The Brief
Get Up To SpeedIllustration by Thomas James If consciousness is just the workings of neurons and synapses, how do we explain the phenomenon of near-death experience? By some accounts, about 3% of the U.S. population has had one: an out-of-body experience often characterized by remarkable visions and feelings of peace and joy, all while the physical body is close to death. To skeptics, there are more plausible, natural explanations, like oxygen deprivation. Is the prospect of an existence after death 'real' and provable by science, or a construct of wishful thinking about our own mortality?
View Debate PageDr. Eben Alexander
- Neurosurgeon & Author, Proof of Heaven
My coma taught me many things. First and foremost, near-death experiences, and related mystical states of awareness, reveal crucial truths about the nature of existence.
Death is not the end of consciousness but rather a chapter in a vast, and incalculably positive, journey.
Most doctors, and most scientists today, are confusing the fact that consciousness and brain activity are related (which they certainly are) with the opinion that the brain actually produces that consciousness.
An interview with Dr. Eben Alexander about his new book, Proof of Heaven, and the medical mystery of his NDE.
This interview reveals how a near-death experience changed everything neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander thought he knew about consciousness, spirituality, and life after death.
Dr. Raymond Moody
- Medical Doctor & Author, Life After Life
People who return from the brink of death after NDEs lose their fear of death, and in most cases find themselves adopting a new perspective on life.
An interview with psychologist and renowned NDE researcher Dr. Raymond Moody, discussing how our language and system of logic limits our understanding of NDE accounts.
This lecture presents a phenomenology of shared death experiences demonstrating an uninterrupted continuum with near-death experiences.
Dr. Raymond Moody discusses the character and quality of near-death experiences, and their significance for understanding the collective unconscious. Transcript available .
Dr. Raymond Moody discusses the character and quality of near-death experiences, and their significance for understanding the collective unconscious. Transcript available .
Sean Carroll
- Physicist & Writer
Carroll, Shermer, D'Souza and Hutchinson go head-to-head over science and religion at Cal Tech.
Among advocates for life after death, nobody even tries to sit down and do the hard work of explaining how the basic physics of atoms and electrons would have to be altered in order for this to be true.
Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll uses science to explore the nature of humanity, live on stage at The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM) 2012.
There is no life after death; theres no spiritual essence that can preserve a human consciousness outside its physical body.
Living organisms are just very complicated chemical reactions, not vessels that rely on supernatural essences or mystical élan vital to keep them chugging along.
Dr. Steven Novella
- Academic Neurologist, Yale School of Medicine
Refuting Eben Alexanders claims that there is no scientific explanation for his NDE, Novella offers several.
Steven Novella, M.D. talks about neuroscience and the nature of consciousness at The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM) 2012.
Join Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris for a two-part series with Yale University Neurologist, Dr. Steven Novella, discussing his skepticism of NDE research claims. Part two available .
FOR
Life is an adventure that transcends our ordinary linear way of thinking.
An interview with Dr. Jeffrey Long, whose comprehensive research into near-death experience deals a kill shot to skeptics and aims to change how science views the afterlife.
Even if we set aside religious conviction, there are compelling reasons to believe in life after death.
Luke Dittrich, contributing editor at <em>Esquire</em>, wrote an article critical of Dr. Eben Alexander's book <em>Proof of Heaven</em>. But how careful was Luke Dittrich with the facts <em>he</em> presented
AGAINST
A brief presentation of a skeptical view of NDEs.
Hallucinations cannot provide evidence for the existence of any metaphysical beings or places. They provide evidence only of the brain's power to create them.
The impediment to taking Alexander's claims seriously can be simply stated: There is absolutely no reason to believe that his cerebral cortex was inactive at the time he had his experience of the afterlife.
If life after death exists, then evidence should be there. It is not.
Near-death experiences (NDEs) can be reproduced by ketamine via blockade of receptors in the brain for the neurotransmitter glutamate, the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors.
MORE ON THE AFTERLIFE
If God is dead, does that mean we cannot survive our own deaths?
<em>Radiolab</em> stares down the very moment of passing, and speculates about what may lie beyond. In a slight departure from our regular format, we bring you eleven meditations on how, when, and even if we die.
NDE STUDIES
Some people report a near-death experience (NDE) after a life-threatening crisis. We aimed to establish the cause of this experience and assess factors that affected its frequency, depth, and content.
Near-death experiences can be vividly real to those who have them; Belgian researchers want to see more empirical research on NDEs.
The fundamental debate rages on: Are these glimpses of an afterlife, are they hallucinations or are they the random firings of an oxygen-starved brain?
NDE ASSOCIATIONS
IANDS purpose is to promote responsible, multi-disciplinary exploration of near-death and similar experiences, their effects on people's lives, and their implications for beliefs about life, death, and human purpose.
The NDERF is a website founded by Dr. Jeffrey Long as a worldwide platform for research on NDEs.
MIND, BRAIN, CONSCIOUSNESS
The present paper introduces the clinical picture of patients with impaired consciousness, and reviews the nosological criteria and functional neuroanatomical basis for brain death, coma, vegetative state, minimally conscious state, and the locked-in syndrome.
PHILOSOPHY
Without denying the advances made in the last few decades, we are now in a position to reclaim the language of immortality.
The focus in this article is on the possibility that the individual who dies will somehow continue to live, or will resume life at a later time, and not on the specific forms such an afterlife might take.
Known to ancient readers as On The Soul, <em>Phaedo</em> puts forward Plato's four arguments for the immortality of the soul.
