Near-Death Experiences: What if anything might they tell us about - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Near-Death Experiences: What if anything might they tell us about life after death? Walter L. Bradley, Ph.D., P.E. ASA Annual Meeting—Gordon College July 29, 2018

If you were to die tonight……. • Would you cease to exist? • Would you no longer have a consciousness? • What did Billy Graham say about this just before he died this past spring? • What did Barbara Bush say shortly before her death in April 2018? • Is there any empirical evidence that can give us a compelling answer to this critical question?

What does Bible say about Heaven ? • Eternal HEAVEN– The new Heaven and the new Earth which Christ will create at the end of human history when Christ returns. Revelations 19-22 Terms suggested by Randy Alcorn in Heaven

• Intermediate Heaven— place peoples’ souls live from time of their physical death until end of human history and Christ’s return -- Phil. 1:19-24 –Paul-”To be absent from the body -- Luke 23:43 – Thief on the cross -- II Corinthians 12:1-6 Paul’s out of body experience --Acts 14:19 Paul’s stoning and NDE/OBE --Matt 16:28, Mark 9:1-13, Luke 9:27-36 mount of transfiguration --Jesus after his resurrection

Three key empirical questions for today? • Do human beings have – A body and a spirit/soul (dualist) or – Just a body ? • Will I still be conscious (immediately) after the death of my body ? • What is “intermediate Heaven like”? How could we possibly find out?

Two Kinds of Data from NDE/OBE* • Emergency room data —evidence for NDE/OBE – Heart monitoring records – Brain wave monitoring – Patient can describe in detail activities of doctors and nurses treating their clinically dead body. • Journeys to “front porch” of Heaven or Hell – Follow tunnel or paths with light at end – Meet many deceased relatives and friends (but never met people still living) – Get a preview of what Intermediate Heaven will be like. – Have an encounter with Christ and a life review that is life changing

11 Examples out of >3500 documented NDEs with OBEs • Mary O’Neal, Director of Spinal Surgery, USC Medical School • Vicki, 22 yrs. Old, blind from birth • Migrant worker Maria, tennis shoe on ledge • Pam Reynolds, singer, 60F, eyes tapes, ears with high frequency clicking…..Hotel California • Resuscitation 10/2015, controlled experiment with odd objects places on shelves near ceiling • Eben Alexander, M.D., taught and practiced at Harvard Medical School, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, 2012 • Dr. Michael Sabom’s asking his own patients (S. Weinberg) Brit Penny Saritoriexperiment with 60 NDEs,30 with & 30 • without OBE • Man who had massive heart attack, with NDE/OBE followed by being in a coma for 7 days had dentures removed and placed in crash cart. • Heaven is for Real

What kinds of documentation are available for NDEs/OBE? • Amazon lists many books that either describe individual NDE/OBE experiences or else analyzed larger numbers of NDEs. • Data bases contain >3500 carefully documented NDEs/OBEs from people of many cultures, races, religious, not-religious, or atheistic beliefs, ages ranging from 4-80+, and from many different educational backgrounds. • It is estimated that 3-4% (1/33 or 1/25) of Americans have had a NDE (but not always an OBE). Gallup Poll • Check out YouTube or Google for NDEs with OBE.

Examples of Main-stream Media on NDEs/OBEs • Atlantic Magazine ; featured article April 2015, “The Science of Near-Death Experiences: Empirically investigating brushes with the afterlife” • BBC Documentary on 12/26/2015 on NDEs/OBEs • New York Times article “A New Vision for Dreams of the Dying”, 02/02/2016 experiences of dying people. Confirmed by hospice • National Geographic , April 2016 • Newsweek (online) March 18, 2018

Books and JAMA etc. on NDEs/ODE: Synthesis of many people’s experiences

Books on NDEs/OBEs Synthesis of experience of many people

Books and Reports 55 Researchers, 65 Studies, >3500 NDEs

Books on NDE/OBE Synthesis

More Synthesis of NDEs/OBEs

More Books on NDE/OBE

Books on Individual NDE/ODE

Movies about NDE/OBE Experiences • Heaven is for Real! • 90 Minutes in Heaven • Miracles from Heaven

Science\Technical Literature • 600 refereed Journal articles in Journal of Near- Death Studies • 240 refereed Journal Articles in Pub-Med , National Library of Medicine, including Psychiatry , The Lancet, Critical Care Quarterly , American Journal of Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychology, Resuscitation, Neurology, Journal of American Medical Association, etc. • There is a huge amount of carefully documented and peer reviewed data about NDEs, mostly from medical doctors.

