Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century is a 2007 psychological book by Edward Francis Kelly, Emily Williams Kelly, Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso, and Bruce Greyson. It attempts to bridge contemporary cognitive psychology and mainstream neuroscience with "rogue phenomena", which the authors argue exist in near-death experiences, psychophysiological influence, automatism, memory, genius, and mystical states. The authors' approach repudiates the conventional theory of human consciousness as a material epiphenomenon that can be fully explained in terms of physical brain processes and advances the mind as an entity independent of the brain or body. They advance an alternative "transmission" or "filter" theory of the mind-brain relationship. In doing so they explain how dualism may be a more fundamental theory that rejects a materialistic perspective of consciousness.
Authors The authorship of the book is diverse, with representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The book is interdisciplinary in that the authors also come from various fields of psychology, science studies, and psychical research. Lead author Edward F. Kelly is Professor of Research in the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Contents The book begins by presenting a brief overview of contemporary neuroscience followed by a summary of the approach to scientific psychology proposed by Frederic W. H. Myers. Myers (and William James) posited that a "true science of mind should seriously take into account all kinds of human experiences before prematurely accepting a theory of mind". Kelly argues that modern psychology has continued, contrary to the advice by Myers and James, to ignore phenomena from psychical research and religious experience simply because they don't fit into the prevalent views of mind. The book endorses phenomena related to psychosomatic medicine, placebo effects, near-death experiences, mystical experiences, and creative genius, to argue for a "strongly dualistic theory of mind and brain". Irreducible Mind depicts the mind as an entity independent of the brain or body, with which it causally interacts and the death of which it survives. The book "challenges neuroscientific reductionism" as it argues that properties of minds cannot be fully explained by those of brains. The book is broken into 9 sections followed by an introductory bibliography on psychical research and 100 pages of references.
Chapter 1: A View from the Mainstream: Contemporary Cognitive Neuroscience and the Consciousness Debates Chapter 2: F. W. H. Myers and the Empirical Study of the Mind-Body Problem Chapter 3: Psychophysiological Influence Chapter 4: Memory Chapter 5: Automatism and Secondary Centers of Consciousness Chapter 6: Unusual Experiences Near Death and Related Phenomena Chapter 7: Genius Chapter 8: Mystical Experience Chapter 9: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
