Perennial Idealism: A Mystical Solution to the Mind-Body Problem

If both Idealism and Dualism lead to the same sorts of predictions relative to paranormal experiences such as NDEs and their features like veridical OBEs, transportation through a "tunnel", communication with deceased loved ones and friends, return to the physical body, etc., then what tips the balance in favor of Idealism? Especially considering that the commonsense layperson simplest interpretation of these experiences is that they are of an immaterial spirit or spirit body acting as a mobile center of consciousness able to interpenetrate matter and leave or reenter the body at will or automatically in certain circumstances. This sort of interpretation seems to imply some sort of Dualism. 

And what sort of predictions could there be made that would adequately distinguish the two theories of mind based on observations or veridical reported experiences? Such hopefully radically different predictions would make which of the theories of mind is accepted of some practical interest to parapsychology. If there are no radical differences then it doesn't seem an important issue except to academic philosophers of mind.

Well the challenge is Dualism doesn't seem to have much to say about any other aspect of reality save perhaps observer collapse of the wave-function?

I'm not personally an Idealist, so I don't think there's any deep pressing need for the Idealist position to dominate parapsychology. However having multiple metaphysical paradigms out there for academics to choose from does seem to open up minds as to what experiences are possible. Whether it is pop-science websites, conferences on consciousness, or published essays in more cerebral magazines/websites you don't see people talking about Dualism - it is seen as a dead end intellectually. Panpsychism and Idealism, however, are hitting their strides - both are more friendly to the data though Idealism is naturally more so.

If parapsychology is going to ever get out of the gutter, I think materialism's diminishment is part of that process. The other is advances in quantum- and magneto-biology.

One other important factor is how one's outlook on reality might affect their own Psi ability. It would be interesting to see if results improve when one is more open to what is expected/possible in reality. Radin has taken some interest in researching practitioners of magic, for example, and at least some esoteric/occult practitioners advise getting oneself in the right metaphysical mindset. I suspect reading some stuff about Psi-friendly metaphysical possibilities would improve results. AFAIK it's never been tried...

Additionally, concerning personal questions like whether we're just machines on a pre-programmed course toward Oblivion, I find that metaphysics can be soothing. There's also the question of ghosts, UFOs, and all the other odd bits - trying to fit them into a Dualist framework seems possible but decidedly difficult.

Finally, a future parapsychology that seeks to utilize the realities of Psi may indeed benefit from a metaphysical position...though that's probably a century or so away...

Well the challenge is Dualism doesn't seem to have much to say about any other aspect of reality save perhaps observer collapse of the wave-function?

I'm not personally an Idealist, so I don't think there's any deep pressing need for the Idealist position to dominate parapsychology. However having multiple metaphysical paradigms out there for academics to choose from does seem to open up minds as to what experiences are possible. Whether it is pop-science websites, conferences on consciousness, or published essays in more cerebral magazines/websites you don't see people talking about Dualism - it is seen as a dead end intellectually. Panpsychism and Idealism, however, are hitting their strides - both are more friendly to the data though Idealism is naturally more so.

I would question that. What data are you referring to? Empirical evidence would be best.

I would question that. What data are you referring to? Empirical evidence would be best.

Telepathy, PK, Clairevoyance, Reincarnation, Veridical NDE elements.

For the dualist there is a question of how the Mental Realm interacts with the Physical. Are brains involved in telepathic communication? For PK, how does the mental go beyond the mind and move an object?

Reincarnation makes us ask how does a body come to bear marks of death from a previous body? How is the Mental Realm influencing the physical marks on the physical body?

As for veridical NDEs, how does a person see anything from the Physical Realm while floating presumably in the Mental Realm? There then has to be a medium of information transfer, and the very fact that what NDErs perceive veridically seems to parallel what they see with bodily eyes also suggests a continuity between the substance of the presumed "Physical" and the "Mental".

In all these cases there has to be something within the Physical amenable to the Mental in order for perception and/or influence to occur. I accept that a Dualism where Mind and Matter have edges where they meet *might* work, but I do not think this is a parsimonious explanation.

If there is a single Substance, where that stuff is just Mental or Dual-Aspected Monism, all of these problems are more easily explained.

Telepathy, PK, Clairevoyance, Reincarnation, Veridical NDE elements.

For the dualist there is a question of how the Mental Realm interacts with the Physical. Are brains involved in telepathic communication? For PK, how does the mental go beyond the mind and move an object?

Reincarnation makes us ask how does a body come to bear marks of death from a previous body? How is the Mental Realm influencing the physical marks on the physical body?

