Edited by Francisco J. Varela, this book presents the proceedings of the fourth Mind and Life Conference in Dharamsala, India, in October, 1992. This cross-cultural dialogue between Western scientists and the Dalai Lama of Tibet explores what the editor calls "the ego's shadow zones, where Western science is often ill at ease, far from its familiar territory of the physical universe or physiological causality." Participants include philosopher Charles Taylor, psychoanalyst Joyce McDougall, psychologist Jayne Gackenbach, neuroscientist Jerome Engel, and cultural ecologist Joan Halifax.
The most interesting section is on near-death experiences. Halifax discusses the latest research in her talk on death as a rite of passage. The Dalai Lama voices his skepticism about the direction of these studies when set alongside the Buddhist observation of natural death.