When any independent Untoldmysteries correspondent reports a story, the aim is to provide an insight based on (emperical) evidence and on professional judgement - uncluttered by commercial interest or the need to support a particuar proprietor or ideology. So above all we need to be inquiring and open-minded - unafraid to surprise our audiences with a view of a story that is different - and always looking for a wide range of evidence and opinion.                                                                                                            John Kuhles 2005

Welcome to the   Special-Study-Page-Nov-2005-A.htm of www.whynotnews.eu/untoldmysteries   In preperation for the   11-11-2005  2 hour  Live!  interactive Web-ASI-Radio broadcast called:   'Spiritual Quest 4 Untold Mysteries' in the (only) green ASI-room in category 'social issues' of PalTalk.com   hosted by Avalon_jaguarspirit & John_Kuhles (NDE-survivor)       the 11-11-2005 broadcast will cover: Near Death Experiences (NDE) & Out of the Body Experiences (OBE)

2 hour LiveWeb RadioTalkshow  2nd  &  4th  Friday  of  the  month 8 to 10 pm GMT London,   21 tot 23 uur Holland,   3 to 5 pm EST USA 4 to 6 pm CST central  3 to 5 pm MST mountain  2 to 4 pm PST pacific choose 1 of the 3 players, ONLY at above times & date: Windows-Media Player Live Broadcast or via Winamp or Real Player

"If I lived a billion years more, in my body or yours, there's not a single experience on earth that could ever be as good as being dead. Nothing." - Dr. Dianne Morrissey, a Near-Death Experiencer "I knew with total certainty that everything was evolving exactly the way it should and that the ultimate destiny for every living being is to return to the Source, The Light, Pure Love.." - Juliett Nightengale, Near-Death Experiencer "[The light] showed me that God is love. By spreading love, you make God stronger. By making God stronger, He can, in return, help you. He told me your love has to be unconditional. That is the only rule he really has." - anonymous "From the light we have come and to the light we all shall return." - Josiane Antonette, Near-Death Experiencer "After you die, you wear what you are." - St. Teresa of Avila "One of the near-death experience truths is that each person integrates their near-death experience into their own pre-existing belief system." - Jody Long, near-death researcher "Death is nothing more than a doorway, something you walk through." - Dr. George Ritchie  "Although my near-death experience was nearly thirty four years ago, there is virtually not a day that goes by that I am not aware of making decisions based on that experience." - Geraldine Berkheimer  "As each second passed there was more to learn, answers to questions, meanings and definitions, philosophies and reasons, histories, mysteries and so much more, all pouring into my mind. I remember thinking, 'I knew that, I know I did, where has it all been?'" - Virginia Rivers describing her near-death experience "I now feel that my life is totally guided by God ... To me it was a case of total surrender and total freedom." - Janet, Near-Death Experiencer "When snatched from the jaws of death, tooth marks are to be expected." - Hal Story, Near-Death Experiencer "It [suicide] is like killing a plant or flower before it's full-grown or before it's served its purpose ... The only thing that I can think and comprehend is that to try and understand reincarnation. That somehow, instead of evolving, you would regress." - a quote from a Near-Death Experiencer in Dr. Ring's study

"While the person who commits suicide dies only once, the loved ones left behind may die a thousand deaths wondering why." - anonymous   "I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness." - George Fox   "I still live. Pretty." - famous last words of Daniel Webster   "I knew that I was in a state of hell, but this was not the typical "fire and brimstone" hell that I had learned about as a young child. .... Men and women of all ages, but no children, were standing or squatting or wandering about .... Some were mumbling to themselves. .... They were completely self-absorbed, every one of them too caught up in his or her own misery to engage in any mental or emotional exchange." - Angie Fenimore, a Near-Death Experiencer   "The "hell" that I experienced was the pain, anguish, hurt and anger that I had caused others, or that I suffered as a result of my actions/words to others. "Hell" was what I had created for myself and my own soul through turning my back on unconditional love, compassion and peace." - Tina, a Near-Death Experiencer   "Hell is a state of being we create by being away from God until we choose to return to him. It is a state totally devoid of love." - Sandra Rogers, Near-Death Experiencer   "The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life: your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away, but they're not punishing you, they're freeing your soul." – Meister Eckhart   "I had a descent into what you might call Hell .... I did not see Satan or evil. My descent into Hell was a descent into each person's customized human misery, ignorance, and darkness of not-knowing. It seemed like a miserable eternity. But each of the millions of souls around me had a little star of light always available. But no one seemed to pay attention to it. They were so consumed with their own grief, trauma and misery." - Mellen-Thomas Benedict, a Near-Death Experiencer   "We are going to link up, hold hands, and walk out of hell together." - Mellen-Thomas Benedict

