Is There Life After Death?

Section 1 Is There Life After Death?

For me, it all starts here. If our life truly ends with our physical death, do the answers to the other questions really matter? Sure, organized religions with their moral/behavioral teachings can still have a positive effect if they cause people to be kinder to each other, not so self-centered, etc. In that sense, they can make this world a better place than it would be without those moral compasses. But in the end, how one lives his/her life wouldn’t really matter if we just end up as lifeless molecules returning to “dust”. Hitler and Mother Theresa end up the same.

Ah, but consider the implications if life does continue after death? What one believes and how one lives his/her life would now have profound implications.

Evidence

Is there any evidence that life does continue after physical death or does that question only come down to faith?

Near-Death Experiences

I found a good place to start to answer this question is to examine the literature on the phenomena of “near-death experiences.” I think this is an important topic especially for those who believe life ends with physical death so I’ll devote significant content to it.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a near-death experience (NDE) as: “an occurrence in which a person comes very close to dying and has memories of a spiritual experience (such as meeting dead friends and family members or seeing a white light) during the time when death was near.”

I was surprised to find the large number of reported NDEs around the world. These are cases where people were in a situation where death was imminent; or were “clinically dead”; or were in a coma with no measurable brain activity (flat-lined EEG); or under general anesthesia which means they were unconscious and shouldn’t have had any conscious thought or any memory while under its effect. And yet they had extremely lucid experiences of interactions with "beings of light", deceased family members, and in many cases reported details of the medical efforts to resuscitate them that they could only have known if they were in fact conscious and observing from outside their body as they reported.

Near-death experiences have been reported since ancient times and 95% of the world’s cultures have documented references to NDEs.[1]

Estimates of the frequency and number of people who have experienced NDEs depend on the parameters of the studies they are based on but they generally fall within a range. Here are a few examples:

17% among critically ill patients, in nine prospective studies from four different countries.[2]
About 17% of those who nearly die report near-death experiences.[3]
“According to a recent random poll in the U.S. and in Germany, about four percent of the total population in the western world have experienced an NDE. Thus, about nine million people in the U.S., about two million people in the United Kingdom, and about 20 million people in Europe should have had this extraordinary conscious experience.”[4]

This means that millions of people have experienced NDEs so while they aren’t a common occurrence, they also aren’t rare.

Studies of Near-death Experiences

There have been a number of studies conducted by the medical and scientific communities to better understand, quantify and categorize NDEs and the pace of research has been accelerating. Some major contributors to the field are:

Psychiatrist Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (M.D.) published her research in her book On Death and Dying in 1969 and Dr. Raymond Moody’s (M.D.; Ph.D.) book Life after Life published in 1976 were two important works that stimulated more work in the field.
Dr. Bruce Greyson (M.D.; Ph.D.), Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences and Professor of Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Virginia, published numerous journal articles on NDEs and developed the scale to measure aspects of NDEs that has been widely adopted in the field.
Dr. Kenneth Ring (Ph.D.) has published his research in several books on NDEs including Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience; co-founded the International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS); and founded the Journal of Near-Death Studies, the first peer reviewed journal in the field.
Michael Sabom (M.D.) has written several books based on his research including Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation about NDEs and is also the co-founder of IANDS.
British Neuro-psychiatrist Peter Fenwick co-authored The Truth in the Light with his wife, Elizabeth based on their research with NDE experiencers.
Sam Parnia (M.D.; Ph.D.) and colleagues published the results of their studies of cardiac arrest patients who experienced NDEs in What Happens When We Die.
Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel (M.D.) reported in the medical journal, The Lancet on his large scale prospective study of cardiac arrest patients in ten Dutch hospitals over twenty years who experienced NDEs. He also published Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-death Experience which provides more in-depth analysis of his study and findings.
Prospective studies were also conducted in U.S. hospitals by Janet Schwaninger and colleagues with cardiac patients at Barnes–Jewish Hospital and by Bruce Greyson with cardiac patients at the University of Virginia Hospital (a prospective study tracks subjects over a long period of time).
Jeffrey Long (M.D.) began ongoing research with NDE experiencers from around the world when he founded the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) and its corresponding website, nderf.org.

Common Elements of NDEs

Dr. Jeffrey Long, a radiation oncologist, first read about near-death experiences in The Journal of the American Medical Association. After later listening to a friend’s wife describe her own NDE while under general anesthesia, Dr. Long decided to learn more about the subject and the research that had been conducted. A few years later, he started the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation and nderf.org.

