Abstract

In this paper I support the view that NDEs provide empirical support for mind-body substance dualism, and argue that a systems-theoretical analysis of the evidence is required to obtain valid insights into the nature of the mind as a substantive existent aside from the body. Without such an approach, systems phenomena such as property emergence and property masking could lead to mischaracterisation of both the nature of the mind as it is in itself, and the ways in which the mind and body work together holistically. Applying a systems theoretical perspective, I show that some psychic abilities are emergent capacities of the mind-body system, that ordinary faculties such as emotional perceptiveness can be understood within the same framework as extra-ordinary faculties such as telepathy, and that the NDE evidence favours a naturalistic form of Substance Dualism.