Evidential Near-Death Experiences

Appendix 1

Evidential Near-Death Experiences

Arguably the most insightful dialogue on the possibility of veridical NDE cases occurred from 2007 to 2008 over four full issues of the peer-reviewed Journal of Near-Death Studies.1 A vigorous debate took place largely between a skeptical philosopher Keith Augustine (who specialized in NDEs), and several distinguished NDE scholars. In these spirited discussions, Augustine proposed many specific challenges aimed especially at the evidential NDE reports. Augustine’s respondents usually addressed his challenges in areas where they were the lead investigators. In this rigorous investigation of claimed NDE corroboration, Augustine provided both the chief essay plus the final rejoinder in each of the first three issues.2

In his lead installment of three major articles, Augustine questioned several well-known NDE episodes, such as Kimberly Clark Sharp’s tennis shoe case reportedly observed on the roof of a Seattle-area hospital, Pam Reynolds’s brain surgery, and NDE reports among blind persons. He also provided a brief overview of prospective experiments which attempted to ascertain whether NDErs were able to identify random visual targets placed high overhead.3

Augustine’s second main article examined numerous cases of false perception in NDE accounts, including discrepancies with the physical world, encounters with living persons that never occurred, imagery like mythological creatures or fictional characters, and so on. He argued that these sorts of perceptions are much more compatible with hallucinations.4

In the last of his main essays, Augustine argued that other ND features like psychophysiological and cultural correlates suggested that NDE imagery is solely the product of an individual’s mind rather than a supernatural reality. Throughout, Augustine argued against NDEs operating either beyond or independently of the human brain.5

Augustine also allowed that the most impressive species of NDE data would probably be more indicative of an afterlife thesis than that of his hallucinatory hypotheses, if they could stand up to scrutiny. For instance, citing positively the work of Michael Potts, Augustine postulated that the following would be among the most helpful in establishing an otherworldly interpretation of NDEs: specific clothing details of those health-care personnel who resuscitated the patient, the precise order of events during the resuscitation, and emergency room details that could have been learned only by being present.6

One general comment directed to Augustine was that arguing for an afterlife was seldom the goal of NDE research.7 But Augustine, again following Potts, replied that while technically these studies may not have aimed at establishing an afterlife, it would be very difficult to deny that such a conclusion would follow rather naturally if human consciousness were capable of functioning after death, especially if natural explanations failed to suffice, as a large number of these studies seemed to indicate.8

Augustine concludes: “If there were evidence of the sort Potts outlined, then the data would contradict my critique of near-death veridicality studies; but, as Potts also noted, anything of the sort has yet to happen.”9 It is noteworthy that Augustine is not the only skeptical scholar who has agreed repeatedly that evidential NDEs could potentially establish a case for an afterlife or refute naturalism. Naturalistic psychologist Susan Blackmore similarly has asserted that NDE evidence could show her view to be mistaken.10 Accepting the evidential challenges especially by Augustine and earlier by Blackmore, the respondents in the Journal of Near-Death Studies responded by providing many particulars pertaining to their own areas of study.

Evidential NDE Corroboration within the Room

Before moving to an evidential case for NDEs, a brief response needs to be made regarding the issue raised by Augustine and other researchers concerning the prospective experiments that have attempted to determine whether any NDErs were able to detect random visual targets such as numbers placed high overhead. The critics enjoy pointing out that while some partial information has been collected here and there, no full identifications of the random numbers by NDErs have yet occurred.11 Perhaps these scholars hope that these issues could serve to cast doubt on all NDEs.12

In response, as will be noted more specifically below, some half dozen or more evidential NDE cases have included either the successful identification of specific numbers or the recognition of other casually placed or thrown objects found overhead that could only be seen from a position near the ceiling. These include the successful identification and repetition of a random twelve-digit numeral on the top of an overhead medical device where the incident was confirmed by a nurse who was present, a four-figure number, and two of the author’s own cases where smaller numbers were visible but could only be seen if the NDErs had been looking down from above their bodies. In a somewhat related case, a five-figure number was also correctly identified.

This list may be increased if the correct identification of unlikely or strange objects not seen from the ground but identified correctly by NDErs are also included. As Michael Sabom points out after many NDE interviews, the “inability to recall verifiable details was attributed by the person, time and time again, to the fact that his attention had been directed toward the unique and pleasant qualities of the experience, in overall amazement at what was occurring.”13 Given the corroboration that has been discovered, these examples indicate that perhaps skeptics should be a bit more reserved in their criticisms of the prospective cases, especially when comparable results have already been correctly observed by NDErs.

Augustine suggested (along with Potts) that evidential reports be produced regarding the specific clothing worn by resuscitation team members, plus the precise order of events that transpired during the process and other emergency room details that could have been known only by one who was present at the time. Although Augustine and Potts declared that such details were nonexistent, their comments were clearly mistaken on several fronts, as will be shown here.

On many occasions, it appeared to be more a matter of disbelieving or disregarding the details when they were actually produced. Certainly this would apply in the cases of correctly cited numbers and other odd objects that could only be observed from overhead!

Pertaining to accounts where emergency room clothing was identified by NDErs, Ken Ring and Madelaine Lawrence reported the intriguing account of Joyce Harmon, an ICU hospital nurse.

On her first day back at work after vacation, Harmon was a member of the medical team that successfully resuscitated a female patient whom she did not know. The very next day she saw the patient, who responded, “Oh, you’re the one with the plaid shoelaces!” and explained that she observed them while watching the resuscitation from overhead.

Intriguingly, Harmon had just purchased the plaid shoelaces while on her vacation and had worn them to the hospital that day for the very first time. Though casual or mundane conversations often occur in hospital settings even during stressful times, the color of shoelaces does not appear to be the most likely scenario that would be discussed or even noticed during a frantic resuscitation attempt.14

In another case,15 a nurse practitioner of my acquaintance in a Midwestern hospital rushed to the scene involving a patient experiencing an emergency situation due to cardiac arrest, where she assisted in a successful life-saving procedure. A couple of days later, an unknown patient introduced herself as the resuscitated patient. The latter explained that, during the resuscitation, she witnessed the rescue process from above her body and had observed a rather unique object worn on the nurse practitioner’s clothing, which the patient described in minute detail. The object had been borrowed the previous day and had already been returned to its owner.

The nurse practitioner was stunned most of all by the patient’s intricate description of the object even in the middle of the hectic assistance provided during her cardiac arrest. Even if a conversation were overheard due to the resuscitation and recounted so precisely (quite a stretch in itself, if not impossible for someone in her condition), it is quite unlikely that all the details would have been described precisely during a cardiac arrest.

What about Augustine’s and Pott’s request for the knowledge of a precise sequence of events during a resuscitation? While there are many examples from which to draw, one of the most detailed was reported by emergency room pediatrician Melvin Morse, who recounted the case of a girl (referred to as “Katie”; actual name Kristle Merzlock) who had nearly drowned. A physician was present at poolside, and it was documented that Kristle was without a pulse for at least seventeen minutes, exhibited no gag reflex, had fixed and dilated pupils, and was “profoundly comatose.” Morse noted that this condition most probably indicated that at least her upper brain was not functioning at that time, and that reversible brain damage had probably occurred.

Three days later, Kristle inexplicably revived. About three weeks later, in a follow-up exam, she took almost an hour to tell her entire story. Morse was incredibly impressed with the precise sequencing of her emergency room events and descriptions. She knew that a tall physician without a beard was the first one to enter the emergency room. Then she recounted that Morse, shorter and sporting a beard, had come in next and was chiefly responsible for resuscitating her. She also recounted that she had first been brought into a larger room and then was moved into a smaller one for X-rays. She knew that she had been intubated through her nose, although this procedure is more commonly done orally.16

Given that Kristle was unconscious the entire time, with her eyes closed, requiring mechanical ventilation to breathe over the next three days, this is an incredible report. Even if it were thought that Kristle somehow could have heard certain snippets of emergency room conversation, details like the physicians’ physical characteristics and the sizes of the hospital rooms seem to require sight, although that is certainly not the best explanation here. The clear and confirmed sequence is also beyond typical jumbled memories. Morse declared that this experience changed his life, including his religious agnosticism.17

Morse also relates other evidential NDE cases that also include a sequence of events, including an eight-year-old girl who nearly drowned in a swimming pool after her hair was caught in the drain. Her parents, then an emergency medical team, and lastly physicians in the emergency room all administered CPR for more than forty-five minutes before her heart began beating once again. A short time later, she exhibited “full recall of the event” and was capable of recounting the entire extended process of resuscitation.18

Another sequential case involved a woman who experienced a cardiac arrest that lasted about four minutes. During that time, she reported being up above her body and looking down below where she provided a description of the proceedings of the resuscitation attempts performed in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Perhaps most crucially, the paramedic crew members attested that she recalled several corroborated observations that occurred precisely during her cardiac arrest and were reported afterward.19 As documented below regarding cardiac arrest with ventricular fibrillation, both measurable heart and at least upper-brain activity would be eliminated in just seconds, with lower-brain activity ceasing just slightly afterward.

Lastly, Augustine and Potts also requested emergency room descriptions that could only have been known by someone actually present. Again, many examples on record could be noted. In one case, a young patient had almost died after suffering a cardiac arrest. There were also problems with a machine that was being used during the resuscitation process. The patient responded that the machine with the problems was actually unplugged. The nurse went and checked, and soon discovered that the patient was correct.20 Another patient under general anesthesia claimed that she had observed the situation from the ceiling. She said that she was also able to watch another surgery in the next room over, where she saw a patient undergoing the amputation of their leg, which was then placed inside a yellow bag! The attending surgeon related that she “described it as soon as she woke up.” The surgeon checked and found that the story of the amputation was true but attested that this was not possible naturally.21

Cardiologist Sabom has documented ten specific examples where patients, sometimes without any measurable heartbeat, have detailed many items regarding the layout of furniture and other objects in the hospital emergency room, specific observations regarding the instruments that were located there, and even detailed readings on the dials. Their observations have also included some uncommon medical practices that took place, which would not normally be guessed. Sabom concludes that several of the verified observations were such that they could only have been observed visually beyond any potential hearing.22

Greyson recalled another account that he investigated personally. In the middle of open-heart surgery, the patient later described watching the scene from above his body, noting that, while his chest cavity was open, his surgeon began “flapping his arms as if trying to fly.” When Greyson interviewed the surgeon, the latter explained his “peculiar habit.” After washing and at other times during the surgery, to keep his hands from any contamination, he often would place them against his chest and point out various things to his assistants by using his elbows. The appearance was that of “flapping” his elbows up and down.23 The cardiologist who was also present confirmed that the patient had accurately reported these details just “shortly after he regained consciousness following the surgery.”24

The sorts of cases requested by Augustine and Potts, exhibiting accurate descriptions drawn from specifics in the NDEr’s immediate vicinity, are hardly rare. Holden provides a list of 107 specific, evidenced NDE cases reported by many authors, with the greatest number describing the person’s immediate surroundings. Further, Holden made three distinct improvements to these data: (1) She arranged the publications by copyright date and omitted reports after 1975 that were either popular or autobiographical. (2) She also ordered the NDE accounts from the weakest to the strongest cases according to the kind of evidence presented, with the best rating being given to those that were confirmed by outside sources. (3) Lastly, she specifically singled out and recorded NDE accounts that contained any errors, though there were very few of these. She still ended up with these 107 reports.25

It should be noted that the majority of these detailed NDE accounts listed by Holden were recorded by major scholars, such as eleven cases from Ring and Valarino,26 ten cases from Cook, Greyson, and Stevenson,27 the ten mentioned from Sabom,28 seven from Fenwick and Fenwick,29 and seven from Morse.30 To these we might add many additional cases both before and after Holden’s research,31 along with a lengthy list taken from my own research and sometimes published elsewhere collected over a period of several decades.

Throughout this discussion thus far, specific cases have been mentioned where it was stated specifically or implied strongly that cardiac arrest with ventricular fibrillation can indicate exceptionally important evidential situations. This is due to the medically well-established and recognized research which specifies that such heart stoppage initiates the immediate and measurable elimination of upper-brain activity just seconds later during the persistence of this state. The cessation of lower-brain activity occurs just very slightly afterwards.32 Therefore, verified NDE data that occur within this time frame are exceptionally crucial in indicating the potential presence of consciousness beyond the quantifiable existence of the central nervous system. Literally dozens of cases have been recorded where corroboration inside a room has been documented during just such a state.33

A rather incredible number of these detailed and later verified observations of reported incidents exist, which most apparently occurred precisely within the moments when measurable heart and brain activity were substantiated as being measurably absent. This is a major argument for continued consciousness during these moments. Other options have been argued and will be treated below, but the sheer unlikelihood of mistakenness or deceit of one sort or another in every one of the dozens of different situations borders on credulity, particularly when the described occurrence happened precisely during those minutes rather than before or after.