Through his research based on over 1,000 surveys with people who reported NDEs, Dr. Long identified findings consistent with what many earlier researchers found, that NDEs frequently include some or all of the following described experiences, published more fully in an excellent book entitled Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences[5] which I highly recommend reading in researching the topic:

Out-of-body experience (OBE): separation of consciousness from the physical body
Heightened senses
Intense and generally positive emotions or feelings
Passing into or through a tunnel
Encountering a mystical or brilliant light
Encountering other beings, either mystical beings or deceased relatives or friends
A sense of alteration of time or space
A life review where the person’s life is replayed almost like a movie
Encountering unworldly (“heavenly”) realms
Encountering or learning special knowledge
Encountering a boundary or barrier
A return to the body, either voluntary or involuntary

Descriptions

In addition to the frequency and similarities of near-death experiences, what is striking is that most are reported when the person experiencing them should not be capable of having any conscious thought at all such as during a cardiac arrest or while under general anesthesia, or having no heart or brain activity for an extended period of time.

Many report details of the attempts to resuscitate them as they observed medical staff from a vantage point above their body, including medical procedures in detail and the equipment used.

Others reported events that occurred outside their operating room while they were unconscious that should have been impossible for them to know about - that were later verified by third parties.
Others report encountering deceased friends or relatives who they had not been aware had died prior to their own crisis. In other cases, NDE’ers reported meeting relatives they had not known they had.

Examples

There are literally thousands of near-death experiences that have been documented (over 4,700 on nderf.org alone). Numerous cases have been investigated by researchers and included in publications such as those listed under the Studies of Near-Death Experiences section of this paper.

I selected a sample of NDE cases from two excellent sources to provide some specific examples. I highly recommend reading both for an in-depth review:

In 2016, three Dutch researchers, Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven and Rudolf Smit published The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences[6]. This book is a compilation of over 100 NDEs that contain aspects that were independently verified by third parties. The authors rigorously researched these NDEs, going back to the original sources whenever possible to get first-hand accounts so it is an excellent resource. The first five examples (#’s 1-5) are brief synopses of these third party verified NDEs from their book.
There have also been a number of near-death experiences reported by physicians who presumably would be best positioned to understand their physical limitations during their NDEs. Cases 6-8 are examples of these from The Science of Near-Death Experiences which is a compilation of articles that appeared in Missouri Medicine[11], a peer reviewed medical journal. This is another excellent book to read for your research on NDEs.

1. Pam Reynolds[6]

One of the most researched and reviewed NDEs was for Pam Reynolds, a 35-year-old American singer/song-writer at the time of her NDE. Here’s a summary:

She was diagnosed with a saccular aneurysm in a brain artery that was prone to rupture which would result in her death so she underwent a complex surgery to repair it.
In what is termed a hypothermic cardiac arrest operation, her body temperature was lowered to between 59 degrees (F) and 63 degrees (F) and the surgeon stopped both her heart and breathing and drained the blood from her head.
She was put under general anesthesia and put on a ventilator.
Her eyes were taped shut; her head was clamped in place; and the rest of her body was draped.
Doctors inserted ear buds that were molded to fit her ears and then covered her head with gauze.
Loud clicks (95-100 decibels) were emitted in one ear eleven times per second and loud white noise was broadcast in the other ear. This sound level (95-100 dB) is comparable to a jackhammer breaking up concrete from five feet away. The sounds were reversed to the opposite ears periodically to avoid hearing damage.
The anesthetist monitored her closely during the operation to look for brain activity which would indicate that she was not under full, general anesthesia. The EEG indicated she was under full anesthesia during the entire operation.
It is important to know that conscious awareness is not medically possible while under general anesthesia.
Early in the operation while she was under general anesthesia but before the cooling process was started, the surgeon began operating a saw on Pam’s skull to access her brain. This is when she reported floating out of her body and observing the operation from above the operating table and later relayed the following details:
- She described in detail a tool that looked like an electric toothbrush or perhaps a drill that made an unpleasant sound and had a groove on top. She said it had bits that were kept in a small case nearby. This was actually the saw and the saw blade case which was later confirmed by the surgeon.
- She heard someone say the arteries in her right groin were too small so they should try her left groin. This was also later confirmed by the surgeon.
- Pam reported hearing Hotel California from The Eagles being played which was later confirmed by one of the surgeons.
- At this point of the operation, she reported hearing her deceased grandmother call her name and seeing her deceased uncle as well as other people she knew and many she didn’t, as well as a bright light.
- While her body was being re-warmed but still at a temperature so low (27 degrees (C) or 80.6 degrees (F) that conscious awareness isn’t medically possible, Pam said she observed that her heart had to be shocked twice to restart it. This was also confirmed by the surgeons.

