Sunday, August 15, 2010

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES

Scientific Evidence for Survival
Of consciousness after death
Dr. Ken Ring published a paper in the Journal of Near-Death Studies (Summer, 1993) concerning near-death experiencers who, while out of their bodies, witness real events that occur far away from their dead body. The important aspect to this phenomenon is that these events seen far away are later verified to be true. Experiencers not only witness events from great distances, but they have been documented to hear conversations between people at the same events. Conversations such as these have also verified to be true. An even more fascinating phenomenon occurs when the experiencer actually appears in spirit to someone, usually a loved one, during their NDE and it is verified to be true by the experiencer and the loved one. It is evidence such as this, if scientifically controlled, that can provide absolute scientific proof that consciousness can exist outside of the body. A scientifically controlled NDE that can be repeated which provides such evidence would be thescientific discovery of all time. However, science does not yet have the exact tools to accomplish this. But, science is coming very, very close. This kind of evidence and others provide very strong circumstantial evidence for the survival of consciousness.
Evidence for Survival After Death Index
(1)People have NDEs while they are brain dead.
(2)Out-of-body perception during NDEs have been verified.
(3)People born blind can see during an NDE.
(4)NDEs demonstrate the return of consciousness from death.
(5)The NDE study by Raymond Moody has been replicated.
(6)Experimental evidence suggests that NDEs are real.
(7)NDEs can be considered to be an objective experience.
(8)NDEs have been validated in scientific studies.
(9)Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have been validated in scientific studies.
(10)Autoscopy during NDEs have been validated in scientific studies.
(11)A transcendental "sixth sense" of the human mind has been found.
(12)NDEs support the "holonomic" theory of consciousness.
(13)The expansion of consciousness reported in NDEs supports consciousness theories.
(14)The brain's connection to a greater power has been validated by indisputable scientific facts.
(15)The replication of NDEs using hallucinogenic drugs satisfies the scientific method.
(16)NDEs are different from hallucinations.
(17)The replication of NDEs using a variety of triggers satisfies the scientific method.
(18)Apparitions of the deceased have been induced under scientific controls.
(19)People having NDEs have brought back scientific discoveries.
(20)NDEs have advanced the field of medical science.
(21)NDEs have advanced the field of psychology.
(22)NDEs correspond to the "quirky" principles found in quantum physics.
(23)The transcendental nature of human consciousness during NDEs corresponds to principles found in quantum physics.
(24)NDEs have advanced the fields of philosophy and religion.
(25)NDEs have the nature of an archetypal initiatory journey.
(26)People have been clinically dead for several days and report the most profound NDEs.
(27)NDEs have produced visions of the future which later prove to be true.
(28)Groups of dying people can share the same NDE.
(29)Experiencers are convinced the NDE is an afterlife experience.
(30)The NDEs of children are remarkably similar to adult NDEs.
(31)Experiencers of NDEs are profoundly changed in ways that cannot occur from hallucinations and dreams.
(32)NDEs cannot be explained merely by brain chemistry alone.
(33)NDEs have been reported by people since the dawn of recorded history.
(34)The skeptical "dying brain" theory of NDEs has serious flaws.
(35)Skeptical arguments against the NDE "survival theory" are not valid.
(36)The burden of proof has shifted to the skeptics of the survival theory.
(37)Other anomalous phenomena supports the survival theory.
(38)NDEs support the existence of reincarnation.
(39)The scientific evidence supporting reincarnation also supports the survival theory.
(40)Xenoglossy supports reincarnation and the survival theory.
(41)Past-life regression supports reincarnation and the survival theory.
(42)Contact with "the deceased" has occurred under scientific controls.
(43)After-death communications have been reported by credible people.
(44)Dream research supports the NDE and survival theory.
(45)Deathbed visions support the NDE and survival theory.
(46)Remote viewing supports the NDE and survival theory.
(47)The efficacy of prayer has been demonstrated under scientific controls.
(48)The "Scole Experiments" during the 1990s support the NDE and survival theory.
(49)Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) supports the NDE and survival theory.
(50)Prominent atheists have had NDEs which caused them to believe in the afterlife.
(51)Psychometry supports the NDE and survival theory.

(1)  NDEs occur while patients are brain dead.

Cardiologist Michael Sabom described a near-death experience that occurred while its experiencer - a woman who was having an unusual surgical procedure for the safe excision and repair of a large basilar artery aneurysm - met all of the accepted criteria for brain death. The unusual medical procedure involved the induction of hypothermic cardiac arrest, in order to insure that the aneurysm at the base of the brain would not rupture during the operation. The patient's body temperature was lowered to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, her heartbeat and breathing ceased, her brain waves flattened, and the blood was completely drained from her head. Her electroencephalogram was totally flat (indicating no cerebral electrical activity) and auditory evoked potentials (normally elicited by clicks presented through molded earplugs that had been inserted into her ears) ceased (indicating cessation of brainstem functioning). Ordinarily - at regular body temperature - the brain cannot function without its oxygen supply for more than a few minutes. Lowering the body and brain temperature to 60 degrees F. - by chilling the blood in a bypass machine before returning it to the body and brain - however, can reduce cellular metabolism so that the brain can tolerate complete cerebral blood flow for the 45 minutes or so required for the brain operation. The patient later reported that, apparently while under these “brain death” conditions, she had a near-death experience (NDE) in which she was able to observe and hear details of objects and happenings in the operating room with accuracy. She also experienced classic components of the NDE, including a tunnel vortex, a bright light, and different figures in the light (many deceased family members, including a distant cousin of whose death she had been unaware).
Sources:
(a)"People Have NDEs While Brain Dead"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence01.html
 
(b)
Sabom, M. (1998). Light and Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310219922
 
(c)
Greyson, B. (2000). Near-Death Experiences. In E. Cardena, S. J. Lynn, & S. Krippner (Eds.), Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Rvidence (pp. 315-352). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1557986258/

(2)  Out-of-body perception during NDEs have been verified.

Dr. Bruce Greyson documented perhaps one of the most compelling examples of a person who had a NDE and observed events while outside of his body which were later verified by others. The only way that these events could have been observed by the experiencer was if in fact he was outside of his body. Al Sullivan was a 55 year old truck driver who was undergoing triple by-pass surgery when he had a powerful NDE that included an encounter with his deceased mother and brother-in-law, who told Al to go back to his to tell one of his neighbors that their son with lymphoma will be OK. Furthermore, during the NDE, Al accurately noticed that the surgeon operating on him was flapping his arms in an unusual fashion, with his hands in his armpits. When he came back to his body after the surgery was over, the surgeon was startled that Al could describe his own arm flapping, which was his idiosyncratic method of keeping his hands sterile.

Addressing the frequent rejoinder that such events can be accounted for as hallucinations, Dr. Greyson notes that if NDEs are hallucinations, then how is it that such incredibly accurate and verifiable information is resulting from the NDEs? People on drugs who have NDEs see fewer deceased relatives when they travel out of body. This suggests that people who do see relatives are clear-minded, not hallucinating. In some cases of children, they see dead relatives whom they had never met or seen pictures of. This begs the following question: How could they hallucinate accurately the visual images of someone they have never met? When assessing the surmounting data as a whole, Greyson said that the survival hypothesis is the most parsimonious explanation for the growing database of NDEs.

The author Maggie Callanan in her 1993 book, Final Gifts, wrote about an elderly Chinese woman who had an NDE in which she saw her deceased husband and her sister. She was puzzled since her sister wasn't dead, or so she thought. In actuality, her family had hid her sister's recent death from her for fear of upsetting her already fragile health.

On Dec. 9, 2001, Ananova News reported: "Study Proves the Soul Exists" concerning the NDE study by Dr. Pim van Lommel published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet providing verified evidence of out-of-body perception. Then on Jan. 8, 2002, ABC News reported "Brushes With Death: Scientists Validate Near-Death Experiences" about the same study. Dr. Michael Sabom, an Atlanta cardiologist, found that 43% of cardiac arrest patients had NDEs. Patients with long complicated resuscitations were more likely to have NDEs. He also found that patients who had NDEs frequently could accurately describe their own resuscitation in detail. In contrast, control group of patients who had cardiac arrests but no NDEs could not describe their own resuscitation with any accuracy.
Sources:
(a)"People See Verified Events While Out-Of-Body"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence02.html
 
(b)"Brushes With Death: Scientists Validate Near-Death Experiences", ABC News
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/22.html
 
(c)"Study Proves the Soul Exists", Ananova News
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/religion/001_pages/03.html
 
(d)"Survival of Bodily Death", Bruce Greyson
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/80.html
 
(e)
"Near-Death Studies: An Overview," by Kenneth Ring, Chapter 1, pg 10, published in "The Near-Death Experience, Problems, Prospects, Perspectives," Eds. Bruce Greyson, M.D., Charles P. Flynn, Ph.D., Charles C. Thomas, Publisher, Springfield, III. (1984).
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0398050082

(3)  People born blind can see during an NDE.

