BOOK REVIEWS CARTER, CHRIS. (2012). Science and the afterlife experience. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions. xiv + 369 pp. ISBN 9781594774522, Paperback, $18.95. Reviewed by Stafford Betty. Chris Carter’s Science andthe AfterlifeExperienceis thelast book ofa trilogy designed to show the strength of substance dualism and its satellite claim that wesurvivedeath.HisearlierworksareScienceandtheNear-DeathExperience (2010) and Science and Psychic Phenomena (2012). Carter is an Oxford- educated Canadian philosopher with an encyclopedic grasp of the history of psychical research and the philosophical skills to build imposing arguments around it. He enjoys the esteem of many of the world’s foremost psychical researchers,someofwhomthinkhismarshallingofevidencedealsanearfatal blow to materialism. He writes lucidly in the language of everyman. What makes this book different from others is Carter’s ability to expose the weak points of materialism and replace it with a dualist metaphysics built aroundwhatheconsiderstobenearinsurmountableevidence.Heisconvinced of the following: 1. substance dualism is no more improbable out of the gate than materialism, and Ockham’s razor should not predispose philosophers to favor materialism; 2. careful analysis of paranormal phenomena leaves no doubt that materialism is at a loss to account for them, whereas dualism is consistent with them; and 3. thedeceasedhavelongbeentryingtotellusthroughmediumswhatlife on the ‘‘Other Side’’ is like, and we have good reason to trust their accounts. 1. Materialists commonly use Ockham’s razor to support materialism. ‘‘Why introduce an invisible factor like a soul when we have a body right in front of us? Keep it simple,’’ they argue. ‘‘But reality is often not simple,’’ Carter responds.Newtonianphysicsismuchsimplerthanquantumphysics,hepoints out,butbecomesinadequatebeyondacertainthresholdandhastogivewayto the more complex, more comprehensive theory. Besides the understandable preference for things that can be seen, a deeper reason for the philosopher’s oppositiontodualism,Carterargues,isafearthatitwill‘‘usherinareturnto anageofreligiouspersecutionandirrationality’’(p.15).Dualism, however,is not a religious doctrine, he responds, but a philosophical stance built around argument and evidence. It owes nothing to religion. Materialists think that chemical processes in the brain produce qualia, or consciousexperiences,andCartergrantsthatmaterialismworksasatheory;it is plausible. But equally plausible, he says, is the theory that the brain is a ‘receiver-transmitter’ (p. 12) for the self. If so, ‘‘any change in brain 122 TheJournal ofTranspersonal Psychology,2014, Vol. 46,No. 1 functioning, such as that resulting from intoxication or a stroke, should be expected to affect its capacity as a receiver-transmitter just as certainly as its capacity as a producer’’ (p. 13). In other words, the self dependson the brain, andahealthyoneatthat,foritsproperfunctioning,butnotforitsexistence.It existsevenwhenitsinstrument,thebrain,isimpaired.Insuchacasetheselfis notimpaired,thebrainis;theselfsimplycannotexpressitselfintheusualway. Carter grants that substance dualism (from now on referred to simply as ‘‘dualism’’) has its problems: How the self interacts with the brain is highly mysterious. But so is the production of consciousness from the dance of chemicals in the material brain—the equally mysterious explanation provided bymaterialists.Whichislessmysterious?Howcanwedecidebetweendualism and materialism? We would be left with a standoff if weighing these two mysteries against each other were all we had to go on. But that is not the situation at all, he maintains. The ever-growing mass of scholarship and research being done on paranormal phenomena breaks the tie. 2a. Reincarnation. In common with many parapsychologists, Carter regards ‘‘near-death experiences, deathbed visions, children who remember previous lives, apparitions, and communications through mediums’’ (p. 288) as the five most important types of phenomena pointing toward dualism and survival of death. He is impressed by how ‘‘vast and varied’’ the Big Five are, while all pointing in the same direction (p. 