Overview

Michael Grosso has established himself as a distinctive voice in parapsychology and consciousness studies through a career devoted to philosophical and theoretical engagement with anomalous phenomena. His work is characterized by a commitment to taking seriously the experiential reality of paranormal events (near-death experiences, mediumship, levitation, telepathy) while maintaining rigorous philosophical scrutiny. Rather than dismissing such phenomena as hallucinations or delusions, Grosso has consistently argued that they demand explanation and offer insights into the nature of consciousness, survival, and human potential.

His scholarly approach integrates parapsychology with philosophy, history, theology, and psychology. He has written extensively on near-death research, the problem of consciousness and physicalism, the paranormal dimensions of religious experience, and the creative potential of dissociated states. His work on Joseph of Copertino, the 17th-century Franciscan friar famous for levitation, exemplifies his method: careful historical documentation combined with philosophical analysis of what such phenomena imply for our understanding of mind and body.

Grosso’s career reflects a sustained engagement with what he calls the “big questions”, questions about personal identity, postmortem survival, the nature of consciousness, and the limits of materialism. He has resisted the compartmentalization that often separates academic philosophy from parapsychology, instead treating anomalous phenomena as central to any adequate philosophy of mind.

Life and career

Grosso held faculty positions in philosophy at Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University) for much of his academic career, where he developed his distinctive approach to consciousness and paranormal studies. His early work in the late 1970s and early 1980s focused on near-death phenomena, contributing foundational theoretical papers to the emerging field of NDE research. He was among the first to propose that NDEs should be understood not merely as neurological events but as activations of deep archetypal structures within the psyche.

In 1981, his paper “Toward an Explanation of Near-Death Phenomena” appeared in the inaugural issue of what became the Journal of Near-Death Studies, establishing him as a key voice in that field.⁹ Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he published extensively on the philosophical implications of NDEs, their relationship to Jungian psychology, and their bearing on questions of personal identity and survival.¹¹⁰

His work expanded to encompass broader questions about consciousness, spirituality, and the paranormal. He contributed to collaborative volumes on irreducible mind and consciousness beyond the brain, bringing philosophical rigor to discussions of survival and the limits of physicalism.¹¹ He later affiliated with the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies and served as a research scholar at Esalen Institute’s Center for Theory and Research, positions that reflected his standing as a serious scholar of parapsychology and consciousness.

In recent decades, Grosso has become increasingly known for his work on historical and religious dimensions of paranormal phenomena. His 2015 book, The Man Who Could Fly: St. Joseph of Copertino and the Mystery of Levitation, represents a major scholarly contribution to the study of levitation phenomena and their implications for understanding consciousness and the body.⁶ This work demonstrates his commitment to taking seriously documented historical accounts of paranormal abilities and extracting their philosophical significance.

Research

Near-Death Experiences and Consciousness

Grosso’s foundational contribution to NDE research was his proposal that near-death phenomena should be understood through the lens of Jungian archetypal psychology. Rather than reducing NDEs to neurological byproducts of a dying brain, he argued that they represent the activation of a unique archetype (what he termed the “archetype of death and enlightenment” (ADE)) that carries profound psychological and spiritual significance.¹ This framework allowed him to account for the universal features of NDEs across cultures while respecting their intrinsic meaningfulness to experiencers.

He examined NDEs in relation to the problem of personal identity and the nature of the self. Drawing on philosophical traditions from Hume to contemporary philosophy of mind, he explored how NDEs challenge conventional assumptions about what constitutes a person and whether disembodied existence is logically possible.¹⁰ His work suggested that NDEs provide empirical data relevant to ancient philosophical questions about the soul and its relation to the body.

Grosso also developed a developmental and evolutionary perspective on NDEs, arguing that they function as “seed experiences” that catalyze personal transformation and point toward evolutionary potentials of human consciousness.² He emphasized that the NDE should be understood not merely as a medical or neurological event but as a stimulus to inner exploration and spiritual development, with implications for how we understand human nature and destiny.

Survival Research and the Afterlife

Grosso has been a consistent advocate for taking seriously the question of postmortem survival. He distinguished between the empirical question of whether some aspect of consciousness survives bodily death and the metaphysical question of immortality, arguing that survival research should remain open to evidence while avoiding overconfident claims.³ He reviewed and engaged with major works on consciousness beyond the brain, offering critical but sympathetic assessments of attempts to marshal evidence for survival.¹²

He proposed that survival research has become stalled by an over-reliance on mechanistic empiricism and called for a return to more experience-based, shamanic methodologies that engage the whole person in the inquiry.³ This approach reflects his conviction that the question of survival is uniquely existential and cannot be adequately addressed through purely detached, third-person scientific methods.