Two Key Questions raised by NDEs/OB Es Can the mind/spirit/soul/consciousness exist apart from the brain ? Is there conscious life after death? – Materialist (atheist) say this is impossible! – Many scientists who were previously skeptical now believe that the evidence validating NDEs is compelling and provides a substantial basis to support the hypothesis that the mind (or soul) can exist apart from the brain.

Monism vs Dualism Models • Two possible hypotheses – Monism -- A body without a separable spirit/soul. – Dualism – A body with a separable spirit/soul Analogies for dualism: 1. Like a radio (body) that plays sounds informed by radio waves it receives (from my soul/spirit). 2. My soul/spirit occupies my body and expresses itself through the instrument of my body but can exist without my body. 3. My body is like a piano. My soul/spirit is the pianist. My spirit expresses itself in physical world via my body.

Hypotheses of Scientists Skeptical of NDEs • NDEs are the result of physical changes in a stressed or dying brain caused by: 1. To little oxygen or too much carbon dioxide 2. Imperfect anesthesia 3. Body’s neuro-chemical responses to trauma 4. George Mashour (U. of Michigan, self proclaimed materialist) speculates that spikes in neural activity like those in dying rats might create hallucinations that could be experienced as NDEs, but this is speculation with NO data to confirm it. ( Also, do we think that rats have a soul or spirit? If not, what could studies on dying rats tell us?)

Who Gets the Burden of Proof? • Materialist often assume that it is up to those who believe in NDEs/OBE to provide perfect experimental evidence before they can be believed. • Absence of perfect experimental evidence of OBEs does not equal to evidence for or proof that OBEs don’t occur. • Can materialist experimentally prove that the OBEs did not occur while the person was brain dead? • We should look at the preponderance of experimental evidence to see which hypothesis seems most likely to be true, based on what we know today.

Questions for Skeptics of NDEs • Why are NDEs experiences of “the other side” strikingly similar, forming a consistent picture of life in another dimension for people from around the world. • Why do NDErs only meet people from their past that have died and never people still living if their NDE experience is really just a dream or hallucination? • Why do NDEs produce similar events with similar details in a surprisingly consistent linear order? • Why are NDEs often subsequently life-changing? • Could these remarkable characteristics of NDEs be accounted for by a “cascade of neuro-transmitters”. Could low oxygen and/or high carbon dioxide produce such remarkable patterns? If so, HOW?

Questions about Skeptics Hypotheses • Unexpected details in NDEs—If NDEs were merely vivid dreams from people’s expectations concerning death, one would expect a close correspondence between people’s expectations and prior experiences. THIS IS NOT WHAT PEOPLE REPORT! • Who would have expected an NDE to include (1) mind to mind communication, (2) a dimension where both space and time seem to vanish, (3) seeing up close and far away equally, (4) reviewing an entire lifetime in an instant, (5) encountering a Being of bright light (God) that doesn’t cause squinting, (6) out of body experience, (7) meeting spirit people that I know who have died, or (8) coming back, (9) children’s NDEs and (10) dramatic changes in personal views about life- after-death, (10) atheist claiming to have met God/Jesus.

Questions about hypotheses of skeptics Who could possibly have expected such odd and amazing things ? How could these experiences be just a dream or hallucination in people who have never thought about much less dreamed about such things, many who did not believe in God or life after death. For example, in one study in Holland, only 27% of people believed in life-after-death before their NDE and with 90% continuing to believe in life-after-death 20 years after their NDE.

Summary of Data • In my opinion, the huge amount of date from scientific studies of NDEs and personal accounts of NDE provides more than sufficient warrant to believe that the mind/consciousness can indeed exist separate from the body/brain. • Proposed hypotheses that use only natural laws to try to explain away NDEs do not provide any plausible way to account for the many observations that are common to most NDEs. In fact, explaining how consciousness emerges in a living brain is still a mystery at this time.