NDE goes finally (after decades being ignored) mainstream:

Science Magazine Lancet Study on Near Death Experiences

 

The Lancet is one of the world's most respected medical journals !

 

So when it published an article in its current edition in which scientists claim to have PROOF that humans have a life after death that exists independently of the body that it inhabits, folks are sitting up and taking notice. Many readers of this newsletter have strong spiritual convictions about the existence of the soul, but it is wonderful to have medical science support these convictions.

These two articles from IANDS' newsletter Vital Signs (2002, Number 1)

provide an introduction in layman's terms to the Dutch study.  The original study is available on-line.

 

The first article summarizes and interprets the results of the study, and the second one gives commentary.

• Dutch NDE Study Attracts Worldwide Attention

• Comments about the Dutch Study From a Family Doctor Who is also a Near-Death Experiencer

 

Dutch NDE Study Attracts Worldwide Attention
by Jeffrey Long, MD & Paul Bernstein, PhD.

 

On December 15, 2001, the highly respected international medical journal, The Lancet, published a 13-year study of NDEs observed in 10 different Dutch hospitals.  This is one of the very few NDE studies to be conducted prospectively, meaning that a large group of people experiencing cessation of their heart and/or breathing function were resuscitated during a fixed period of time, and were interviewed.  Through those interviews the doctors discovered who had experienced NDEs.  The advantage of this type of study is that it gives scientists a matched comparison group of non-NDE patients against which to compare the Near-Death Experiencers, and that in turn gives scientists much more reliable data about the possible causes and consequences of the near-death experience.

 

For example, in the past some scientists have asserted that the NDE must be simply a hallucination brought on by the loss of oxygen to the brain [called 'anoxia'] after the heart has stopped beating.  This study casts doubt on that theory, in the words of its chief investigator, cardiologist Pim van Lommel, MD, 'Our results show that medical factors cannot account for the occurrence of NDE.  All patients had a cardiac arrest, and were clinically dead with unconsciousness resulting from insufficient blood supply to the brain.  In those circumstances, the EEG (a measure of brain electrical activity) becomes flat, and if CPR is not started within 5-10 minutes, irreparable damage is done to the brain and the patient will die.  According to the theory that NDE is caused by anoxia, all patients in our study should have had an NDE, but only 18% reported having an NDE...  There is also a theory that NDE is caused psychologically, by the fear of death.  But only a very small percentage of our patients said they had been afraid seconds before their cardiac arrest—it happened too suddenly for them to realize what was occurring.  More patients than the frightened ones reported NDEs.'  Finally, differences in drug treatments during resuscitation did not correlate with the likelihood of patients experiencing NDEs, nor with the depth of their NDEs.

 

Of the 344 patients tracked by the Dutch team, 18% had some memory from their period of unconsciousness, and 12% (1 out of every 8) had what the physicians called a 'core' or 'deep' NDE.  The researchers defined that as a memory by the patient from their period of unconsciousness which scored six or more points on the scale published by Dr. Ken Ring in his 1980 study, Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience,.  This scale includes, among other things, out-of-body perception, moving through a tunnel, communication with light, blissful feelings, observation of a celestial landscape, meeting with deceased persons, life review, and presence of a border.  The scientists were surprised that the NDErs recalled their experience with the same degree of detail when interviewed again several years later.

 

During those follow-up interviews (2 years and 8 years later), the scientists assessed the patients' attitudes about several key issues in life—fear of death, acceptance of others, interest in spirituality, and the like.  On 13 such issues they found substantial, statistically significant differences between the NDErs and the non-NDErs.  For example, NDErs had become much more empathic and accepting of others since their NDE than had the non-NDErs.  And NDErs had become both more appreciative of the ordinary things of life and much less afraid of death than had the non-NDErs.

