With the advancement of psychical research and parapsychology, the possibility of postmortem survival of consciousness has been debated by not just by researchers in the field but also prominent philosophers such as C.D. Broad and H.H. Price. Recently, Sudduth (2016) presented a very detailed philosophical examination of the long-lasting arguments within the framework of confirmation theory, which aims to provide a way to determine which one of competing hypotheses is the best account for the given evidence or when one hypothesis over another is supported by the evidence. He concluded that the arguments for the survival hypothesis are untenable by pointing out that the advocates of the survival hypothesis failed to notice the importance of various auxiliary hypotheses which are necessary to substantiate the hypothesis so that it will account for the relevant data, and that there is an alternative hypothesis whose existence weakens the relevant arguments. This paper critically examines Sudduth's (2016) analysis and by providing a new way of looking at the "auxiliary hypotheses," pointing out the problem of auxiliary hypotheses necessary for the alternative hypothesis, and also giving new pieces of evidence argues that the survival hypothesis is still the best explanation of the relevant data.

The concept of “patient suffering” has not been made clear, which is needed for considering how nurses can take better care of patients who suffer from illness. The purpose of this study is to clarify the definition of the concept of “patient suffering”, by making clear its antecedents, attributes and consequences using concept analysis. The analysis was conducted for 36 articles extracted from databases, books and the Internet information, based on Walker & Avant’s method. As a result, seven defining attributes, seven antecedents and five consequences were obtained. “Patient suffering” was defined as “a holistic, uncontrollable, complicated, and unacceptable experience with undesirable emotions which is related to self-identity.” In addition, the constructed concept was compared with the related concepts of “distress”. The results of this study lays the foundations for considering of and constructing research plans on the nurses’ relationship with suffering patients and their family members.

In the early Christian history, reincarnationism had been comparatively well-known. In the era of Jesus and in the Gospels, following the early Christian Fathers’ thoughts, as well as in gnostic Christianity, we see that they had adopted the idea of reincarnationism. What ideas were authentic Christian doctrines and which were heretical had been distinguished clearly by the Ecumenical Councils. It means the branded heresy would have spread and survived at the reaches of the far west and east, not around the center of the Roman Church. It has not been uncommon for Christianity in remote areas to adopt reincarnationism. Even more so in modern times where diversity and pragmatism are valued, there is much room for Christianity to incorporate reincarnationism within its tenets. In this paper, I examine how reincarnation is accepted in the 21st century existential theology. This has been suggested by a Japanese Protestant theologian. There is no reason that existential theology could not adopt doctrines of the universal salvation theory and the reincarnation theory, assuming that the double predestination theory could not be found in the Bible but was formed as a doctrine in later times. Then why do we refuse the idea of reincarnationism because it is only referred to a few times in the New Testament? On the contrary, adopting the idea would help instill Christianity in Japan.

From the viewpoint of embryology, cell membranes invaginate the inside of a cell and also form membranes around the nucleus and various organelles, which function as primitive-instinctive brains. Similarly, the surface cell layer (the skin in a broad sense) invaginates the inside of the body, forming the gut (primitive gut) and other various internal organs, which function as primitive-instinctive, emotional and intuitive brains. The author has already reported that these cell membranes and the surface cell layer are equivalent to the Shinpou (sixth viscera) and Sanshou (sixth entrails) in traditional oriental medicine, which are said to “have their own names, but remain intangible”, and Sanshou is“lonely entrails” or “an oily membrane connecting the whole body” etc. In this study, the author reports the possibility of the important roles of Shinpou and Sanshou in prayer and religious service and also the path to Tenjingouitsu (an ideal in original traditional oriental medicine) through a considering of the meridians of Shinpou and Sanshou, which distribute from both hands and the upper limbs to the acupuncture point Danchu in the middle of the chest.