These examples appear to address clearly the specific evidential requirements of Potts and Augustine from within the room where the NDEr was located, with details being reported during surgery or otherwise, where the best explanation is that the patient truly recalled events that were observed during that time, with each incident being confirmed by one or more persons who were actually present during that time. Due to the vantage point being claimed, the repeated testimony of patients that they were positioned above their bodies counts for something too. The “arm-flapping” episode represents one of many statements where the patient reported the insightful information very quickly after regaining consciousness, which contributes to the overall veridicality of this conclusion. Altogether, just from the narrated accounts or sources mentioned above, the total stands at well over 150 evidenced NDE cases from the immediate vicinity of the patient.

Evidential NDE Corroboration at a Distance

Other skeptical authors prefer different sorts of corroboration. Despite the requests from Augustine and Potts to produce very specific types of visual data within the emergency or operating room, or from the immediate vicinity of the NDEr, other skeptics like psychologist Susan Blackmore prefer visual information reported by the NDEr from a distance away, outside the room, that was corroborated later. Such data would be helpful to rule out the patient having learned the information from normal sense data drawn from the immediate proximity, even given the unlikelihood that such precise knowledge should be gained in that manner during cardiac arrest or general surgery.

For Blackmore, two specific varieties of cases would be the most evidential and have the most potential to disprove her naturalistic hypothesis: “distant vision” where the NDEr could not have obtained the reported data from their presence in the resuscitation room, and accurate NDE testimony from sightless persons. However, she attested that, search as she could, she was never able to locate good examples of either sort.34

It is agreed that verifiable cases of the sort that Blackmore requested, especially those from well beyond the NDEr’s immediate line of physical sight or hearing, could definitely provide yet another highly evidential angle that could help to establish a more multifaceted NDE case. Several such cases will be mentioned here. Some skeptics like Augustine above have criticized Kimberly Sharp Clark’s tennis shoe example, although subsequent research has buttressed her account.35 Blackmore is even positive here, pointing out that verified cases such as Sharp’s could possibly constitute strong evidence for the disembodied NDE thesis, though she attests that she was “unable to get any further information” here.36 The naturalistic thesis, on the other hand, predicts that such information must be derived by normal means.

Another case also involving a shoe found on a hospital roof was reported from all the way across the country by Kenneth Ring and Madelaine Lawrence. The resuscitated patient claimed to have experienced a NDE, floated above her body, and then watched the resuscitation attempt going on beneath her. Then she experienced being “pulled” through several floors of the hospital until she emerged near the building’s roof, where she viewed the Hartford, Connecticut, skyline. Looking down, she then observed a red shoe. When nurse Kathy Milne heard the story, she reported it to a resident physician, who mocked the account as a ridiculous tale. However, to ascertain even the possibility of an accurate report, he enlisted a janitor’s assistance and was led onto the roof, where he found the red shoe just as it was reported! This occurred in 1985, and Milne was unfamiliar with Maria’s tennis shoe account, which was published just shortly before.37

In the case of Kristle Merzlock mentioned earlier, the young girl who nearly drowned and was resuscitated by Morse, she reported more than the specifics of the resuscitation attempt and the sequential details from the emergency room. Upon regaining consciousness three days later, her intensive-care nurses initially heard her recollection of having visited heaven guided by an angel. Though there was no way to verify the angel, Kristle also testified that, although she was unconscious and hooked up in the hospital, she was “allowed” to observe her parents and siblings some distance away at home for the evening. She provided exact details regarding where each person was located in the house, identifying the specific things they were doing as well as the type of clothes they were wearing. For instance, she identified that her mother was cooking roast chicken and rice for dinner. All of these particulars were subsequently confirmed very soon afterwards.38

One of the most detailed distance cases involved a patient (Tony) and his wife, Pat (a nursing supervisor), who traveled to Milwaukee for a complex open-heart surgery. Due to an upper-body bleed, an additional open-chest surgery was planned for the very next day, but during that second prep, Tony’s “heart was arrested for 30 minutes” and he also suffered a respiratory arrest at the same time. During this trauma, Tony reported correct observations regarding his wife in the hospital waiting room and was able to look in on his home in Florida located over 1,200 miles away! There he watched a friend who was house-sitting for the couple while they were in Wisconsin. He reported to his wife a sequence of several amazing, very specific, as well as out-of-the-ordinary details that he had observed both in the hospital and then in their home. These reports were confirmed later, both by discussions with the house sitter as well as by their own observations upon returning to Florida concerning the somewhat strange events that Tony had narrated earlier to his wife and friend. This case was also investigated later by another physician.39 This incident involved a double heart and respiratory arrest and multiple distance sightings accompanied by more than one form of verification!

In two other instances, the physical distances between the patients and their rather incredible reported observations were approximately twenty and thirty miles away, respectively, and the details in both cases were confirmed by interviewers.40

Many other evidential NDE accounts have also included verification at a distance, with a number of these also being substantiated by subsequent interviews. Greyson, Kelly, and Kelly note from their NDE research that “60 people reported being aware of events occurring outside the range of their physical senses.”41 Greyson reported that a number of distance cases were researched and confirmed,42 including examples by Van Lommel et al.,43 along with Sartori, Badham, and Fenwick.44

Two journal articles—one by Cook, Greyson, and Stevenson,45 and another by Kelly, Greyson, and Stevenson46—recorded a total of fifteen more NDEs with observations viewed at a distance. Long reported that the cases involved in these two NDE studies were concerned with “observing earthly events far from their physical bodies and beyond any possible physical sensory awareness.” These accounts of “corroboration of the NDErs’ remote observations” were made by others, resulting in the subsequent confirmation of the testimonies.47 To these we could also add still more confirmed distance testimonies that were reported by Morse,48 Sabom,49 and an anecdotal case by Ford.50

Adding to the evidential nature of these events is another large number of reported and documented distance NDEs that also reportedly occurred in the absence of any measurable heart or brain activity.51 A number of the cardiac arrest cases include some of the strongest evidential scenarios.52 Once again, as in the previous category of corroborated observation inside the room, it grows even more exceedingly unlikely that every last one of another dozen cases exhibiting neither apparent heart nor brain activity can be meaningfully accounted for by data learned through other means, misperception or deception, coincidences, or mistakes, especially when the events described occurred precisely within the time interval of the medical crisis rather than subsequently.

Just these accounts alone combine to total more than 110 evidenced NDEs reported a distance away from the experiencer! This testimony must be viewed as among the most convincing corroborated reports of all. The attempts to explain away this wide variety of observed scenarios, especially the compound cases here, more likely reveal the pervasive influence of one’s worldviews and unwillingness to explain the data at hand!

Evidential NDE Corroboration concerning Previously Deceased Persons

Another exceptional category of data concerns evidential accounts where it was unknown that particular loved ones or friends had died recently, often elsewhere in the country or the world, until the other persons reportedly appeared in the NDE or deathbed vision. Greyson notes three distinct species of these experiences: (1) Where the death of the deceased individual was previously unknown to the NDEr who subsequently learned the relevant information. (2) On other occasions, the deceased person had died at the same time as the NDE, or “immediately beforehand,” thus precluding previous knowledge by those present. (3) The deceased was sometimes a person whom the NDEr did not even know.53

Common to all three species of these NDEs (especially in this last category), data were purportedly imparted from the previously deceased individuals who were unknown to those involved before their hearing these things. Then the reports were confirmed subsequently. Over two dozen such examples were collected by Greyson.54 Other researchers have also presented similar accounts such as these.55

Regarding the three subtypes here, Greyson notes that since these accounts cannot be attributed to the NDEr’s expectations or knowledge, subjective hallucinations should be ruled out. It should be noted additionally that the wide variety of evidential reports in this category that were later confirmed due to additional investigation argue even more strongly against subjective states explaining these NDE observations, since hallucinations and similar phenomena are subjective in nature and thus do not properly account for reports of actual aspects in the world that could not have been observed even in healthy, fully functioning bodies in the vicinities of the objects observed.

Three examples will be mentioned here briefly. Cardiologist Van Lommel described the case of a man who had an NDE after a cardiac arrest, who related to him that during his NDE, he had met his biological father who had died many years earlier. However, not only had the NDEr never met his father previously, but he never even knew that his father was other than another man whom he had called his father all of his life and who had raised him. Yet on her deathbed, his mother confided the highly personal information that his father was other than his “father”! When she showed him a photograph, the NDEr accurately identified the man from his NDE: his actual father whom he had never known about before!56

Among the many cases recounted by Greyson, two will be recounted briefly. A young nine-year-old boy named Eddie was seriously ill in a hospital. Recovering from a thirty-six-hour fever, Eddie immediately told those in the hospital room that he had been to heaven, recounting seeing his grandfather, an aunt, and an uncle there. But then his startled and agitated father heard Eddie report that his nineteen-year-old sister, away at college, was in heaven too, and that she told Eddie that he had to return. But the father had just spoken to his daughter two days prior. Checking with the college, the father found out that his daughter had been killed in a car accident the previous day, but that the college could not reach the family at their home, presumably because of Eddie’s hospital stay!57

Greyson also recounted another case where Jack was exceptionally ill in a hospital with double pneumonia. His nurse Anita had left that weekend to go home for her twenty-first birthday party. Soon after, Jack suffered a pulmonary arrest and experienced an NDE, where he saw Anita, who asked him to tell her parents that she was sorry that she had wrecked the new red sports car that they had just given her, and to tell them that she loved them. She likewise told Jack that he had to return but that she was remaining there. The accident had apparently occurred the same day that Jack arrested or just hours beforehand. When Jack told another nurse about his NDE, she promptly ran out of the hospital room crying since she and Anita had been good friends.58 Apparently, the story was not well-known yet!

Moreover, as in our previous two categories, some of the reports here concern cardiac arrest cases that most likely also extend beyond measurable heart and brain activity.59 Even further, some of these examples reportedly involved additional evidenced testimonies from those who had not only been finally deceased rather than “near death,” but even including some in the afterlife state who had been dead for years or even decades. These examples are some of the responses that help address the potential objections that perhaps some remaining residual activity in the NDEr’s nervous system could still account for these corroborative reports, or that life after death is perhaps only of relatively brief duration. Once again, post-cardiac arrest cases plus the possibility of testimonies from irreversibly dead persons strengthen this category considerably, closing the door further and making natural explanations even more unlikely!60

These compound evidential situations discussed here regard about thirty cases of persons who reported being with previously deceased individuals (with confirmation from several types of corroborative details). They raise considerably the evidential bar in favor of the combined NDE data. No wonder Greyson asserts that “cases such as these provide some of the most persuasive evidence for the ontological reality of deceased spirits. Recent medical and societal advances in end-of-life care offer favorable opportunities for the further investigation of these cases.”61

Evidential Corroboration from Shared NDEs

Still another type of substantiation is supplied by simultaneous or shared NDEs reported by at least two different people, including accounts from physicians or nurses, among others. Usually in these situations, a healthy person shares part or all of the NDE experience of the ill individual.62 In one of Morse’s cases, a seventeen-year-old boy named Shane died in a traffic accident. His fifteen-year-old deaf sister Cheryl “observed” the entire accident process, though she was a distance away at home when the event occurred. She observed Shane “flying through the air” and knew that he was dead. Cheryl sensed that her brother was contacting her without words, relating that he wanted to show her “something really cool.” She then reported that the two of them “rose in the air, high above the scene of the accident.” She accompanied her deceased brother to heaven, where they met previously dead relatives.

Her brother did not return, since he was deceased. But during the process, her parents could hear her talking to her brother while the other three family members were all at home, where Cheryl was present and conscious. Upon her “return,” she brought back information that no one else knew, but which was subsequently verified. Shane had repeatedly said to Cheryl, “I know something that you don’t know.” Then he told his sister that their aunt was pregnant with a boy, though no one in the family knew that at the time.63 Cheryl reported observing the event while her two parents witnessed her side of the conversation.