4). Inthepresentbook,hedissectsthelastthree.Hismethodistoanalyzecasesof each type, show why materialism fails to account for them, then show why dualism does. He begins with children’s memories of what they take to be previous lives. Ian Stevenson, a Canadian psychiatrist who worked for the University of Virginia School of Medicine for 50 years until his death in 2007, investigated over 2,500 cases suggestive of reincarnation. He devoted most of his career to the study of children, aged 2 to 5, who apparently remembered events from a previous life. Stevenson wanted to see if these memories matched real events. For example, did the village that an Indian four-year-old remembered by name, along with the names of her husband and children and other relatives andfriends,fitarealplaceandrealpeople?Moreover,didrememberedevents match the actual history of events in the village? His methodology was to record the speech of the child herself (ideally) or of the child’s parents who rememberedwhatshesaid,thentakethechildtothevillagetomeetthepeople she claimed to remember. In many cases, recognition was immediate and uncanny, with the child running up to her now older (and much bigger) children using the same terms of endearment once so familiar. Equally impressive was the child’s ability to navigate through the winding lanes of the village and reach her destination. These and similar ‘hits’ are a hallmark of Stevenson’sbestcases,numberinginthehundreds.Hiscolleaguescontinuethe research,withsimilarresults.Ofspecialsignificancearecases,numberingover 200, of birthmarks that match the place on the former body of a fatal wound. Stevensonwasameticulousandwaryresearcherconstantlyonthelookoutfor BookReviews 123 fraud (he found only one clear case) and paramnesia, or ‘‘unconscious distortionsofmemoriesregardingwhatthechildactuallysaid’’(p.45).Hewas also concerned that ESP might be a factor in the hits. Did the child for some reason gain information telepathically about the identities of her ‘‘former’’ family members and fake the relationship? Carter takes care to rule out such explanations. Carter also devotes a chapter to the objections brought against Stevenson’s research methods by the materialist philosopher Paul Edwards. Cartersayshewrotethechapterto‘‘illustratetheshallownessandpoorquality ofEdwards’sexaminationoftheempiricalevidence’’(p.63).Thereisnotspace here to summarize Carter’s analysis of the objections. 2b. Apparitions. Carter has a broad knowledge of what the ordinary person termsaghost.Apparitions,hesays,‘‘maycastashadow,andbereflectedina mirror. They typically show awareness of their surroundings, avoiding furniture and people, and they may turn to follow a person’s movements. Some are reported to speak, although this is not common; if the apparition does speak, there are usually only a few words’’ (p. 79). They tend to present themselves shortly before or after the death of the person whose apparition they are, and sometimes they haunt a place, in which case they are often seen by several persons. Carter addresses the usual objection brought forth by materialists: That all apparitions are hallucinations, and that in cases when many people see a ghost, the power of suggestion is the explanation. Such dismissals simply do not take into account the facts, Carter argues. 2c.Spirit Communication through Mediums. ‘‘We have done all we can when the critic has nothing left to allege except that the investigator is in [on] the trick.Butwhenhehasnothinglefttoallege,hewillallegethat’’(p.xiii).Carter beginsthissectionofthebook,muchthelongest,withthisquotationdelivered by Henry Sidgwick, first president of the Society for Psychical Research, in 1882. Not much has changed, Carter concedes, in the last 130 years. When a medium is ‘‘on,’’ she is able to come up with information she has no way of knowing normally. Mediums contend, of course, that they are merely the mouthpiece for the spirit coming through them, who typically uses either the medium’s hand (as in ‘‘automatic writing’’) or her voice box (often while sheisin trance).Carter analyzesthe output ofMrs. Leonora Piper of Boston, madefamousbyWilliamJames,whosatthroughoverahundredse´anceswith her;andtheEnglishwomanMrs.GladysOsborneLeonard,studiedindetailby Sir Oliver Lodge. Carter concludes that ‘‘in many cases … the amount of accurate, highly detailed information received far exceeded what could be expected from sheer guesswork’’ (p. 153). An example is the ‘‘book test.’’ In a booktest,‘‘thecommunicatorhastospecifythelocationofabookinahouse to which the medium has no access but which was well known to the [alleged spirit]communicatorwhileliving.Thecommunicatormustalsospecifyapage number of that book, on which will be found a passage that conveys some appropriate message he remembers writing down before his death’’ (p. 147). Leonardwasinvolvedinmanysuccessfulbooktests—sosuccessfulinfactthat she was sometimes shadowed by detectives to make sure she did not gather information about the deceased communicator and perpetrate a fraud. Her 124 TheJournal ofTranspersonal Psychology,2014, Vol. 46,No. 1 reputationremaineduntarnished.Aftertakingusthroughtheparticularsofone such test, Carter concludes, ‘‘Conscious fraud seems completely out of the questioninthemostcarefullydocumentedcases.Forallbutthemostparanoid conspiracytheorists,thisexplanationwillseemcompletelyinadequate’’(p.153). Life on the ‘‘Other Side.’’ The last chapter (prior to an epilogue) draws from the testimonies of six mediums—or, depending on your preference, the spirit communicators speaking through them. They describe what it is like to be ‘‘dead.’’ It will no doubt seem strange if not absurd to many a reader that anyone should take seriously such accounts. Nevertheless, bear in mind that Carter has taken pains to show that some mediums are legitimate and gifted. Sowhatisillogical,heasks,abouttheirtellingusabouttheirworld?Weshould expect them to. For those of us who can get past our ‘‘boggle threshold,’’ he argues, such accounts may prove to be of great consequence. Carter analyzes several notable afterlife accounts, including one allegedly provided by Bertrand Russell. The one he draws on the most was ostensibly communicated by Frederic Myers, the ‘‘Freud’’ of psychical research. Myers the gifted Irish medium Geraldine Cummins as his mouthpiece. Their collaboration,TheRoadtoImmortality,publishedin1932,iswidelyconsidered the gold standard of the genre. In it Myers brings to life the various planes of existence,beginningwithearthandextendingallthewaytorealmsfarbeyond hisactualexperience(hehasbeendeadforonlyalittleovertwentyyearswhen he first comes through Cummins). His description of the world he lives in is vivid and arresting, right down to the characters we are likely to meet over thereandtheastonishingcolorsoftheflowers.Hedoesnothesitatetodescribe the laws of the after-world and how it all works. The following is typical: Myerstellsusthatcommunitiesoflike-mindedindividualswithsimilartastes come together and live in mutually constructed environments; those of a solitary nature may live in an environment completely of their own subconscious construction. Here, food and water are no longer required; sexualdesiresareinmostcasesstillpresent,butwomendonotbearchildren. (p.311) Myers tells us that we are destined, if we desire, to ‘‘take on divine attributes. The reason, therefore, for the universe and … the purpose of existence … [is] the evolution of mind in matter’’ (p. 305). Science and the Afterlife Experience has received high marks from those laboring in the trenches with the Big Five, including near-death researchers workinginhospitalswithpatientsclosetodeath,lab-coatedparapsychologists running telepathy tests on gifted subjects, psychical researchers analyzing suddenchangesinbrainwavepatternsofmediumswhenthey‘‘makecontact’’ withacommunicator,andafewphilosopherswhostudythesephenomenafor hints about the nature of persons. They see Carter’s work as the new benchmark for comprehensive, in-depth presentation and analysis of their subject. Their conclusions are the same as his: That a materialist metaphysics can be defended only by ignoring facts that need to be heeded. BookReviews 125 Carterwantstounderstandwherewehumansstandinthegrandschemeofthe universe. For him there is no question more important than the nature of human destiny—whether it ends at death or continues into other realms. He believes that