Dr. Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper completed a two-year study into the NDEs of the blind. They published their findings in a book entitled "Mindsight" in which they documented the solid evidence of 31 cases in which blind people report visually accurate information obtained during an NDE. Perhaps the best example in his study is that of a forty-five year old blind woman by the name of Vicki Umipeg. Vicki was born blind, her optic nerve having been completely destroyed at birth because of an excess of oxygen she received in the incubator. Yet, she appears to have been able to see during her NDE. Her story is a particularly clear instance of how NDEs of the congenitally blind can unfold in precisely the same way as do those of sighted persons.
Sources:
(a)"People Born Blind Can See During a NDE", Dr. Kenneth Ring's NDE Research of the Blind
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence03.html
 
(b)
Ring, K., & Cooper, S. (1999) Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind. Palo Alto: William James Centre for the Study of Consciousness.
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966963008

(4)  NDEs demonstrate the return of consciousness from death.

An anecdotal example of evidence that a person's consciousness leaves and returns to their body during an NDE comes from the research of Dr. Melvin Morse. Olga Gearhardt was a 63 year old woman who underwent a heart transplant because of a severe virus that attacked her heart tissue. Her entire family awaited at the hospital during the surgery, except for her son-in-law, who stayed home. The transplant was a success, but at exactly 2:15 am, her new heart stopped beating. It took the frantic transplant team three more hours to revive her. Her family was only told in the morning that her operation was a success, without other details. When they called her son-in-law with the good news, he had his own news to tell. He had already learned about the successful surgery. At exactly 2:15 am, while he was sleeping, he awoke to see his Olga, his mother-in-law, at the foot of his bed. She told him not to worry, that she was going to be alright. She asked him to tell her daughter (his wife). He wrote down the message, and the time of day and then fell asleep. Later on at the hospital, Olga regained consciousness. Her first words were "did you get the message?" She was able to confirm that she left her body during her near-death experience and was able to travel to her son-in-law to communicate to him the message. This anecdotal evidence demonstrates that the near-death experience is a return to consciousness at the point of death, when the brain is dying. Dr. Melvin Morse thoroughly researched Olga's testimony and every detail had objective verification including the scribbled note by the son-in-law. Such testimonies have been similarly well-documented for hundreds of years. Fredrick Meyers' classic text entitled "Human Personality and Its Survival After Death" meticulously documents hundreds of these kinds of stories.
Sources:
(a)
Morse, M. with Paul Perry, Parting Visions. New York: Villard Books, 1994.
(44-A is on pages 23-24 and 44-B is on page 24.)
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061009792
 
(b)
Myers, F. Human Personality and Its Survival After Death, Longmans, Green and Co. 1917.
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1571742387
 
(c)Victor Zammit's Book Chapter 14: Irrefutable proof -- Cross Correspondences
 http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter14.html

(5)  The NDE study by Raymond Moody has been replicated.

In 1975, Dr. Raymond Moody published a book entitled "Life After Life" which described his findings from his study on near-death experiences. Moody's book became a bestseller and focused public attention on the NDE like never before. Moody recorded and compared the experiences of 150 persons who died, or almost died, and then recovered. Moody outlined nine elements that generally occur during NDEs: (1) hearing strange sounds, (2) feelings of peace, (3) feelings of painlessness, (4) out-of-body experiences, (5) experiencing a tunnel, (6) rising rapidly into the heavens, (7) seeing beings of light, (8) experiencing a life review, (9) a reluctance to return to the body.

Dr. Ken Ring's replicated this NDE study by Dr. Raymond Moody. Ring's research conclusions include:
(1)Dr. Moody's research findings are confirmed.
(2)
NDEs happen to people of all races, genders, ages, education, marital status, and social class.
(3)Religious orientation is not a factor.
(4)People are convinced of the reality of their NDE experience.
(5)Drugs do not appear to be a factor.
(6)NDEs are not hallucinations.
(7)NDEs often involve unparalleled feelings.
(8)People lose their fear of death and appreciate life more after having an NDE.
(9)People's lives are transformed after having an NDE.
Sources:
(a)Dr. Kenneth Ring's NDE Expert Page
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts04.html
 
(b)Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions: "The NDE and Science":
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(6)  Experimental evidence suggests that NDEs are real.

Science demands verifiable evidence which can be reproduced again and again under experimental situations. Dr. Jim Whinnery, of the National Warfare Institute, thought he was simply studying the effects of G forces on fighter pilots. He had no idea he would revolutionize the field of consciousness studies by providing experimental proof that NDEs are real. The pilots were placed in huge centrifuges and spun at tremendous speeds. After they lost consciousness, after they went into seizures, after they lost all muscle tone, when the blood stopped flowing in their brains, only then would they suddenly have a return to conscious awareness. They had "dreamlets" as Dr. Whinnery calls them. These dreamlets are similar to near-death experiences and they often involved a sense of separation from the physical body. A typical dreamlet involved a pilot leaving his physical body and traveling to a sandy beach, where he looked directly up at the sun. The pilots would remark that death is very pleasant.
Sources:
(a)"The Trigger of Gravity: Dr. James Winnery's NDE Research"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/triggers06.html
 
(b)"Loss of Consciousness and Near-Death Experiences" by James E. Whinnery
 http://www.nidsci.org/articles/whinnery/whinnery_nde.html

(7)  NDEs can be considered to be an objective experience.

Carl Becker, Ph.D. received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii in 1981. He has researched NDEs in Japanese hospitals and literature for 30 years. Dr. Becker has published numerous books on bioethics, death and dying, and NDEs in both Japan and the United States. Currently, Dr. Becker is a Professor of Bioethics and Comparative Religion at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. Carl Becker examined four ways in which NDEs may be considered objective:
(1)Paranormal knowledge that is later verified
(2)The similarity of deathbed events in different cultures
(3)Differences between religious expectations and visionary experiences
(4)
Third-party observations of visionary figures, indicating that they were not merely subjective hallucinations (Becker, 1984).
Sources:
(a)"Paranormal Experience and Survival of Death" by Carl B. Becker.
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0791414760/
 
(b)Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions: "The NDE and Science"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(8)  NDEs have been validated in scientific studies.

On Oct. 23, 2000, The BBC reported: "Evidence of Life After Death" about a study in the UK conducted by Dr. Sam Parnia and others at the University of Southampton which provided scientific evidence suggesting the survival of consciousness after clinical and brain death. Then on June 29, 2001, ABC News reported: "Study Suggests Life After Death: Brains of Dead Heart Attack Patients Still Function" concerning the same study. These findings support other NDE evidence suggestive of life after death.
Sources:
(a)"Evidence of Life After Death," BBC News
 http://home.comcast.net/~neardeath/nde/001_pages/07.html
 
(b)"University of Southampton Research"
 http://www.mikepettigrew.com/afterlife/html/u_k__study.html
 
(c)"Study Suggests Life After Death: Brains of Dead Heart Attack Patients Still Function"
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/news/020629.html
 
(d)"Scientists Validate Near-Death Experiences"
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/52.html

(9)  Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have been validated in scientific studies.

In 1968, a paper by Dr. Charles Tart was published entitled "Psychophysiological Study of Out of the Body Experiences in a Selected Subject" concerning a woman who successfully read a 5-digit number while having had an out-of-body experience. This is verifiable evidence of out-of-body perception and supports veridical perception in NDEs.
Sources:
(a)"Autoscopic Evidence: Dr. Charles Tart's Out-of-Body Experience Research"
 http://www.near-death.com/tart.html
 
(b)"Psychophysiological Study of Out-of-the-Body Experiences in a Selected Subject"
 http://www.paradigm-sys.com/display/ctt_articles2.cfm?ID=31
 
(c)"Mind Over Body: Neurologist Finds Way to Trigger Out-of-Body Experiences"
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/68.html
 
(d)"The Seat of Soaring Consciousness: Brain Region Linked to Out-of-Body Experience"
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/85.html
 
(e)"The NDE and Out-of-Body: Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research11.html

(10)  Autoscopy during NDEs have been validated in scientific studies.