 

Dr. van Lommel and his colleagues conducted the entire study without special funding; they volunteered their own time and engaged the volunteer efforts of many IANDS members in Holland (whose group is called Merkawah.  Two years ago Dr. van Lommel and his colleagues were visited by Vital Signs columnist PMH Atwater (who described Merkawah's activities in VS Issue #1, 2000, pages 5-8).  Following the recent publication of their study in The Lancet, Dr. van Lommel gave the following interview to IANDS' Vice-President Dr. Jeffrey Long.

 

Dr. Long: The Lancet article received enormous publicity world-wide.  For example, here in the US, ABC-TV featured it on their evening news.  What reaction did you notice from physicians/scientists?  And from the general public?

Dr. van Lommel: There has been an incredible amount of reaction from all over the world, especially in newspapers, but also in journals, radio, and TV.  I myself received more than 265 e-mails in just four weeks, including a lot from physicians who wrote to me about their own NDEs!  Most of the reactions were positive, but I assume that people who want to ignore the subject would not e-mail me.  In our 800-bed teaching hospital there has been a lot of positive reaction by colleagues, but of course they already have known for years that I was interested in NDE.

 

Dr. Long: Are you planning any further NDE studies?

Dr. van Lommel: I am not planning any research at this moment.  I have ideas about a study-design, but at this moment I have no time.

 

Dr. Long: I understand you helped found Netherlands' only Friends-of-IANDS group.  Has the Lancet article affected attendance or interest in NDE?

Dr. van Lommel: Our IANDS-Netherlands group, Merkawah, has more than 400 members, national meetings, local meetings, a quarterly magazine with the name Terugkeer (which means Coming Back), local discussion groups, regional coordinators, and of course a governing board.  In 1988 I was one of the founders, but at this moment I am not on the board any more.  Also in Belgium and France there are actively operating IANDS organizations.  Of course there has been a lot of attention in the newspapers, radio and TV, and that always stimulates reaction, including quite a lot of people who've had an NDE and did not know previously about Merkawah.  There were reports about our study in the newspapers of England, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Nepal, and Brazil as far as I am aware of, and of course in the USA.  This started a lot of discussion about NDE, in particular about the relationship of consciousness and memories to brain functioning.  For me, not only is growing attendance for IANDS important, but more openness and awareness about NDEs by physicians and nurses, and having the scientific approach be taken towards the NDE instead of just a sensationalist approach.

 

The possibility of consciousness existing outside of the brain, when the brain itself appears to be dead, is for Dr. van Lommel an especially important outcome of this research.  As he wrote at the end of The Lancet article, and then added in a letter to Dr. Long:

How could a clear consciousness outside one's body be experienced at the moment that the brain no longer functions during a period of clinical death with flat EEG? . . .  Furthermore, blind people have described veridical perception during out-of-body experiences at the time of this experience.  NDE pushes at the limits of medical ideas about the range of human consciousness and the mind-brain relation.  There is a theory that consciousness can be experienced independently from the normal body-linked waking consciousness.  The current concept in medical science, however, states that consciousness is the product of the brain.  Could the brain be a kind of receiver for consciousness and memories, functioning like a TV, radio or a mobile telephone?  What you receive is not generated by the receiver, but rather electromagnetic informational waves (photons) that are always around you and are made visible or audible to you by the brain and your sense organs.  In our prospective study of patients that were clinically dead (flat EEG, showing no electrical activity in the cortex, and loss of brain stem function evidenced by fixed dilated pupils and absence of the gag reflex), the patients report a clear consciousness, in which cognitive functioning, emotion, sense of identity, or memory from early childhood occurred, as well as perceptions from a position out and above their 'dead' body.

To answer these fundamental questions, research should be focused on specific elements of the NDE, such as out-of-body experiences and other verifiable aspects.  Finally, the theory and background of transcendence should be included as a part of an explanatory framework for these experiences.

