Science and the Near-Death Experience

The Spiritual Development Blog describes the situation best. Ultimately, all materialistic explanations for NDEs must fail because they cannot explain the paranormal components of the phenomena, such as shared near-death experiences where multiple people share a near-death experience, and veridical near-death experiences where the experiencer remembers verifiable information that could not have been perceived with his normal senses even if he were conscious. The Spiritual Development Blog has discussed these types of cases and provided examples on their website and elsewhere on their blog. Even claims that veridical perceptions are due to ESP do not contradict the conclusion that near-death experiences represent out-of-the-body consciousness and evidence for the afterlife because ESP is not produced by the brain and ESP during near-death experiences is best explained as out-of-the-body consciousness. However it is interesting to see how weak the materialists hypotheses are on their own ground. It shows that these materialistic hypotheses are proposed by people who are incredibly ignorant of near-death experiences. It says something sad about the current state of the scientific profession that scientists would make such reckless proposals without investigating the subject they are discussing.

PRO:  Because NDEs have many common core elements, this shows they are not spiritual voyages outside of the body, but are a function of the dying brain. All brains die in the same way and this is why all NDEs have essential core elements which are the same. They are the result of neurotransmitters in the brain shutting down which creates lovely illusions. (Susan Blackmore)

CON:  Because NDEs have many common core elements, this suggests they are spiritual voyages outside of the body. Also, if the dying brain creates NDE illusions, what is the purpose for doing it? If our brains are only a high-tech computer-like lump of tissue which produces our mind and personality, why does it bother to create illusions at the time of death? If everything, including the mind and personality, are about to disintegrate, why would the brain produce a last wonderful Grand Finale vision? Even if NDE elements can be reduced to only a series of brain reactions, this does not negate the idea of NDEs being more than a brain thing. Read this article on the errors of the pseudo-skeptics of NDEs.

PRO:  Neurologist Ernst Rodin offers cerebral anoxia as a possible cause of NDEs of the dying brain. Such anoxia produces a confusing dream-like state of delusions and hallucinations. (Susan Blackmore)

CON:  According to cardiologist Dr. Michael Sabom, the NDE involves a clear awareness and a more mystical content, and NDEs have also occurred in people without anoxia. Pim van Lommel led a study concerning NDEs during cardiac arrest. In our study all patients had a cardiac arrest, they were clinically dead, unconsciousness that was caused by insufficient blood supply to the brain, and the EEG has become flat. In patients cardiac arrest (ventricular fibrillation) is sometimes induced for testing internal defibrillators. In these patients the EEG becomes usually flat within 10-15 seconds from the onset of syncope due to the (reversible) total loss of function of the brain. According to the physiologic theory, all patients in our study should have had NDE, but only 18% reported NDE.

PRO:  Neurologist Dr. Michael Persinger argues that instability and activity in the brain's right temporal lobe is responsible for religious experiences of deep meaningfulness, early memories, and out-of-body experiences (see this Temporal lobe theory page.)

CON:  Dr. Melvin Morse agrees with the right temporal lobe showing NDE-like activity, but he sees it as the mediating bridge for a spiritual experience, not reductionistically as nothing but brain activity (Morse, 1992). Also, the characteristic emotions resulting from temporal lobe stimulation are fear, sadness, and loneliness, not the calm and love of an NDE. While scientists may be discovering a mechanism associated with NDEs, this does not mean NDEs are strictly produced by this mechanism. A mechanical function associated with NDEs does not negate the idea of NDEs being more than a mechanical function.

CON:  Dr. Michael Sabom tested and rejected this brain-only argument. While brain neurology is obviously a part of NDEs, he says, it is not a sufficient explanation because of the verified or veridical aspects found in some NDEs. This aspect is suggestive of the possibility of consciousness existing outside of the body.

CON:  Psychologist John Gibbs states, "NDE accounts from varied times and cultures were found to be more orderly, logical, defined and predictable than comparable accounts from drug or illness-induced hallucination. Impressive data from Tart, Moody and Carl Becker also argue for the objective elements of an NDE, including returning with knowledge later verified and third-party observations of odd death-bed phenomena (such as luminosity or apparitions). Peter Fenwick, a neuropsychiatrist, notes drug induced hallucinations taking place while the subject is conscious. During an NDE the subject is unconscious. While in the state of unconsciousness, the brain cannot create images. Even if they did, the subject would not be able to remember them. NDEs involve clear, lucid memories. Also, drug induced hallucinations distort reality while NDEs have been described as "hyper-reality."