Pim van Lommel led a study concerning the NDEs of research subjects who had cardiac arrest. The findings of the study suggests that research subjects can experience consciousness, with self-identity, cognitive function and memories, including the possibility of perception outside their body (autoscopy), during a flat EEG. Those research subjects who had NDEs report that their NDE was a bonafide preview of the afterlife.
Sources:
(a)
van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers, Elfferich (2001). Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands. Lancet.
 http://profezie3m.altervista.org/archivio/TheLancet_NDE.htm
 
(b)"About the Continuity of Our Consciousness" by Pim von Lommel
 http://iands.org/research/vanLommel/vanLommel.php
 
(c)"Science and Spirituality: A Challenge for the 21st Century" by Peter Fenwick
 http://www.iands.org/research/fenwick.php

(11)  A transcendental "sixth sense" of the human mind has been found.

On September 11, 2003, new research by the Institute of Psychiatry caused British scientists to announce that there is convincing evidence that people are capable of paranormal feats, such as premonitions, telepathy, and out-of-body experiences. The British Association for the Advancement of Science was told an increasing number of experiments support the theory of a human "sixth sense" - an ability which may have its roots in our past, when the ability to sense the presence of a predator was a matter of life or death. The view that people are capable of paranormal feats, such as premonitions, telepathy, and out-of-body experiences, is supported by new research by the Institute of Psychiatry, which suggests the human mind may exist outside the body like an invisible magnetic field. The research is being led by Dr. Peter Fenwick, a neuro-psychiatrist at London University, who has just completed a survey of heart patients claiming to have had "near-death experiences" after their hearts had stopped beating.
Sources:
(a)"Study Into Near-Death Experiences Supports Theory of a Sixth Sense"
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/paranormal/001_pages/005.html
 
(b)"Soul-Searching Doctors Find Life After Death"
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/06.html

(12)  NDEs support the "holonomic" theory of consciousness.

One particular theory of consciousness which is supported by NDE research involves the concept of consciousness expansion after death. Stanislav Grof, a leading consciousness researcher, explaind this theory in the documentary entitled "Life After Death" by Tom Harpur: "My first idea was that it [consciousness] has to be hard-wired in the brain. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how something like that is possible. Today, I came to the conclusion that it is not coming from the brain. In that sense, it supports what Aldous Huxley believed after he had some powerful psychedelic experiences and was trying to link them to the brain. He came to the conclusion that maybe the brain acts as a kind of reducing valve that actually protects us from too much cosmic input ... I don't think you can locate the source of consciousness. I am quite sure it is not in the brain – not inside of the skull ... It actually, according to my experience, would lie beyond time and space, so it is not localizable. You actually come to the source of consciousness when you dissolve any categories that imply separation, individuality, time, space and so on. You just experience it as a presence."
Sources:
(a)
Harpur, T. (1998) "Life After Death: Reincarnation / The Testimony of Science" (video), Sleeping Giant Productions, Wellspring Media.
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000007QTQ
 
(b)
Wikipedia Encyclopedia on "Transpersonal Psychology.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transpersonal_psychology
 
(c)Association for Transpersonal Psychology
 http://www.atpweb.org/

(13)  The expansion of consciousness reported in NDEs supports consciousness theories.

The following NDE descriptions of consciousness expansion supports the theory of consciousness described above by Stanislav Grof. It theorizes that the brain acts as a reducing valve of cosmic input to produce consciousness. At death, this reducing-valve function ceases and consciousness is then free to expand. The following NDEs support this:
(1)
"I realized that, as the stream was expanding, my own consciousness was also expanding to take in everything in the Universe!" (Mellen-Thomas Benedict)
 
(2)
"My mind felt like a sponge, growing and expanding in size with each addition ... I could feel my mind expanding and absorbing and each new piece of information somehow seemed to belong." (Virginia Rivers)
 
(3)
"In your life review you'll be the universe." (Thomas Sawyer)
 
(4)
"This white light began to infiltrate my consciousness. It came into me. It seemed I went out into it. I expanded into it as it came into my field of consciousness." (Jayne Smith)
 
(5)
"My presence fills the room. And now I feel my presence in every room in the hospital. Even the tiniest space in the hospital is filled with this presence that is me. I sense myself beyond the hospital, above the city, even encompassing Earth. I am melting into the universe. I am everywhere at once." (Josiane Antonette)
 
(6)
I felt myself expanding and expanding until I thought, "I'm going to burst!" The moment I thought, "I'm going to burst!", I suddenly found myself alone, back where this being had met me, and he had gone. (Margaret Tweddell)
 
(7)
Susan had an out-of-body experience where she left her body and grew very big, as big as a planet at first, and then she filled the solar system and finally she became as large as the universe. (Susan Blackmore)
 

(14)  The brain's connection to a greater power has been validated by indisputable scientific facts.

Dr. Melvin Morse is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington. He has studied near-death experiences in children for over 15 years and is the author of several outstanding books on the subjectDr. Morse argues that the study of NDEs provides a starting point for understanding the mysterious link between our brains and the universe. Though sound scientific studies have already identified the existence of "the God Spot" - the right temporal lobe of the brain - Morse takes this concept several steps further. Building on the controversial theory that memory may actually be stored outside the brain, he suggests that the right temporal lobe acts not as a "computer" for our individual minds, but as a transmitter and receiver of the universal mind - and that we can actually learn to stimulate this part of our brains in a number of ways besides near-death or active dying. Dr. Morse claims the following scientific facts validate the brain's connection to a higher power:
(1)
Memories can exist outside of the brain (Holonomic Brain Theory).
(2)
Scientific evidence exists supporting reincarnation (Dr. Ian Stevenson's research).
(3)
Anecdotal evidence supports the theory that people exist after death in some form of energy (NDE of Pam Reynolds).
(4)
People can exhibit supernatural powers (Joseph McMonagle and Remote Viewing).
(5)
Right temporal lobe activity verifies the reality of the brain's connection to a higher power (The Right Temporal Lobe and Associated Limbic Lobe Structures as the Biological Interface with an Interconnected Universe).
(6)
The mind/brain can be induced to have paranormal experiences (Trigger of Brain Stimulation).
(7)
Consciousness research is able to support the reality of an unseen power (Dr. Gary Schwartz HBO Study and Dr. Dean Radin and the Global Consciousness Project).
Sources:
(a)
"Where God Lives: The Science of the Paranormal and How Our Brains are Linked to the Universe" by Melvin Morse, Paul Perry
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060175044
 
(b)"The NDE and Science: Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(15)  The replication of NDEs using hallucinogenic drugs satisfies the scientific method.

Dr. Karl Jansen is a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is the world's leading expert on ketamine. He has studied ketamine at every level. While earning his doctorate in clinical pharmacology at the University of Oxford, he photographed the receptors to which ketamine binds in the human brain. He has published papers on his discovery of the similarities between ketamine's psychoactive effects and the near-death experience during his study of medicine in New Zealand. Because there exists a biological basis for NDEs and a method to replicate NDEs, this satisfies the scientific criteria for being a real, scientific phenomenon. Dr. Karl Jansen's ketamine research findings include:
Sources:
(a)
Jansen Karl. Ketamine: Dreams and Realities. (2001) Sarasota, Florida; Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0966001974
 
(b)Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions: "The NDE and Science"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(16)  NDEs are different from hallucinations.

NDEs are not a denial of reality, as is often seen in drug or oxygen deprivation induced hallucinations. There are not the distortions of time, place, body image and disorientations seen in drug induced experiences. They instead typically involve the perception of another reality superimposed over this one. For example, one young boy told Dr. Melvin Morse that the "god took me in his hands and kept me safe" while medics were frantically trying to revived his body after a near drowning. He said and understood everything that happened to him, but simply perceived something we usually don't perceive at other times in our lives. German psychiatrist Michael Schroeter-Kunhardt in his extensive review of all published near death research states there is no reason to believe that NDEs are the result of psychiatric pathology or brain dysfunction.
Sources:
(a)Dr. Melvin Morse's NDE Expert Page
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts06.html
 
(b)"Are NDEs Hallucinations?"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/lsd04.html
 
(c)
Schroeter-Kunhardt M. A review of near death experiences. J Soc Sci Exp 1993;7:219-39.
 http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/abstracts/v7n3a1.php

(17)  The replication of NDEs using a variety of triggers satisfies the scientific method.