Moody described another shared NDE where five family members in Atlanta were present during the last moments of their mother’s life. They were stunned as each of them simultaneously witnessed a bright light appear inside the room where they were all gathered. Several lights morphed into an entranceway through which they watched as their mother’s image or spirit apparently left her body and appeared to enter through the entrance! The joyous family members agreed that the entryway reminded them of Natural Bridge in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The family members told the hospice nurse, who replied that she had heard similar things before and “that it was not uncommon for the dying process to encompass people nearby.”64

In yet another example, a woman who had experienced cardiac arrest for several minutes reported a string of corroborated items that occurred precisely during this state, which is highly evidential given her lack of heart and brain function during that time. But to compound the matter further, her husband testified that he had shared the beginning of her NDE, witnessing her immaterial self actually rising above her body. One paramedic named Carl stated, “She was able to tell us word for word what we said, everything that we did physically to her, and was able to say it in such detail.”65

Another out-of-the-ordinary example from the author’s NDE collection concerns two family members who were both in hospitals in different locations halfway across the country from each other. They both reported a simultaneous NDE where they were with each other, even though neither knew the other was even in the hospital. When resuscitated, each reported their experiences to those in their respective rooms, with the similar descriptions from the two separate viewpoints being made known later to family members. Subsequent interviews confirmed these basic details.

Other shared NDE cases are reported by various researchers.66 There is not a large number of joint experiences of this sort when compared to the other varieties, but we have mentioned about another dozen potential cases here.

Evidential Corroboration from Sightless NDErs

Remembering the earlier challenge from those like Blackmore to produce NDE accounts from blind persons, yet another type of NDE evidence was produced largely by Ken Ring and Sharon Cooper, who provided detailed reports of thirty-one blind NDErs. These cases produced several accurate testimonies, both from inside the room occupied by the patient as well as outside of it. There are fewer cases in this category and the evidence is less than what has been provided elsewhere, yet it still adds to the overall discussion and seems to be difficult for many of the specific items to have been known previously by the patients through any of their physical senses.

One of the described episodes concerned a woman named Vicki who had been blind from birth. During her NDE, Vicki reported color images, including a rendezvous with two close friends from her youth. Both of them also had been blind, and both had died previously. She reported that two other deceased friends and a deceased relative were also present. She provided accurate physical descriptions of each one, even though she had never seen any of them before.67 She also provided details such as glimpsing the roof of the hospital as well as describing details on some jewelry.68

Another NDE case involved a woman named Nancy who became blind during an operation and remained completely blind afterwards. She had an ambu bag placed over her nose and mouth to make her breathe. In her NDE, she reported watching the process away from her body. Afterward, she properly described the identities of two men standing down the hallway away from her, as well as recounting the number of staff people around her. Her medical records plus a testimony from one of the men were “in substantial agreement” with Nancy’s comments and agreed “in virtually every significant respect.” Ring and Cooper characterized Nancy’s case as the “strongest since it was backed up by independent witnesses and various forms of documentation.”69

Brad had been blind since birth. He had stopped breathing for a few minutes and then noticed himself looking down on his body in the bed. He described details of another person in the room with him who went to get help, then experienced himself going up through the ceiling and out of the building, where he observed the rooftop. He related that he could see clearly and described the scene outside of his home by providing many details, including very specific information regarding the snow on the ground and how it had been plowed into heaps. A streetcar also drove by. In another instance, Frank was a blind man who described the pattern of colors and designs on a necktie that he had received. Some of these details were confirmed in additional interviews.70

Ring and Cooper conducted extensive discussions with these blind individuals, including attempting to track down their stories with others who were present. Their conclusion was that “the blind persons in our study saw what they certainly could not possibly have seen physically. Our findings in this section only establish a putative case that these visions were factually accurate, and not just some kind of fabrication, reconstruction, lucky guess, or fantasy.”71 Others have also included NDE cases in the blind.72 Four more NDE cases in the blind were cited here, bringing the total count from these five categories so far to more than 300 evidential NDE cases.

Additional Evidential NDE Corroboration

One volume of reports makes it exceptionally difficult for NDE naysayers, for this text contains more than 100 confirmed NDE reports, adding many noteworthy cases to the overall numbers! According to the text’s researchers, the major criterion for the NDE accounts included in the volume was that each episode must have been “directly confirmed by at least one other person.”73 Such strict requirements make this text all the more valuable.

This new research contains fourteen corroborated cases from the vicinity of the NDEr, eighteen more accounts from a distance beyond the NDEr’s senses (sometimes very far away), plus more than thirty-six additional reports from cardiac arrest patients. These last heart-stoppage cases, of which there are more examples below, are certainly among the most impressive due to being states in which, “according to current materialist models, such perceptions should have been impossible.”74 Add to these testimonies a few dozen other cases that include shared NDEs, meeting deceased loved ones and friends while in the ND state, along with learning previously unknown information during NDEs. Additional “compound” cases are also included in this text, where NDEs were accompanied by physical healings, the acquisition of messages unaccompanied by spoken words, or other evidential occurrences. A total of sixty-six accounts in this work were not included in our earlier tallies.75 Along with several additional cases not previously mentioned so far, this would bring our total evidenced count from this essay alone to between 300 and 400 corroborated NDE cases across a wide variety of types and subtypes.76

There is much variety among the 100-plus corroborated cases in this last volume too, including some of the most evidential cases on record. For example, considering once again confirmed cases from inside the room, the NDE reports include an NDEr who suffered a cardiac arrest and did not respond to resuscitation attempts until he received a shot of epinephrine in his heart. He reported that he was “out of my body and floating above the trauma room.” Peering down from above, he observed a quarter perched on top of an eight-foot-tall medical machine underneath him. He told the physician about the quarter and that it was dated 1985. The physician took a ladder to the ICU, and while the nurses were watching, he retrieved the coin and verified that the date was exactly what the patient had recorded! The doctor later published the account!77

Another NDE patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest also related that she “had observed the room from above.” In the process she noted a long, twelve-digit number listed on top of a high medical machine beneath her, and, suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, memorized the number and repeated it to the nurse and others there, who wrote down the figure. When the patient no longer required the machine, a custodian set up a ladder, to dust the top, and then moved it out. The twelve-digit number was repeated, and it was the same figure that the witnesses had originally written down from the NDEr.78 Later, a nurse verified the story once again, stating that this incident was one of the most incredible occurrences that she had ever witnessed.79

Locating additional examples from this volume consists largely of choosing from among dozens of potentially impressive reports according to the researcher’s ideas of what would comprise the strongest scenarios. In another instance, a patient without heartbeat or brain activity for fully twenty to twenty-five minutes during hospital surgery correctly reported many details in the operating room such as an anesthesiologist who came rushing back into the room after having left as well as a collection of Post-it notes attached to the physician’s monitor that had accumulated during the surgery but were not present before the beginning of the operation. The patient was declared dead and the body was prepared for an autopsy with the chest basically remaining open. The patient’s wife was even informed of his death before his reviving spontaneously and making these accurate observations!

One of the attending cardiologists wrote that for “close to 20 minutes or more of no life, no physiologic life, no heartbeat, no blood pressure, no respiratory function whatsoever and then he came back to life and told us what was on the video . . . with no cardiac pulmonary movement or brain function . . . but it happened and I am a living witness of this case, I was there.” This physician added that while he had seen patients who still had some life in them and recovered, “in this case there was no life.” He also commended the chief attending cardiac surgeon who had given an exceptionally detailed medical account and then attested, “Dr. Ruby’s description of this event at the time of this patient’s surgery is absolutely correct . . . these are the facts.”80

In another case, a nurse who was present at a resuscitation attempt described a woman who had suffered a severe heart attack that had left her in a state of clinical death. The patient later reported occupying a location up above her body. While looking down from a corner of the room near the ceiling, she correctly reported a number of items, including an IV bottle that had accidentally smashed on the operating room floor, as well as watching as an especially prized hair clip belonging to the nurse fall onto the floor, getting stepped on, and broken. The patient even identified and provided a description of the particular physician who had accidentally broken the clip!81

Still another incident reported from outside the room involved a seventeen-year-old patient who was in a coma after a car accident left her with a severe brain injury, causing her to be flown to the ER. She reported having an NDE where she was up near the ceiling and then was still able to watch her family members, who were in the hospital cafeteria. Her father, a smoker, announced that he was going to light up a cigarette. Then the young woman watched her two grandmothers assert that they were also going to have a smoke with her father. Incredibly however, one of her grandmothers (identified as her mother’s mother) had never smoked in her entire life and had always proclaimed loudly over the years that no one would ever see her with a cigarette! Yet the patient witnessed the incident and told her mother that she had seen both of her grandmothers smoking, and her mother confirmed that this incident had indeed occurred.82

Another aspect of the overall state of the NDE evidence needs to be mentioned here too. While we have described many of the different directions and angles from which the NDE corroboration emerges, the fact ought not be missed that literally dozens of individual NDE cases mentioned or referred to here were confirmed by the presence of more than one species or kind of evidence each. The examples can be multiplied almost at will: two drowning girls and other similar instances without heartbeat while later providing complete sequential descriptions over a half hour or more; several cases of very long-distance observations from many miles away, at least three of which were also cardiac arrest cases, with one of these NDEs additionally being testified by a healthy person as having been a shared experience. The dozens of accounts during at least the probable absence of both heart and brain activity accompanied by evidence sometimes of more than one variety involve triple confirmations! Verification was provided in each of these cases.

Moreover, a few cases of blind NDErs (some from birth) have emerged, where they apparently “saw” items that were corroborated before reverting back to their previous blind states. In some of the many cardiac arrest patients that presented plentiful examples of accurately observed data, at least one of these NDErs was reportedly detected by another healthy person. This corroboration in other cardiac arrest cases came before resuscitation ever began. Other NDE testimonies came from occurrences clearly having occurred during the state of cardiac arrest. Then there are the accounts where numbers of specific objects located above the heads of those in the room below were accurately reported by cardiac arrest patients. Many other testimonies involve meeting deceased loved ones or friends whose deaths were unknown, but where sometimes rather startlingly accurate knowledge was also communicated. The prospect of explaining all these combinational accounts seems especially troublesome for NDE deniers.

Do NDEs Provide Actual Details regarding “Heaven” or the Nature of the Afterlife?

Many NDErs claim and even believe firmly that they have visited some sort of exceptionally peaceful heavenly realm. Could that actually have been the case? Can it be concluded that these NDErs were literally on the “other side,” or at least got a chance to see that realm whatever the exact nature or the location, imparting true conclusions about it? Could it also be the case that since many unbelievers, avowed atheists included, have also claimed to have witnessed otherworldly and even wonderful environments as well, these reports similarly constitute a warranted conclusion, with or without a conversion?83

While the testimonies on this subject are often quite moving as well as potentially convincing, a crucial distinction must be made. It needs to be remembered that almost every one of the 300 to 400 evidential NDEs mentioned or referred to above, with very few exceptions, concern confirmation pertaining to this world. And even those rare times where testimony may provide a veridical comment that may just impinge on another world or form of existence, it rarely reaches the detailed level of corroboration that is frequently heard in the stronger cases.

Potential testimonies from a “heavenly realm” could still possibly warrant consideration of some sort or another. However, by the criteria presented in this essay, such reports would need to be evidenced, rather than being the prevalent sorts of comments such as the incredible beauty of the music or the surroundings, ineffable feelings, heightened senses of awareness, or the correct identifications of heavenly figures such as Jesus, an angelic presence, or other religious figures. But the chief problem in these heavenly cases is that the comments are almost totally without corroborating evidence by which the instances might be evaluated.

One exception from the above reports might involve some of the cases where the NDEr reported comments from previously deceased individuals who sometimes died years earlier, where verifiable information is imparted. But in these cases, the focus is on the comments that may present confirmable details rather than the nature of the heavenly environment. Even if such long-deceased individuals may have added more generic comments concerning the environment, or even that they were doing well, these latter remarks could simply have been matters of the NDEr’s interpretation that were appended to the veridical statements within the testimonies.

To state the matter more succinctly, it is the evidential reports that are necessary. Other sorts of comments in whole or part may simply be the NDEr’s views or honest reflections. But except in the specific instances where the potential data can be checked, how else can it be ascertained as to which of the remarks or portions and snippets of otherwise reliable information can be known probabilistically to be correct and true?

