Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain Language (20 page)

[
Juan Saavedra-Aguilar and Juan Gomez-Jeria, A
Neurobiological Model for Near-Death Experiences.
Journal of Near-Death
Studies
7:205-222 (1989), 209, 217
]
and “vast clinical and surgical
literature”
[
Michael Persinger, “Modern Neuroscience and Near-Death
Experiences: Expectancies and Implications. Comments on ‘A Neurobiological
Model for Near-Death Experiences.’”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
7:233-39 (1989), 234
]
demonstrating the similarity of NDEs and the
experiences of those with, for example, temporal lobe epilepsy, electrical
stimulation of the temporal lobe, and transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Yet,
Persinger (1989) gave only one reference for his claim – a paper by Janice
Stevens
[
Sleep is for Seizures: A New Interpretation of the Role of
Phasic Events in Sleep and Wakefulness, in M.B. Sternman, M.N. Shouse, and P.
Passount (Eds.),
Sleep and Epilepsy
(New York: Academic Press, 1982),
249-64 (1982)
]
, who made no reference to the supposed vast literature.
Concerning his claims to have replicated “all of the major components of the
NDE” (Persinger 1989, 234) with transcranial magnetic stimulation, the actual experiences
that were even close were very vague, such as “I experienced thoughts from
childhood.”
[
Michael Persinger, Near-Death Experiences and Ecstasy: A
Product of the Organization of the Human Brain? In S. Della Sala (Ed.),
Mind
Myths: Exploring Popular Assumptions about the Mind and Brain
, (Chichester,
England: John Wiley, 1999), 85-99.
]
Researchers tried to replicate
Persinger’s experiments using his own equipment, but failed, concluding
“Suggestibility may account for previously reported effects”
[
P. Granqvist
et al, “Sensed Presence and Mystical Experiences are Predicted by
Suggestibility, Not by the Application of Transcranial Weak Complex Magnetic
Fields.”
Neuroscience Letters
, 379:1-6 (2005),1; see also M. Larsson et
al., Reply to M.A. Persinger and S.A. Koren’s Response to Granqvist et al.,
Neuroscience Letters, 380:348-50 (2005)
]
. For a more comprehensive look
at these claims and rebuttals, see
The Near-Death Experiences of
Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients
, 87-95 and
The Handbook of
Near-Death Experiences
, 219,220.  
40) P. Fenwick 1997, “Is the Near-Death Experience N-methyl-D-aspartate
Blocking?”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
16:43-53;
The Near-Death
Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients
, 86.
41)
The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients
,
91. Also noted and discussed in
Light & Death
, 181; Ernst Rodin,
Comments on ‘A Neurobiological Model for Near-Death Experiences,
Journal of
Near-Death Studies
7/4 255-259 (Summer, 1989).
42) For example, see Dean Mobbs and Caroline Watt, There is Nothing Paranormal
about Near-Death Experiences,
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
, Vol. 15,
Issue 10, 447-449, 18 August 2011.
43) See B. Greyson, E.W. Kelly, E.F. Kelly, Explanatory Models for Near-Death
Experiences, in
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
, 217.
44) Sartori has an especially good discussion of both hypoxia and anoxia in
The
Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients
, 59-68.
45)
Life After Life
, 163.
46) See
Consciousness Beyond Life
, 115,
Science and the Near-Death
Experience
, 167. In
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
, 115-133,
Janice Miner Holden, Jeffrey Long, and B. Jason MacLurg review the literature
on these potential variables and conclude that they make no statistically
significant difference.
47)
Science and the Near-Death Experience
, 162-168;
Consciousness
Beyond Life
, 114-116; 144-148. In two of Sartori’s cases, blood was taken
“at the precise time of the NDE or OBE.” “Both patients were receiving oxygen
therapy continuously and their levels of oxygen were normal during the time of
their experiences.” “Neither set of results support the anoxia or hypercarbia
theories” (Sartori, 280). Sabom also had a case where his patient reported
seeing, from outside his body, a needle being inserted into his groin. This was
done for a blood gas analysis, which showed his oxygen level to be above normal
and his carbon dioxide level lower than normal, the opposite of what you’d
expect if NDEs were due to hypercarbia or anoxia. (
Recollections of Death
,
178)
48) Maurice Rawlings,
Beyond Death’s Door
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Inc., 1978), xii.
49)
Science and the Near-Death Experience
, 164ff.,
Consciousness
Beyond Life
, 146-148.
50)
Science and the Near-Death Experience
, 168.
51) Sabom argues this regarding experiments inducing hypercarbia. “Were these
experiences which were reported by Meduna’s patients and which resembled the
NDE caused by the high levels of carbon dioxide
per se
or were they due
to some other mechanism associated with the patient’s CO2-induced near-death
condition?”
Recollections of Death
, 178.
52)
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
, 225. Bruce Greyson is
Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of
Virginia Medical School and has authored over 100 publications in peer-reviewed
medical journals. He has been prominent in near-death studies for decades.
Edward Kelly is research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and
Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. Emily Williams Kelly is
research assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and
Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia.
            Another strong point against physiological explanations is that
each of them confuses and disorients the mind rather than heightens its
activities. According to Parnia and Fenwick, “Any acute alteration in cerebral
physiology such as occurring in hypoxia, hypercarbia, metabolic, and drug
induced disturbances and seizures leads to disorganized and compromised
cerebral function … [and] impaired attention,” whereas “NDEs in cardiac arrest
are clearly not confusional and in fact indicate heightened awareness,
attention and consciousness at a time when consciousness and memory formation
would not be expected to occur.” S. Parnia, P. Fenwick. Near-death experiences
in cardiac arrest: Visions of a dying brain or visions of a new science of
consciousness?
Resuscitation
52:8 (2002). Found in
The Handbook of
Near-Death Experiences
, 228.
53)
Science and the Near-Death Experience
, 160,161;
The Handbook of
Near-Death Experiences
, 218,219.  
54)
Sartori (
The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive
Care Patients
) kept careful records of drugs given to both patients with
and without NDEs. Of those who experienced NDEs, 26.7% were given no sedatives
and 66.7% weren’t given painkillers.(235) Only 6.67% of the NDErs were given
both painkilling and sedative drugs. “If drugs were the cause of the NDE then a
higher percentage would be expected.”(235) A large percentage of her total
sample (including those who experienced NDEs and those who didn’t) was given
painkilling, sedative drugs or had a general anesthetic. “Less than 1% of this
sample reported a NDE….” (232, 281)
After noting that almost all of her
patients who had hallucinations (as opposed to NDEs) had been given painkilling
and sedative drugs (only one had a hallucination without being given drugs, but
this one suffered from severe sleep deprivation)(237), Sartori concluded, “This
strengthens the argument that drugs contribute to confusional experiences as
opposed to causing clear, precise reports of NDEs.”(237)  “…drugs inhibit the
NDE, or the recall of it, as opposed to causing it; this is acknowledged by
Blackmore (1993, 40-41) and Greyson and Stevenson (1980).” “In some of the most
vivid NDEs no drugs were administered at the time of the experience.”(Sartori,
281)
 
