Mortal Body, Immortal Mind

Hans Goller

Mortal Body, Immortal Mind
Does the Brain Really Produce Consciousness?

Article

17/1 - Spring 2012, pages 5-26

Date of online publication: 04 juin 2012

Date of publication: 04 juin 2012

Abstract

Neuroscientists keep telling us that the brain produces consciousness and consciousness does not survive brain death because it ceases when brain activity ceases. Research findings on near-death-experiences during cardiac arrest contradict this widely held conviction. They raise perplexing questions with regard to our current understanding of the relationship between consciousness and brain functions. Reports on veridical perceptions during out-of-body experiences suggest that consciousness may be experienced independently of a functioning brain and that self-consciousness may continue even after the termination of brain activity. Data on studies of near-death-experiences could be an incentive to develop alternative theories of the body-mind relation as seen in contemporary neuroscience.

Keywords

Cite this article

Goller, Hans. “Mortal Body, Immortal Mind: Does the Brain Really Produce Consciousness?” Forum Philosophicum 17, no. 1 (2012): 5–26. doi:10.35765/forphil.2012.1701.01.

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