Caution of a different sort needs to be inserted here as well. When reports or comments cannot be verified, this does not at all indicate automatically that all the imparted content is thereby false. Some or even all of the NDEr’s report still could be true. But as before, the issue becomes how it could be determined which portions might be true? How would these be known?

Thus, to proceed back to the original question, it would appear that very little of NDE comments could populate any potential information concerning the actual environment or other details pertaining to heaven. Again, there could be any number of true reports there, but none that could be known for sure. Personal feelings cannot be completely ignored, but neither can an individual’s unverified testimony be taken as evidence that details the afterlife existence. It may constitute a harsh reality, but unsubstantiated statements here are closer to one’s testimonies and beliefs. Anyone may of course listen and compose their own beliefs, but neither should these be propagated as established data.

The same evaluation would likewise seem to apply to testimonies regarding negative NDEs, including even grotesque, hellish accounts.84 As just stated, these experiences actually could be true in whole or in part, but like the other testimonies, there do not seem to be ways to demonstrate that this is the case.85

Thus, heavenly sights and sounds, common meetings with family members or other loved ones, though without corroboration, life reviews, or having positive, negative, or in-between experiences and feelings are interpersonal and are rarely supported by evidence—especially not like the degree that has been discussed throughout this appendix. Hence, while the experiences could have occurred in whole or in part and no doubt influence one’s personal views, they cannot be used with any probability to establish specific religious doctrines or falsehoods.

What follows from these ideas is that NDEs may point quite well to an afterlife of some sort but where distinguishing between individual religious perspectives fails to follow. Thus, members belonging to various religious persuasions can basically stand shoulder-to-shoulder and endorse the evidential NDEs as phenomena that, while they do not settle theological differences between them, still agree that these occurrences are among the best reasons that refute philosophical naturalism’s rejection of an afterlife. But NDEs cannot tell us which religious worldview is true, as in questions like Eastern versus Western views, universalism, syncretism, and so on. Many religious ideas are potentially compatible with the general afterlife truth of corroborative NDEs, which is the chief consideration here.

Besides the decided lack of documented data to confirm hardly any of the especially otherworldly elements of NDE accounts, a second factor is also known to be the case. There is a vast amount of data which indicate that cultural influences along with personal interpretations of the data do shape especially the heavenly aspects of how these experiences are described and interpreted. Examples abound here. The identifications of the presumed nonhuman heavenly beings (except, possibly, the generic concept of angels) perhaps head the list. Also prominent are the particular religious messages delivered later by NDErs, presumably through their own theological lenses. Further, particularly common experiences in some cultures, such as the sensation of traveling through a tunnel, appear to be absent in many Eastern contexts and are usually thought to be culturally inspired. Another example is whether male or female “human greeters” are more frequently reported during the NDE (often with large discrepancies being observed between cultures).86

Some researchers distinguish between primary, evidenced NDE features, which are more reliable, versus secondary ones that differ from culture to culture and according to other considerations like interpretations and “spins.”87 The differences between veridical factual reports and the interpretations drawn from them is exceptionally significant. Researchers agree that, in contrast to this-worldly, corroborated aspects of NDE consciousness, there is virtually no way to evidence the uncorroborated heavenly visions themselves.88

After assessing his own research computations regarding the differences between the more factual reports from the physical world and the NDErs’ cultural or religious interpretations, Sabom reported that “religious beliefs appear to affect the interpretation but not the content of the NDE.” Thus, NDErs often develop a deepening faith after their experience, but whether that change takes them in the direction of “Eastern religion, New Age spirituality, Christianity and so on—appears to be influenced by factors other than the NDE itself.”89 Sabom adds elsewhere that NDEs are therefore not indicators of who is “headed for heaven . . . and those headed for hell.” He continues, “Thus, I do not believe that there is compelling evidence that NDE content or type is an accurate diagnostic of a person’s religious beliefs, nor are they road signs pointing to a person’s ultimate destiny.”90 We have seen that other researchers listed in the notes above have reached similar conclusions especially regarding these cultural and interpretive factors.91

NDEs do provide some robust evidence for consciousness in near-death states, especially during more advanced stages, such as when neither the NDErs’ hearts nor their brains appear to be functioning, or when exceptional evidence is derived from previously deceased individuals. Many other veridical details have been presented as well. The number and variety of these cases are versatile enough to appeal to those who prefer different sorts of evidence in various situations accompanied by strong data. Cultural factors along with personal interpretations generally appear to give shape to these experiences.92 But alternative theses have been offered to challenge even the more evidential ideas, to which we turn now.

Naturalistic Rejoinders

It is not surprising that there also have been many attempts to argue for various natural alternate theses against such NDE testimonies, especially against the idea that some species of afterlife thesis may follow. Many scholars of a more naturalistic inclination would probably agree with agnostic philosopher Bertrand Russell concerning the connection between some concept regarding the existence of God and immortality as key ideas within the major religions.93 Thus, the incredible number of details drawn from NDE studies might be seen as potential challenges to various naturalistic positions. The connections between these religious ideas is not being pursued here, only that some of the reasons for opposing NDE data would initially resonate with many who oppose religion and its influence. This may account in large part for some of the chief opposition to NDEs.

Many scholars have examined thoroughly a large number of natural rejoinders in an effort to explain NDEs in completely normal terms. Other scholars have also compiled a wide variety of responses directed at these natural efforts researched by the most able NDE defenders today.94 While critics have attempted to disprove these NDE reports as nothing more than subjective experiences, hundreds of pages of both critiques and countercritiques have been offered. A number of the major pros and cons have already been introduced at the outset of this essay, drawn from the four-issue dialogue in the Journal of Near-Death Studies in 2007–2008. The real question is the outcome of this clash. Which position assembles the best retorts and establishes a clear advantage based on the available data? Some questions will help to point the way through the major issues.

For example, were the events that were recounted in ND reports witnessed personally by the NDEr during the event itself, or were they learned in some other way? It is undisputed that many of these corroborated ND reports clearly concern incidents that had occurred during the distressed medical states. But could all of these testimonies have been derived from naturally acquired information learned by some means other than observation via the actual NDE (perhaps through natural senses, or just before the resuscitation, or sometime after the particular occurrences took place)?

Quite clearly, many of the more than 150 evidential NDE accounts mentioned above and elsewhere from inside the room appeared to come from where the patient was positioned, containing many observations that were both specific as well as quite often being rather mundane, as opposed to the attention-grabbing, easily remembered reports from others. These evidential and correctly reported accounts cover a very wide variety of data: from readings on machine dials, to an unplugged medical device that no one but the NDEr had noticed, to a “bird-like,” arm-flapping surgeon in the operating room, to the proper location of misplaced dentures, to a nurse wearing plaid shoelaces, among many others. Other times, the nature and even the wording of jokes told to relieve tension inside the room were recounted, or the reporting of embarrassing incidents that transpired during the episode, while occasional ND experiences were reportedly even shared by other healthy persons in attendance.

Together, a simply staggering array of sometimes no more than “chance hypothesizing” would have to identify how these over 150 cases in the same room were not observed precisely during the time sequence when the individual thought that they saw or heard them. The point is that critics have to explain all the cases in this or another naturalistic way—none can be due to a real, veridical NDE. Nor should “maybes” and “perhaps” be continuously substituted for real data. Sure, “what ifs” sometimes do occur. But these responses are not on equal footing with observed data. That natural rejoinders can carry the day in each of the cases seems to be highly improbable.

Further, many observations clearly emanated from the vantage point and angle of the ceiling, precisely as claimed by the NDEr, who had no doubt they were looking down at themselves from above their bodies rather than relating normal comments that reflected eye-level observations. When ceiling-level, elevated viewpoints were frequently revealed in these reports, including corroborated information from that position, then the higher location has to be favored. This is especially the case when some of these reported items could only be seen from the upper angle, such as the several cases of looking down on accurately reported numbers.95

Moreover, studies such as Sabom’s included a control group consisting of twenty-five cardiac patients who had not experienced an ND episode plus other related data. Beyond this, 80 percent of the cardiac control group members made at least one major error in their imagined descriptions, whereas the NDErs’ descriptions were “accurate in all instances where corroborating evidence was available.”96 Penny Sartori likewise utilized a control group, with similar results to those of Sabom: while the NDE descriptions were highly accurate with some errors, those who had been resuscitated but without NDEs were exceptionally inaccurate.97

The indications drawn from evidenced reports precisely during the NDE itself, the elevated viewpoint and angle of many of the perceptions, and the mistakes by those who did not observe events from those heights all point in the direction of the testimony originating during the NDE episodes. Other suppositions are far less likely.

Could resuscitation attempts “wake” the brain just long enough for the patient to observe certain elements in the room by natural means? Medical experts have asserted that re-achieving consciousness does not occur in just seconds, but rather does not really return until after the heart has actually been restarted again, and for a long enough time to get past the initial confusion. Furthermore, in several cases, no resuscitation efforts at all had even been administered to the patient before the NDE observation, or such efforts had been discontinued before the NDE, clearly eliminating this particular natural option.98 In some cases, Parnia and Fenwick add that EEG activity may even take hours to return.99

Moreover, these natural retorts of dying or waking brains during CPR producing in-room data would not even apply to many or even most of the strongest NDE reports, such as all of those taking place over a distance, or when healthy persons share the NDEs, or to seeing deceased friends or loved ones who impart unknown information, or to experiences by blind persons—in other words, to an entire host of evidential scenarios.

Were any evidential reports observed precisely during the periods of “brain death”? This question must be addressed at more than one level. Increasingly, the most evidential NDE cases are usually thought to occur especially when confirmation is produced of occurrences during a state of cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation. It is exceptionally well documented that during such a condition, the heart stops and at least higher (cortical) brain activity usually ceases in a matter of just ten to fifteen seconds or so afterwards.100 Then even lower brain stem activity likewise ceases very shortly afterward.101 Besides, any lower-level brain activity that just possibly may be present for slightly longer than upper-level cortical consciousness—generally just seconds—would be insufficient to explain high-level consciousness anyway, including the clearest, most realistic experiences that NDErs have ever reported in their entire lives, not to mention the frequently reported confirmation.102

About three dozen cases were cited in this study during the time when verified data were reported after such cardiac arrests began, well beyond the very brief brain shutdown window that began just seconds later, and which was often prolonged for many minutes beyond that. Further, many of the reported and confirmed incidents themselves actually occurred precisely within these time periods, as mentioned.

These evidential confirmations included observations that were reported from a viewpoint and angle just above the body. These included exceptionally minute details, such as observing medical machine readings, hearing repeated frantic conversations pertaining to an arrested heart, observing details, identifying those who made the comments, observing the clothing worn, plus detecting accurately even the proper order of exact numbers that could only be seen from above. Often, sequences of these details were repeated end to end. Although in dozens of cases these accurate observations among others actually occurred precisely during this time when the heart and brain were apparently flatlining, what is the likelihood that the details in every single case were discovered some other way at another time, while almost magically fitting into just these exact intervals? Conversely, can these alternate suppositions themselves be demonstrated instead of being just guesses themselves?

Add to these observations that even fully operating, healthy brains still could not explain the more than 100 corroborative cases from a distance outside an individual’s line of physical sight that were mentioned in this essay or many of the over 300 total evidenced NDE observations cited here. Then there are still the other examples where the NDEr sometimes reported encountering a deceased individual where the meeting was also evidential in nature. Although the NDEr returned to normal life, the purportedly deceased person in the encounter had been finally dead for some time, often for many years.103 If this is indeed the best explanation for this last set of events, then these NDEs definitely extend far beyond the irreversible biological death of the deceased individual’s brain!

These last evidential considerations clearly bypass the issue of cardiac arrest altogether. Such confirmed cases along with many others simply increase the likelihood that at least some NDE accounts apparently report actual data from conscious states that most likely extend far beyond the death of the physical body including the brain. So the question of whether any NDEs extend during and beyond brain death may be answered affirmatively.

Several natural rejoinders to NDEs have been considered here, yet the majority of them do not need to be treated individually. Due to the very nature of the topic, NDEs have a powerful advantage over virtually all other supernatural-natural issues that are debated by scholars. Due to the nature of this subject, there is a theoretical line in the sand that is automatically built into this particular discussion. Many if not most alternative hypotheses, including the most prominent ones, postulate conditions that are internal to the individual NDEr, such as oxygen deprivation, temporal lobe seizure, drugs, exaggerations, false statements, hallucinations, or either a dying or a waking brain. That is, they rely chiefly upon the interior physiological conditions and/or psychological states of the NDEr’s mind or body. Thus, a large portion of NDE critiques depend upon subjective conditions mostly inside individuals, while often attempting simply to deny outside corroboration. Herein lies the chief rub for naturalists regarding these particular theses.