In 2002, Neurologist Professor Olaf Blanke and colleagues at Geneva University Hospital in Switzerland were using electrodes to stimulate the brain of a female patient suffering from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. They found that stimulating one spot - the "God spot" - the angular gyrus in the right cortex - repeatedly caused out-of-body experiences. The doctors did not set out to achieve this out-of-body effect - they were simply treating the women for epilepsy. Apparently the increased electrical activity in the brain resulting from seizure activity (abnormal electrical activity in the brain), makes sufferers more susceptible to having near-death experiences. The doctors believe the angular gyrus plays an important role in matching up visual information and the brain's touch and balance representation of the body. When the two become dissociated, an out-body-experience may result. Writing in the journal Nature, the Swiss team said out-of-body experiences tended to be short-lived, and to disappear when a person attempts to inspect parts of their body (autoscopy). Professor Blanke told BBC News Online that "OBEs have been reported in neurological patients with epilepsy, migraine and after cerebral strokes, but they also appear in healthy subjects. Awareness of a biological basis of OBEs might allow some patients who suffer frequently from OBEs to talk about them more openly. In addition, physicians might take the phenomenon more seriously and carry out necessary investigations such as an EEG, MRI, and neurological examinations."
Sources:
(a)"Doctors Create Out-of-Body Sensations," BBC News
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/29.html
 
(b)"Electrodes Trigger Out-of-Body Experience," Nature News Service
 http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/31.html
 
(c)Triggers of Near-Death Experiences: How NDEs Can Be Induced"
 http://www.near-death.com/triggers.html

(18)  Apparitions of the deceased have been induced under scientific controls.

Dr. Raymond Moody, who became famous for his pioneering studies of NDEs, has been working on ways of inducing facilitated apparitions in a controlled setting. He took as his model classic works from ancient Greece which suggested that when people wished to contact a deceased loved one they consulted with an 'oracle' at a psychomanteum. A psychomanteum is a specially built laboratory using mirrors to help facilitate the psychic process. Part of the actual psychic process includes the sending of telepathic messages, sending vibrations - to the selected recipient in the afterlife. Moody has reconstructed the process with astonishing results — 85% of his clients who go through a full day of preparation do make contact with a deceased loved one — but not necessarily the one that they are seeking to meet. In most cases this occurs in his specially build psychomanteum but in 25% of cases it happens later in their own homes — the client wakes up and sees the apparition at the foot of the bed (Moody 1993:97). According to Dianne Arcangel, an associate of Dr. Moody, in some cases when contact is made with intelligences from the afterlife information is transmitted to reveal something that the person seeking contact does not know (1997). Moody gives full instructions on how to create your own psychomanteum in his book Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones and on his Psychomanteum page.
Sources:
(a)
Moody, R.A., and Perry, P. (1993). Reunions: Visionary encounters with departed loved ones. New York, NY: Villard.
 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679425705
 
(b)Victor Zammit's A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife
 http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter19.html

(19)  People having NDEs have brought back scientific discoveries.

One example of this phenomenon is documented in Tom Harpur's documentary, Life After Death. Harpur interviews a doctor whose name is Dr. Yvonne Kason who was almost killed in a plane crash into a lake which resulted in a NDE. After she recovered, she began to have strange visions in her mind that she couldn't explain. One of these visions concerned a friend of hers. When Dr. Kason thought of her friend, she would see a vision in her mind of a "brain covered with pus." Dr. Kason knew that this was an excellent symbolic vision referring to the deadly disease meningitis. The problem was that her friend was perfectly healthy at the time, exhibited absolutely no signs of meningitis, and there was no reason to suspect she had it. Dr. Kason begged her friend to get tested for meningitis anyway. After an amount of reluctance, her friend got tested. Surprisingly, the test was positive for meningitis. As a result of Dr. Kason's NDE, her friend was able to get treated for meningitis at its early stage before it had time to become deadly. Dr. Kason continues to have such visions. She now realizes that, as a result of her NDE, that is now psychic. Her story affirms that useful things are indeed brought back from NDEs. There are many other examples of the NDE providing scientific discoveries.
Sources:
(a)"Scientific Discoveries Are Brought Back"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence07.html
 
(b)Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions: "The NDE and Science"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html
 

(20)  NDEs have advanced the field of medical science.

One of the best examples of bringing back scientific discoveries resulting from an NDE is a wonderful man by the name ofMellen-Thomas Benedict. After his NDE, Mellen-Thomas Benedict brought back a great deal of scientific information concerningbiophotonicscellular communicationquantum biology, and DNA research. Mellen-Thomas Benedict currently holds eight U.S. patents and is always working on more. In an interview with Guy Spiro of lightworks.com, Mellen-Thomas discusses this phenomenon:
"One of the things I did that got me a lot of attention was working with the University of Texas. I was brought in with Dr. Ken Ring and not told what it was going to be or any details whatsoever and I didn’t know anything until we entered the room. By the way, this was videotaped and recorded. At that time, I could do almost a self hypnosis and get to the light.

"So, the University of Texas sat me down and they said, 'Today, we are going to be working on something call CNT.' That was all the information that they gave me, that it was a medical problem, and then I did my technique. In those days, the only tools that I brought with me were a big pad of paper and large Crayola crayons. I could sit there, go to the light and still speak to you and draw pictures while seeing.

"With this experiment, I went to the light and asked 'What information can we bring back?' I almost immediately started drawing and I drew something that to me looked like two horse shoes. A big horse shoe facing down on the bottom and a smaller horse shoe facing up on top. I said, 'The answer is in this upper horse shoe and it’s these three segments.' I numbered them exactly and I said, 'That’s where the problem is and the real problem is in this third piecing which is this thing.' I was pointing out a gene, but I didn’t know any of that. And then I drew picture and I said, 'There are two heads on it and one head is normal and the one that isn’t right is overriding the head that is. If we can figure out a way to cleave that head off, I think we can cure this.'

"It turns out that I was exactly right. I helped decode a genetic disease and the information was very accurate. Everybody thanked me and I went away. Then about three months later, I started getting letters and calls saying, 'My God, you hit it right on the head! This is astounding. There is no way you could have had this information in advance.' I did a fair number of projects like that and a fair number of think tanks, all of which you have to sign nondisclosures and promise to never talk about. I worked in a lot of think tanks with some very impressive world class scientists over the next ten years until I retired from all that in 1995."
Sources:
(a)Mellen-Thomas Benedict's Near-Death Experience
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html  also  http://mellen-thomas.com
 
(b)A Conversation With Mellen-Thomas Benedict by Guy Spiro
 http://www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/2007/November/conversation_Benedict.html
 
(c)Kevin Williams's Research Conclusions: "The NDE and Science"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(21)  NDEs have advanced the field of psychology.

In a hospital in Switzerland in 1944, the world-renowned psychiatrist Carl G. Jung, had a heart attack and then a near-death experience. His vivid encounter with the light, plus the intensely meaningful insights led Jung to conclude that his experience came from something real and eternal. Jung's experience is unique in that he saw the Earth from a vantage point of about a thousand miles above it. His incredibly accurate view of the Earth from outer space was described about two decades before astronauts in space first described it. Subsequently, as he reflected on life after death, Jung recalled the meditating Hindu from his near-death experience and read it as a parable of the archetypal Higher Self, the God-image within. Carl Jung, who founded analytical psychology, centered on the archetypes of the collective unconscious.
Sources:
(a)"The Father of Analytical Psychology: Carl Jung's Near-Death Experience"
 http://www.near-death.com/jung.html

(22)  NDEs correspond to the "quirky" principles found in quantum physics.

Sources:
(a)God at the Speed of Light: T. Lee Baumann's NDE and Physics Research
 http://www.near-death.com/physics.html
 
(b)"How the New Physics is Validating NDE Concepts" by C.D. Rollins
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/articles004.html
 
(c)"The Quantum Mind of the NDE"
 http://www.near-death.com/quantum.html
 
(d)Kevin Williams's Research Conclusions: "The NDE and Science"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(23)  The transcendental nature of human consciousness during NDEs corresponds to principles found in quantum physics.

New developments in quantum physics shows that we cannot know phenomena apart from the observer. Arlice Davenport challenges the hallucination theory of NDEs as outmoded because the field theories of physics now suggest new paradigm options available to explain NDEs. Mark Woodhouse argues that the traditional materialism/dualism battle over NDEs may be solved by Einstein. Since matter is now seen as a form of energy, an energy body alternative to the material body could explain the NDE. This is supported by Melvin Morse who describes how NDEs are able to realign the charges in the electromagnetic field of the human body so that somehow the brain's wiring is renewed. He reports on patients who have NDEs and who recover from such diseases as pneumonia, cardiac arrest, and cancer (1992, 153-54). Perhaps the brain is like a kind of receiver (such as a television, radio, or cell phone). What is received (i.e., signals, music, voice) is not produced by the receiver, but exists separately as electromagnetic waves that are processed by the receiver to make them visible or audible to the senses.
Sources:
(a)
"The Quantum Mind of the NDE: How Physics Explains Transcendental Consciousness"
 http://www.near-death.com/quantum.html
 
(b)
"Language, Energy & Consciousness: Can Energy Talk Enlighten Us About the Mind?" by Christian de Quincey
 http://www.deepspirit.com/sys-tmpl/languageenergyconsciousness/
 
(c)"A Critique of Susan Blackmore's Dying Brain Hypothesis," by Greg Stone
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/articles001.html
 
(d)"Energy Monism: A Solution to the Mind-Problem that Connects Science and Spirituality" by Dr. Mark B. Woodhouse
 http://www.scimednet.org/library/articles/9711301510.htm
 

(24)  NDEs have advanced the fields of philosophy and religion.