CON:  Dr. Michael Sabom argues depersonalization fails to account for all the elements of NDEs. Some NDE elements do not fit into the depersonalization mode, such as the strong spiritual and mystical feelings, and the increased alertness and awareness. Also, the vast majority of experiencers reject the idea of their NDE being the result of depersonalization. To reduce what was a profound and transforming experience to nothing more than a set of neurotransmitters going on the blink is a bit like seeing Michelangelo's statue of David as nothing more than several tons of marble.

PRO:  Otto Rank proposed birth trauma being behind all neuroses, for all anxiety-producing experiences of separation reactivate the separation from the mother at birth (Brown, 52-53). This theory has been modified to explain the NDE. The cosmologist Carl Sagan proposed the tunnel and light are a reliving of the infant's descent down the birth canal (Sagan, 353-68) (also see this Memory of birth page.)

CON:  Carl Becker asserted that infants descending the birth canal have their eyes closed and brains too undeveloped to allow memories of birth (Becker, 1982). Similarly, Susan Blackmore proved that people born by caesarian section have the tunnel experience and OBEs in equal proportion to those born naturally (Blackmore, 1983). Birth is also often an unpleasant experience for babies. In contrast, NDEs are often described as extremely pleasurable.

PRO:  The brain's naturally produced narcotics, such as the endorphins, have been offered by endocrinologist Daniel Carr to explain why, at the very moment when the body's death would be expected to bring incredible pain and terror, the NDE surprises us with pleasure, calm, and peace.

CON:  Dr. Melvin Morse responds that patients receiving prescribed narcotics similar to the endorphins experienced no NDEs (Morse, 1989).

PRO:  The NDE is seen by some Freudians as a denial of death, a hallucinatory wish fulfillment defending the ego from its impending annihilation.

CON:  Pim van Lommel led a study concerning NDEs during cardiac arrest. Only a very small percentage of patients said they had been afraid the last seconds preceding the cardiac arrest. Also, the medication given to them made no difference.

PRO:  This theory holds that NDE reports are a deliberate ploy of humans to help the human race to adapt better to the inevitable end of their lives. This is based on the survival of the fittest which means that every species has the primary urge to struggle to increase its hold on the planet and guarantee the survival of its descendants.

CON:  This theory does not explain why NDEs are erratic, or why we shunted down an evolutionary sidetrack for years by making NDEs something that people are reluctant to talk about.

PRO:  Near-death experiences are tricks of the mind triggered by an overload of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. During cardiac arrest and resuscitation, blood gases such as CO2 rise or fall because of the lack of circulation and breathing. Patients who experienced the phenomenon, blood carbon-dioxide levels were significantly higher than in those who did not. (Zalika Klemenc-Ketis of the University of Maribor in Slovenia)

CON:  According to neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick of the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London, "The one difficulty in arguing that CO2 is the cause is that in cardiac arrests, everybody has high CO2 but only 10 percent have NDEs. What's more, in heart attack patients, there is no coherent cerebral activity which could support consciousness, let alone an experience with the clarity of an NDE."

PRO:  Dr. Kevin Nelson of the University of Kentucky suggests near-death experiences are akin to dreaming and they use the same rapid eye movement (REM) mechanism associated with sleep. In other words, near-death experiences are a part of the dream mechanism and the person having the experience is in a REM state.

CON:  Dr. Jeffrey Long from the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF.org) disagrees with Nelson on a number of points. First of all, he states that Nelson's comparison group - the non-NDErs - is not typical and many were medical professionals and colleagues of Nelson. Secondly, Nelson's research questionnaire was poorly designed. Thirdly, Nelson failed to recognize dramatic differences between NDE and REM intrusion. Hallucinations stemming from REM intrusion - just before waking or while falling asleep - are often "bizarre and unrealistic" such as seeing objects appear through cracks in a wall or movement in a painting on the wall. By contrast, memories from an NDE are lucid and rooted in the real world. NDErs almost uniformly don't say, "Oh, that must have been a dream." About 75 percent say they were more alert, more conscious than normal. There's also a consistency of elements in NDEs which hallucinations don't have. Fourthly, 98 percent of NDErs encounter deceased relatives, as opposed to dreams where it's common to encounter living people. NDErs also encounter deceased relatives whom they didn't know at the time were dead. Fifthly, the totality of evidence shows there's something going on that's outside the medical evidence. NDEers almost always say that it wasn't a hallucination or dream; it was some different realm, some different aspect of their existence. And finally, REM intrusion - whether sleep paralysis or hallucinations - tends to be frightening or deeply unsettling. By contrast, most people who go through an NDE say the experience is almost supernaturally calm and peaceful, even joyful. Not only anecdotes, but real evidence does support this. In a 2001 study in the medical journal The Lancet, of 62 cardiac attest patients who reported an NDE, more than half said the main emotions they experienced were "positive." Long says these distinctive, positive emotions are powerful evidence that an NDE is not just REM intrusion in disguise.