The central problem for the overall natural position, then, is that in this essay alone we have so far described or identified the sources for well over 300 cases of external circumstances which argue for the veracity of these NDEs. Many reports are drawn from the immediate or surrounding vicinity of the NDEr, while others are derived from a distance away, beyond the eyes and ears of everyone present and, most of all, beyond the senses of the NDEr herself. Some describe individual events and others involve a sequence of occurrences. Some of the NDEs are reportedly shared by healthy onlookers, and still others occur simultaneously. A few of the NDErs are blind, and others claim to have met deceased individuals who imparted evidential information that they and/or others did not know. Lastly, many NDEs are confirmed by multiple species of evidence.

Therefore, if even just a handful of key examples (let alone dozens) among these well over 300 evidential cases here accurately reported data from the “real world,” it would seem that the subjective theses attempting to explain away these experiences would then fail by a large margin to account for all of the key aspects of the reports. This is precisely what the NDErs themselves have always claimed all along, often based on no more than their personal experience alone!

Here’s the key: no matter what subjective, internal states the critics wish to discuss, by their very nature, objective, externally corroborated NDEs are unexplainable. Something that exists objectively—out there—cannot be refuted or denied by internal human issues.

In short, here is the single major problem with most if not virtually all natural theses against NDEs: they utterly fail to explain the evidential NDE cases. In order for the natural suppositions to work, almost every one of these 300-plus corroborative accounts cited here alone must be mistaken! But how likely is that, particularly given the careful scientific efforts to determine the accuracy of many dozens of them? But there must be no evidential remainder from the 300-plus cases if the natural challenge is to succeed, for by their nature, the internal suppositions are absolutely trumped by the external, evidential ones!

Since a plethora of well-evidenced NDEs cover so many different angles and circumstances, “shotgun” natural explanations are sometimes suggested too. Perhaps some of these events are due to interviews that are too old, or drawn from false memories, or the evidence may have been exaggerated or even consist of lies. These multiple suggestions could potentially explain some of the NDE data. But it is highly dubious and untenable that the more than 300 evidenced cases referred to in this chapter can be accounted for even by the totality of such suggestions. Many ND testimonies were shared or collected immediately upon the spot, or at least very soon afterwards, and many of the specific details were confirmed by a variety of witnesses who participated in the occurrences, in addition to other checks and balances. Many truly exceptional NDE instances were singled out and checked even more meticulously by researchers. These evidential cases need to be explained.

It would seem, then, that Augustine’s personal concession might come into play here, namely, that the presence of these sorts of confirmed NDE data, if they obtained, would both “contradict” his naturalistic thesis as well as indicate the likelihood of an afterlife.104 It was noted above that Blackmore and Potts also made similar comments if the NDE evidence were indeed accurate.105 Of course, these scholars do not think that they are mistaken.106 But this is a cautionary note to those who repeatedly close the naturalistic door that opposes NDE data seemingly no matter how great the quality or quantity of the corroborative reports that continue to accumulate. The tide seems clearly to have turned in recent years, and much further than many thought possible too. This is especially the case when such a wide variety and quality of different types of NDE reports emerge, all coming from different angles, particularly when multiple sorts of evidence affirm many of the accounts.

As with other somewhat similar debates, the naturalistic position certainly appears to occupy the far weaker position, and seemingly by a long shot in this case. Yet it simply seems that the lesser stance held by naturalists here is all that remains! The internal position is generally chosen while the claim is made that there are no true external evidences among the 300-plus NDE testimonies here, which appears to be a highly unlikely view. But what else can be said? This is precisely the line in the sand over which the natural positions appear to have tripped!107

Nonnatural Objections

Other alternative views may question whether NDEs lead to probable arguments for an afterlife without necessarily being naturalistic in nature. These positions often or even usually recognize the legitimacy of ESP/psi and similar phenomena. One view questions whether evidential information gained during NDEs may come from the minds of living persons who are privy to such reports such as via telepathy instead of from a future world.108 Another position also usually concedes psi data and even NDE reports while opting for impersonal versions of survival.109 These two positions will be critiqued briefly, especially regarding how these rivals might fare in relation to the data presented in this essay.

Versions of especially the initial view above have sometimes been referred to as “super-psi” views by which, narrowed for the purposes here, an individual such as an NDEr might gain what is concluded to be evidential information indicating an afterlife scenario when the report was actually derived subconsciously from the mind of a living individual who knew these details quite naturally, emphasized especially by Sudduth as “living-agent psi” (LAP).110 For example, an NDEr who reported accurately what a nurse told her family members in a hospital waiting room could potentially have received true information by telepathy from the nurse or from any of the other persons who knew it earlier but who were not deceased.

Both earlier as well as more recent versions of the super-psi hypothesis have been criticized regularly through the years as a sort of catch-all position whereby even legitimate psi phenomena could be extended virtually indefinitely to cover almost any postulated phenomena with a wave of the hand. Former atheist Brown University philosopher C. J. Ducasse nonetheless accepted the afterlife thesis and remarked in a much-reprinted essay that “this hypothesis has to be stretched very far.”111 More forcefully, former Oxford University philosopher H. H. Price asserted that the “Super-ESP” view requires that some persons have “ESP powers of almost unlimited scope” necessitating “much greater than our other evidence about those capacities would suggest.” Then he added further, “I do not think we have much other evidence to suggest that this sort of thing can be done even by very gifted ESP subjects,” noting that similar problems also arise for the cosmic memory (more impersonal) view.112

More recently, similar critiques of these ideas have been raised repeatedly, even regarding the more carefully construed arguments made by Sudduth. Especially in more popular and less cautious publications, ESP suppositions from living persons sometimes seem to be expressed as if almost any information may be projected and obtained at will, with the “justification” being the mere suggestion that this or that person could be the source. When there is a relevant example, it is often stretched too far so that psi by living persons too often lacks its own empirical evidence, especially as related to specifically NDE evidential situations, as just noted by Ducasse and Price.

Further, these theses have been judged to engage in special pleading, preferring exceptionally contorted and often roundabout explanations without passing rigorous evidentiary standards themselves, and they may be unfalsifiable as well. Even Keith Augustine rather stunningly commented, “Faced with compelling evidence for veridical paranormal perception during out-of-body NDEs, I think that the burden of proof would fall on proponents of a rather ad hoc, unfalsifiable, and blanket super-ESP hypothesis to demonstrate otherwise.”113 It also has been charged that ESP by living persons seems to be treated by much easier standards, while survival cases are challenged with minute supposals. Accordingly, philosopher Stewart Kelly states that living psi views are too often “challenged epistemically.”114

Moreover, even given the reality of LAP, many more commentators have remarked that attributing corroborated NDEs to living ESP is a much less likely option. When evaluating whether LAP or survival explanations can account better for these specific NDE scenarios, one finds that the best of the 300 NDE cases mentioned in this chapter alone present far more indications that they pertain directly to and favor strongly the afterlife thesis as the origination of the information.

For example, the NDE phenomena most generally occur in conjunction with apparent death, are often reported during the time without measurable heart or brain activity, include observations being reported from vantage points above the body, and note data from perspectives that seemingly require such angles. Conversely, informa-tion gathered from the minds of the living are not the best explanations of a twelve-digit figure or other numbers located out of sight except from above, or dozens of surgical procedures reported from the top-down angle.115 Almost meaningless information like designs on shoelaces worn during life-and-death situations, specific though irrelevant words that were spoken, and so on also seems to be a poor candidate for remembrance and retrieval. What about unknown information, such as an important machine in an operating room that no one noticed was unplugged until after the NDEr told the medical staff later to check for themselves? Further, evidential NDEs that reportedly involved previously deceased persons, including postmortem visions, where the imparted information was unknown to apparently anyone until it was reported by these deceased individuals, would appear to be especially difficult for the LAP view.

Countless ESP scenarios can be supposed, and more evidential NDE cases can be rehearsed as well. But it remains that in the specific ND arena, the afterlife scenario provides better and more specific explanations, especially when the LAP supposals do not present the same depth, adaption, and degree of evidence that are demanded of the NDErs.116 While appreciating many details of Sudduth’s more academic thesis, Edward Kelly holds that the survival view is stronger, especially in some of the specific areas just mentioned, such as in the evidential cardiac arrest cases and with crisis apparitions. Kelly also thinks that Ducasse’s argument for an afterlife even responded adequately to the auxiliary hypotheses proposed by Sudduth.117 Additional critiques have also been leveled at this initial position.118

The nonnatural option also mentioned above frequently concedes the reality of psi data and even afterlife scenarios, though opting for impersonal versions of survival after death. Sometimes this view is compared to Buddhist or Hindu ideas.

However, there are multiple avenues in which the NDE cases such as those developed throughout this chapter (though not repeated here) strongly favor personal survival interpretations in both evidential as well as subjective categories. More heavily evidential scenarios virtually always involve personal contact points in the physical world. The continuity of selfhood is maintained throughout, in that the very same person who has the NDE observes the evidential details and then reports them later as a continuous whole. Deceased family members are observed and are recognized immediately without question. Key personal elements do not change in the relevant cardiac arrest scenarios with apparent loss of measurable brain input. This would extend as well to the so-called Peak in Darien cases, where this personal continuity is maintained with deceased loved ones who are also recognized though a number had died years before, with memories intact, and who then imparted crucial data that are confirmed later by the NDEr. Often the NDEr’s personal memories are enhanced considerably.

Other subjective reports are at least helpful as well, such as nonevidential cases where the NDEr regularly views their bodies from above and concludes that they are dead, or mothers glimpsing their newborn baby below, or knowing that they must return to raise their children at home. Many other meetings without verifiable data include deceased loved ones who are said to greet them and similar scenarios. But in these and other situations, the deep impressions are often emotional meetings consisting of joyous recognitions, meaning that the NDEr at least believed that these events were profoundly personal.

Additionally, there are major philosophical problems for those who conceive of the afterlife in impersonal terms—what sort of confirmation could even obtain here? In a truly impersonal state, how could losing oneself or passing beyond the personal realm ever be verified? Besides this lack of evidence, how could a subjective state even be reported later if “one” is truly unaware of “oneself”? At this point, an accusation of utilizing Western logic often ensues! However, the dilemma here simply remains—how to distinguish one’s afterlife view so as to both make some sense as well as establish reasons for one’s position to be viable. This surely ought to be of concern in a chapter that from the outset evaluates potential afterlife evidence! The catch-22 on totally impersonal afterlife positions is that there is a distinct shortage of reportable evidence available. But conversely, if evidence is remembered and claimed afterwards, then some distinctions are being made by persons and the state is not totally impersonal.119 An additional point is that it is regularly denied that Eastern religions teach truly impersonal afterlife views in the first place!120

Granted, NDEs by themselves cannot determine the longevity of consciousness after death—this topic proceeds beyond this essay in that not even evidential NDEs are that far-reaching. Peak in Darien cases reported from many years later perhaps provide a hint. But at best, this is not eternal life. Additional indicators have been pursued in this regard, such as by Christians who attribute these beliefs to Jesus’s resurrection and its corollary arguments.121 Regardless, impersonal afterlife beliefs are not evidenced in the sense treated in this essay, so they do not help in establishing an impersonal afterlife.

At every turn, then, NDE data are quite personal. Truly impersonal afterlife beliefs do not produce verifiable evidence concerning that actual state, let alone that which approaches the degree of NDE corroboration. Further, the claim of impersonal afterlife distinctions is betrayed seriously in philosophical and scientific terms at more than one point.

Conclusion

The available evidence for NDEs seems clear enough to establish their evidential reality. Is one view to be favored above others according to this NDE evidence, with regard to the most likely concept of human nature? Options have been discussed in the NDE literature, for instance, by philosopher Mark Woodhouse.122 Some have argued more directly for the connection between NDEs and substance dualism.123

For starters at least, it seems safe to say that a very common impression among scholars and experiencers alike is that aspects of this research, such as the NDEr’s perception of leaving their body and looking down at it from above impresses many to posit some sort of a dualist perspective regarding one’s self and consciousness. This would seem to result from the manifestation of material and immaterial aspects of the self.124 That the NDEr identifies herself with the location of her consciousness up above, often without even initially recognizing the identity of the body below, furthers this notion.