The famed Greek philosopher, Plato, described in his legendary work entitled Republic, the NDE account of a soldier named Er. Plato integrated at least three elements of this NDE into his philosophy: (1)  The departure of the soul from the cave of shadows to see the light of truth, (2) The flight of the soul to a vision of pure celestial being, (3) Its subsequent recollection of the vision of light, which is the very purpose of philosophy.

The man responsible for making Christianity a world religion, the Apostle Paul, described his own NDE as follows: "I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know - God knows. And I know that this person - whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows - was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that people are not permitted to tell. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). In this letter, Paul based his authority as an Apostle on this NDE. Some or all of his revelations of Jesus certainly came from this NDE. The inspiration of much of the New Testament can be attributed in some way to Paul's NDE.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, whose actual title is "The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State" or "Bardo Thodol", has striking parallels with the NDEs of people who have died, experienced themselves floating out of their bodies, having what appears to be real afterlife events, and then being revived. It is traditionally believed to be the work of the legendary Padma Sambhava in the 8th century A.D. The book acts as a guide for the dead during the state that intervenes death and the next rebirth. He is considered to be one of the first persons to bring Buddhism to Tibet. The Bardo Thodol is a guide that is read aloud to the dead while they are in the state between death and reincarnation in order for them to recognize the nature of their mind and attain liberation from the cycle of rebirth. The Bardo Thodol teaches that once awareness is freed from the body, it creates its own reality as one would experience in a dream. This dream occurs in various phases (bardos) in ways both wonderful and terrifying. Overwhelming peaceful and wrathful visions and deities appear. Since the deceased's awareness is in confusion of no longer being connected to a physical body, it needs help and guidance in order that enlightenment and liberation occurs. The Bardo Thodol teaches how we can attain Nirvana by recognizing the heavenly realms instead of entering into the lower realms where the cycle of birth and rebirth continue.
Sources:
(a)NDEs Have Been Reported Since Ancient Times: Plato's Testimony of a Soldier Named Er and His NDE
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence12.html
 
(b)Christian NDEs and Reincarnation: Testimonials of Those Who Have Seen Jesus
 http://www.near-death.com/origen.html
 
(c)The Tibetan Book of the Dead
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/buddhism01.html

(25)  NDEs have the nature of an archetypal initiatory journey.

Dr. Ken Ring stated that NDEs can be viewed psychologically as archetypal initiatory journeys involving a death of one's old ego and a rebirth of a new self. An adequate interpretation must incorporate the spiritual realm of kundalini experiences, theimaginal realm, and the mind at large. As Ring envisions in an essay in this book, this paradigm can deconstruct ourtraditional Western worldview. It may lead to a dramatic next step in the evolution of a more ecological and more compassionate consciousness.
Sources:
(a)"Near-Death and UFO Encounters as Shamanic Initiations Some Conceptual and Evolutionary Implications" by Dr. Kenneth Ring
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/articles011.html
 
(b)Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions: "The NDE and Science"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(26)  People have been clinically dead for several days and report the most profound NDEs.

Rev. George Rodonaia underwent one of the most extended cases of a near-death experience ever recorded. Pronounced dead immediately after he was hit by a car in 1976, he was left for three days in the morgue. He did not "return to life" until a doctor began to make an incision in his abdomen as part of an autopsy procedure. Prior to his NDE he worked as a neuropathologist. He was also an avowed atheist. Yet after the experience, he devoted himself exclusively to the study of spirituality, taking a second doctorate in the psychology of religion. He then became an ordained priest in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He served as a pastor at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Baytown, Texas. Rodonaia held an M.D. and a Ph.D. in neuropathology, and a Ph.D. in the psychology of religion. He delivered a keynote address to the United Nations on the "Emerging Global Spirituality." Before emigrating to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1989, he worked as a research psychiatrist at the University of Moscow.
In June 2005, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh announced that they succeeded in reviving dogs after three hours of clinical death. The procedure involved draining all the blood from the dogs' bodies and filled them with an ice-cold salt solution. These dogs were scientifically dead, as their breathing and heartbeat were stopped and they registered no brain activity. But three hours later, their blood was replaced and they were brought back to life with an electric shock with no brain damage. A spokesman said the technique could be tried on humans within a year.
Sources:
(a)Some People Have Been Dead For Several Days
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence10.html
 
(b)"The Resurrection Men," ParamedicUK News
 http://www.paramedic.org.uk/news_archive/2005/07/news2007058

(27)  NDEs have produced visions of the future which later prove to be true.

Many people were given visions of the future during their near-death experience. Generally, these visions foretell a future of catastrophic natural disasters and social upheaval followed by a new era of peace and have actually already come to pass. Some of them did not happen as foretold. Many of these apocalyptic visions are to happen within the next few decades. Examples of events which have been foretold by the NDE visions of the future by Edgar Cayce include World War I & II, the 1929 Stock Market Crash, the fall of the Soviet Union and communism, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Desert Storm war against Iraq in 1990, and the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Sources:
(a)Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions: "The NDE and the Future"
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research32.html
 
(b)Some People Correctly Foresee the Future: Dannion Brinkley's NDE
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence11.html
 
(c)Edgar Cayce on the Future
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/cayce11.html
 

(28)  Groups of dying people can share the same NDE.

A rare type of NDE called the "group near-death experience" is a phenomenon where a whole group of people have a NDE at the same time and location. They see each other outside of their bodies and have a shared or similar experience. In 1996, NDE researcher Arvin Gibson interviewed a fire-fighter named Jake who had a most unusual NDE while working with other fire-fighters in a forest. What makes it unique is that it happened at the same time as several co-workers were also having a NDE. During their NDEs, they actually met each other and saw each other above their lifeless bodies. All survived and they verified with each other afterwards that the experience actually happened. Jake's near-death experience was so interesting thatGibson's local chapter of IANDS invited him to tell his story at one of their meetings. Another example of a group NDE is described in the IANDS publication Vital Signs (Volume XIX, No. 3, 2000) and is described in a greater way in Dr. Stephen Hoyer and May Eulitt's book entitled "Fireweaver: The Story of a Life, a Near-Death, and Beyond."
Sources:
(a)Group Near-Death Experiences: People Sharing the Same NDE
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence09.html

(29)  Experiencers are convinced the NDE is an afterlife experience.

In 1977, Dr. Kenneth Ring was a brilliant young professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut who read Dr. Raymond Moody's book, Life After Life, and was inspired by it. However, he felt that a more scientifically structured study would strengthen Moody's findings. He sought out 102 near-death survivors for his research. He concluded:
"Regardless of their prior attitudes - whether skeptical or deeply religious - and regardless of the many variations in religious beliefs and degrees of skepticism from tolerant disbelief to outspoken atheism - most of these people were convinced that they had been in the presence of some supreme and loving power and had a glimpse of a life yet to come." (Dr. Kenneth Ring)
For the multitude of near-death experiencers who know they have left their bodies and received a glimpse of life after death, there is no amount of clinical explanation that will ever convince them otherwise.
Sources:
(a)People Who Have NDEs Are Convinced
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence08.html

(30)  The NDEs of children are remarkably similar to adult NDEs.

The NDE researcher P.M.H. Atwater has pointed out the fascinating anomaly that an amazing number of people important to the evolution of humankind may well have had such an episode during their childhood. She discusses this at length in both of her books, Future Memory and Children of the New Millennium. Some of the notable child NDEs she came across were Abraham Lincoln, Mozart, Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth I, Edward de Vere/the 17th Earl of Oxford (who most likely is the real Shakespeare), Winston Churchill, Black Elk, Walter Russell, plus several others.
Sources:
(a)Children Have NDEs Similar To Adults: P.M.H. Atwater's NDE Research of Children
 http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence04.html
 
(b)Childhood Near-Death Experiences: P.M.H. Atwater's Research
 http://www.near-death.com/children.html

(31)  Experiencers of NDEs are profoundly changed in ways that cannot occur from hallucinations and dreams.

