Brain, Consciousness, and God

Preface 1. Introduction 1.1 Mystical, Religious-or Transcendent-Experiences 1.2 Consciousness of Consciousness, Not Experience of God 1.3 An Interdisciplinary Study 1.4 Reliance on a Coherent and Consistent Epistemology: Lonergan 1.5 Broader Issue of Interdisciplinary Studies 1.6 Attention to Major Thinkers in Neuroscience and Consciousness Studies 1.7 Attention to Intelligence, Not Merely to Logic 1.8 An Interrelated and Unfolding Presentation 1.9 The Centrality of Consciousness 2. Epistemology: A Portentous Prolegomenon 2.1 Lonergan's Cognitive Theory and Epistemology 2.2 The Empirical Level of Knowing: Experience 2.3 The Intellectual Level of Knowing: Understanding 2.4 The Rational Level of Knowing: Judgment of Fact 2.5 The Scientific Affinity and Status of This Epistemology 2.6 The Accuracy of Human Knowing and the Transcendental Precepts 2.7 Transcendental Method 2.8 Different Kinds of Realities, Including the Spiritual 2.9 The Challenge of Lonergan's Breakthrough 3. Neuroscience: The Biological Bases of Transcendent Experiences 3.1 Neurophysiological Base of Transcendent Experiences 3.2 A Genetic Basis of Transcendent Experiences: Hamer 3.3 A Neurochemical Basis of Transcendent Experiences: "Entheogens" 3.4 An Electromagnetic Basis of Transcendent Experiences: Persinger 3.5 A Quantum-Physics Theory of Consciousness: Penrose and Hameroff 3.6 The Contribution of Neuroscience 4. Psychology: The Problem of a Real Body and a Real Mind 4.1 The "Reality" of the "Parts" of the Human Being 4.2 Some Terminological Clarifications 4.3 The Actual Existence of Mental Realities 4.4 The Unity of the Human Being: Dualism 4.5 The Unity of the Human Being: Epiphenomenalism 4.6 An Excursus on Causality 4.7 The Unity of the Human Being: Epiphenomenalism Revisited 4.8 The Unity of the Human Being: Nonreductive Physicalism 4.9 Analogies for Mind as a Property of the Brain: Searle 4.10 The "Naturalness" of Consciousness 4.11 Multiple Realities in One Thing 4.12 The Priority of Intelligence Over Perception, Theory Over Common Sense 4.13 A Resolution of the Mind-Body Problem 4.14 The Relation of Mind to Body: Emergence 4.15 The Causality Across Levels of Emergence 4.16 The Impact of Godel's Theorem on Formal Causality 4.17 The Coherence of a Dynamic Universe 4.18 The Proposed Distinction Between Weak and Strong Emergence 4.19 Filling in the Gap of Emergence: Dennett 4.20 Panpsychic Construals of Emergence: Griffin for Whitehead 4.21 Panpsychic Construals of Emergence: Chalmers 4.22 Summary on the Mind-Body Problem 4.23 Review and Preview 5. Spiritualogy: Consciousness and Transcendent Experiences 5.1 A Tripartite Model of the Human: Beyond "Body and Mind" 5.2 The Mechanism of "Spiritual Growth" 5.3 Consciousness as Both Conscious and Intentional 5.4 The Limitation of Consciousness to Intentionality 5.5 Still Seeing Red: Mere Givenness Versus Qualia 5.6 What Is It Like to Be? 5.7 The Priority of Non-Intentional or Conscious Consciousness 5.8 Unbounded Human Consciousness and Transcendent Experiences 5.9 The Coherence of Neuroscience and Naturalistic Spiritualogy 5.10 Summary on Spiritualogy 6. Theology and Theotics: Union of Creator and Creature 6.1 The Place of Theology in Scientific Explantion 6.2 What is God? 6.3 Four Perspectives on the Possibility of Experiencing God 6.4 The Restricted Arena of Talk About God 7. Conclusion 7.1 A Brief Summary of the Argument 7.2 The Contributions of the Various Disciplines 7.3 Summary About the Brain, Consciousness, and God References Name Index Subject Index