Mind & MortalityAnswer
Can meditation change the brain?
Meditation has real but modest benefits, brain-scan headlines often run ahead of the data, and mindfulness, a practice with Buddhist roots, deserves to be understood on its own terms.
SECTION
Mind & Mortality.
What is a mind, and what happens when it ends?
Consciousness, dying and near-death experiences: what science can say, what it cannot, and where philosophy and belief take over.
FROM THE QUESTION LIBRARY
Short answers, with sources.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Can we trust our memories?
Memory rebuilds the past each time we recall it, so here is what it usually gets right, where honest people go wrong, and how to check a memory that matters.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Could a machine ever be conscious?
Chatbots can now talk like people, so here is what consciousness means, why a good conversation does not prove a mind, and what the leading theories say about machines.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Do animals have feelings like we do?
Responsiveness, learning and felt experience are different claims, with different evidence.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Do babies understand more than we think?
Do babies understand more than they can say? See evidence on early word meanings, sound-pattern learning and speech attention—and the limits of infant experiments.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
How did human language begin, and why do we love stories so much?
How did language begin, and why do we love stories? Explore emerging sign languages, cultural learning and storytelling’s social uses without claiming a settled origin.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
How does a brain made of cells produce thoughts?
Thoughts go with changing activity across brain networks. Scientists can study those links, but a map of activity is not a complete explanation of a thought. How do…
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Is free will real, or does the brain decide before we do?
A famous experiment seemed to show that the brain makes our choices before we know it, so here is what it really found, what later work showed, and what is still open.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Is it normal to feel that someone who died is still with me?
Many grieving people feel, hear or even see someone they have lost, and studies suggest it is common, usually comforting and usually not a sign that something is wrong.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Is it possible to make peace with the idea of dying?
Many people do find some peace with dying, and research, philosophy, faith and end-of-life care each point to a different road there.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Is the mind just the brain?
Brain science shows the mind depends on the brain, but whether the mind is the brain and nothing more is still an open question.
Mind & MortalityAnswer
Is there life after death? What can science say?
What the great traditions teach, what near-death research can and cannot test, and why the deepest part of this question lies beyond science.
All 21 answers in Mind & Mortality
- Can meditation change the brain?
- Can we trust our memories?
- Could a machine ever be conscious?
- Do animals have feelings like we do?
- Do babies understand more than we think?
- How did human language begin, and why do we love stories so much?
- How does a brain made of cells produce thoughts?
- Is free will real, or does the brain decide before we do?
- Is it normal to feel that someone who died is still with me?
- Is it possible to make peace with the idea of dying?
- Is the mind just the brain?
- Is there life after death? What can science say?
- What are near-death experiences, and what do they tell us?
- What happens in the brain as a person dies?
- What is deja vu, and why does it feel so strange?
- When does grief need more help?
- Why do humans fear death?
- Why do we laugh?
- Why do we need sleep, and why do we dream?
- Why does grief hurt so much, even physically?
- Why Does My Voice Sound Different on a Recording?
Mind & MortalityEssay · personal view
The Privilege of Having Existed
Science can study the edge of death, but not promise what lies beyond it. Gratitude for having existed may not erase fear, but it can change its shape.
Mind & MortalityExplainer
What Happens When We Die?
Medicine can describe how the body and brain shut down. Whether anything of us continues is a question science cannot reach, and traditions answer it differently.
Mind & MortalityExplainer
What Is Consciousness?
Science can map which brain activity goes with experience. Why any of it feels like something from the inside remains one of the great open questions.
Mind & MortalityExplainer
What Do Near-Death Experiences Tell Us?
Near-death experiences are real experiences that can change lives. What causes them, and what they mean, is still an open scientific question.