What does mediumship tell us about the mind beyond the brain?

Abstract

Mediums are individuals who claim to communicate with deceased persons or non-material beings. Rigorous studies have reported that mediums can provide accurate anomalous information (i.e. information not obtained through the conventional senses or inferential reasoning). This paper reviews the evidence about these claims and explores the main conventional explanatory hypotheses: fraud, sitter's gullibility and wishful thinking, lucky chance, medium's mental disorder, and involuntary personification of the unconscious mind. Additionally, we examine non-conventional explanations, specifically the hypothesis of the mind beyond the brain, highlighting the types of evidence that mediumship studies provide to support the existence of a mind independent of the physical brain. Through a critical analysis of both conventional and non-conventional explanations, this paper aims to contribute to the understanding of mediumship and its potential implications for our comprehension of consciousness and the mind-brain problem.