While this seems to make the most sense of the present data, it has occasionally been pointed out that sometimes the remote viewing of the corroborated information by the stationary NDEr could favor more of a unified notion of the body, though this appears to be a minority position and it is seldom addressed. The NDE notions do provide some helpful empirical hints, and dualistic concepts often take key roles in the discussions to the extent that these issues are discussed.

Another major aspect seems clearly to emerge from these discussions as well. It often appears that the major underlying issue in these matters is very frequently not about straightforward dialogues regarding where the best evidence lies but is more about a momentous clash between worldviews. It quite often makes far more difference which position the debater already favored before the beginning of the discussion. If this is accurate, then it seems that even strong evidential considerations are less likely to change minds. In fact, once minds are made up, it is often simply amazing what sort of responses are often preferred just to keep from entertaining even the possibility of an afterlife.

For example, naturalistic worldviews have shown many signs in recent years of having major foundational fissures. Yet, it appears that many naturalists would say or do anything to keep from conceding one of the foremost planks in their platforms, such as the initial moments of an afterlife, which concerns the vast majority of the evidential accounts that have been addressed here. But ignoring the quickly mounting data regarding corroborated NDE incidents, or simply responding with guffaws to avoid such information, fails to refute the NDE argument.

Nonnaturalist options that question or deny a personal afterlife are held as well and have already been discussed above in some detail. While some of these views hold various areas in common with positions that espouse an afterlife, the personal view was found to be more favored by the evidence.125

Of the dozens of cardiac arrest examples mentioned or listed in this essay, a number included rather incredible evidential corroboration of observed details after the measurable cessation of heartbeat, cortical brain waves, and even lower-brain stoppage just slightly afterward. In other words, some NDE cases occurred as nearly as can be ascertained during the specific time during which each of these heart and brain processes were apparently nonfunctioning or had flatlined.126

These brain-termination stages occur roughly in tandem, an exceptionally brief time apart. Thereafter, the presence of meticulous and sequential evidenced reports have followed from the environment where the patient was located. On other occasions, confirmed details were observed from a distance away, clearly beyond the range of even a healthy patient’s physical senses. Adding to the mix have been reported corroboration from meetings with long-deceased friends and loved ones that were accompanied by additional, unknown information. A few cases also have been gathered from those who were blind, as well as other NDEs that appear to have been shared, witnessed, or corroborated by healthy onlookers, and so on.

This discussion encompassed more than just a few intriguing cases here and there. Clearly, so many multiple alternative explanations and extenuating “what if” scenarios would have to obtain to explain these hundreds of relevant cases, that naysayers rapidly reach a difficult impasse.

Additionally, alternative rejoinders clearly have not made as many gains in the most recent conversations. In fact, it could be argued that the number of medical NDE studies centering on alternative theses have largely become less plentiful in recent years, with the majority of essays clearly allowing for the possibility, if not the likelihood, of the NDE data. Further, when the NDE thesis is critiqued, too often comparatively little attention is devoted to the corroborative accounts anyway, and especially not to the best-established examples. This is very intriguing, especially when both sides in this debate, including some of the key opponents, have conceded the crucial importance of explaining the best-evidenced claims. When studying the various NDE accounts, especially those that were often investigated in demanding detail, the many cases across the spectrum are so exceptional that the ones left out of this study could almost as easily have replaced those that were included, with minimal loss of good data! There is simply a plethora of evidential cases backed by strong corroboration.

After all, these corroborated cases are precisely the keys to refuting both the natural and nonnatural alternatives to the NDE conclusions drawn here. The bottom line, then, appears to be this: these competing theses apparently do not come close to successfully explaining the well over 300 evidential cases narrated or listed here, especially the weightier sorts like those that have been identified above. These latter examples pack far more punch than do their alternate counterparts.127 This is precisely why, when speaking of the cardiac arrest cases accompanied by corroborated data, Rivas, Dirven, and Smit assert, “It is for this reason that the reliability of the kind of case that appears in this chapter is so fiercely challenged by materialists.”128 These authors add that if this domino falls, the critics know that their cause at this point is lost.129 Even while attempting not to overstate the strength of the overall case, major researchers have rated the NDE data as indicating the probable reality of consciousness at least beyond the initial cessation of heart and brain function.130

This is the meaning of the clear line in the sand mentioned above. It certainly seems as though the naturalistic and nonnaturalist responses above possess far less explanatory power, and their critiques are far more ad hoc. It often appears that those who hold opposed positions chiefly desire to preserve their worldview commitments at all costs no matter what, often featuring a strong dislike of any “spiritual” or “religious” options. But one thing seems clear: the alternative positions do not fare well when attempting to refute the hundreds of NDE evidential cases that rely on a core of rather minimal evidence. Hence, the alternative views are by far the weaker explanations here; it does not even appear to be a close comparison.131

Notes

1 A portion especially of the initial evidential section is edited and adapted from my essay “Evidential Near-Death Experiences,” in The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, ed. Jonathan Loose, Angus J. L. Menuge, and J. P. Moreland (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018), 227–46.

2 Besides these articles, Augustine develops similar ideas against dualism and the afterlife, along with Yonatan I. Fishman, in “The Dualist’s Dilemma: The High Cost of Reconciling Neuroscience with a Soul,” in The Myth of an Afterlife: The Case against Life after Death, ed. Michael Martin and Augustine (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015), 203–92, such as 203–4, 211–26, 253–71, 274, 277. Likewise, John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016). Less assertive than Augustine and Fishman is the essay by Mitchell-Yellin and Fischer, “The Near-Death Experience Argument against Physicalism: A Critique,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 21 (2014): 158–83, especially where possible concessions are made to the NDE argument (158–59, 163–69, 171–73, 180–82). Also Fischer, “Near-Death Experiences: To the Edge of the Universe,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 27 (2020): 166–91. Responses in the same issue of this journal that also emphasize the crucial importance of the corroborative NDE cases were made by Janice Miner Holden and M. Woollacott, “Reasonable People Can Disagree: A Response to ‘Near-Death Experiences: To the Edge of the Universe,’” Journal of Consciousness Studies 27 (2020); and Joseph Komrosky, “Challenging Physicalism with a Logical Analysis of Evidence for Near-Death Experiences with Out-of-Body Experiences,” Journal of Consciousness Studies 27 (2020).

3 Keith Augustine, “Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 25 (2007): 213–34.

4 Keith Augustine, “Near-Death Experiences with Hallucinatory Features,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 26 (2007): esp. 3–10, 17–30.

5 Keith Augustine, “Psychophysiological and Cultural Correlates Undermining a Survivalist Interpretation of Near-Death Experiences,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 26 (2007): 90–122.

6 Keith Augustine, “‘Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?’ Defended,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 25 (2007): specifically 268–70. Michael Potts’s study, cited by Augustine, is “The Evidential Value of Near-Death Experiences for Belief in Life after Death,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 20 (2002): 250–51.

7 Such as Bruce Greyson, “Comments on ‘Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?,’” Journal of Near-Death Studies 25 (2007): 237–38.

8 Augustine, “Does Paranormal Perception Occur,” 264, 269, 280.

9 Augustine, 269.

10 Susan Blackmore, Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences (Buffalo: Prometheus, 1993), 113, 125, 128, 262–63.

11 Augustine, “Does Paranormal Perception Occur,” 230–34.

12 Incidentally, in what Augustine terms a “hardly surprising development,” he ends this discussion by commenting that distant prayer “has absolutely no effect on the health of hospitalized patients,” as if to suggest that these prayer examples are “similar” (his word) and supportive of the lack of NDE results. Augustine, 234. Strangely enough, Augustine fails to mention several major peer-reviewed, double-blind prayer studies that oppose his comment here, published in medical journals before the appearance of his articles but which produced excellent results, such as Byrd, “Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer,”826–29 (see chap. 8, n. 83). Rather stunningly in the “Abstract” to this medical journal essay, Byrd declares, “These data suggest that intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God has a beneficial therapeutic effect in patients admitted to a CCU” (826). Cf. also Byrd with Sherrill, “On a Wing and a Prayer” (see chap. 8, n. 83), where Byrd likewise notes the statistically significant improvement in twenty-one of twenty-six monitored categories for the patients who received prayer (16)! See also Harris et al., “Remote, Intercessory Prayer,” 2273–78 (see chap. 8, n. 83). Moreover, Candy Gunther Brown approvingly notes these two studies along with other relevant research items in her volume Testing Prayer, esp. chaps. 2–6. This volume is endorsed on the dust cover by one present and another former member of the Harvard Medical School. This last point is not made to somehow “demonstrate” this thesis by citing key claims on its behalf, because such a conclusion would not follow, but rather to forestall the objection that findings such as these are somehow religious propaganda of some sort. Again, each of these medical articles was published before Augustine’s comments.

13 Michael B. Sabom, Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), 86.

14 Kenneth Ring and Madelaine Lawrence, “Further Evidence for Veridical Perception During Near-Death Experiences,” Journal of Near-Death Studies, 11 (1993): 223–29.

15 Some noncrucial details have been purposely changed so as not to share personal items.

16 Many precise details are reported in Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf H. Smit, The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences, ed. Janice Miner Holden, trans. Wanda J. Boeke (Durham, NC: International Association for Near-Death Studies, 2016), 105–9.

17 Melvin Morse with Paul Perry, Closer to the Light: Learning from Children’s Near-Death Experiences (New York: Random House, 1990), particularly 3–9.

18 Morse with Perry, 32–33.

19 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 109–12 (emphasis added).

20 Melvin Morse with Paul Perry, Transformed by the Light: The Powerful Effect of Near-Death Experiences on People’s Lives (New York: Random House, 1994), 201.

21 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 58–59.

22 Sabom, Recollections of Death, 86–115, also 64–75.

23 Bruce Greyson, “Comments on ‘Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?,’” 237–39.

24 Emily Williams Cook, Bruce Greyson, and Ian Stevenson, “Do Any Near-Death Experiences Provide Evidence for the Survival of Human Personality after Death? Relevant Features and Illustrative Case Reports,” Journal of Scientific Exploration 12 (1998): 399–400.

25 Janice Miner Holden, “Veridical Perception in Near-Death Experiences,” in The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences, ed. Janice Holden, Bruce Greyson, and Debbie James (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009), 187–211. Holden’s chart along with the list of these careful improvements are all found on 193–99.

26 Kenneth Ring and Evelyn Elsaesser Valarino, Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience (New York: Insight, 1998), chaps. 2–3, plus 224–26 present some even stunning cases.

27 Cook, Greyson, and Stevenson, “Survival of Human Personality after Death,” 384–99.

28 Sabom, Recollections of Death, chap. 7, plus 64–65.

29 Peter Fenwick and Elizabeth Fenwick, The Truth in the Light: Investigations of Over 300 Near-Death Experiences (London: Headline, 1995), 31–35.

30 Morse with Perry, Closer to the Light, 4–9, 24–26, 152–54; Melvin Morse, “Near-Death Experiences and Death-Related Visions in Children: Implications for the Clinician,” Current Problems in Pediatrics 24 (1994): 55–83.

31 Some of the sources cited by Holden at least seem to include still more cases, such as Morse, “Near-Death Experiences and Death-Related Visions in Children,” especially a few undescribed hints on 70–74; likewise in Morse and Perry, Closer to the Light, 32–36 (three examples), 51–55, 106–7 (two examples), 152–54. Additional cases are found in Morse with Perry, Transformed by the Light, 114–18 (two examples), 180–81, 201. After the publication of Holden’s excellent list, many more researchers have published additional evidenced NDE reports, as mentioned throughout this chapter, such as Chris Carter, Science and the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2010); Long with Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife, which provides nine arguments for an afterlife based on NDE testimony, chaps. 3–11; Jeffrey Long with Paul Perry, God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience (New York: HarperCollins, 2016). An outstanding overview of sources, along with many evidential examples and responses to skeptical objections is provided by J. Steve Miller, Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain English (Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek, 2012). Holden has also been responsible for additional studies in these areas, one example of which is the excellent volume above that she edited, The Self Does Not Die (2016).

32 Further documentation is provided below. For now, the testimony of cardiologists and others is found in Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, esp. 55–58.