PRO:  Dr Jimo Borjigin of the University of Michigan suggests that the dying brain does not shut down as might be expected, but instead, becomes much more active during the dying process than even the waking state. He bases his findings on a study involving rats where it was discovered that in the 30-second period after the rodent's hearts stopped beating, there was a sharp increase in high-frequency brainwaves.

CON:  In a paper entitled, "Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died: Peak in Darien Experiences," Dr. Bruce Greyson from the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia argues that in his collection of 665 NDEs, 138 (21%) included a purported meeting with a deceased person. People on their deathbeds see, and often express surprise at meeting, a recently deceased person, of whose death neither they nor anyone around them had any knowledge. This excludes the possibility that the vision was a hallucination related to the experiencer's expectations. Such NDEs are termed "Peak in Darien" cases, after a book by that name published in 1882 by Frances Power Cobbe. The title is taken from a John Keats poem describing the shock of the Spaniards, who, after scaling a peak in Darien (in what is now Panama), expect to see a continent, but are confronted instead with another ocean. Bruce Greyson reports in his paper, published in the academic journal 'Anthropology and Humanism', many examples, including that of Physician K. M. Dale who related the case of 9-year-old Eddie Cuomo, whose fever finally broke after nearly 36 hours of anxious vigil on the part of his parents and hospital personnel. As soon as he opened his eyes, at 3:00 in the morning, Eddie related that he had been to heaven, where he saw his deceased Grandpa Cuomo, Auntie Rosa, and Uncle Lorenzo. Then Eddie added that he also saw his 19-year-old sister Teresa, who told him he had to go back. His father became agitated, because he had spoken with Teresa, who was attending college in Vermont, just two nights ago. Later that morning, Eddie's parents learned that Teresa had been killed in an automobile accident just after midnight, and that college officials had tried unsuccessfully to reach the Cuomos at their home. Bruce Greyson relates many other examples, including cases in which the deceased person seen was someone whom the experiencer had never known. For example, Greyson reports cardiologist Maurice Rawlings describing the case of a 48-year-old man who had a cardiac arrest. In an NDE he perceived a gorge full of beautiful colors, where he met both his stepmother and his biological mother, who had died when he was 15 months old. His father had remarried soon after his biological mother's death, and this person had never even seen a photo of her. A few weeks after this episode, his aunt, having heard about this vision, brought a picture of his mother with a number of other people. The man picked his mother out of the group, to the astonishment of his father.

PRO:  There exists strong circumstantial evidence of consciousness surviving bodily death. While this evidence does not constitute conclusive scientific proof, it does make survival after bodily death a possibility which can be upheld in a court of law. The evidence for survival can be found in science, philosophy, history, metaphysics, religion, and anecdotal testimony. Quantum physics (see above) makes some scientific theories of the NDE outmoded while supporting elements of NDEs. Scientific studies support the possible validity of NDEs elements such as being out of the body, the retention of mental images during brain death, veridical experiences of autoscopic events, the ability to accurately foresee the future, receiving information that leads to new scientific discoveries, people born blind being able to see, groups of people sharing a single experience, unbiased children having similar experiences as adults, causing experiencers to be drastically changed and convinced of survival after death, the evidence supporting the objectivity of NDEs, and the affirmation of ancient religious concepts found around the world. Some of the skeptical arguments against the survival theory are often not valid and the burden of proof against survival has shifted to the skeptics. The following is a list of the evidence supporting NDEs as the survival of consciousness:

CON:  The survival of consciousness after death has never been proven conclusively using the scientific method.