As for veridical NDEs, how does a person see anything from the Physical Realm while floating presumably in the Mental Realm? There then has to be a medium of information transfer, and the very fact that what NDErs perceive veridically seems to parallel what they see with bodily eyes also suggests a continuity between the substance of the presumed "Physical" and the "Mental".

In all these cases there has to be something within the Physical amenable to the Mental in order for perception and/or influence to occur. I accept that a Dualism where Mind and Matter have edges where they meet *might* work, but I do not think this is a parsimonious explanation.

If there is a single Substance, where that stuff is just Mental or Dual-Aspected Monism, all of these problems are more easily explained.

But this property of a Monist reality substance of it having two (or perhaps even more) radically different aspects has its own level of complications that inevitably go along with it - all the principles and mechanisms that must underlie which aspect of this single ground of reality governs consciousness for the time being. No less complicated an ultimate explanation than how the two elementary substances interact in Dualism. It might be more complicated. This looks more like at least a tie when it comes to Occam's Razor.

And regarding your earlier remark about how in modern currents of thought Dualism is mostly ignored because it is relatively infertile in terms of being a "dead end" intellectually - I might point out that the truth or otherwise of a philosophical or other position is not logically any function at all of the position's intellectual fruitfulness. A fact of the world either may or may not lead to further facts of the world through intellectual manipulation. A brute fact is a brute fact.

But this property of a Monist reality substance of it having two (or perhaps even more) radically different aspects has its own level of complications that inevitably go along with it - all the principles and mechanisms that must underlie which aspect of this single ground of reality governs consciousness for the time being. No less complicated an ultimate explanation than how the two elementary substances interact in Dualism. It might be more complicated. This looks more like at least a tie when it comes to Occam's Razor.

And regarding your earlier remark about how in modern currents of thought Dualism is mostly ignored because it is relatively infertile in terms of being a "dead end" intellectually - I might point out that the truth or otherwise of a philosophical or other position is not logically any function at all of the position's intellectual fruitfulness. A fact of the world either may or may not lead to further facts of the world through intellectual manipulation. A brute fact is a brute fact.

I do agree that no matter where we start in terms of different Monist pictures we seem end up with Dualisms of a sort if we try to explain how we get from the Original Stuff to the world of objects and subjects.

However I don't think there is a tie here, in terms of parsimony or explanation. Dualism still has to explain where the individual minds of the Mental Realm come from. There's also the question of the regularities of the Physical Realm. Also there are numerous realms that even NDErs alone claim to visit - does each of these places also have their own regularities to govern interactions between the Mental and whatever makes up those realms? If we speak of Laws governing these different realms, or even just the Mental & Physical Realms, as well as coordinating their interaction at levels akin to our own QM level, then we are only adding to the amount of "stuff".

OTOH, if the varied places NDErs go are all in the Mental Realm, then why cannot the Physical Realm also be one more place within the Mental? Just by vivid and lucid dreaming we know the mind can craft worlds quite akin to what we find in the Physical.

For just the Mental and Physical Realms, to have Laws of Nature govern the separate Realms and their Interaction means having at least three kinds of substance - the Mental, the Physical, and whatever stuff makes up the Laws. Not only that, but just as there needs to be a means of Interaction between the Physical and Mental, there now needs to be a means of interaction between the Laws and these two Realms. 

And by Parsimony, if there is a state for each of these substances where they can interact with the others...wouldn't it make more sense that there is some common origin point for the Mental, the Physical? A singular substance from which the seeming separate Realms originates from, that these separations are really just gradations of this Universal Stuff? In this picture we also don't need the Laws to impinge upon the rest of Reality, as Laws are descriptive of the causal interactions rather than entities imposing Order.

Also when we posit Laws, we usually just use them describe patterns of regularity in what is considered a singular substance - or, at the least, levels of substance. We don't usually make Laws of Nature do the work of explaining causal transference. It seems very ad hoc to think a soul (or perhaps better put a subtle body) floating above an operating room is seeing because there are laws that coordinate what it is happening the Mental and Physical. This claim of [coordinating] interaction laws is actually one of the reasons Descartes Dualism is so often rejected.

If there's a singular substance, then causal transference from the items in an operatiing room to the light that accompanies if not allows for sight to the soul makes more sense. Similarly, if there is a single substance making up both body and soul, then the memories of the soul of how they died imprinting on the body during reincarnation also becomes easier to explain as memories and flesh have the same underlying origin.