a careful study of paranormal phenomena decisively tilts the balance away from materialism and back toward dualism. REFERENCES CARTER, C. (2010). Science and the near-death experience: How consciousness survives death.Rochester, VT: InnerTraditions. CARTER, C. (2012). Science and psychic phenomena: The fall of the house of skeptics. Rochester, VT:Inner Traditions. CUMMINS,G. (1932).The roadto immortality.Guildford, UK: WhiteCrow Books. The Author ChrisCarter,M.A.,MBA,istheauthorofseveralarticlesandthreeacclaimed booksthatexaminecontroversialissuesinscienceandphilosophy.Educatedat Oxford University, he currently teaches internationally. The Reviewer Stafford Betty, Ph.D., is a professor of religious studies at California State University, Bakersfield, where he specializes in death and afterlife studies. His most recent books are The Afterlife Unveiled (2011), The Imprisoned Splendor (anovelsetintheafterlife,2011),andHeavenandHellUnveiled:Updatesfrom the World of Spirit (2014). * * * * * * * SACKS, JONATHAN. (2011). The Great Partnership: Science, religion, and the searchformeaning.NewYork,NY:SchockenBooks.x+370pp.ISBN978-0- 8052-4301-7, Hard cover, $28.95. Reviewed by Kyriacos C. Markides. Neo-atheists like Richard Dawkins, the late Christopher Hitchens and Ed Harris have made a major contribution to modern civilization and culture. Their frontal assault on religion as ‘‘the source of all evil’’ has triggered the emergence of a cottage industry of first-rate scholarly and readable works aiming to debunk their sophomoric view of the subject of their ire. One such work is certainly the latest by Dr. Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth andacurrentmemberoftheHouseofLords.Eventhoughhisbook,TheGreat Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning, does not directly address transpersonal themes, his work nevertheless is very relevant to the 126 TheJournal ofTranspersonal Psychology,2014, Vol. 46,No. 1 overall thrust and aims of transpersonal psychology and transpersonal theory in general. Rabbi Sacks (2011) thunders that, ‘‘Atheism deserves better than the new atheistswhosemethodologyconsistsofcriticizingreligionwithoutunderstand- ing it, quoting texts without contexts … confusing folk belief with reflective theology, abusing, mocking, ridiculing, caricaturing, and demonizing religious faithandholdingitresponsibleforthegreatcrimesagainsthumanity’’(p.11). The neo-atheists’ claim that religion and science are incompatible with each other, that religion breeds violence and ignorance, and that it ‘‘poisons everything,’’ is masterfully exposed by Rabbi Sacks as a grotesque distortion andover-simplificationofreality.Withoutdenyingthenegativerolethatreligion has often played in history, he demonstrates convincingly that the opposite situationisclosertothetruth:Theabsenceofreligiousanchoringhascreatedfar worsecalamitiesforhumanity.Hementionstheunrestrainedslaughterthatwas unleashed during and after the militantly anti-religious revolutions that took placesincetheEnlightenment.Onthisscore,hisviewsaresimilartotheworkof sociologistofreligionPeterBergerinhisbook,PyramidsofSacrifice.Ifoneisto contemplate a calculus of pain, secular ideologies have caused much more horrendousharmthananyfundamentalistreligion. ‘‘The cure for bad religion,’’ Rabbi Sacks (2011) insists, ‘‘is good religion, not no religion, just as the cure for bad science is good science not the abandonment of science’’ (p. 11). It is an axiom for Rabbi Sacks that religion andsciencecomplementandneedeachother.Rightatthestartofhisbook,he frameshisstudywithintheparametersofthewell-knownaphorismbyEinstein that, ‘‘Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind’’ (as citedinSacks,2011, p.6).Hehastenstoadd thatoneneednotbereligious to be an ethical and honorable person. In fact, he refers to several of his atheist professors of philosophy at Oxford that inspired him and sharpened his own ethicalsensibilities.Hedoesadd,however,thatoverall,andinthelongrun,the takeoverofacivilizationbyapurelysecularworldviewinvitessoonerorlatera nihilisticoutlook andavacuumofmeaningthatcanleadmoreoften thannot to collective phenomena of unspeakable evil: The French Guillotine, the Stalinist