Multidisciplinary Research About the Hereafter
A versatile research project of the University of Turku highlights the world that is usually left outside the science. Internationally rare research received significant funding from the Academy of Finland.
Previously, separate subjects have studied otherness like angels and the presence of the dead, but the research project in question studies the subject in a unique way by combining accomplishments and methods of different areas of science.
The Academy of Finland granted altogether a nearly 2.2 million euro grant for three research groups of the University of Turku to study the human mind.
Professor Marja-Liisa Honkasalo`s Mind and Other (Mieli ja toinen) project received the largest single grant of the research programme of the Academy of Finland, nearly 900 000 euro.
Two other grants were given to Professor Antti Revonsuo´s and Professor Harry Scheinin´s Conscious Mind (Tietoinen mieli) consortium. Scheinin received a 670 000-euro grant for his research and Revonsuo a 610 000-euro grant.
What Was Previously Cut Out of Science
Honkasalo`s research group studies the activity of the mind in relation to creatures and realities that are interpreted to be supernatural.
- The study of hereafter was cut out of science after the Enlightenment on the basis that it is not real science but magic. Our view is that the subject hasn´t been taken seriously as an object of the human mind because of the point of view of the western research, Honkasalo says.
- All though the scientific research of the human mind has focused on rationality so far, the human mind has always been in contact with the hereafter: the deceased, ancestors or angels either in the form of images or experiences, Honkala tells.
The research group of seven people studies the subject from the humanistic, sociological and medical point of view. Research methods include for example test results, ethnography, psychological experiments and neuroimaging.
The international evaluation group behind the research funding evaluated the research starting point to be exceptionally innovative and unique.
The Secrets of the Human Consciousness
Psychology Professor Harry Scheinin and Anaesthesiologist Antti Revonsuo lead separate subprojects in the Conscious Mind consortium.
- We believe that with imaging and combining the know-how of different areas of research, we can get significant new information about the secrets of the human consciousness, professors tell.
- The human consciousness represents the biggest unsolved question of the science and philosophy. The project studies the conscious human mind, especially the different states of consciousness like the unconsciousness caused by anaesthesia, normal sleep, dream, hypnosis and meditation, Revonsuo tells.
Subprojects study the mechanisms of consciousness by anaesthetizing healthy subjects and brain imaging the dissipation and return of the consciousness.
- The aim is to separate the actual state of consciousness from the possible inability to react to external stimulus better than in the previous studies, Scheinin says. We are also going to compare the loss of consciousness during anesthesia with one happening in a normal sleep.
Finland to the International Top
The Academy of Finland evaluates that Finland has excellent possibilities to rise to the international top in the research of the human mind.
The Academy of Finland granted over ten million euro through its research programme.
Text: Erja Hyytiäinen
Translation: Henna Borisoff
Photographs: Simon Harrod, Becky Wetherington