In this engaging and comprehensive book, the philosopher Brooke Noel Moore provides a unique synthesis of the philosophical and parapsychological aspects of belief in life after death. He explains the various theories of personal survival after physical death, discusses the mind-brain relationship, personal identity, the possibility of disembodied existence, reidentification of spirits, and alternative concepts of self. By exploring the theoretical philosophical approaches to life after death alongside a critical examination of the accumulated empirical evidence of 100 years of psychical research, Moore explains, critiques, and integrates both areas of study into a complete assessment of the possibilities beyond death.

Although skeptical of much of the evidence for survival, Moore retains a level-headed perspective throughout, prioritizing reasoning and rationality over any personal prior religious or philosophical commitments. Such balance and intellectual honesty are rare in contemporary parapsychology, and Moore’s book should be seen as a model of fairness and open-mindedness for both skeptics and believers alike. Moore’s assessments of mediumship, reincarnation, xenoglossy, deathbed visions, electronic voice phenomena, out-of-body experiences, and near-death experiences are essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the ultimate meanings of these extraordinary phenomena.

Brooke Moore, Ph.D., is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Chico, where he has been a member of the Philosophy Department faculty since 1970.  There he served on the Academic Senate, and was a University Master Teacher, a Department Chair in both the Philosophy Department and History Department, the university’s Outstanding Professor, the Director of the Critical Thinking Program, and a University Faculty Mentor. He has authored several books, including The Philosophical Possibilities Beyond Death, The Cosmos, God, and Philosophy (with Ralph J. Moore), Making Your Case (with Pamela Spoto), Moral Philosophy: A Comprehensive Introduction (with Robert Stewart), Philosophy: The Power of Ideas, in eleven editions (with Kenneth Bruder), and Critical Thinking, in thirteen editions (with Richard Parker). Moore received a B.A. in music at Antioch College in 1966, and a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Cincinnati in 1971.