Gulags, the slaughter houses of Maoist China and Pol Pot’s Cambodia,andofcoursethearchetypalhorroroftheHolocaust,‘‘rationally’’ planned and scientifically executed by the Nazis. Rabbi Sacks repeatedly reminds us that the proper sphere of science is explanation, the uncovering of the laws that govern the physical universe. Religion, on the other hand, focuses on meaning and interpretation. Science takes things apart tofind outhowtheywork. Religionputsthings togetherto findoutwhattheymean.Inthiscontext,SacksrejectsStephenGould’snotion of the ‘‘non-overlapping magisteria,’’ that religion and science must be kept separateasawayofsolvingtheconflictbetweenthem.Instead,hearguesthat asEinsteinpointedout, religion andscienceneedeachother.Sacksargues for a creative partnership of the two. He, in fact, views the essence of Western Civilization as the synthesis between Hebrew monotheistic religion and Greek BookReviews 127 philosophicalthought.Hisunderstandingisreminiscentoftheyinandyangof Taoism as well as the much used metaphor of the left and right side of the brain. Ancient Greece planted the seeds of left-brain rational thought that eventuallygavebirthtothescientificrevolutionandcontemporarysecularism. Judaism, from its very beginning, represented the right side of the brain, the meaning side. These two pillars of western civilization need each other for a properapprehensionofrealityandarightattitudetowardstheworldinwhich we humans find ourselves. An interesting part of his work is the contrast he juxtaposes between Athens and Jerusalem as the two ‘‘pillars’’ of the Judeo- Christian civilization. Athens gave birth to tragedy and the notion of fate. Judaismofferedhopeandtrustinanall-lovingCreatorand,therefore,ultimate freedomandmeaningtoindividualexistence.TheGodofAristotleisframedin terms of an impersonal unifying principle of the One, the Unmoved Mover, indifferenttothefateofhumanbeingsandtheirtragedies.TheGodofIsraelis thepersonalrealitythatinteracts,speaksandmakescovenantswithhumanity, starting with Abraham and the other prophets. It is a God who revealed Himself as a loving and compassionate Father, who created human beings in his own image, bestowing spiritual dignity to all humanity. It is the God who listens to prayer and who was inherited by the West through Christianity. Rabbi Sacks offers us an accessible work that is very enjoyable to read, pollinated with a string of meaningful insights about the relationship between religion and science. His deep knowledge of the subject is awe inspiring, and one feels compelled to re-read his work time and again to benefit from the wisdom it unfolds. It is a real page-turner. Although he approaches his study from a global, non- denominational perspective, his focus and preference, understandably, is grounded almost exclusively within Judaism. The examples heoffersinrelatingsciencetoreligionare drawn almost entirely from the Old Testament, which he insists must not be read literally. A literalist approach to religious scripture, in fact, unavoidably leads to distortions, the bread and butter of the religious fundamentalists and the neo-atheists. Onedoes,however,getthefeelingthathisdeeploveforJudaismandtheTorah leads him to over-interpret, perhaps, certain aspects of the tradition that may indeed need to be rejected rather than interpreted. A similar approach surely appliestoallotherreligionswhenscrutinizedinlightofcontemporaryvantage points of understanding. How can we ‘‘interpret,’’ for example, God’s injunction to Joshua to kill everything alive in Canaan? How else can we interpret it other than to simply consider it a form of genocidal tribal lore mixedinwithauthenticdivinewisdomasconveyedtohumanityviathemystic experiences of the great prophets? Leaving intact violent parts of what passes forinheritedscripture bysimplyre-interpretingthem offersfoddertotheneo- atheists who debunk religion in its totality, good and bad. Did God actually give such a command to Joshua for mass slaughter or a similar command to Abraham to kill his own son? Can anyone in his right mind today consider such blind obedience as an exemplary form of perfect faith and trust in God? Another possible and perhaps minor limitation