Such emphasis on transcendent experience is not welcomed by all medical professionals.  The Lancet editors included a 'Commentary' on Dr. van Lommel's article, which argued that even when patients accurately report events that occur while their brain and heart are not functioning, the cause might not be a true separation of their consciousness from their bodies but rather 'prior knowledge, fantasy or dreams, lucky guesses, ...details learned between the NDE and giving an account of it, and...false memories' the mind trying to retrospectively 'fill in the gap' after a period of cortical inactivity.  ¹

 

The Commentary's author, British psychology professor Christopher French, explained further why he finds it hard to believe these patients' reports of their NDEs.  He pointed to the fact that two persons who'd originally told van Lommel's team of no memory that would be categorized as an NDE, later told them in the two-year follow-up interview of experiences in the hospital that the researchers would categorize as core NDEs.  Professor French's conclusion was that, 'It seems likely that at least some patients, on hearing about other survivors' NDEs, would start to imagine what it would have been like if they had had the same experience....  Recent psychological studies have shown conclusively that simply imagining that one has had experiences that had in fact never been encountered will lead to the development of false memories for those experiences.  ¹

 

But psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Greyson, a member of The Lancet's peer review team and a long-time NDE researcher, offered Vital Signs a different explanation.  'In my own research with patients hospitalized for attempted suicide, ...there were a few ...who, on follow-up visits, later described NDEs in the course of their initial suicide attempt.  They all told me that they simply hadn't trusted me sufficiently in our initial interview to share the NDE.  This should not be surprising, because many of them were concerned about being regarded as crazy...  There is quite a lot of evidence that NDErs often are unwilling to share their accounts with researchers until they have earned their trust.  Unless we have some reason to suspect that NDErs are highly suggestible and have some strong motivation to imagine having had their NDEs, it seems irrational to assume that all NDEs are 'false memories'.'

IANDS congratulates Dr. van Lommel for his excellent research.

 

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Click on me if you want to share YOUR NDE and/or OBE in UntoldMysteries FORUM

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SKEPTICAL OF THE NDE-(pseudo)-SKEPTICS:

http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/whoswho/vanLommel.htm

http://quest4wisdom.tripod.com/skepsiswatchers/id30.html

 

 

Near-Death-Experience-NDE-OBE-3min43sec.wmv 5,45 Mb         Betty-Eadie-Near-Death-Experience-NDE-OBE-Research- Coast2Coast-1hr45min-8sep1999.wma  (7,98 Mb)   VPRO-Lancet-Lommel-Onderzoek-Bijna-Dood-Ervaringen-BDE-NDE-31min38sec.wma 2,92 Mb   DossierQ28juli05.mp3   ( met dank aan www.serieWoordenaar.nl )   Link tips over NDE-BDE: http://quest4wisdom.tripod.com/skepsiswatchers/id30.html www.merkawah.nl/literatuur/lommel-lancet.html www.bijnadoodervaring.nl/ www.nderf.org/Lancet%20von%20Lommel%20Review.htm www.nderf.org/ www.near-death.com/

AFLEVERING 32 Noorderlicht VPRO over Bijna Dood Ervaringen   Tijdens een hartstilstand is de doorbloeding van de hersenen zo minimaal, dat er geen elektrische activiteit meer is. Toch herinneren sommige mensen die het overleven wat er op dat moment gebeurde. Laten zulke \'bijna-doodervaringen\' zien dat het bewustzijn niet uitsluitend in de hersenen zit?   Uit het leven van een dode    ... donderdag 11 april 2002 20:00 , zaterdag 13 april 2002 11:25 (herhaling) De publicatie in het Britse medische tijdschrift The Lancet van een onderzoek van de Arnhemse cardioloog Pim van Lommel over `bijna dood ervaringen\' deed eind vorig jaar veel stof opwaaien. Van Lommel vroeg 344 patiënten die een hartstilstand hadden gehad en gereanimeerd werden of ze zich iets herinnerden van de tijd dat hun hart stilstond. Eén op de vijf à zes patiënten meldde een `bijna-doodervaring\' gehad te hebben. Bovendien kregen sommige patiënten een `out of body experience\', waarbij ze konden vertellen wat er tijdens de reanimatie had plaatsgevonden.   Van Lommels verklaring hiervoor is dat het bewustzijn niet uitsluitend in de hersenen gelokaliseerd is. Zijn onderzoek sloot uit dat er correlaties waren tussen de `bijna-doodervaring\' en de toediening van medicijnen tijdens de reanimatie, evenals met geslacht, leeftijd, religiositeit van de patiënt, of angst voor de dood. Daarnaast stelt het onderzoek van Van Lommel ook de theorie van `zuurstofgebrek in de hersenen\' op non-actief, want als die waar was, zouden alle 344 patiënten een `bijna dood ervaring\' gehad moeten hebben.   Samenstelling en regie: Robert Oey Research: Marie Lou Schoenmakers/Gertjan Wallinga Productie: Madeleine Somer/Karin Spiegel Eindredactie: Hansje van Etten

