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seattle_andrea's review against another edition
4.0
A majority of the book is spent trying to refute existing materialist claims about neuroscience, which is helpful but tends to repeat itself. The actual research with Carmelite nuns is very short. Still, it was thought provoking and an entertaining read if you are interested in spiritual concepts and the debate of mind versus matter.
alice_persephone's review against another edition
3.0
From a christian perspective, this book got into some weird stuff that needed filtering, but overall I enjoyed it.
trogdor19's review against another edition
4.0
Great non-fiction. Easy to read and easy to follow.
The author's main argument rests on a single brain imaging study that showed that brain states during mystical experiences arn't the same as brain states during autobiographical memory recall, which isn't great evidence, or enough of it to prove his point. However, he does other things that are more important.
His book provides a wealth of evidence that materialism (meaning everything has a material, physical cause) is false and that it ignores tons of evidence, which makes it no better than religion is at basing everything on facts. In fact, it totally ignores the placebo and psi effect. This book also discusses the boatload of recorded near-death experiences, which prove that mystical experiences and consciousness can exist outside of brain activity or heart function.
This book draws the right conclusion from the wrong evidence, but manages to present all the right evidence anyway.
The author's main argument rests on a single brain imaging study that showed that brain states during mystical experiences arn't the same as brain states during autobiographical memory recall, which isn't great evidence, or enough of it to prove his point. However, he does other things that are more important.
His book provides a wealth of evidence that materialism (meaning everything has a material, physical cause) is false and that it ignores tons of evidence, which makes it no better than religion is at basing everything on facts. In fact, it totally ignores the placebo and psi effect. This book also discusses the boatload of recorded near-death experiences, which prove that mystical experiences and consciousness can exist outside of brain activity or heart function.
This book draws the right conclusion from the wrong evidence, but manages to present all the right evidence anyway.
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