of the work is Rabbi Sacks’ lack of consideration of the religious experience as a central factor in the 128 TheJournal ofTranspersonal Psychology,2014, Vol. 46,No. 1 emergence and maintenance of religious worldviews; that in fact, contrary to the fervent wishes and beliefs of the neo-atheists, secularization may be impossible in the long run. It may be so because the religious experience is an integral aspect of human nature itself, and therefore will always pop up under diverse cultural and historical conditions. The prophetic stream is always present within any human population and in any historical period. In short, prophets and saints will always be around, even in the most atheistic and secular times. The above-mentioned possible limitations do not diminish in any way the brillianceofRabbiSack’spassionateandscholarlyexpositiononhowtothink abouttherelationshipbetweenreligionandscience.Ihavenodoubtthatitwill establish itself as a classic. The Author Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Ph.D., has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, and has received honorarydegreesfromuniversitiesaroundtheworld.Heistheaward-winning author of more than twenty books, including To Heal a Fractured World and Future Tense. He writes frequently for The Times of London and other periodicals, and is heard regularly on the BBC. He was made a Life Peer and took his seat in the House of Lords in October 2009. The Reviewer Kyriacos C. Markides, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maine, and author of several books on religion and mystic Christianity, such as, The Mountain of Silence, Gifts of the Desert, and his latest Inner River: A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Christian Spirituality, all three published by Random House/Image Books. Several of his works have also been translated andpublishedintwelveothercountriesandlanguages.Heisalsotheauthorof an article in this Journal: Markides, K. (2008). Eastern Orthodox mysticism andtranspersonaltheory,JournalofTranspersonalPsychology,40(2),178–198. * * * * * * * MOREIRA-ALLMEDIA, ALEXANDER and SANTOS, FRANKLIN SANTANA (Eds.). (2012). Exploring frontiers of the mind-body relationship. New York, NY: Springer.xx+243pp.ISBN978-1-4614-0646-4,Hardback,$129.00.Reviewed by David Lukoff. As someone who has been both excited about the rapid expansion of the scientific knowledge base in areas such as neuroscience, physics, biology, BookReviews 129 consciousness,aswellasphilosophy,butalsooverwhelmedattheexplosionof publications, this book is a godsend. In this edited book, leading researchers and scholarswho areexperts inthese areas havewritten succinct, yetin depth summaries and reflections about their relevance to understanding the human mind. It is self-consciously in the tradition of William James’s radical empiricism, and the editors, Alexander Moreira-Allmeida and Franklin Santana Santos, follow their own admonition to researchers about the, ‘‘need toenlargetimidscopeanddealwithamuchwiderrangeofphenomenaifthey in fact wish to make a truly significant contribution to the understanding of mind and its relationship with the brain … specifically experiences called ‘anomalous’ and/or ‘spiritual’’’ (p. xv). Experts from many areas are brought to bear on these questions to facilitate and integrate competing research paradigms.Thiscollectiongrewoutofaconference,thusprovidingtheauthors with a chance to refine their reflections based on dialogue with their co- presenters as they wrote their chapters. Thefirstthreechapterssetthephilosophicalcontextfortheentirebookproject by bringing into question the domination of reductionistic materialism in mainstream science, particularly when applied to understanding mind-body topics and issues such as anomalous experiences. This articulates the evolving postmaterialistpsychologyapproachspearheadedbyLisaMillerandLenSperry. The next two chapters examine the contributions of physical and biological sciencetotheunderstandingofthemind.TheauthorsofthesearephysicistChris ClarkeandphysicianDeepakChopra,whoareexpertsintheirownareasasthey venturethoughtfullyintothisnewterritory.Thesupportfornonlocalityofboth