 

 

Sorry for the humor, could not help it, even as a NDE-Experiencer as myself loves HUMOR :)

by the way, the first sign of a cult-like behaviour is .... that they have NO sense of humor !

 

John Kuhles

 

 

 

 

Comments about the Dutch Study

From a Family Doctor Who is also a Near-Death Experiencer
by Pam Kircher, M.D.

 

Van Lommel's article in Lancet is a landmark that should be read by every doctor.  It reports on the largest prospective study to ask people about NDEs after a cardiac arrest.  Its results show that NDEs are a significant phenomenon in the setting of cardiac arrest.  Equally important, the study followed people for eight years after their NDE.  The observations gleaned from that follow-up demonstrate that NDEs really are life transforming, and that the transformation in values is consistent over time.  The study showed that NDEs create much greater changes in a person's life than does simply having a cardiac arrest or being near death.

Family doctors may not be the physicians present at the time of cardiac arrest, but they are the doctors people usually talk to the most, because they are the doctors people go to most often for a variety of problems.  I would encourage Vital Signs readers to obtain the complete Lancet article to share with your doctor.  You will be doing your family doctor a great favor.  Basically, we doctors change our minds about diagnoses and treatments because of articles in medical journals.

 

When people read van Lommel's article, they are often drawn to one or two items in his vast array of findings.  I have mentioned the major ones in my first paragraph.  Near the end of the summary on this page, Dr. Greyson addresses the question of false memories, which the Lancet commentary brought up regarding patients who later recalled an NDE they hadn't initially reported on.  For me, the most fascinating statistic in van Lommel's article has to do with predictors of death in the 30 days following cardiac arrest.  Each person in the study was very ill or they would not have had a cardiac arrest.  Statistically, it is quite common to die soon after a cardiac arrest, particularly if it occurred as the result of a chronic medical condition.  In his study, Dr.  van Lommel measured the depth of the NDE by using Kenneth Ring's scale.  People who had more of certain aspects of the NDE (e.g., tunnels, light, life reviews) were labeled core experiencers.  Having a core experience was a predictor of death over the next 30 days at a probability of .0001.  That means that there is a 1-in-10,000 chance that those results would have occurred by chance alone.  Why would that be?

 

Two very different hypotheses come to mind.  One is that people with very deep experiences might be so taken with the experience that they simply allowed themselves to slip over to the other side.  (The will to live is crucial in people who are extremely ill.  Though it doesn't predict whether or not the person will die, it can have a bearing on when their death occurs.  For example, people who are terminally ill frequently put off their own deaths until after they have finished waiting for an important day such as their daughter's wedding.)  The sense of what lies ahead of NDErs may be so peaceful, that they simply complete unfinished business here and then let go into death.  Another possible interpretation of the data, however, is that the depth of the NDE may be related to the severity of the illness of the person.  In a statistically precise study of NDErs, Dr.  Bruce Greyson found that psychic abilities are more common after a core NDE (Theta, 11:26-29, 1983).  Since we have not had studies until now that interviewed large numbers of people within 30 days of their NDEs, the reasons for the relationship between the depth of the NDE and impending death have not yet been identified.

 

I believe that the findings in van Lommel's study challenge hospitals to ask people about their NDEs after a cardiac arrest.  As it becomes common practice to invite resuscitated people to discuss their NDEs with health care personnel in the hospital, the relationship between having a core NDE and dying a short time later will become clearer.  In addition, NDEs in resuscitated persons will be seen as a normal concomitant of the experience.  Finally, I believe that people with NDEs will be able to adjust more easily to the changes that occur in their values, if they have some assistance with that from immediate caregivers while still in the hospital setting.