Summary

So while Pam Reynolds was under general anesthesia with her eyes taped shut and molded ear buds in her ears emitting very loud sounds eleven times per second; an EEG indicating unconsciousness; and her body temperature lowered below the level that could support consciousness, she was able to report accurate details of her operation including instruments used; conversations in the operating room; and songs being played. And all these observations were confirmed by the surgeons and technicians involved in her surgery.

#2. Eddie Cuomo[7]

As originally reported by K.M. Dale (M.D.), 9-year-old American boy Eddie Cuomo was in the hospital suffering a high fever. When he came to at 3:00 a.m., he told his parents that he had been in heaven and seen his deceased Grandpa Cuomo, Aunt Rosa and Uncle Lorenzo. His father was embarrassed that Dr. Dale was overhearing what he considered to be a hallucinatory dream. Eddie then remarked that he had also seen his 19-year-old sister, Teresa and she was the one who told him he had to go back to his body. This unsettled his father since he had just spoken to Teresa two nights earlier (she was a student at a college in Vermont). Eddie’s father asked Dr. Dale to give Eddie a sedative.

Later that morning, Eddie’s parents called the college and learned that just after midnight the previous night, Teresa had been killed in a car accident. The college had been trying to contact the parents but had been unsuccessful because they had spent the night at the hospital with Eddie, out of communication. Note: this occurred in 1990 before the widespread use of cell phones. The details were later confirmed by the attending physicians.

#3. The 12-Digit Number[8]

This case was reported by Norma Bowe (Ph.D.; RN) who had previously worked in a neurology intensive care unit (ICU):

A woman with a head wound was brought to her ICU in a coma which lasted for several weeks.
During that time, she had a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated after several attempts.
When she came out of her coma, the patient claimed that she had an out-of-body experience (OBE) where she had observed the room from a position above her bed.
The woman, who had obsessive-compulsive disorder that caused her to try to compulsively memorize every number she saw, claimed she had memorized the serial number that was on top of the respirator in her room which had been six feet in the air.
When a technician came to move the respirator, he was asked to look on top and read off the serial number which Norma Bowe confirmed exactly matched the twelve digit number the patient had told her as she came out of her coma.

#4. Howard[9]

In her book Near-death in the ICU, critical care physician Laurin Bellg reported a case involving a patient named Howard who had a cardiac arrest that required four attempts at defibrillation to restart his heart:

When the patient was able to talk, he described his resuscitation in detail including who was involved, what they were wearing and what they said – all while he had no heartbeat and no blood flow to his brain.
According to numerous medical sources, the brain activity in the cortex shuts down during a cardiac arrest in an average of 15 seconds which should make a complex conscious experience impossible. Here is a quote from Dr. Sam Parnia (who is an associate professor of medicine at NYU and is also the director of research into cardiopulmonary resuscitation) in a letter to the journal Resuscitation: “All brain stem reflexes are lost immediately after cardiac arrest and do not typically return even with cardiopulmonary resuscitation until after the heart has been re-started”.
Here is the patient’s description of what happened next:
- He described feeling himself leave his body and go up through the ceiling like he was passing through the structure and feeling its different densities.
- He found himself in another room that looked like a hospital but it was quiet with no one there.
- There were individual rooms around the edge and it appeared like there were mannequins with IV’s hooked up to them.
- In the center of the room was an open area with work stations and computers.
In addition to confirming the patient’s description of his resuscitation efforts, Dr. Bellg confirmed that unknown to the patient, there was a room right above the ICU that is a nurse training center with simulated hospital rooms around the perimeter and medical mannequins and work stations and computers in the center of the room.

