Paranormal experiences — why they matter and how they can help make a better tomorrow.
Paranormal experiences — why they matter and how they can help make a better tomorrow.
Cosmology, Mind & body, Parapsychology (general)
What Lies Beyond answers two questions: What's beyond the functional, mechanistic, and materialistic conceptions of life and consciousness? And why does that matter today?
From an overview of paranormal and mystical experiences - in the context of the prevailing mechanistic, materialist view of mind and life - to exploring why the mystery of consciousness remains ‘hard’ and the reasons for doubting that this mystery will be resolved in mechanistic terms, this book aims to encourage open enquiry.
For the reader who feels a bit lost, alienated, or disturbed by today’s aggressive scientism and technology worship, these pages offer alternative, more open approaches that reject neither science nor technology but rather insist upon a more humanistic outlook that’s sensitive to the vast but often hidden range of human experience.
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Colborn collates a wide range of fascinating information in this highly readable book that challenges the dominant materialist paradigm. He is right when he states that we are currently negotiating a 'crisis of meaninglessness', and I agree with his argument that one aspect of our path through this crisis requires a re-evaluation of the implications of psi and mystical experiences. There is a danger that the metaphysical assumptions underpinning much of modern science are at odds with what is required to negotiate the global age we are entering. Colborn addresses the issues instructively. A timely book that deserves to be widely read. ~ Brian L Lancaster, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, Alef Trust founding director and author of Approaches to Consciousness
Matt Colborn makes a strong case for paying careful attention to paranormal and mystical experiences when seeking alternative worldviews to blinkered scientific materialism, worldviews that could potentially help us through difficult times ahead. What Lies Beyond is a well-balanced, informative, thoughtful discussion – and a pleasure to read. ~ Paul Marshall, Ph.D. Author of Mystical Encounters with the Natural World, The Shape of the Soul, co-editor of Beyond Physicalism and Consciousness Unbound
Well written, relevant, and from a reputable author. ~ Bernardo Kastrup, Ph.D. Executive director of Essentia Foundation. Leader of the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism and author of many books including Why Materialism is Baloney
In this passionately argued, very accessible book, Matt Colborn directs attention to the ideal nature of science – that it is following evidence where it leads to construct an understanding of the world, not starting with a favoured conclusion and discarding all data that does not conform to expectation. The ‘paranormal’ phenomena that Colborn describes at length are paranormal only from the point of view of the reductionistic, materialistic assumption that consciousness is generated by the brain. These ‘paranormal’ phenomena are common, universal human experiences, however, that are being trivialized when dismissed so cavalierly. It is high time that our sciences faced this truth and questioned whether the materialistic understanding of consciousness is after all the most appropriate one. ~ James Matlock, Ph.D. Author of Signs of Reincarnation and co-author of I Saw a Light and Came Here