 

Colorado physician Pam Kircher is board certified in both hospice care and family practice.  She has taught at Baylor College of Medicine, and was Chief of Family Medicine at Memorial Southwest Hospital in Houston, Texas.

 

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  Follow this link for the full Lancet article (PDF: 920Kb).  (If you have trouble reading the PDF file, the Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for free download.)  If you also want to read its accompanying Commentary, you may visit the Lancet website, register there for free, and search for the keywords 'near death'.  The article's title is, Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands, to be cited as Lancet 2001; 358: 2039-45.  Its authors, in addition to Dr. van Lommel, are Ruud van Wees, Vincent Meyers, and Ingrid Elfferich.

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References

1. French, Christopher (2001).  'Commentary.'  Lancet 358, pp. 2010-11.

The Journal of Religion and Psychical Research, 26, 1, 27-31.  January 2003.

 

The Survivalist Interpretation of Recent Studies Into the Near-Death Experience
                                
by Titus Rivas

 

Abstract
There is serious evidence for veridical perceptions during the stage of flat electroencephalogram (EEG) in so called Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). This paper addresses common counter-hypotheses for a survivalist interpretation of these experiences. The only possible alternative which would account for veridical NDEs is the false memory through retrocognition-hypothesis. It is shown why this alternative is less parsimonious than a straightforward survivalist interpretation of NDEs.

 

Introduction
The Near-Death Experience recently gained an increased scientific respectability by the publication of an article in The Lancet authored by Dr. Pim van Lommel of the Rijnstate Hospital at Arnhem (the Netherlands) and his collaborators (Lommel, et al. 2001). Their prospective work with cardiac patients who were succesfully resuscitated after cardiac arrest, resembles similar research by Dr. Sam Parnia at the University of Southampton and his colleagues (Parnia et al., 1998).

Both Van Lommel and Parnia have concluded that NDEs are real and that they cannot be explained by physiological or psychological causes (alone). Moreover, they have both accepted the implication that consciousness is not destroyed when our brain activity ceases, but that there is a continuity beyond brain coma and therefore probably after brain death as well. Consciousness does not ultimately depend on brain activity for its very existence, which makes it downright irrational to take for granted the idea that it would be obliterated after the brain ceases to exist as a physical system.
Materialists (I mean the non-reductive ones who accept the reality of consciousness during physical life) generally see consciousness as an epiphenomenon or correlate of brain activity. For the question of survival, it is therefore sufficient to show that there is no ultimate existential dependence of the mind on such brain processing. The theory of ultimate mental dependence on cerebral functioning is refuted by the survival of consciousness after the cessation of (cortical) brain processes, regardless of whether that cessation is temporary or final.

 

Near-death experiences and materialist theories of the mind
If it can be shown that consciousness is present eventhough the brain processes which following materialist theories are supposedly known to be responsible for it have ceased, those materialist theories can safely be considered as inadequate. Now, apriori there can be several responses to the challenge that is posed to materialism and epiphenomenalism by the recent NDE-findings:

1. Methodological scepticism: This is the usual response by skeptics whenever they are confronted by results that go against their (unquestionably closed-minded) world view. However, as the scientific reputation of the researchers involved in the recent studies certainly seems impeccable, and as their work has been accepted as worthy of publication in prestigious journals such as The Lancet, it may be safely assumed that the standard skeptic objection is simply baseless in this case. Research into NDEs cannot be dismissed anymore as being pseudo-scientific.

2. Flaws in the specific interpretation of the results. Some critics, such as C.C. French think that the findings of these studies should not be interpreted in a survivalist manner. It certainly seems to be the case that some individual patients are fully conscious during a flat EEG, but they really are not. The memories of the NDE they claim to have had are simply false memories (French, 2001). This can be further elaborated in two ways:
A. Patients who claim they have had an NDE simply suffer from some kind of self-deception. They never experienced anything like it, but they just believe they did. At a subconscious level, they have constructed a fantasy accompanied by images and feelings, and they project this fantasy into their memory as if it concerned a real experience of the (imaginary) event while it occurred.
B. Claimants of NDEs did indeed have a real experience before they came to, but not during their flat EEG. It happened during the seconds or minutes before they lost consciousness or during the last few moments before they fully awoke from their coma, and it was temporally distorted in their memory as if it really took place during the flat EEG.