Here is a video of a talk Dr. Bellg gave at an IANDS conference in 2016 describing NDE's her patients have had:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWN9zNcoRKY

#5. Dr. Lloyd Rudy’s Patient[10]

Dr. Lloyd Rudy was a well known cardiothoracic surgeon who related the story of a patient who was pronounced dead after a heart operation. Here’s a summary of the case:

After completing an emergency heart valve resection on a patient, Dr. Rudy and his team was unable to remove the patient from the heart-lung machine.
After numerous attempts and trying everything they knew to do, the patient was pronounced dead.
The anesthesiologist turned his equipment off and the breathing machine was turned off. The anesthesiologist hadn’t eaten all day so he went to the surgeons’ lounge to eat a sandwich.
The hospital personnel who clean up after operations, came in to clean the instruments and put them away.
Dr. Rudy’s surgical assistant closed the patient’s chest cavity superficially so that an autopsy could be performed.
Nobody turned off the machine that records blood pressure and pulse so it kept running and printing the results which overflowed onto the floor. The trans-esophageal echo-probe that provides a picture of a beating heart was also left running along with the VCR tape.
After his surgical partner and Dr. Rudy had removed their gloves, gowns, masks etc., they went back to the operating room and stood in the door way and discussed whether there was anything else they could have done to save the patient.
During this time which Dr. Lloyd estimated was 20-25 minutes, the patient had no heartbeat, no blood pressure, and no heart movement.
Just then, while they were standing in the doorway, they saw some electrical activity which turned into a heartbeat, which eventually starting generating some blood pressure.
They scrambled to reassemble the surgical team and started working on the patient again, eventually re-establishing a normal heartbeat and pressure.
Incredibly the patient recovered with no neurologic deficit after being dead for at least 20 minutes.
Dr. Rudy spoke with the patient while he was recovering and the patient told him he had had an NDE with some of the common elements. He also told Dr. Rudy that he had been floating above his body and observed Dr. Rudy and Dr. Cattaneo standing in the doorway talking but he noted the anesthesiologist wasn’t in the room and later came running back in.
The patient also said he saw a string of Post-It notes on a TV screen. Dr. Rudy confirmed that during the operation, a nurse wrote down phone messages for Dr. Rudy on Post-It notes and stuck them on a TV monitor. These were not present before the operation started so there was no way the patient could have known about them.
Dr. Cattaneo later confirmed Dr. Rudy’s account and also noted that the patient’s eyes had been taped shut during the operation, which was routine.

Here is a video of Dr. Rudy’s description of the case: Dr. Lloyd Rudy: – YouTube video describing patient dead for 20+ minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL1oDuvQR08&feature=emb_err_woyt

#6. Dr. Tony Cicoria[11]

Dr. Tony Cicoria is an orthopedic surgeon and Chief of Medical Staff and Chief of Orthopedics at Chenango Memorial Hospital in New York. He reports his own near-death experience as follows:

While at a birthday gathering at a lake in New York, Dr. Cicoria was struck by a bolt of lightning.
He describes that while the blast threw his body backwards, he felt “me” move forward instead.
He heard his mother-in-law scream, race down the stairs and go right past “him” to a motionless body on the ground that he soon realized was his body.
He watched a woman who had been nearby start CPR on his body and realized that he was thinking normal thoughts. He then remembers thinking “Holy shit, I’m dead”.
He then describes leaving where his body was to go look for his family, passing through the wall of the building they were in and seeing his wife painting their children’s faces and realizing that they would be fine.
He then describes in detail being immersed in a bluish white light that had a shimmering appearance that was accompanied by a feeling of absolute love and peace and becoming ecstatic at the possibility of where he was going.
He then suddenly found himself back in his body and in a great deal of pain.

Here is a video of Dr. Cicoria describing his experience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=delYrzd3UGU

#7 Dr. Jean Hausheer[12]

As a 20-year-old, Dr. Hausheer experienced her near-death experience. Here’s a recap:

She began having double vision which progressed into severe bilateral ptosis (drooping eyelids) so she was admitted to a hospital.
This progressed into a descending paralysis and she developed severe respiratory distress. During testing, she was given an overdose of medication and went into acute respiratory failure.
The last thing she remembers before experiencing her NDE was the therapist calling “code blue”.
She remembers viewing the resuscitation efforts from above and apart from her body with detached interest while feeling serene and at peace.
She encountered an intense white light which she recognized as a living being described as emanating perfect love, peacefulness, and acceptance beyond human imagination.
Dr. Hausheer describes being offered a choice of returning to her body or not and being told “it’s not your time yet”.
She awoke on a respirator in the intensive care unit where she spent the next month recovering from a post-viral Jacksonian variant of Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Here is a recording of an interview with Dr. Hausheer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfiN4mPLorY

