortal & subject to change

- Atman = Imprisoned in the sharira

- At death, karma determines whether the atman can be liberated samsara to attain nirvana, or whether it passes into another body

Atman

Soul

Sharira

Body

Samsara

Cycle of birth, death & reincarnation

Nirvana

A condition of great peace or happiness

Evidence supporting reincarnation

- Past life regression

- Direct past-life recall

Past life regression

Under hypnosis, the individual recalls a supposed past life

Direct past-life recall

Young children claim to remember a past life, e.g. parents, location, etc.

Direct past-life recall: James Leininger

- Started at age 2

- Had nightmares about a WWII plane crash

- He identified his past life as "James Huston Jr.," a pilot who died when his plane was shot down by the Japanese.

- He accurately named his aircraft carrier (Natoma Bay), a fellow pilot (Jack Larsen), and knew his sister's name (Annie), which was confirmed by Huston's surviving family.

Reincarnation Strength

Spotaneous childhood memories seem very convincing

Reincarnation Weaknesses

- Other explanations, e.g. Cryptomnesia

- Some of the research procedures have been weak

Cryptomnesia

- Type of misattribution

- Occurs when a person thinks they've come up with a new idea

- However they have only retrieved a stored idea, and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source

Near-death experiences (NDE)

- Have been given from ancient times, e.g. Plato's story of Er

- Found in all cultures and religions, though individual accounts may reveal religion-specific / culture specific details, e.g. Christians seeing Jesus

NDE common features

- Out of body experience

- Going through a tunnel towards a brilliant light

- Meeting deceased loved ones

- Feelings of immense peace in positive ones / sheer terror n negative ones

- Point of no return, but individual feels need to go back

- Profound change in lifestyle, attitudes to death & afterlife

NDE Strengths

- People with no optic nerve reporting sighted experiences

- Transformation of lives afterwards supports its credibility

NDE Weaknesses

- Individuals aren't actually dead, so not actual evidence for life after death

- Experiences could've been caused by hallucinations caused by medication / brain's release of endorphins