        |
|
Previous
Page
Back
to
Table of Contents
Next
Page
Debunking PseudoSkeptical Arguments of Paranormal Debunkers
Argument
# 23: The
Dying Brain
Hypothesis for Near Death Experiences.
Stated as: “Near
death experiences
(NDE's) are hallucinations caused by the stress of an oxygen-deprived
dying brain.”
This
argument, called the Dying
Brain Hypothesis,
is purported by
many skeptics and materialists.
NDE
Skeptic and
The main
criticism of her
work by other NDE experts tends to be that she dismisses the vast data
that doesn’t
fit into her hypotheses.
NDE author
Kenneth Ring, who wrote Lessons
from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience
pointed
this out in an
article he wrote for the Winter 1995 issue of the Journal
of
Near-Death
Studies.
Although
many features of
the NDE can be explained by neurological or physiological processes,
this
doesn’t explain the message being sent.
In fact, the neurological
effects could just be the result effects of
the NDE, rather than the cause.
Perhaps
the TV/radio analogy to the NDE helps explain this best.
As
Kevin Williams of www.near-death.com
explains:
“Such
reductionism, however, may only be explaining
the mechanism of the near-death experience, not necessarily the
near-death
experience itself. In the same way, it is possible to reduce a
television set
to its basic elements such as electrodes and tubes, but one cannot
satisfactorily explain the television show being played on it using
reductionist terms. Concerning the chemical basis of the near-death
experience
and using this television analogy, if the brain can be thought of as a
television set, then the near-death experience can be thought of as the
television show being played on it. Science maybe able to quantify
everything
concerning the television set components (i.e. the brain), but science
is
unable to satisfactorily quantify the television show being played on
it (i.e.
the near-death experience).”
There are
several convincing
categories of evidence to suggest that NDE’s are not just
mere hallucinations
caused by a brain that is shutting down.
For more on this, see http://www.near-death.com. These
tend to be ignored or dismissed by
Blackmore and others who support the Dying Brain Hypothesis:
1) First
and most importantly, there are many well documented cases
where the NDEer while out of body were able to see specific details and
hear
conversations in other rooms and far away places that they
couldn’t have known
about beforehand, and yet upon returning to the body find that what
they saw or
heard was in fact verified to be accurate and true.
This
is a phenomena that skeptics and
materialists still haven’t been able to explain away no
matter how hard they
try.
Blackmore herself knows about
these
cases and even mentions them in her book, but she dismisses it simply
by
stating that she doesn’t believe them.
This of course reflects the
closed mental model of skeptics who dismiss
facts and data that don’t fit into their hypotheses.
If
NDE’s and OBE’s were just dreams or
hallucinations, then these perceptions at a distance wouldn’t
turn out to be
accurate.
The separation of spirit from
body or the mind’s ability to remote view are the best
hypotheses that fit this
well documented data.
One famous example
of this is the case of a nurse named Kimberly Clark.
Talbot
describes this incident in The
Holographic Universe: (page
231-232)
“Such facts
notwithstanding, no amount of statistical
findings are as convincing as actual accounts of such experiences. For
example, Kimberly Clark, a hospital
social worker in
Maria told
Skeptical but intrigued,
Bruce Greyson and C. P.
Flynn, The Near Death
Experience (Chicago: Charles C. Thomas, 1984), as quoted in Stanislov
Grof, The
Adventure of Self Discovery (Albany, N.T.: SUNY Press, 1988), pp.
71-72.”
In addition, research
studies back up these claims as well.
One example is the experiment
done by Cardiologist Michael Sabom. Talbot
describes this as well: (page 232-233)
“Experiencing
an OBE during cardiac arrest is
relatively common, so common that Michael B. Sabom, a cardiologist and
professor of medicine at
Of the nonexperiencers,
20 made major mistakes when
they described their resuscitations, 3 gave correct but general
descriptions,
and 2 had no idea at all what had taken place.
Among the experiencers, 26
gave correct but general descriptions, 6 gave
highly detailed and accurate descriptions of their own resuscitation,
and 1
gave a blow-by-blow accounting so accurate that Sabom was stunned. The
results inspired him to delve even deeper
into the phenomenon, and like
Michael B. Sabom,
Recollections of Death (New
York:
Harper & Row, 1982),
p. 184.”
Also significant are the
studies done that support the validity of Out of Body Experiences
(NDE’s are
considered a type of OBE).