#8 Dr. Eben Alexander III[13]

Dr. Alexander is a neurosurgeon who contracted a case of E.coli meningoencephalitis that rapidly progressed. CT scans showed extensive cortical damage that affected all eight lobes of his brain and he descended into a coma with a diagnosis of negative bacterial meningitis which has a 10% probability of survival.
After he was initially unresponsive to antibiotics and his disease worsened, his doctors lowered his probability of survival to 2% and recommended terminating antibiotic treatment.
The meningitis finally started to subside during his seventh day of illness.
As he emerged from his coma, he was amnesic at first, unable to remember words, family members, life memories, or scientific or religious concepts.
All he could recall was where he had just been during what he later learned was his near-death experience.
He described in great detail the aspects of his NDE including a white light of great clarity associated with a beautiful music melody.
He then described entering an ultra-real valley of intense, beautiful colors and feeling a sense of unconditional love while being accompanied by a young woman before coming into the presence of what he understood to be a Devine Being. Note: variations of these elements are present in many reported NDEs.
When he told his recollections to his doctors, they assured him his neocortex had been too badly damaged to allow for anything approaching these detailed memories so it must have been a trick of his “dying brain”.
Since his full memories of his medical knowledge hadn’t yet returned, he accepted what his doctors told him but decided to write down everything he remembered about his NDE before doing his own research on possible physiological causes and on NDEs which he hadn’t previously read about.
After months of research and analysis, none of the nine hypotheses for a scientific explanation could explain his experience.
He also learned four months after his recovery that the young woman he recalled so clearly from his NDE was actually his deceased biological sister Betsy whom he hadn’t known had existed (he was adopted and only learned about her after his NDE).

Possible Explanations for NDEs

The key question is are near-death experiences simply the results of biological processes of a dying brain or does a person’s consciousness continue after physical death? In a broad sense, there are essentially two opposing theories underlying attempts to explain near-death experiences: Materialism and Non-Materialism.

Materialists contend that consciousness is purely a result of biological processes and the electrical impulses in the brain and therefore must end when a person dies. This approach essentially says a person’s “mind” can be reduced down to the most basic components of a brain (e.g. neurons) similar to how a computer and its computer chip functions – so consciousness must end with physical death. This would be considered “local consciousness” since it is confined to the physical brain and is what most medical schools in the Western world teach.

Non-Materialists contend that the brain functions as an intermediary between the spirit and the body and so consciousness can continue on after physical death. Cardiologist Pim van Lommel theorizes a framework using an analogy to global communication networks that continuously exchange information using electromagnetic fields as follows:

“We only become aware of these electromagnetic informational fields at the moment we switch on our TV, cell-phone, or laptop. What we receive is not inside the instrument, nor in the compartments, but thanks to the receiver, the information from the electromagnetic fields becomes observable to our senses and hence perception occurs in our consciousness. If we switch off the TV set, the reception disappears, but the transmission continues. The information transmitted remains present within the electromagnetic fields. The connection has been interrupted, but it has not vanished (“non-locality”)…As soon as the function of the brain has been lost, as in clinical death…memories and consciousness do still exist, but the receptivity is lost, the connection is interrupted.”[14]

This would be considered “Non-Local” consciousness since it isn’t confined to the physical brain.

How Do Materialists Explain NDEs?

A number of physiological and psychological models have been proposed to explain near-death experiences such as:

Abnormal Blood Gases

Low oxygen level in the blood (anoxia or hypoxia) – has been hypothesized to cause hallucinations.
- Problems with this model:
  - NDEs occur in people without anoxia or hypoxia.
  - According to Dr. Bruce Greyson, studies of people near-death have shown that those who have NDEs have oxygen levels the same as or higher than those who do not have NDEs.[15]
  - Hallucinations produced by hypoxia are normally distressing and lead to agitation or belligerence unlike the typically pleasant, peaceful NDE reports.
  - Hallucinations aren’t consistent with the observations of people during their NDE that were verified by credible third parties (e.g. doctors, nurses, etc.). In other words, if they accurately reported actual events and conversations while they were unconscious, they couldn’t have been hallucinating.

