Alexander Almeida, Humberto Coelho, Marianna Costa – The Science of Life after Death

The talk will cover the recent book Science of Life After Death (Springer, 2022) which examines the best available empirical evidence regarding one of the most challenging and pervasive questions throughout ages, cultures, and religions: the survival of human consciousness after death. It begins with a contextual overview of belief in personal survival and refutes misguided historical and epistemological arguments against the notion of survival after death. We will provide an overview of the scientific evidence regarding the survival of human consciousness after death, focusing on studies on mediumship, near-death and out-of-body experiences, and reincarnation. Finally, we will discuss the main explanatory hypotheses alternative to survival after death and the chief cultural barriers to a fair examination of the available evidence for survival of consciousness after death.

Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, PhD is Professor of Psychiatry at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) School of Medicine and Founder and Director of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health, Brazil. Chair of the Section on Spirituality of the Latin American Psychiatric Association (APAL). Founding chair of the section on spirituality of the Brazilian Psychiatric Association (2014-21). Former chair of the Sections on Religion, Spirituality and Psychiatry of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) (2014-21). Author of more than 190 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters that received more than 8,000 citations.

Humberto Schubert Coelho, Ph.D., is Associate Professor for Metaphysics and Modern Philosophy of the Department of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Research Center in Spirituality and Health (NUPES), at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, and holder of the chair Nr. 23 of the Brazilian Academy of Philosophy. He was a visiting researcher at the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, Oxford University (2019-2020). He was the first to translate G. E. Lessing’s Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (The Education of the Human Race) to Portuguese, is a co-author of “Science of life after Death”, and the author of “Critical thinking: history and method” and “History of religious freedom” (Portuguese only).