Against both these criticisms researchers stress that patients are reported to have had veridical impressions of events that took place inside but also outside the room that contained their physical bodies and during the stage in which their brains showed a flat EEG. Therefore, any hypothesis that claims that these people simply deceive themselves must account for these experiences. It is very convenient for skeptics that such experiences, which seem clearly related to extrasensory perception (ESP) as studied by parapsychologists, are still quite controversial for many scientists, so that they are obviously tempted to dismiss them out of hand. However, the evidence for such veridical experiences (or memories of experiences) is growing and its quality is also increasing (Ring, 1998; Rivas, 2000; Abdalla, 2002). So unless we wish to remain hard line skeptics at any cost, it seems wise to take them very seriously.

What are the implications of real veridical experiences related to events that happened during a flat EEG? In psychical research we know two categories of ESP that relate to a time factor. First, there is precognition which in this context would boil down to an experience of an event which took place during the stage of flat EEG before that experience took place. In this case it would mean that a patient does not precognitively experience an event which -according to the false-memory theory- (unlike, say, the case of a Dunne-effect type of dream) he will eventually experience through ESP while it is taking place, because the theory holds that there would be no awareness of any events whatsoever during the stage of flat EEG. More importantly, the precognitive experiences should occur before the patient loses consciousness or at least before he enters the stage of flat EEG, whereas he should lose all memory of having had such a precognitive vision after he has come to.

Therefore, I personally cannot take this very far-fetched possibility seriously and I think we should be confident in dismissing the precognitive variant of the false memory theory.

The other time-related form of ESP is called retrocognition, i.e. knowledge acquired through ESP of past events. The retrocognitive variant of the false memory hypothesis interprets memories of veridical experiences during the stage of flat EEG as follows. Patients with an NDE subconsciously use ESP to get knowledge of past events which happened during their coma, and project that knowledge into their false memories during the last moments before they regain consciousness. The theory needs to hold that all patients with veridical experiences during their flat EEG were somehow motivated to create a fantasy and include in that fantasy false memories of real events through the aid of retrocognition. This means that during the moments between their flat EEG and their awakening from it, some patients are subconsciously motivated to use retrocognition to deceive themselves about their lack of consciousness during their flat EEG.

Retrocognition is a very strange hypothesis for NDEs, because it implies that a patient would not use ESP to perceive events that happen between the stage of flat EEG and complete awakening, but would instead focus on events that have already taken place. It cannot explain cases of NDEs in which there is paranormal perception of events that took place during flat EEG but also of events which occurred during the awakening process itself and in which such a perception is experienced by the patient as part of a coherent and continuous stream of consciousness.

An even more fatal weakness of this theory is that it uses a very unmaterialistic concept -retrocognition- to uphold a materialistic theory. Even if it were true, it simply could not be defended by a (reductive or non-reductive) materialist, at least not in the mainstream sense of this term. By its very nature, the retrocognitive false memory theory needs to be part of a broader radical dualistic theory about the mind-brain relation. It might be defended by the so called "animistic" school of thought within the parapsychological tradition, which promotes the explanation of possible evidence for survival after death in terms of ESP (or psychokinesis). However, it is very ironic that even a hard line animist like Hans Bender (1983, page 148) concluded that the ESP needed to explain veridical experiences during NDEs is in itself suggestive of survival after death. [Addition 2005: Please note that what used to be commonly known as animism, nowadays is often termed Super-ESP or Super-PSI theory.]

