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This book is a groundbreaking exploration of paranormal experiences reported by converts to Buddhism and their implications for both humanistic and scientific study of the paranormal.
List of contents
Preface
Introduction
1. The Paranormal in the Indian Buddhist Tradition
2. The Enchanted West: The Contemporary Scientific Study of the Paranormal
3. Tales of Psychic Phenomena
4. Tales of OBEs, NDEs, and Close Encounters
5. The Yogin
6. The Gift
7. Toward a Phenomenology of the Paranormal
8. Autobiographical Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
D. E. Osto is senior lecturer in philosophy at Massey University. They are the author of Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America (Columbia, 2016) and An Indian Tantric Tradition and Its Modern Global Revival: Contemporary Nondual Śaivism (2020), among other books.
Summary
A number of converts to Buddhism report paranormal experiences. Their accounts describe psychic abilities like clairvoyance and precognition, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, and encounters with other beings such as ghosts and deities, and they often interpret these events through a specifically Buddhist lens. This book is a groundbreaking exploration of these phenomena and their implications for both humanistic and scientific study of the paranormal.
D. E. Osto examines accounts of paranormal phenomena experienced by convert Buddhists from around the world collected through an online survey and interviews, placing them in the context of Indian Buddhist sources and recent scientific research. They focus in detail on the life stories of two interviewees and the important role the paranormal has played in their lives. These contemporary first-person narratives demonstrate the continued importance of the psychic and paranormal within the Buddhist tradition, and they can be interpreted as a living Buddhist folklore. Osto considers the limitations of both traditional religious views and Western scientific studies of the paranormal and proposes instead a new Buddhist phenomenological approach. Ultimately, Paranormal States contends, these deeply mysterious and extraordinary experiences exceed current understandings—and they can help bridge the gap between religious and scientific worldviews.
