What Lies Beyond�answers two questions: What's beyond the functional, mechanistic, and materialistic conceptions of life and consciousness? And why does that matter today? From an overview of paranormal and mystical experiences -�in the context of the prevailing mechanistic, materialist view of mind and life -�to exploring why the mystery of consciousness remains �hard� and the reasons for doubting that this mystery will be resolved in mechanistic terms, this book aims to encourage open enquiry. For the reader who feels a bit lost, alienated, or disturbed by today�s aggressive scientism and technology worship, these pages offer alternative, more open approaches that reject neither science nor technology but rather insist upon a more humanistic outlook that�s sensitive to the vast but often hidden range of human experience.