No matter what the nature of the NDE, it alters lives. Alcoholics find themselves unable to imbibe. Hardened criminals opt for a life of helping others. Atheists embrace the existence of a deity, while dogmatic members of a particular religion report "feeling welcome in any church or temple or mosque."
Nancy Evans Bush, president emeritus of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, says the experience is revelatory. "Most near-death survivors say they don't think there is a God," she says. "They know." In 1975, when Raymond Moody published Life After Life, a book that coined the term "near-death experience" (NDE) to describe this hard-to-define phenomenon. Moody interviewed 150 near-death patients who reported vivid experiences (flashing back to childhood, coming face to face with Christ). He found that those who had undergone NDEs became more altruistic, less materialistic, and more loving.
Bruce Greyson and Ian Stevenson have been instrumental in gathering evidence indicating that religious backgrounds do not affect who is most likely to have a NDE. They have mapped out the conversion-like effects of NDEs that can sometimes lead to hardship. "They can see the good in all people," Greyson says of people who have experienced the phenomenon. "They act fairly naive, and they often allow themselves to be opened up to con men who abuse their trust." They have gathered reports of high divorce rates and problems in the workplace following NDEs. "The values you get from a NDE are not the ones you need to function in everyday life," says Greyson. Having stared eternity in the face, he observes, those who return often lose their taste for ego-boosting achievement. Not even the diehard skeptics doubt the powerful personal effects of NDEs. "This is a profound emotional experience," explains Nuland. "People are convinced that they've seen heaven."
Sources:
(a)  "Near Death Experiences Change Lives," Barnes-Jewish Hospital
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/25.html

(b)  "Coping With Life After Near-Death Experience," New York Times
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/69.htm

(c)  "People Are Dramatically Changed By NDEs: P.M.H. Atwater's NDE Research"
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence05.html

(32)  NDEs cannot be explained merely by brain chemistry alone.

If NDEs are merely hallucinations, why do the vast majority of experiencers report being told an identical and unusual message? NDEs often include a phenomenon of the experiencer being told by a supernatural entity that, "Your mission on Earth is not finished. You must go back" or some slight variation of this. Assuming that NDEs are merely hallucinations, it is odd that people are having mass hallucinations of receiving similar unusual messages. Concerning these common elements found in NDE reports, Dr. Jeff Long states:
"NDEs are quite varied, but the consistency of the NDE elements (OBE experience, tunnel, light, meeting other beings, etc.) is striking. There is no plausible biological explanation of NDEs. There is no other human experience so dramatic, shared by so many people, and so relatively consistent in its elements. The preceding suggests faith in the validity of NDE accounts is the most reasonable conclusion from the evidence."
Sources:
(a)  "Common Elements Are Found in NDEs: P.M.H. Atwater's NDE Research"
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence06.html

(33)  NDEs have been reported by people since the dawn of recorded history.

Reports of near-death experiences are not a new phenomenon. A great number of them have been recorded over a period of thousands of years. The ancient religious texts such as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Bible, and Koran describe experiences of life after death which remarkably resembles modern NDEs. The oldest surviving explicit report of a NDE in Western literature comes from the famed Greek philosopher, Plato, who describes an event in his tenth book of his legendary book entitled Republic. Plato discusses the story of Er, a soldier who awoke on his funeral pyre and described his journey into the afterlife. But this story is not just a random anecdote for Plato. He integrated at least three elements of the NDE into his philosophy: the departure of the soul from the cave of shadows to see the light of truth, the flight of the soul to a vision of pure celestial being and its subsequent recollection of the vision of light, which is the very purpose of philosophy.
Sources:
(a)  "NDEs Have Been Reported Since Ancient Times: Plato's Testimony of a Soldier Named Er and His NDE" http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence12.html

(34)  The skeptical "dying brain" theory of NDEs has serious flaws.

Two competing hypotheses are advanced in a book by skeptic Susan Blackmore entitled Dying to Live and they are (1) The Afterlife Hypothesis and (2) Susan Blackmore's The Dying Brain Hypothesis. The Afterlife Hypothesis states spirit survives body death. The NDE is the result of spirit separating from the body. The Dying Brain Hypothesis states the NDE is an artifact of brain chemistry. According to the dying brain hypothesis, there is no spirit which survives body death. Skeptics who claim the author of Dying to Live is non biased are proven wrong; skeptics who claim she provides scientific proof are shown, by her own words, to be in error.

Because NDEs have many common core elements, this suggests that 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 that NDEs are more than a brain thing.
Sources:
(a)  "A Critique of Susan Blackmore's Dying Brain Hypothesis" by Greg Stone
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/articles001.html

(b)  "Science Can't Yet Explain Near-Death Experiences," Reuters News
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/19.html

(c)  "No Medical Explanation For Near-Death Experiences," New Scientist News
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/18.html

(35)  Skeptical arguments against the NDE "survival theory" are not valid.

Sociologist Dr. Allan Kellehear states that some scientific theories are often presented as the most logical, factual, objective, credible, and progressive possibilities, as opposed to the allegedly subjective, superstitious, abnormal, or dysfunctional views of mystics. The rhetorical opinions of some NDE theories are presented as if they were scientific (Kellehear, 1996, 120). Many skeptical arguments against the survival theory are actually arguments from pseudo-skeptics who often think they have no burden of proof. Such arguments often based on scientism with assumptions that survival is impossible even though survival has not been ruled out. Faulty conclusions are often made such as, "Because NDEs have a brain chemical connection then survival is impossible." Pseudo-skeptical arguments are sometimes made that do not consider the entire body of circumstantial evidence supporting the possibility of survival or do not consider the possibility of new paradigms. Such pseudo-skeptical claims are often made without any scientific evidence.
Sources:
(a)  The NDE and Science: Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(b)  Kellehear, Allan. (1996). Experiences Near Death: Beyond Medicine and Religion. Oxford University Press, USA.

(36)  The burden of proof has shifted to the skeptics of the survival theory.

All neurological theories that conclude NDEs to be only a brain-thing, must show how the core elements of the NDE occur subjectively because of specific neurological events triggered by the approach of death. These core elements include: the out-of-body state, paranormal knowledge, the tunnel, the golden light, the voice or presence, the appearance of deceased relatives, and beautiful vistas. Perhaps the final word should go to Nancy Evans Bush, a NDEr with the International Association for Near-Death Studies, who said:
"There is no human experience of any description that can't simply be reduced to a biological process, but that in no way offsets the meaning those experiences have for us - whether it's falling in love, or grieving, or having a baby."
Sources:
(a)  "The NDE and Science: Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(b)  Bush, Nancy Evans. International Association for Near-Death Studies Before the Millennium

(37)  Other anomalous phenomena supports the survival theory.

These other anomalous phenomena include:  out-of-body experiences such as researched by Jerry Gross, deathbed visions, quantum physics, dream research, after-death communications research, reincarnation research, hypnosis, synchronicity, remote viewing, and consciousness research.
Sources:
(a)  "The NDE and Science: Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research08.html

(38)  NDEs support the existence of reincarnation.

Amber Wells was a student at the University of Connecticut and wrote a research paper based on her study of the near-death experience for her senior honors thesis under the direction of Dr. Ken Ring. Her paper was published in the Journal of Near-Death Studies in the fall of 1993. In her study, 70 percent of  the group of near-death experiencers demonstrated belief in reincarnation. Claims have been documented by other researchers of direct knowledge of reincarnation which became available during the near-death experience itself. An example of this type  out-of-body researchof knowledge can be seen in a letter written to Dr. Ken Ring by John Robinson: "It is a matter of personal knowledge from what the being with whom I spoke during my near-death experience told me about my older son, that he had had 14 incarnations in female physical bodies previous to the life he has just had."
Sources:
(a)  "The NDE and Reincarnation: The True Resurrection"
http://www.near-death.com/reincarnation.html

(b)  "The NDE and Reincarnation: Kevin Williams' Research Conclusions"
http://www.near-death.com/experiences/research35.html

(39)  The scientific evidence supporting reincarnation also supports the survival theory.