matterandmindis,‘‘buildingabridgebetweenspiritualityandscience’’(p.91). The next two chapters present a lucid overview of neuroimaging, which is certainly one of the most exciting areas currently in contributing to the understandingofmindfulnessaswellasmentalfunctioningmorebroadly,andis graphically illustrated withbrainimage findings.Itprovides agoodantidoteto thesimplisticpositingofandsearchfora‘Godspot’inthebrain.Inaddition,it highlightsthelimitationsofthe‘brainascomputer’modelsofmind. Anomalous experiences have been a focus in my own research (Lukoff, 2007), andIthink that theirstudy hasimportant implications forbothtranspersonal therapeutic approaches and understanding the mind-body relationship. There are at least 10 well-established anomalous experiences (Cardena, Lynn, & Krippner, 2000), of which this book has chapters on near-death experiences, mediumship, and past lives. Additional anomalous experiences, such as mystical experiences and psychic experiences, are covered in other chapters. Collectively, these perspectives highlight the possible avenues for unmasking and understanding transcendental realities, which are notoriously difficult to research (as William James also pointed out in his work on empirical radicalism). Moreira-Allmeida and Santos describe theirs as a balanced psychobiological approach, with which I would concur. I found myself actively involved while reading this book, as I was underlining sections, marking some areas for PowerPoint slides in my own courses and 130 TheJournal ofTranspersonal Psychology,2014, Vol. 46,No. 1 workshops, and writing down references to retrieve. This recently published work (copyright 2012) is a tour de force of contemporary scholarship, so do notwaituntilusedcopiesareavailableforafewdollars.Bythen,theseauthors willundoubtedlyhavemovedontonewterritoryandvision.Thisisabookby the cutting edge thinkers and researchers of consciousness in our times. I personally believe we have a plethora of contemporary Einsteins addressing thesetopics,whosecontributionstothisbookmakeitawonderfulselectionto aid in one’s ongoing reflection. REFERENCES CARDENA, E., LYNN, S. J., & KRIPPNER, S. (Eds.), Varieties of anomalous experience: Examining the scientific evidence. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press. LUKOFF, D. (2007). Visionary spiritual experiences. Southern Medical Journal, 100(6), 635–641. The Editors Alexander Moreira-Allmeida, M.D., Ph.D., was trained in psychiatry and cognitive-behavioraltherapyattheInstituteofPsychiatry oftheUniversityof Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Health Sciences investigating the mental health of Spiritist mediums. Formerly a postdoctoral fellow in religion and health at Duke University, he is now a professor of psychiatry at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora School of Medicine and FounderandDirectoroftheResearchCenterinSpiritualityandHealth,Brazil (www.ufjf.br/nupes-eng). His main research interest involves empirical studies of spiritual experiences, as well as the methodology and epistemology of this research field. His publications are available at www.hoje.org.br/elsh. Franklin Santana Santos, M.D., Ph.D., was trained in geriatrics at Clinical Hospital of the University of Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil, where he also obtained his Ph.D. inHealthSciences investigating delirium inelderly patients. Formerly a postdoctoralfellowincognitivedisturbancesatKarolinskaInstitute(Sweden), he is now Professor of post-graduate program of University of Sa˜o Paulo SchoolofMedicineandcollaboratorresearcherofLaboratoryofNeuroscience (LIM-27) at the Institute of Psychiatry of the University of Sa˜o Paulo, Brazil. Heisaleaderinthestudiesinissuesrelatedtodeath,dyingandPalliativeCare in Brazil. His main research interests involve cognitive disturbances, thanatology, palliative care and medical education, and he has published several articles and books about these topics. The Reviewer David Lukoff, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at Sofia University and a licensedpsychologistinCalifornia.Heistheauthorof80articlesandchapters on spiritual issues and mental health (several inthis journal)and co-author of BookReviews 131