In any case, if veridical memories of events during flat EEG are taken seriously, we must leave the plane of (conventional) materialist theorizing about mind-brain relations. After that, we have to ask ourselves which theory is simpler or more parsimonious: a dualist theory which holds that the memories of events during flat EEG are false memories, constructed via retrocognition, or a dualist theory which holds that such memories simply are real memories based on real experiences. As dualists, we can no longer consider the real memory theory as less parsimonious just because it would imply survival, because -as even animistic champion Hans Bender acknowledges- at least some form of survival is implied by any serious radical dualist (and therefore also any animistic) theory. Therefore, I conclude that the false memory-theory is simply more complicated (i.e. less parsimonious) than necessary. In order to avoid the conclusion that consciousness survives death, it needs to postulate a mechanism which is only plausible within a parapsychological theory which ultimately implies at least some form of postmortem survival of the mind. So it really is a theory which is more complicated than a straightforward survivalist theory. It implies both survival and a strange, unknown kind of retrospective falsification of memory through retrocognition.

Therefore, in my opinion, we should only adopt the “false memory through retrocognition”-theory after it has been empirically shown that memories of NDEs must generally be false. It's the animists (or moderate survivalists) who have to show the (radical) survivalists wrong in this case, certainly not the other way round. It’s just a question of parsimony. The radical survivalist theory is the most parsimonious exhaustive interpretation of NDEs and it can be falsified by evidence for a more complex theory such as the “false memory through retrocognition”-theory.

 

3. Adaptation of mainstream materialistic neuropsychological theory concerning the present-day registrability of neural activity needed for consciousness

The last materialist response (defended for example by Karl Jansen, a psychiatrist known for his attempts of artificially producing experiences which resemble NDEs) to the recent evidence for NDEs is that the memories are indeed real memories, but that a hypothetical residual and as yet nonmeasurable level of brain activity can still account for them (Abdalla, 2002). Of course, the veridical memories of events that took place in or outside the patient’s room during his flat EEG, are usually ignored by this theory. If they are not, they should be seen as mental activities which can be “embodied” in unusually low-levelled brain activity.

The problem with this theory is that there is (by definition) absolutely no evidence for it. Theorists seem to be quite content with pointing at unsuitable analogies such as certain types of sleep EEG, but no acceptable close empirical parallels have been presented so far. For instance, during most vivid dreams there is rapid eye movement (REM). As Pim van Lommel points out, if we accept NDEs as real experiences during flat EEG, we also have to accept that patients experience normal, full-blown and even heightened conscious mental activity in them. If critics want to explain this away by a still unknown type of residual neural activity, they have to present parallels which involve normal (lucid) or heightened conscious mental activity and which can at the same time be satisfactorily explained by known residual neural activity. Otherwise, we must conclude that the theory is based on nothing more than unfounded speculation! It is not forbidden to look for immunisations of a cherished, well-founded theory against apparently falsifying results, but such immunizations should of course be plausible and based on acceptable data. As far as I know, there is no serious evidence for the residual cerebral activity-theory as a counter theory for survival. That is precisely the reason that Pim van Lommel (personal communication) simply rejects it as having no scientific basis.

 

 

Bibliography

- Abdalla, M. (2002). Cardioloog Pim van Lommel haalt bijna-dood ervaringen uit het donker. Paravisie, 17, 13-27.
- Bender, H. (1983). Zukunftsvisionen, Kriegsprophezeiungen, Sterbeerlebnisse. Munich: R. Piper Verlag.
- French, C.C. (2001). Dying to know the truth: visions of a dying brain, or false memories? The Lancet, 358, 9298, 2010.
- Lommel, P. van, Wees, R. van, Meyers, V., & Elfferich, I. (2001). Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands. The Lancet, 358, 9298, 2039-2044. Website of Dutch Society Merkawah
- Parnia, S., Waller, D.G., Yeates, R., & Fenwick, P. (2001). A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors. Resuscitation, 48, 149-156. Also see their website
- Ring, K. (1998). Lessons from the Light: what we can learn from the Near-Death Experience. New York: Insight Books.
- Rivas, T. (2000). Herinneringen aan een periode tussen twee levens. Prana, 120, 33-38.
 

The important case of Pam Reynolds
Do any Near-Death Experiences provide evidence for the survival of human personality after death?.
Medical support for NDE
Critique of Susan Blackmore's Dying Brain Hypothesis by Greg Stone
Consciousness during Clinical Death and after Brain Death
Parapsychologie en leven na de dood
Merkawah
IANDS
Bert van Schuijlenburg
Bijnadoodervaring.nl
Veridical Perception During NDEs