As for seeming intellectual dead ends & Truth, you asked why metaphysics matter for parapsychology. For better or worse, the challenge for parapsychology is even getting past the doorman. So yes, it may not bear on the actual truth, but it does bear on getting anywhere with academia. Really parapsychology's biggest problem, IMO, is scientists who work in the field just haven't been good at marketing...maybe Radin is the exception...

I do agree that no matter where we start in terms of different Monist pictures we seem end up with Dualisms of a sort if we try to explain how we get from the Original Stuff to the world of objects and subjects.

However I don't think there is a tie here, in terms of parsimony or explanation. Dualism still has to explain where the individual minds of the Mental Realm come from. Idealism or Monism similarly has to explain how and why its primal ground substance differentiates and individuates into souls. There's also the question of the regularities of the Physical Realm. Also there are numerous realms that even NDErs alone claim to visit - does each of these places also have their own regularities to govern interactions between the Mental and whatever makes up those realms? If we speak of Laws governing these different realms, or even just the Mental & Physical Realms, as well as coordinating their interaction at levels akin to our own QM level, then we are only adding to the amount of "stuff". Surely in Idealism or Monism there would have to be a similar level of complicated principles and Laws governing the nature of the manifestations of these other realms out of the primal stuff of the ground of reality.

OTOH, if the varied places NDErs go are all in the Mental Realm, then why cannot the Physical Realm also be one more place within the Mental? Just by vivid and lucid dreaming we know the mind can craft worlds quite akin to what we find in the Physical. Interesting thought. There just would have to be some sort of elaborate explanation of why and how the physical is so very obstinately fixed and out of control of the ultimately spiritual entities occupying it in human bodies. 

For just the Mental and Physical Realms, to have Laws of Nature govern the separate Realms and their Interaction means having at least three kinds of substance - the Mental, the Physical, and whatever stuff makes up the Laws. Not necessary. The laws could and more probably are, simply the way these realms were designed, no extra substance or controlling forces required. Not only that, but just as there needs to be a means of Interaction between the Physical and Mental, there now needs to be a means of interaction between the Laws and these two Realms. As I mentioned in the previous, not necessary. 

And by Parsimony, if there is a state for each of these substances where they can interact with the others...wouldn't it make more sense that there is some common origin point for the Mental, the Physical? A singular substance from which the seeming separate Realms originates from, that these separations are really just gradations of this Universal Stuff? In this picture we also don't need the Laws to impinge upon the rest of Reality, as Laws are descriptive of the causal interactions rather than entities imposing Order. Maybe so, but for all intents and purposes to human beings and presumably also to souls they are separate realms. 

Also when we posit Laws, we usually just use them describe patterns of regularity in what is considered a singular substance - or, at the least, levels of substance. We don't usually make Laws of Nature do the work of explaining causal transference. It seems very ad hoc to think a soul (or perhaps better put a subtle body) floating above an operating room is seeing because there are laws that coordinate what it is happening the Mental and Physical. This claim of [coordinating] interaction laws is actually one of the reasons Descartes Dualism is so often rejected.

If there's a singular substance, then causal transference from the items in an operatiing room to the light that accompanies if not allows for sight to the soul makes more sense. One explanation is that the disembodied spirit center of consciousness hovering in a spatial location near a corner of the ceiling at higher levels of consciousness "sees" the scene in a comprehensive beyond 3 dimensional way. But this "seeing" is deliberately throttled down to being an analog of what the human spirit is used to: vision of the scene at visible light wavelengths from that particular spatial perspective. No new laws required, just the will of the higher self. Similarly, if there is a single substance making up both body and soul, then the memories of the soul of how they died imprinting on the body during reincarnation also becomes easier to explain as memories and flesh have the same underlying origin.

As for seeming intellectual dead ends & Truth, you asked why metaphysics matter for parapsychology. For better or worse, the challenge for parapsychology is even getting past the doorman. So yes, it may not bear on the actual truth, but it does bear on getting anywhere with academia. Really parapsychology's biggest problem, IMO, is scientists who work in the field just haven't been good at marketing...maybe Radin is the exception...

Idealism or Monism similarly has to explain how and why its primal ground substance differentiates and individuates into souls.

Sure, but all of the differentiation occurs within a singular underlying substance. Dualism inherits the problems that Physicalism has in under-describing the world operating under physics as well as the problems of how Idealism gets us to many minds.

And then we have to work out how you get interactions between the two Realms.

Interesting thought. There just would have to be some sort of elaborate explanation of why and how the physical is so very obstinately fixed and out of control of the ultimately spiritual entities occupying it in human bodies. 