55)
G.O. Gabbard, and S.W. Twemlow,
With the Eyes of the Mind: An
Empirical Analysis of Out-of-Body States
(New York: Praeger, 1984); B. Greyson,
Near-death experiences precipitated by suicide attempt: Lack of influence of
psychopathology, religion, and expectations.
Journal of Near-Death Studies
9:183-188; H. J. Irwin,
Flight of mind: A Psychological Study of the Out-of-Body
Experience
(Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1985). T.P. Lock, and F.C. Shontz,
Personality correlates of the near-death experience: A preliminary study.
Journal
of the American Society for Psychical Research
77:311-18 (1983); K. Ring,
1980.
Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience
,
(New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1980). See also
Recollections of Death
and
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
, 216.
56) Dr. Sabom rejects the possibility of both conscious and unconscious
fabrication for several reasons. First, he corroborated stories with family
members, medical personnel, and medical records. He also noted that most of the
patients weren’t acquainted with NDEs, and the few who were familiar often
pointed out how theirs differed from the ones they’d heard about. They were
also very reluctant to share, since there wasn’t an upside to their telling
their stories. The downside was they feared being referred to a psychiatrist.
Finally, there’s much evidence of long-term life changes associated with NDEs.
Why would a fabricated story radically change a life?
Recollections of Death
,
156-160.
57) Janice Miner Holden, Jeffrey Long, B. Jason MacLurg, Characteristics of
Western Near-Death Experiences, in
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
,
133.
58)
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
, 232.
59) Sartori reviewed the literature very well in her 60 page discussion of
naturalistic explanations (
The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized
Intensive Care Patients
, 59-119). She concluded, “Despite the many
reductionist arguments, the NDE remains unexplained in such terms.” Pim van
Lommel’s review of the literature on naturalistic explanations also concluded
that naturalistic explanations had failed. (
Consciousness Beyond Life
, 105-135)
Note other literature reviews in
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
,
and
Light & Death
, 175-191.  
60) The author of this study demonstrated no knowledge of the extensive
literature in peer reviewed journals on this subject. If he didn’t want to take
the time to examine these studies himself, he should have at least referred to
the summaries of studies found in
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences
,
The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients,
Consciousness Beyond Life,
and
Science and the Near-Death Experience.
Here’s
the article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=peace-of-mind-near-death
Other critiques of near-death studies often show the same lack of familiarity
with the scholarly NDE literature. See, for example, the 1989 textbook by
Michael C. Kearl,
Endings: A Sociology of Death and Dying
, (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1989), 493-496. This 500+ page textbook on the subject
of dying dedicates only four pages to near-death experiences, referencing only
Moody and Kübler-Ross and concluding that it’s all a matter of faith. This is a
horrific oversight, seeing that
The Journal of Near-Death Studies
(formerly
Anabiosis
) had started its bi-yearly, peer reviewed
publication in 1981 and many studies had been done before this text was
written, including Sabom’s prospective study in book form by 1982.