33 As well as outside the room in many of these instances, as documented below. Specific examples are provided in Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, esp. cases 3.6 (62), 3.7 (62–68), 3.8 (68), 3.9 (68–70), 3.10 (70–71), 3.11 (71–78), 3.12 (78–79), 3.13 (80), 3.14 (81), 3.15 (81–82), 3.16 (82–83), 3.17 (83–84), 3.18 (84–86), 3.19 (86–87), 3.20 (87–88), 3.21 (88–89), 3.22 (89–90), 3.24 (90–91), 3.25 (91–92), 3.26 (92), 3.27 (93), 3.28 (93–95), 3.29 (95–104), 3.30 (104–5), 3.31 (105–9), 3.32 (109–12), 3.33 (112–13), 3.34 (113–14), 3.35 (114–16), 3.36 (116–20).

34 Blackmore, Dying to Live, 125–33.

35 Kimberly Clark Sharp, “The Other Shoe Drops: Commentary on ‘Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?,’” Journal of Near-Death Studies 25 (2007): 245–50; Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 32–34; Greyson 2016, personal communication; Sharp, 1994, personal conversation (twice).

36 Blackmore, Dying to Live, 127–28.

37 Ring and Lawrence, “Further Evidence for Veridical Perception,” 226–27.

38 Morse, “Near-Death Experiences and Death-Related Visions in Children,” 61; Morse with Perry, Closer to the Light, 6–7; Morse with Perry, Transformed by the Light, 22–23.

39 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 42–43. The physician who investigated this case further was Barbara R. Rommer, Blessing in Disguise: Another Side of the Near-Death Experience (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 2000), 5–7. Rommer asserted that Tony “was clinically dead for thirty minutes” (5) and mentioned this case under the heading “Objective Evidence.”

40 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 159–60, 165–67.

41 Bruce Greyson, Emily Williams Kelly, and Edward F. Kelly, “Explanatory Models for Near-Death Experiences,” in The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation, ed. Janice Miner Holden, Bruce Greyson, and Debbie James (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009), 230.

42 Bruce Greyson, “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died: ‘Peak in Darien’ Experiences,” Anthropology and Humanism 35 (2010): 159–71.

43 Pim Van Lommel, R. van Wees, V. Meyers, and I. Efferich, “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands,” Lancet 358 (2001): 2039–45.

44 Penny Sartori, Paul Badham, and Peter Fenwick, “A Prospectively Studied Near-Death Experience with Corroborated Out-of-Body Perceptions and Unexplained Healing,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 25 (2006): 69–84.

45 Cook, Greyson, and Stevenson, “Survival of Human Personality after Death,” 377–406.

46 Emily Williams Kelly, Bruce Greyson, and Ian Stevenson, “Can Experiences Near Death Furnish Evidence of Life after Death?,” Omega 40 (2000): 513–19.

47 Long with Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife, 208n9.

48 Morse with Perry, Transformed by the Light, such as 116–18, 180–81.

49 Sabom, Recollections of Death, 111–13.

50 Marvin Ford with Dave Balsiger and Don Tanner, On the Other Side (Plainfield, NJ: Logos, 1978), 178–80.

51 In Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, these examples include cases 3.13 (80–81), 3.15 (81–82), 3.22 (89–90), 3.31 (105–9), and 3.33 (112–13). Note that in each of these five examples, there were confirmed reports both in the room as well as outside of it, hence these cases were included in the earlier list (endnote 27) as well.

52 Some of this wide variety of additional cases includes more accounts in Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die: cases 2.2 (31–32), 2.5 (35–36), 2.6 (36–37), 2.12 (42–43), 3.32 (109–12), 5.5 (140–41), 7.3 (159–60), cf. 3.1 (58–59).

53 Greyson, “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died,” 162. There are some similarities here to Emily Williams Kelly, “Near-Death Experiences with Reports of Meeting Deceased People,” Death Studies 25 (2001): 229–49, esp. 239.

54 Greyson, “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died,” 162–69.

55 Kenneth Ring, Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience (New York: Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan, 1980), 207–8; Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012), 162–64, 168–69; Morse, Transformed by the Light, 114–15; editor John Myers includes at least one older, anecdotal example that involved a total of three persons who died at the same time in various parts of the United States, with the details being confirmed in follow-up investigating; see Voices from the Edge of Eternity (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1971), 97–99. Gary Habermas and J. P. Moreland also reported earlier a number of these same cases; see Beyond Death, 162–64 (see chap. 4, n. 37); see also the earlier edition, Immortality: The Other Side of Death (Nashville: Nelson, 1992), 78–80.

56 Pim Van Lommel, “About the Continuity of Our Consciousness,” Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 550 (2004): 122.

57 Greyson, “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died,” 167.

58 Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond (New York: Macmillan, 2021), 132–33.

59 Such as Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, case 5.5 (140–41); Van Lommel, “About the Continuity of Our Consciousness,” 122; Maurice Rawlings, Beyond Death’s Door (Nashville: Nelson, 1978), 17–23.

60 In Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, case 5.5 (140–41). During her NDE, the cardiac-arrested person reported being with a brother she did not know she had but was told subsequently that he had died approximately thirty or more years earlier. In Rawlings, Beyond Death’s Door, 17, 21, the cardiac-arrested individual reported meeting the deceased person who had died about forty-seven years previously, though the NDEr had never met or even seen a photograph of the person, but identified her immediately when shown a group photo. Van Lommel’s previous account concerned an NDEr who had met and correctly identified his biological father, whom he had previously known nothing about and who had been deceased for many years. See “About the Continuity of Our Consciousness,” 122. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross relates one of her cases of a girl who recounted meeting a brother she did not know she had, who she found out later had died twelve years earlier; see On Children and Death (New York: Macmillan, 1983), 208; see also Kübler-Ross, On Life after Death (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed, 2008), 28. Alexander explains that during his NDE, he had met his own biological sister who had died as an adult some ten years earlier, though he had not previously known that due to his adoption as a child and having lived with another family. See Alexander, Proof of Heaven, 162–64, 168–69.

61 Greyson, “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died,” 169.

62 Morse, Transformed by the Light, 168–70, 173–80, where many different sorts of accounts are narrated; Morse, “Near-Death Experiences and Death-Related Visions in Children,” 72; L. Houlberg, “Coming out of the Dark,” Nursing 22, no. 2 (February 1992); Miller, Near-Death Experiences as Evidence, particularly 66–68.

63 Morse, Transformed by the Light, 170–74; Morse, “Near-Death Experiences and Death-Related Visions in Children,” 72–73.

64 Raymond Moody with Paul Perry, Glimpses of Eternity: Sharing a Loved One’s Passage from This Life to the Next (New York: Guideposts, 2010), 11–12, 77, 80, 81. The story is also retold in Miller, Near-Death Experiences as Evidence, particularly 66–67.

65 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, case 3.32 (109–12).

66 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, containing two examples: case 4.3 (129–32) and case 7.6 (165–67); Morse, Closer to the Light, two more possible examples: 127–28, 130–32; Morse, Transformed by the Light, for a half dozen more possible accounts, 174–80.

67 Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper, “Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind: A Study of Apparent Eyeless Sight,” Journal of Near-Death Studies 16 (1997): 101–47. The account of Vicki’s NDE is reported on 108–12, 114.

68 A more detailed and slightly more evidential study is presented in Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper, Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind (Palo Alto, CA: William James Center for Consciousness Studies, 1999), especially the treatment of the visual aspects (chap. 4, 41–96) and corroborative evidence (chap. 5, 97–120). Vicki’s initial case above, where she described her two deceased friends, is found on 41–59 (esp. 45–47), 50–51, 55, including a limited amount of confirmation.

69 Ring and Cooper, 109–20, quotations on 115, 117, 109 respectively.

70 Ring and Cooper, “Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind,” with these two cases on pages 112–14 and 120–22 respectively.

71 Ring and Cooper, 124. Similar conclusions are also found in Ring and Cooper, Mindsight, 97, 120 (the latter chiefly concerning Nancy’s case).

72 Such as Miller, who provides some cases drawn especially from Van Lommel plus Ring and Cooper. See Near-Death Experiences, 70–73.

73 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, xxvii.

74 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, 126.

75 Confirmed in personal correspondence from editor Janice Miner Holden, 2016.

76 As noted above, a number of these cases were also cited in Habermas, “Evidential Near-Death Experiences,” 238–39, along with several cases drawn from my own research collection that have been added here. These totals reflect only the counts that are mentioned or cited in this chapter, rather than a total from all NDE literature.

77 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, case 2.6 (36–37).

78 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, case 2.5 (35–36).

79 As confirmed in an interview afterward.

80 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, case 3.11 (71–78), where the long answers are written out in great detail.

81 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, case 3.9 (68–70).

82 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, case 2.14 (44).

83 As in Burris Jenkins with Jess E. Weiss, “I Was an Atheist—Until I Died,” in The Vestibule, ed. Jess E. Weiss (New York: Pocket, 1972), 29–39. Burris’s account involved some mild confirmation of the physical world (34, 36) along with a conversion from atheism to Christianity (35–37). Perhaps the best known of these testimonies from a former atheist to Christianity is the truly fascinating account by Howard Storm, My Descent into Death: A Second Chance at Life (New York: Doubleday, 2005).

84 Nancy Evans Bush, a recognized authority in this subarea of NDE study, helpfully delineates several types of negative or hellish NDEs. These might include a range from frightening or disturbing NDE elements, to experiences of despair and meaninglessness, all the way to rather classic hellfire reports, including demons and dark pits (71–72). Various studies reported by Bush report quite a wide range of the percentages of those who experience these and similar negative states. The actual, reported research extends anywhere from several reports with no such negative cases at all, to percentage measurements of these distressing cases such as the following: 12 percent, 15 percent (2 studies), 18 percent, 20 percent, 23 percent, 29 percent, 33 percent, 60 percent, and two overviews where the numbers were apparently much higher but where percentages were not provided. These accounts included varying numbers of participants, with Bush noting that surveyors recognized that many who had these experiences often “notoriously” avoided listing or discussing them (70), that at least some early researchers themselves did not want to ask or know about these distressing examples (71), and that these experiences “are underreported” (81)! Bush’s conclusion is that the actual percentages of negative reports are possibly best estimated as being somewhere in the mid- to high-teens (81). See Bush, “Distressing Western Near-Death Experiences: Finding a Way through the Abyss,” in Holden, Greyson, and James, Handbook of Near-Death Experiences, 63–86. Another more recent treatment that reviews what is known about these phenomena is Nancy Evans Bush and Bruce Greyson, “Distressing Near-Death Experiences: The Basics,” in The Science of Near-Death Experiences, ed. John C. Hagan (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2017), 93–101.

85 Bush also seems to state at least a similar conclusion in “Finding a Way through the Abyss,” 81, as do Bush and Greyson, “Distressing Near-Death Experiences,” 100.

86 Comments such as these may be observed in the research of many observers, such as Sabom, Recollections of Death, 184–86; Michael Sabom, Light and Death: One Doctor’s Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 134–37, 140–46, 213–14; Bush, “Finding a Way through the Abyss,” 100; Morse, Transformed by the Light, 119–20; Long with Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife, 158; Miller, Near-Death Experiences as Evidence, 41, 97–98, 148, 195n23; Habermas and Moreland, Beyond Death, 178–80. Cf. Karlis Osis and Erlendur Haraldsson, At the Hour of Death (New York: Avon, 1977), 92, 193–94, 198. A number of authors in Holden, Greyson, and James, Handbook of Near-Death Experiences, also affirm these items, including the following: Bush, “Finding a Way through the Abyss,” 69, 81; Janice Miner Holden, Jeffrey Long, and B. Jason MacLurg, “Characteristics of Western Near-Death Experiences,” 120; Allan Kellehear, “Census of Non-Western Near-Death Experiences to 2005: Observations and Critical Reflections,” 135, 140–42, 150; cf. 130–31; Greyson, Kelly, and Kelly, “Explanatory Models for Near-Death Experiences,” 148, 214–15. Two critics with opposite perspectives from one another also agree with many of the cultural conclusions mentioned here: H. Leon Greene, If I Should Wake before I Die: The Medical and Biblical Truth about Near-Death Experiences (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1997), 109–10, 113–14, 204; Blackmore, Dying to Live, 115–20, 134. For detailed critiques of both Greene and Blackmore, see Habermas and Moreland, Beyond Death, chap. 9, particularly 200–218.

87 Such as Bush and Greyson, “Distressing Near-Death Experiences,” 100; Long with Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife, 141, 169; Morse, Transformed by the Light, 119; cf. Osis and Haraldsson, At the Hour of Death, 190, 193.