On June 11, 1992, at Princeton University, Dr. Ian Stevenson presented a paper entitled: "Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons" providing scientific evidence suggestive of reincarnation which was published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration. These findings support reincarnation in NDE research findings as well. Reincarnation has been called by some to be the greatest unknown scientific discovery today. In the last chapter of Dr. Ian Stevenson's book entitled Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (1967), he provides rigorous scientific reasoning to show how reincarnation is the only viable explanation that fits the facts of his study. He considers every possible alternative explanation for his twenty cases of young children who were spontaneously able to describe a previous lifetime as soon as they learned to talk. He was able to rule out each alternative explanation using one or more aspects of these cases. Later research has even bolstered his case in favor of the existence of reincarnation. His study is also completely reproducible which means that anybody who doubts the validity of this study is perfectly welcome to repeat it for themselves. I believe it is only a short matter of time before his discovery of the existence of reincarnation is finally realized by the scientific community and the world to be accepted as one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time.
Sources:
(a)  "Can Reincarnation Be Proven? How Researchers Have Investigated Claims of Past Lives."http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/reincarnation/001_pages/03.html

(b)  Archive of Reincarnation News on the Internet
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/reincarnation.html

(c)  "Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons," by Dr. Ian Stevenson http://www.childpastlives.org/birthmrk.htm

(d)  Library of Articles and Cases on Reincarnation
http://www.childpastlives.org/library.htm

(40)  Xenoglossy supports reincarnation and the survival theory.

One of the most amazing psychic phenomena, which religionists, skeptics and atheists have continuously and deliberately ignored is xenoglossy - the ability to speak or write a foreign language a person never learned. After all other explanations have been investigated - such as fraud, genetic memory, telepathy and cryptomnesia (the remembering of a foreign language learned earlier), xenoglossy is taken as evidence of either memories of a language learned in a past life or of communication with a discarnate entity— a spirit person. There are many cases on record of adults and children speaking and writing languages which they have never learned. Sometimes this happens spontaneously but more often it occurs while the person is under hypnosis or in an altered state of consciousness. In some cases it is only a few words remembered but in other cases the person becomes totally fluent and able to converse with native speakers sometimes in obscure dialects which have not been in use for centuries. There are literally thousands of xenoglossic cases, many hundreds of which have been documented. They involve modern and ancient languages from all over the world. Psychic investigators, such the highly credible Dr. Ian Stevenson, used scientific method to illustrate xenoglossy and claim that there are only two possible explanations — either spirit contact or past life memory both of which are evidence for the afterlife.
Sources:
(a)  Victor Zammit's A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife:
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter22.html

(41)  Past-life regression supports reincarnation and the survival theory.

Past life regression such as that practiced by Dr. Michael Newton, simply involves placing a person under hypnosis and asking them to go back through their childhood to a time before they were born. In many cases the person begins talking about his or her life or lives before the present lifetime, about their previous death and about the time between lives including the planning of the present lifetime. The main reason why at least some of these claims must be considered as evidence are:

(1)  The regression frequently leads to a cure of a physical illness.
(2)  In some cases the person regressed begins to speak an unlearned foreign language.
(3)  In some cases the person being regressed remembers details of astonishing accuracy
which when checked out are verified by the top historians.
(4)  The emotional intensity of the experience is such that it convinces many formerly skeptical psychiatrists who are used to dealing with fantasy and imagined regressions.
(5)  In some cases the alleged cause of death in an immediate past life is reflected by a birthmark in the present life.
Sources:
(a)  Victor Zammit's A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife:
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter24.html

(42)  Contact with "the deceased" has occurred under scientific controls.

On Oct. 4, 1999, the University of Arizona announced a study conducted by Dr. Gary Schwartz: "UA Researchers Look Beyond the Grave" concerning scientific evidence supporting a theory of the existence of a Universal Living Memory. This was achieved by testing highly qualified psychic mediums to see if they could contact the dead. The success of this study is important in that it supports NDE research in providing a scientific foundation toward investigating the survival of consciousness after death.
Sources:
(a)  "Scientist Claims Proof Of Afterlife"
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/paranormal/001_pages/006.html

(b)  "UA Researchers Look Beyond the Grave"
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/paranormal/001_pages/012.htm

(c)  Journal Article on Accuracy and Replicability of After-Death Communication (HBO experiment) Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 2001, Vol. 65.1, Num. 862, pages 1-25. http://veritas.arizona.edu/

(43)  After-death communications have been reported by credible people.

An after-death communication is a spiritual experience that occurs when a person is contacted directly and spontaneously by a family member or friend who has died. During their seven years of research,Bill and Judy Guggenheim collected more than 3,300 firsthand reports from people who believe they have been contacted by a deceased loved one. Their book, Hello From Heaven, documents many such experiences.
Researchers at the Scottish Society for Psychical Research (SSPR) conducted a five-year study that has demonstrated that particular psychic mediums can indeed discover your deepest secrets. These mediums who took part in their tests beat odds of a million to one to correctly reveal information about volunteer test subjects. Tricia Robertson, vice-president of the SSPR, a registered charity with around 250 members, said: “We were not trying to prove the existence of the afterlife or that personalities live on, but I think it is now important to recognize that mediumship can honestly gain information that ordinary people can't. I would welcome more academic research into this because it is an area where activity is unexplained as yet.” The research of after-death communications became popularized by Bill and Judy Guggenheim who collected more than 3,300 firsthand reports from people who believe they have been contacted by a deceased loved one. Their book, Hello From Heaven, documents many such experiences.
Sources:
(a)  "Seeking Meaning Beyond Can People Send Signals After They Die? Psychologist Claims Science Has the Answer," ABC News
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/paranormal/001_pages/002.html

(b)  "Study Shows Psychic Mediums Really Can Read Your Deep Secrets"
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/paranormal/001_pages/007.htm

(c)  "The Ghosts of Flight 401: John G. Fuller's Paranormal Research"
http://www.near-death.com/ghosts.html

(d)  "After-Death Communications: Bill and Judy Guggenheim's Research"
http://www.near-death.com/guggenheim.html

(44)  Dream research supports the NDE and survival theory.

Yale University Pediatric Cancer specialist Dr. Diane Komp reported that many dying children have NDEs which often occurred during dreams. One boy, for example, told Dr. Komp that Jesus had visited him in a big yellow school bus and told him he would die soon. The boy died as he predicted.
According to the celebrated psychiatrist and dream analyst, Marie Louise Von Franz, and based on her analysis of over 10,000 dreams of the dying, the meaning being communicated is that the light of the individual, one of the common metaphors for life that we've heard so often, goes out at death but is miraculously renewed on the other side. In other words, the spirit seems to live on. This dream then illustrates perfectly a profound insight of the great psychoanalyst and mentor of Dr. Von Franz, Carl Jung, MD, who has said: "The unconscious psyche believes in a life after death." According to Jung, dream symbols which exist in the very depths of the soul behave as if the psychic life of the individual will continue. In Dr. Von Franz' words: "These symbols depict the end of bodily life and the explicit continuation of psychic life after death. In other words, our last dreams prepare us for death."
One of the strangest cases in the history of dream research is described in the documentary, The Secret World of Dreams. It describes the amazing story of a woman named Claire Sylvia. She was a professional dancer with several modern dance companies. As the years passed, Claire's health began to deteriorate. Claire Sylvia had to undergo a heart and lung transplant. Soon after the transplant, she began having strange and incredibly vivid dreams about a young man she didn't recognize. Eventually, Claire realized that the young man in her dreams was the eighteen-year-old organ donor whose heart and lungs resided in her chest. Through her continuing dream contacts with her donor, she learned a lot about him including his name. She then decided to do the research to find out if this "heavenly" information was correct.
Sources:
(a)  "Dreams and the Near-Death Experience: A Connection to the Afterlife"
http://www.near-death.com/dreams.html

(b)  "Precognitive Dreams"
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/paranormal/001_pages/018.htm

(45)  Deathbed visions support the NDE and survival theory.

Dr. Carla Wills-Brandon has researched, in depth, the universal phenomenon of the Deathbed Vision (DBV) and has included her findings in her book, One Last Hug Before I Go. Complete with her own personal encounters, and those of numerous other DBV experiencers, this revolutionary work explores DBVs throughout history, from ancient Egypt to modern-day America. Through the visions and experiences common to all dying people, one can learn more about the spiritual journey that begins with death. According to recent studies, only about 10% of people are conscious shortly before their death. Of this group, 50% to 67% have DBVs.
Sources:
(a)  "Deathbed Visions: Dr. Carla Wills-Brandon's Research"
http://www.near-death.com/deathbed.html

(b)  "Parting Visions," By David Sunfellow
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/nde/001_pages/73.html

(c)  Victor Zammit's A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife:
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter20.html

(46)  Remote viewing supports the NDE and survival theory.