Paranormal Phenomena and Religious Experience

Grosso has examined paranormal phenomena within religious and historical contexts, arguing that many documented cases of saints, mystics, and religious figures exhibiting paranormal abilities deserve serious study. His work on Joseph of Copertino represents a major contribution to understanding levitation as a genuine paranormal phenomenon rather than legend or fraud.⁶ He documented cases of telepathic cognition attributed to Joseph and other Catholic saints, arguing that such abilities challenge physicalist assumptions about the limits of consciousness.⁵

He has also examined possession phenomena, analyzing both psychiatric and historical perspectives on cases of alleged demonic possession and arguing that some cases provide evidence for discarnate agency and the reality of non-physical intelligences.¹³

Altered States and Creativity

Grosso has explored the relationship between altered states of consciousness and human creativity, examining mediumship, automatism, and dissociative states as sources of artistic and intellectual achievement. He drew on F. W. H. Myers’ theory of genius to argue that mediumistic and dissociated states represent neglected dimensions of creativity and personality development.⁴ His work examined cases of mediums and artists who produced creative works through automatistic or mediumistic processes, suggesting that such phenomena illuminate the multiplicity and plasticity of the human psyche.

He reviewed scholarship on altered states in ancient Greek culture, noting that the Greeks recognized and valued divine mania, ecstatic states associated with prophecy, poetry, and access to supernormal knowledge, in ways that modern culture has largely abandoned.⁸

Epistemology and Resistance to the Paranormal

Grosso has analyzed the philosophical and psychological obstacles to accepting paranormal phenomena, examining how ideological commitments can distort empirical judgment. His analysis of David Hume’s essay on miracles demonstrated how Hume, despite acknowledging strong testimony for extraordinary events, rejected them on a priori grounds rooted in his fear of validating religion.⁷ This work exemplifies his broader argument that resistance to the paranormal often stems from worldview commitments rather than from empirical evidence.

He has also critiqued pseudo-skepticism, the tendency to label views as “pseudoscience” without adequate definition or argumentation, arguing that such dismissals impede genuine scientific inquiry into anomalous phenomena.¹⁴

Influence and reception

Grosso’s work has established him as a significant figure in parapsychology and consciousness studies, particularly in the philosophical and theoretical dimensions of the field. His early contributions to NDE research helped establish the legitimacy of near-death phenomena as a subject for serious scholarly investigation. His Jungian framework for understanding NDEs has influenced subsequent researchers and theorists working in the field.

His extensive book review work in the Journal of Near-Death Studies, the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and other venues has made him a trusted voice for evaluating scholarship on consciousness, survival, and paranormal phenomena. His reviews are characterized by fair-minded engagement with diverse perspectives, critical but sympathetic assessment of arguments, and willingness to acknowledge both strengths and limitations in the work under review.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷

His work on Joseph of Copertino has brought scholarly attention to historical cases of levitation and paranormal abilities, demonstrating that such phenomena can be studied with historical rigor and philosophical seriousness. His engagement with religious and mystical dimensions of paranormal experience has helped establish that parapsychology need not be confined to laboratory settings or mechanistic frameworks.

Grosso’s philosophical approach, his insistence on taking seriously the experiential reality of anomalous phenomena while maintaining critical rigor, has influenced how parapsychology is understood within academic philosophy and consciousness studies. His work exemplifies the possibility of rigorous philosophical engagement with paranormal phenomena without either dismissing them as impossible or accepting uncritically all claims made about them.

His contributions to collaborative volumes on consciousness and irreducible mind have positioned him as a key voice in broader discussions of the limits of physicalism and the nature of consciousness.¹¹ His willingness to engage with both scientific and spiritual perspectives on consciousness has made his work relevant to audiences beyond academic parapsychology, including scholars of religion, philosophy, and consciousness studies.

Throughout his career, Grosso has maintained that parapsychology and consciousness studies must remain open to evidence from diverse sources (historical documents, religious texts, personal accounts, laboratory experiments) and that the field’s vitality depends on its ability to ask fundamental questions about human nature, consciousness, and destiny. His work continues to exemplify this integrative, philosophically rigorous approach to understanding anomalous phenomena.