Rick Stack
describes one notable example of these in his book Out-Of-Body
Adventures:
(page 12-13)
“A notable
study by Osis and McCormick involved an
out-of-body subject trying to view a target that was contained within
an
optical image device and could be viewed only from a specific location. The
target was a picture composed of several
elements.
These elements were not
physically together in any one place within the apparatus.
If
you looked through the viewing window from
a point directly in front of the apparatus, however, the various
elements of
the final target came together as an optical illusion.
The
OOBE subject, Alex Tanous, was instructed
to project into the room with the target, which was several rooms away,
and to
try to view it.
Meanwhile, the
experimenters attempted to measure physical effects at the target
location
(effects that may be caused by the subject's out-of-body presence). They
placed sensor plates in a shielded
chamber at the viewing location. The
sensors were capable of picking very small movements, or vibrations,
which
would then generate electrical impulses in extremely sensitive strain
gauges.
These strain gauges,
therefore,
enabled the experimenters to note very minutes changes in the vibration
of the
sensor plates.
Tanous was led to believe
that the strain gauges were being used only for a subsequent task in
order to
reduce the possibility of his deliberately trying to affect the sensors
while
attempting to view the optical image device.
Osis and McCormick
thought that the OOBE might be a
state that fluctuated with respect to degree of externalization; that
is to
say, there may be degrees of clarity of intensity in the out-of-body
state.
It may be possible, for
example,
to be both partially out of and partially in your body.
The
investigators hypothesized that when the
OOBE subject was most fully out and, consequently, able to view the
target more
accurately, there would be greater mechanical (physical) effect caused
by the
experient's out-of-body presence than there would be when the subject
was less
out and, therefore, less able to accurately view the target.
The results of the
Osis-McCormick study supported
their hypothesis "that ostensibly unintentional kinetic effects can
occur
as by-products of narrowly localized
2.
"Kinetic Effects at the
Ostensible Location of an Out of Body
Projection during Perceptual Testing" Journal of the American Society
for
Psychical Research 74 (1980): pp. 319-329.”
Another notable example was
done by Charles Tart, where a girl known as Miss Z was able to identify
a 5
digit number above her bed in a position that she could only have seen
if she
had floated up there.
This experiment is
described at http://www.paradigm-sys.com/ctt_articles2.cfm?id=50
2) Second,
NDE’s usually result in permanent life changing effects
whereas dreams and hallucinations do not.
Usually, real experiences are
what cause life changes, not imaginary
ones.
NDEers usually report that
through
their NDE they gain valuable insight into the universe, about
themselves, what
their lives are really all about and how we’re all really
connected in a vast
superconsciousness, etc.
Many also
report life reviews where everything they’ve ever done
flashes through in a
brief moment and they feel the impact of their actions on others, which
allows
them to reevaluate their lives from a much higher perspective. As
a result, many learn to love more
altruistically and be less selfish. In
addition, most NDEers lose all fear of death as well, claiming that
they’ve
discovered that death is just a doorway, not an end.
3) Third,
people have had NDE’s while they were declared dead with
flat EEG lines on their brain activity.
Any activity in the
brain/mind, even simple thoughts, results in some
EEG activity.
Therefore, it should be
impossible (according to materialistic science) to have any kind of
conscious
experience while your brain shows a flat EEG line, yet this has
happened with
NDE’s.
4) Fourth,
some people have NDE’s even when they were not in danger
of death.
Pediatrician Dr. Melvin Morse
notes some of these in his article Are
Near Death Experiences Real?: (http://www.melvinmorse.com/e-what.htm)
“The
experiences do not only occur to dying
dysfunctional brains. The Journal of the Swiss Alpine Club, in the late
1800s,
reported 30 first hand accounts of mountain climbers who fell from
great
heights and lived. The climbers reported being out of their physical
body,
seeing heaven, having life reviews, and even hearing the impact of
their bodies
hitting the ground. They were not seriously injured.
Yale University Pediatric
Cancer specialist Dianne
Komp repoorts that many dying children have near death experiences,
without
evidence of brain dysfunction. Their expereinces often occured in
dreams,
prayers, or visions before death. One boy stated that Jesus had visited
him in
a big yellow school bus and told him he would die soon. Others heard
angels
singing or saw halos of light.