Chapter
5

1)
Raymond A. Moody,
Life After Life
(New York: Bantam Books, 1975), 99.
2) Pim van Lommel,
Consciousness Beyond Life
(New York: HarperCollins,
2010), 21.   

3)
“Hornell Hart (1954) analyzed 288 published OBE cases in which persons reported
perceiving events that they could not have perceived in the ordinary way. In 99
of these cases, the events in question had been verified as having occurred,
and the experience had been reported to someone else
before
that
verification occurred.” J.M. Holden, B. Greyson, D. James, 2009,
The
Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation
(Santa
Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, LLC), 223.
H. Hart, ESP projection: Spontaneous cases and the experimental method.
Journal
of the American Society for Psychical Research
, 1954, 48:121-46);
The
Handbook of Near-death Experiences
also mentions E.W. Cook, B. Greyson, and
I. Stevenson, Do any near-death experiences provide evidence for the survival
of human personality after death? Relevant features and illustrative case
reports.
Journal of Scientific Exploration,
1988, 12:377-406; E.W. Kelly,
B. Greyson, I Stevenson, 1999-2000. Can experiences near-death furnish evidence
of life after death?
Omega,
1999-2000, 40:513-19.  

4) For
example, see
Life After Life
(28,98,99,100);
Consciousness Beyond
Life
(19ff.,38,173-178,298); Chris Carter,
Science and the Near-Death
Experience
(Rochester: Inner Traditions, 2010), 119,
120,219,265-267,156,171,216; Penny Sartori,
The Near-Death Experiences of
Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients
(Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: The
Edwin Mellen Press, 2008), 267-274, 297-301. Michael Sabom [
Recollections of
Death
(New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 27] found 32 of his patients
having veridical experiences. He did an especially good job of corroborating
reports with medical records, nurses, doctors, and family members.