{"id":21253,"date":"2024-05-03T08:43:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T07:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/?p=21253"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:19:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:19:58","slug":"on-survival-after-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennethsorensen.dk\/en\/on-survival-after-death\/","title":{"rendered":"On Survival After Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Assagioli’s case for the science of survival after death: out-of-body experiences as evidence, subtle-body traditions as framework, and the instruments he believed would one day answer the question.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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By Roberto Assagioli<\/strong>
Response to an inquiry from the journal Parapsicologia<\/em>.
Doc. #16677, Assagioli Archives, Florence.
Original title: Risposta all’inchiesta della revista “Parapsicologia”<\/em>
Translated and edited with notes by Jan Kuniholm [i]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Note<\/strong>
The abstract and contextual subtitle in this online edition have been added by the editor, Kenneth S\u00f8rensen, to support readability, navigation, and archival consistency. The original wording has not been altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abstract<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Assagioli wrote this short essay as a response to a survey from the Italian journal Parapsicologia<\/em>, which had asked whether the survival of consciousness after death can be approached scientifically. His answer reframes the question. He argues that out-of-body experiences, telepathy, and other documented phenomena already point toward the conscious existence of the psyche outside the body, and that increasingly sensitive instruments may one day make the subtle states described by yogic and esoteric traditions experimentally accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This essay is a response to <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Parapsychology<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> magazine’s inquiry, “Is it possible, in your opinion, to treat the problem of survival after physical death with <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>scientific methods<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> ? What are your reasons for or against?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, I think it is appropriate to try to establish what the scientific method is. In my opinion, the scientific method cannot and should not be limited to the study of phenomena that can be weighed or measured quantitatively, nor even only to those that can be reproduced experimentally at the will of the investigator. Otherwise psychology would not be a science, as is now generally admitted (or only physiological psychology, which is a very limited part of it, would be).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is one example, among many that could be adduced: The distinction between the extroverted type and the introverted type [of persons], and the description of them made by Jung, is a reality that can be regarded as scientifically demonstrated, since unbiased observation of the behavior of people gives continuous confirmation and proof of it. Yet it has not been made, nor confirmed, by quantitative or experimental methods.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientific spirit and method consists above all in the elimination of the causes of error represented by the various <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>idols<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> already enumerated by Bacon; it consists in the precise and objective observation of phenomena, whether spontaneous or experimentally proven, without preconceptions, without allowing oneself to be influenced by emotional elements (desires, fears, personal interests); it consists in drawing logically well-founded deductions from the findings made, so as to discover laws verifiable by subsequent observations or experiments. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>[ii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming now to the precise subject of the inquiry, it seems to me that the first question to be asked is, “Has the temporary conscious existence of the human being \u2014 independent of, or outside the physical body \u2014 been demonstrated; or can it be demonstrated?”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can be answered that it is to be considered already demonstrated that psychic “contents” can be transmitted in space outside biological organisms (telepathy). Moreover, many facts would also indicate the persistence <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>over time<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em> of “psychic contents” independently of the organisms in or from which they were generated (“psychometry,” etc.). <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>[iii]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n