But these spirits are apparently also at least sometimes limited within the spirit world - some end up in Hell for a time, or forced to undergo a life review. It's also not clear spirits are choos[ing] to incarnate into this world, or choosing to stick around and haunt it.

As such it seems there is always some constraining power on most souls, and this same constraining could apply to those dreams - like the dream of this world - where souls can only do so much with their bodies.

Maybe so, but for all intents and purposes to human beings and presumably also to souls they are separate realms. 

The Matrix and the real hellscape Earth left after the human-machine war also seem like different realms yet are really the same place. The former is made within the frame of the latter.

I do agree this [Veil between life and death] is probably the best argument for functional Dualism, as in our experience suggests there is a physical world and a spiritual world. But when we consider spirits who work with occultists or shamans, ghosts who stick around to haunt the world, and even the fact that PK has to be able to go from conscious intention to the movement of matter [it seems] that there is an underlying continuity of substance.

One explanation is that the disembodied spirit center of consciousness hovering in a spatial location near a corner of the ceiling at higher levels of consciousness "sees" the scene in a comprehensive beyond 3 dimensional way. But this "seeing" is deliberately throttled down to being an analog of what the human spirit is used to: vision of the scene at visible light wavelengths from that particular spatial perspective. No new laws required, just the will of the higher self.

But even seeing at a higher level of consciousness means there is some causal transference going between the localized consciousness and the physical world. The constraints working to narrow the sight of a higher Mental entity's view of the Physical realm again suggests there's a single underlying stuff allowing for continuity of interaction.

Sure, but all of the differentiation occurs within a singular underlying substance. Dualism inherits the problems that Physicalism has in under-describing the world operating under physics as well as the problems of how Idealism gets us to many minds.  I suggest that the origin of many separate minds could be part of the original creative act of whatever superintelligent Source is the origin of our finely tuned physical universe with its finite age and also of the spiritual realm. It is clear that this must be the creative act of a supremely intelligent source. Something, especially a highly organized something, does not come into being from nothing. An original Desire to create the ineffable, part of the original design, rather than the outworking of a complex set of secondary features or mechanisms. 

And then we have to work out how you get interactions between the two Realms. Part of the original design, as suggested above. 


But these spirits are apparently also at least sometimes limited within the spirit world - some end up in Hell for a time, or forced to undergo a life review. It's also not clear spirits are choos[ing] to incarnate into this world, or choosing to stick around and haunt it. Part of the original system design, evidently not created primarily for the benefit of physical human beings. 

As such it seems there is always some constraining power on most souls, and this same constraining could apply to those dreams - like the dream of this world - where souls can only do so much with their bodies.


The Matrix and the real hellscape Earth left after the human-machine war also seem like different realms yet are really the same place. The former is made within the frame of the latter. A construct of human creative imagination with little or no correspondence with reality.

I do agree this [Veil between life and death] is probably the best argument for functional Dualism, as in our experience suggests there is a physical world and a spiritual world. But when we consider spirits who work with occultists or shamans, ghosts who stick around to haunt the world, and even the fact that PK has to be able to go from conscious intention to the movement of matter [it seems] that there is an underlying continuity of substance.


But even seeing at a higher level of consciousness means there is some causal transference going between the localized consciousness and the physical world. The constraints working to narrow the sight of a higher Mental entity's view of the Physical realm again suggests there's a single underlying stuff allowing for continuity of interaction. The nature and capabilities of the Higher Self's perception of physical reality are suggested to be part of the original Design of the ineffable inner nature of consciousness, derived from its creator.

Re: the above post...Isn't this Source the underlying stuff of reality then?

Or whatever stuff uses to create the two (or more) realms, though we just run into the same problems of this Source/God can interact with the substance of creation.

I also think this is a kind of "God of the Gaps" explanation?

Re: the above post...Isn't this Source the underlying stuff of reality then?

Yes. I guess ultimately this is a sort of Monist or Idealist reality at its very most basic level, which inevitably has to be of the nature of creative Intelligence. Unless it is suggested that a highly organized something can come from literally absolutely nothing, or that it could have existed forever in the past with no origin. 

I think, though, that reality above this very most basic level consists of two realms as designed by this creative Intelligence. 

I also think this is a kind of "God of the Gaps" explanation?

It's not a gratuitous insertion of an ideological gap filler to substitute for further human investigation. It is the rational intuiting of what is a logical inevitability or necessity at the very bottom or beginning of things. Unless it is suggested that something can come from absolutely nothing, or that something can always have existed with no origin. I think this level is at the very end of possible human philosophical/metaphysical inquiry and thought.