88 Sabom, Recollections of Death, 238–39; Ring, Life at Death, 238–39; Bush and Greyson, “Distressing Near-Death Experiences,” 100.

89 Sabom, “The Shadow of Death (Part Two),” in the Christian Research Journal 26 (2003): 42–51, quotation on 46; cf. the synopsis on page 45. Part one of this article appears in Christian Research Journal 26 (2003): 12–21.

90 Sabom, Light and Death, 214.

91 Additional related research has been cited by Habermas and Moreland, Beyond Death, esp. 178–80, 217–18.

92 So the presence of subjective aspects here is of no help to various postmodern or other efforts to overemphasize these interpretive elements in all religious or other respects, since the strong evidence for an afterlife of some sort would provide one of several exceptionally powerful building blocks in such religious discussions.

93 As seen in Russell’s often-anthologized 1927 lecture, “Why I Am Not a Christian,” in Pathways to Philosophy: A Multidisciplinary Approach, ed. Douglas W. Shrader and Ashok K. Malhotra (Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996), 300–308, especially 300–301, 304. Similar ideas are mentioned in Russell, Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind (New York: Avon, 1960), 19–21.

94 Discussions of various perspectives are contained in the following studies: Blackmore, Dying to Live, 4–8, 50–53, 106–12, 114, 202–25, 261–64; Michael N. Marsh, Out-of-Body and Near Death Experiences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), esp. chaps. 7–9; Michael Marsh, “The Near-Death Experience: A Reality Check?,” Humanities 5, (2016): 1–25; Edward F. Kelly, review of Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences by Michael N. Marsh, in Journal of Scientific Exploration 24 (2010): 729–37; Greyson, Kelly, and Kelly, “Explanatory Models for Near-Death Experiences,” 214–34; Ring, Life at Death, 206–17; Sabom, Recollections of Death, 151–78; Morse with Perry, Closer to the Light, 183–93; Miller, Near-Death Experiences as Evidence, 31–48, 105–8; cf. Osis and Haraldsson, At the Hour of Death, 45–59. The critiques and responses by Augustine and many NDE researchers have already been addressed earlier in this chapter.

95 On Sabom’s testing these NDErs’ perceptions, see Recollections of Death, 113–15.

96 Sabom, 71, 113–15, 184.

97 Sartori, The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients: A Five Year Clinical Study (Lewiston, NY: Mellen, 2008); also Long, Evidence of the Afterlife, 71.

98 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 120–23; Long, Evidence of the Afterlife, 80.

99 Sam Parnia and Peter Fenwick, “Near Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest: Visions of a Dying Brain or Visions of a New Science of Consciousness,” Resuscitation 52 (2002): 5–11, particularly 7.

100 See especially Jaap W. De Vries, P. F. Bakker, G. H. Visser, J. C. Diephuis, and A. C. van Huffelen, “Changes in Cerebral Oxygen Uptake and Cerebral Electrical Activity During Defibrillation Threshold Testing,” Anesthesia and Analgesia 87 (1998): 16–20; M. J. Aminoff, M. M. Scheinman, J. C. Griffin, J. M. Herre, “Electrocerebral Accompaniments of Syncope Associated with Malignant Ventricular Arrhythmias,” Annals of Internal Medicine 108 (1988): 791–96; R. Pana, L. Hornby, S. D. Shemie, S. Dhanani, J. Teitelbaum, “Time to Loss of Brain Function and Activity During Circulatory Arrest,” Journal of Critical Care 34 (2016): 77–83, particularly 77, 82; Pim Van Lommel, “Near-Death Experience, Consciousness, and the Brain: A New Concept about the Continuity of our Consciousness Based on Recent Scientific Research on Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest,” World Futures 62 (2006): 134–51, esp. 138–41, 148–49; Van Lommel et al., “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest,” 2039–45, particularly 2043–44; Bruce Greyson, “Western Scientific Approaches to Near-Death Experiences,” Humanities 4 (2015): 775–96; Greyson, personal communication, August 21, 2016; Parnia and Fenwick, “Near Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest,” esp. 5–7, 9–10; Sabom, “The Shadow of Death (Part Two),” 15, 19, 21n39; Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 55, 58, 124–25; Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary, The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 154, 156–57; Long with Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife, 102, cf. 104.

101 Van Lommel, “Near-Death Experience, Consciousness, and the Brain,” esp. 138, 141; Parnia and Fenwick, “Near Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest,” 6, 9; Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, esp. 55, 124, according to comments from cardiologists.

102 Greyson, personal communication, August 21, 2016; Sabom, personal communication, 2006; Van Lommel, “Near-Death Experience, Consciousness, and the Brain,” 138–39; Van Lommel et al., “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest,” 2044; Parnia and Fenwick, “Near Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest,” 6, 9–10; Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 55–56.

103 Greyson, “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died”; Kelly, “Near-Death Experiences with Reports of Meeting Deceased People.”

104 Augustine, “Does Paranormal Perception Occur,” 69.

105 Blackmore, Dying to Live, 262; Potts, “Evidential Value of Near-Death Experiences,” 250–51.

106 To their credit in the sources immediately above, Blackmore, Potts, and Augustine, to greater or lesser extents, each acknowledge that future evidence could continue to challenge their theses as well.

107 The claim may be made that this evaluation is too positive, with NDE testimonies being taken too straightforwardly. Yet much care has been taken throughout to employ dozens of caveats. Further, it has been explained that all evaluations here are probabilistic in nature. The critical comebacks have also been entertained. In probabilistic terms, it is difficult to know what else can be concluded here.

108 One example is Michael Sudduth, A Philosophical Critique of Empirical Arguments for Postmortem Survival (New York: Macmillan, 2016).

109 As with some examples in Edward F. Kelly, Adam Crabtree, and Paul Marshall, eds., Beyond Physicalism: Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015).

110 Sudduth, Philosophical Critique, outlined on 18–20. It should be noted that Sudduth eschews the “super-psi” moniker as being a rather derogatory reference.

111 C. J. Ducasse, “Is Life after Death Possible?” (1948), in John R. Burr and Milton Goldinger, eds., Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, 4th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1984), 389.

112 H. H. Price, “Problem of Life after Death” (1968), in William L. Rowe and William J. Wainwright, eds., Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings, 3rd ed. (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace, 1998), 534.

113 Augustine, “Does Paranormal Perception Occur,” 280. Similar comments are made by Augustine and Fishman, “Dualist’s Dilemma,” 282n52.

114 Besides Ducasse, Price, and Augustine, see also the careful nuance in detail provided by David Kelly, review of A Philosophical Critique of Empirical Arguments for Postmortem Survival by Michael Sudduth, in Journal of Scientific Exploration 30 (2016): 591–92; the many details provided in the discussion by Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 226–32, 236–37; correspondence with Stewart Kelly referring to Sudduth and similar views, dated February 21, 2021.

115 It is relevant here that even though the members of Sabom’s control group were veteran open-heart survivors sometimes with vast experiences with the relevant procedures, their descriptions were significantly less accurate than those who reported that they actually viewed their own situations from above; see Sabom, Recollections of Death, 83–86.

116 Ducasse, “Is Life After Death Possible?,” 382, 387–89; Price, “Problem of Life after Death,” 533–38; Beauregard and O’Leary, Spiritual Brain, cf. 168–71 with 152–56; Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 221–22, 227–30, 234–36; Habermas and Moreland, Beyond Death, 191–97; correspondence from philosophers who research in these areas, including William Hasker, January 20, 2021; J. P. Moreland, January 18, 2021; Jeffrey Koperski, January 22, 20/21, and Stewart Kelly, January 22, 2021.

117 In David Kelly, review of A Philosophical Critique (by Sudduth), 591–92, 594.

118 Other evaluations can only be sketched here. Some agree that this view involving living psi could be exceptionally difficult for naturalists to explain. But researchers have also remarked that dualists need not have problems with the majority of the LAP assertions. Worldview perspectives must likewise be addressed because positions favoring theism on other grounds, for example, could alone provide additional pathways though these charges. Some philosophers have issues with the configuration of Bayes’s Theorem in that how prior probabilities are figured could skew Sudduth’s thesis by themselves. Various of these comments are found in Augustine, “Does Paranormal Perception Occur,” 264, 269, 280; J. P. Moreland, “The Soul and Near-Death Experiences: A Case for Substance Dualism,” in Beck and Licona, Raised on the Third Day, chap. 2; William Hasker’s treatment in the Notre Dame Philosophical Review: An Electronic Journal, November 30, 2015, https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/the-myth-of-an-afterlife-the-case-against-life-after-death/; David Kelly, review of A Philophical Critique (by Sudduth), 588, 593; philosopher Neal Grossman as cited by Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 228–32; also 227, 234; additional correspondence from Hasker, January 20, 2021; J. P. Moreland, January 18, 2021; Jeffrey Koperski, January 22, 2021, and Stewart Kelly, January 22, 2021.

119 Quite notably, even from a very sympathetic scientific position, physicist Fritjof Capra states that science cannot go as far as this impersonal realm. This critique is clear—we cannot have it both ways. The Tao of Physics, 2nd ed. (New York: Bantam, 1983), esp. 127–29. As J. P. Moreland states from a different angle, “The epistemological argument, if successful, shows that the denial of an enduring self is guilty of self-referential inconsistency.” See Moreland, “An Enduring Self: The Achilles Heel of Process Philosophy,” Process Studies 17 (1988): 193–99; see also William Hasker, “Resurrection and Mind-Body Identity: Can There Be Eternal Life Without a Soul?,” Christian Scholar’s Review 4 (1975): 319–25; Beauregard and O’Leary, Spiritual Brain, 153–57.

120 Rune E. A. Johansson, The Psychology of Nirvana (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970), 13, 55–59, 112, 130–32; Frederick H. Holck, ed., Death and Eastern Thought (Nashville: Abingdon, 1974), 14–16, 101–2, 121–30, 193–94; Farnáz Ma‘súmián, Life after Death: A Study of the Afterlife in World Religions (Oxford: Oneworld, 1995), 50, 116–17; Harold Cowan, ed., Life after Death in World Religions (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997), 76, 89; Christopher Jay Johnson and Marsha G. McGee, eds., How Different Religions View Death and Afterlife (Philadelphia: Charles, 1991), 44–48, 52, 93, 170, 195–201, 209–16, 224, 324; cf. other religious views, 195–201, 209–16.

121 Such as Habermas, Risen Jesus and Future Hope, chaps. 4–6 (see chap. 2, n. 33). As a side note, the argument for Jesus’s resurrection and beyond that in this source is based on the “minimal facts” that are well evidenced and hence accepted as historical even by very skeptical biblical specialists. In its own way, the argument here for evidential NDEs has likewise been based on a minimal foundation of data that favor after-death consciousness.

122 Mark Woodhouse, “Near-Death Experiences and the Mind-Body Problem,” Anabiosis: The Journal for Near-Death Studies 1 (1981): 57–65.

123 Such as Moreland, “Soul and Near-Death Experiences,” 15–36; Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 238.

124 Woodhouse, “Near-Death Experiences and the Mind-Body Problem,” 61–63.

125 See Habermas and Moreland, Beyond Death, chaps. 8–9 for more details, including specific critiques of some “nonnaturalistic” options.

126 Specific details are reported in Van Lommel et al., “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest,” 2043–44; Parnia and Fenwick, “Near Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest,” 6–10; Van Lommel, “Near-Death Experience, Consciousness, and the Brain,” 138–42, 148; Sabom, “Shadow of Death (Part Two),” 15, 19, 21, endnote 39; Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 125; Long with Perry, Evidence of the Afterlife, 102.

127 See Long’s insightful comments at this point in God and the Afterlife, 194.

128 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, Self Does Not Die, 123.

129 Rivas, Dirven, and Smit, 240.

130 Sabom’s conclusion is that this overall case is “highly probable”; see Sabom, “Shadow of Death (Part Two),” 50. Greyson has also made some strong evidential statements, as we have seen in Greyson, “Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died,” 169. Long makes some of the strongest comments of all in Evidence of the Afterlife, 124, 201–2, including that the overall evidence for God and an afterlife is “overwhelming” (196).

131 The author wishes to thank longtime friends and NDE researchers Bruce Greyson, Mike Sabom, and Jan Holden for their exceptionally helpful discussions, information, and bibliographic support through the years as well as during this research, though without necessarily implying their agreement with me in the comments here.

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