The End Of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal Is Bringing Science and Spirit Together

Description

Modern science has taught us much about the world, but will science ever make spirituality obsolete? Today, the need for spiritual explanations remains strong--some 20 percent of the population describes themselves as "spiritual, but not religious," that is, unaffiliated with a specific church or synagogue but engaged in spiritual seeking. A 2006 survey found that 92 percent of Americans believe in a personal God--that is, a god with a distinct set of character traits. The classic materialist view is of a universe of separate objects that occasionally and meaninglessly affect each other through material forces. These objects are considered to be dead matter. But are things more linked than we normally imagine? This book presents an elegant argument that the twenty-first century needs a much broader perspective on the nature of reality than traditional science is capable of delivering. In The End of Materialism, Tart presents research that supports the existence of paranormal phenomena and shows readers how science and spirituality can be understood as two interconnected halves of a whole instead of as forces in opposition. The book presents Tart's most intriguing findings in his fifty-year career investigating paranormal phenomena in scientific experiments at prestigious institutions including Stanford University and the University of California, Davis. This book offers evidence for the existence of telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, psychokinesis, and psychic healing, and explains other phenomena such as out-of-body experiences and near-death experiences. This book is ideal for scientifically minded individuals curious about life's spiritual side as well as spiritually inclined people seeking to back up their beliefs with legitimate scientific evidence.

Charles T. Tart, Ph.D., is a core faculty member of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA. He is internationally known for his psychological work on the nature of consciousness, particularly on altered states of consciousness, and for his research in scientific parapsychology. He is one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology. Tart's two classic books, "Altered States of Consciousness" and "Transpersonal Psychologies," were instrumental in introducing these areas to modern psychology. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.