On April 23, 1984, the Washington Post reported: "The Race for Inner Space" about the CIA's remote viewing program. On August 12, 1985, the Deseret News reported: "The United States is Still Involved in ESP-ionage." Other media attention followed. One theory about how remote viewing works is that gifted or trained people can tap into a "Universal Mind." NDE research also suggests the reality of a Universal or Collective Consciousness.
Some of the most credible remote reviewers, such as Joseph McMoneagle, received their remote viewing powers from a near-death experience.
Sources:
(a)  Wikipedia Encyclopedia on Remote Viewing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_viewing

(b)  "The Race for "Inner Space," Washington Post
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/paranormal/001_pages/008.htm

(c)  "The United States is Still Involved in ESP-ionage," Deseret News
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/paranormal/001_pages/009.htm

(d)  Victor Zammit's A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife:
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter17.html

(e)  "Remote Viewing: An Interview With Joseph McMoneagle," Magical Blend Magazine
http://www.mceagle.com/remote-viewing/pub/media/magicalblend9701.html

(47)  The efficacy of prayer has been demonstrated under scientific controls.

On Oct. 25, 1999, BBC News reported: "Healing Power of Prayer Revealed" about a study at a university hospital in Kansas City, U.S. about scientific evidence of healing through the power of prayer. Then on June 5, 2000, BBC News reported: "Prayer Works as a Cure" about a different study conducted at the University of Maryland providing more evidence of healing through prayer. These findings support NDE research findings which demonstrates the reality of a transcendent consciousness. Dr. Larry Dossey has done extensive research on the efficacy of prayer and has written several excellent books on the subject.
Sources:
(a)  "Prayer Really Works", Pressbox News
http://tinyurl.com/d3bop

(b)  "Prayer Works as a Cure," BBC News
http://home.comcast.net/~neardeath/religion/001_pages/01.html

(c)  "Healing Power of Prayer Revealed," BBC News
http://neardeath.home.comcast.net/religion/001_pages/12.html

(48)  The "Scole Experiments" during the 1990s support the NDE and survival theory.

The evidence collected over a period of more than four years and with more than 500 sittings by the Scole Experiments and the afterlife team is absolute, definitive and irrefutable. Many regard them as the greatest recent afterlife experiments in the world. Scole is a village in Norfolk, England. Using it as a base, mediums Robin and Sandra Foy and Alan and Diana Bennett and other experimenters produced brilliant evidence of the afterlife in England, the U.S. Ireland and in Spain. Their results are being repeated by other groups around the world and will convince even the toughest open-minded skeptic. The group began with two mediums delivering messages from a non-physical group. Many of these messages contained personal information that nobody else could know about. Soon the messages came in the form of voices which could be heard by all in the room. Then came the actual materialization of people and objects from the non-physical side.
Sources:
(a)  "Scole: A Response to the Critics" by Montague Keen and Arthur Ellison, from The Scole
Report: Proceedings of the Society for Psychic Research Vol 58 Part 220 November 1999.

(b)  Victor Zammit's A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife:
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter05.html

(49)  Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) supports the NDE and survival theory.

For more than 50 years experimenters all over the world have been tape recording 'paranormal voices' -- voices which cannot be heard when a tape-recorder is playing but which can be heard when the tape is played back. Many of the very short messages claim to be from loved ones who have passed on. They are responsive, use the experimenter's name and answer questions. There are thousands of researchers around the world who have been researching this most fascinating psychic phenomenon. At the time of writing, the Internet search engine Google had almost 50,000 listings for EVP. It is particularly relevant to my argument since it follows strict scientific procedures and experiments have been duplicated under laboratory conditions by all kinds of researchers in many different countries. Persistent investigators get a powerful shock when they decide to investigate electronic voice phenomena because by using the proper method of tape recording they are likely to hear voices of loved ones or friends who have died.
Sources:
(a)  Victor Zammit's A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife:
http://www.victorzammit.com/book/chapter03.html

(50)  Prominent atheists have had NDEs which caused them to believe in the afterlife.

Atheists have deathbed experiences and near-death experiences just like everyone else does. The philosophy of Positivism, founded by the famous atheist named A. J. Ayer, is the philosophy that anything not verifiable by the senses is nonsense. Because NDEs mark the end of the senses, Positivists believe the survival of the senses after death is nonsense. But this philosophy has been challenged by its founder A. J. Ayer himself. Later in life, Ayer had a NDE where he saw a red light. Ayer's NDE made him a changed man: "My recent experiences, have slightly weakened my conviction that my genuine death ... will be the end of me, though I continue to hope that it will be." (Ayer, 1988 a,b) (Read more about it from an article in the National Post and an article by Gerry Lougrhan: Can there be life after life? Ask the atheist! (by Gerry Lougrhan, Letter_From_London, March 18, 2001.)

A non-NDE example comes from Antony Flew, a champion of atheist beliefs for more than 50 years. In a news article titled "Atheist Discovers 'The Science of God'": "One of Britain's most prominent atheists has decided that God might exist after all. Prof Antony Flew, said scientific evidence supports the theory that some sort of intelligence created the universe. Professor Flew, 81, a professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Reading, said that this was the only explanation for the origin of life ... "I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots - cosmic Saddam Husseins," he said in his new video, "Has Science Discovered God?"
Sources:

(51)  Psychometry supports the NDE and survival theory.

According to Wikipedia.org, "psychometry" is a psychic ability in which the user is able to relate details about the past condition of an object or area, usually by being in close contact with it. The user could allegedly, for example, give police precise details about a murder or other violent crime if they were at the crime scene or were holding the weapon used. About.com's Paranormal Phenomena website lists information about several of the most convincing psychometrists.

Stefan Ossowiecki, a Russian-born psychic, is one of the most famous psychometrists. Ossowiecki claimed to be able to see people's auras and to move objects through psychokinesis. His psychic gifts enabled this chemical engineer to locate lost objects and missing people, and he assisted in several criminal investigations. In 1935, he participated in a test of his psychometric powers - a test devised by a wealthy Hungarian named Dionizy Jonky that involved a sealed package. Jonky stipulated that this test was to be conducted eight years after his death. (Jonky and Ossowiecki did not know each other.) First, 14 photographs of men were placed in front of Ossowiecki, one of which was of Jonky. Ossowiecki picked out the correct photo. Next, Ossowiecki accurately described many details of Jonky's life and correctly identified the man who held the package for the past eight years. Finally, Ossowiecki was presented with the sealed package Jonky had prepared before his death. Ossowiecki touched the package and concentrated. "Volcanic minerals," he said. "There is something here that pulls me to other worlds, to another planet." Oddly, he also sensed sugar. Inside the package was a meteorite encased in a candy wrapper.

In later experiments, Ossowiecki performed remarkable psychometric feats with archeological objects - a kind of psychic archeology. These tests were conducted by Stanislaw Poniatowski, a professor of enthology at the University of Warsaw who could verify the accuracy of what Ossowiecki "saw." While holding a 10,000-year-old piece of flint, Ossowiecki was able to describe in amazing detail the lives of the prehistoric people who made it. In other tests he provided similar descriptions of people who lived as long ago as 300,000 years. Some of the information he provided was not even known by experts at the time, but confirmed by discoveries years later!

Ossowiecki described his visions as being like a motion picture that he could watch, pause, rewind and fast-forward - like a videotape or DVD.
Sources:
(a)  "What You Need To Know About ... Psychometry":
http://paranormal.about.com/cs/espinformation/a/aa063003_3.htm

(b)  "A World In A Grain Of Sand: The Clairvoyance Of Stefan Ossowiecki"
by M. Barrington, Ian Stevenson, Z. Weaver.

"In the light of the near-death experience, death is nothing more than the illusion of separateness and finality, and those who can believe in this vision of death, like near-death experiencers themselves, lose all fear of it, for how can you fear that which does not exist?" - Dr. Ken Ring
Books on Survival After Death
by Gary Schwartz, William Simon
Under controlled laboratory conditions, leading mediums contact dead friends and relatives and bring back detailed information which could only have been gained if they were indeed in contact with the dead.
by Grant Solomon
This book chronicles the extraordinary results of a five-year investigation by a group of English researchers into life after death.
by George Dalzell, Gary Schwartz
The amazing true story of a licensed clinical social worker who investigates the phenomena of mediumship and after-death communications.
by Stephen Braude
A fresh look at some of the most puzzling cases suggesting survival after death and how one can conclude that there is good reason for believing in life after death.
by Hans Holzer
Documents true case histories of individuals who have stood at the threshold of another dimension, lived in previous incarnations, or had first-hand experiences with others who have died.
by Susy Smith
Case histories of evidence for life after death from a variety of supernatural experiences including the deathbed vision, guardian angels, spirit possession, and psychic phenomenon.

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