The Evidence from Psychical Research

Abstract

There are several important logical differences between the kinds of general argument we examined in the last chapter and the kinds of specific evidence for a life after death to which we must now turn. We shall shortly be focusing on: (1) near-death experiences; (2) apparitional experiences; (3) communications via mediums; and (4) putative reincarnation cases. Evidence of these empirical kinds can be obtained only by studying actual occurrences, by ‘fieldwork’, or by means of reports from fieldworkers, unlike the general arguments we have been considering, which can be developed and elaborated by ‘armchair’ activities of pure reflection and which have to be assessed and criticized by the use of our rational faculties alone. Whereas the general arguments draw exclusively on features supposedly common to all conscious beings or to every situation in which conscious beings find themselves, the empirical evidence on which we shall now be focusing draws on a multiplicity of ostensible facts, each involving one or at most a handful of specific individuals, and it is on the basis of these diverse ostensible facts that we may try to ground inductive inferences concerning the possibility of survival of death. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.