The American Journal of
Psychiatry, in 1967, reported
the experiences of two miners trapped for days in a mine. They were
never near
death and had adequate food and water. They said that mystical
realities opened
before them in the tunnels. They also said a third miner who seemed
real to
them helped them to safety, but disappered when they were
resuscued.”
Also see
SCEPCOP member
Travis Basinger’s list
of features of apparitions that
suggest the survival hypothesis which Pseudo-Skeptics
do not take into account in their hypotheses and refuse to include in
their
data.
For more
on NDE’s,
this
website has the most extensive information I’ve ever seen on
the web:
www.near-death.com. Also
look for books by authors such as
Kenneth Ring, Melvin Morse, Raymond Moody, and PMH Atwater. In
PMH Atwater’s book The
Complete
Idiot's
Guide
to
Near-Death Experiences,
she writes of
Blackmore’s Dying Brain Hypothesis:
“A
parapsychologist at the time of her original work
but now focusing on psychological research, Blackmore has written one
of the
most influential books on the near-death experience - Dying
to Live: Near-Death Experiences
- in which she presents a detailed
version of the dying brain theory. Her
aim is to provide a materialistic interpretation of near-death states.
Blackmore’s
theory is too complex to present in its
entirety here, but the following is a summary of it:
· Anoxia
can cause the occurrences of hearing music (by stimulating the cochlear
region
of the ear), seeing tunnels, and seeing a light.
· An
inordinate release of endorphins at the time of death are the source of
the
euphoria associated with a near-death episode.
· The
actions of endorphins and neurotransmitters cause such cerebral
structures as
the hippocampus (associated with memory) o release stored memories,
resulting
in the life review.
· The
sense of timelessness is the result of the breakdown of one’s
sense of self at
death (the self being the basis upon which we distinguish moments of
time).
To respond to each of
these points is not
necessary.
Instead, we can offer a
rebuttal to the whole by quoting Dr. Kenneth Ring’s criticism
from his
excellent review of Blackmore’s book in the Journal of
Near-Death Studies
(Winter 1995, p. 123): “Does the brain state associated with
the onset of an
NDE explain the experience or does it merely afford access to
it?”
In other words, although many
(all?) of the
near-death-related phenomena may be traceable to our body’s
responses to dying,
does that mean that those responses explain the phenomena, or do they
simply
provide us with an interesting way of talking about them?
There is no answer.
To see this, consider the
popular Psych 101
experiment of imagining that you’re eating a lemon.
Make
that experience as vivid, as
sensory-rich as you can.
If you imagine
it strongly enough, you’ll taste the tartness and
you’ll begin to salivate -
despite there not being any lemon in your mouth. So
the imagination can produce the identical
physical responses as an “objective” experience. Does
this mean, then, that when you’re eating
a real lemon, it’s not the lemon but your imagination
that’s producing the
physical sensations you’re having?
Well, we know the answer
to that.”
To read
more on
NDE’s, see the
following.
Kenneth Ring’s book: Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience
http://www.melvinmorse.com/light.htm
- The website of Near Death Experience researcher and pediatrician Dr.
Melvin
Morse, M.D.
http://www.near-death.com
- A site with a
comprehensive list of articles on the Near Death experience
representing many
viewpoints.
http://www.nderf.org
- The largest database of
NDE stories and articles.
International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS)
Medical
Evidence for NDEs by Pim van Lommel,
in reply to
a "Skeptic" article by Michael Shermer, presents strong scientific
evidence for the reality of Near Death Experiences.
Here are
some interesting
video presentations and documentaries on NDE’s:
Near Death Experiences: An
Indepth Examination of Veridical Evidence & The Rebuttal of
Common
Skeptical Explanations – presents point by point arguments
that NDE’s are a
nonphysical phenomenon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlJXUi-z3Oc
CBS news story on
NDE’s,
presenting both sides
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx3b2e1ZyQ8
News report on
NDE’s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBIoBJAolhk
Dr.
Victor Zammit argues that NDE's are real:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16lQ3gWBPQk
People
who had a near death experience and saw Heaven and
have returned!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsV2oWL0bK0
Moving
NDe accounts. The second account of the business
tycoon was moving, and especially fascinating was the woman blind from
birth
who could see during her NDE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsV2oWL0bK0
NDE's:
Heaven and Hell accounts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn5Ob7UGJOk
A great BBC documentary on
NDE’s,
presenting both sides:
Part 1 of 6: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_I9-XxBAEsQ
Previous
Page
Back
to
Table of Contents
Next
Page