High carbon dioxide level in the blood (hypercarbia) – can produce similar effects to some aspects of NDEs.
- Problems with this model:
  - Several studies have reported people who have had NDEs had normal or below normal levels of carbon dioxide.[15]
  - If high carbon dioxide levels in their blood caused NDEers to see bright lights or have mystical experiences, how would that explain the numerous NDEs that included accurate descriptions of events, conversations etc., that were verified by credible third parties?

Expectancy – hypothesizes that NDEs are products of the imagination based on what people expect will happen when they are near death or when they die (e.g. if people were familiar with near-death experiences and therefore report back experiences that match those expectations).
- Problems with this model:
  - People who have had NDEs often report experiences that conflict with their religious beliefs or what they expected will happen when they die.
  - People with no prior knowledge of NDEs have consistently reported experiencing the core elements.
  - If NDE experiences are imagined, that does not account for the observations of events and repeating of conversations that were verified by credible third parties.

Birth Memories – suggests that NDEers who describe going through a dark tunnel, with a bright light ahead and entering a new realm could represent memories from their birth.
- Problems with this model: Bruce Greyson addresses this as follows:[15]
  - “Newborns lack the visual acuity, spatial stability of their visual images, mental alertness, and cortical coding capacity to register memories of the birth experience.”
  - “Reports of NDE out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and passing through a tunnel to another realm are equally common among persons born by Caesarean section and those born by normal vaginal delivery.”
  - Further, as Professor Carl Becker points out: “The birth canal would not appear to the fetus as a tunnel with a light at the end, down which the fetus would gently float. Instead, it would be dark and extremely constrained, and furthermore babies do not travel down the birth canal facing forward.”[18]

Hallucinations caused by administered drugs (e.g. during general anesthesia).
- Problems with this model:
  - Many NDEs have been documented occurring when no drugs had been taken or administered.
  - Studies have shown that patients who have been administered medications report fewer NDEs than patients who received no medications.[15]
  - As Bruce Greyson points out, delirium caused by drugs or metabolic processes actually inhibits NDEs from occurring or being remembered rather than causes them to occur.[15]

Neurochemistry – speculates that NDEs could be caused by releases of naturally occurring neurotransmitters (e.g. endorphins).
- Problems with this model:
  - According to Bruce Greyson, these are speculations that are based on hypothetical chemicals or effects that have not been shown to exist, and are not supported by any empirical data.[15]

REM Intrusion – hypothesizes that intrusion into waking consciousness typical of the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep cycle could cause some NDE elements.
- Problems with this model:
  - NDEs commonly occur during conditions that inhibit REM, such as general anesthesia.[15]
  - Studies have shown that REM is actually reduced in people who have experienced an NDE.[15]

Consciousness

Scientists and philosophers have wrestled with the question of consciousness for centuries and not come to any consensus of where it comes from. Barbara Mango (Ph.D. in metaphysical science) frames the question very well in the opening to her paper published on nderf.org: “In 2005, the journal Science published an issue listing the top 125 questions scientists have yet to answer. The most significant inquiry was, “What is the universe made of?” immediately followed by, “What is the biological basis of consciousness?” This question may be reframed by asking, “Does consciousness have a biological basis at all?””[16]

Philosopher Dr. David Chalmers famously termed it the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”. The following recaps his key points[17]:

The real problem in explaining consciousness is the problem of experience. Why do we experience the sensation of a vibrant color of blue or a beautiful note of music; or the quality of an emotion; or bodily sensations; or mental images conjured up internally?
When we think and perceive, there are physical processes involved that can be explained down to the most basic element. For example, when sound waves from a Mozart symphony reach our ears, science can explain how the eardrum, inner ear bones, and cochlea work to convert those waves into electrical currents that the auditory nerve sends to the brain which interprets them as sounds. But why do we experience the beauty of those sounds?
Science has good tools for explaining how physical processes work and the physical mechanisms that perform functions in our mind and body but there isn’t even an accepted theory about why those physical processes and functions result in our experiences that result from (for example) visual or auditory inputs.
Dr. Chalmers proposes the framework for a possible theory that posits that experience itself could be just a fundamental given that is part of nature in the same way that Physics identifies the constants of nature (e.g. gravity). Although as he admits, even if true, this does not explain where experience comes from.

Where Does This Fit in with Near-Death Experiences?

Near-death experiences challenge the foundation of the Materialist theory of human consciousness. If conscious awareness depends on a functioning brain, it is medically and scientifically inexplicable how there have been so many cases of people in the following conditions:

Whose heart has stopped for a lengthy period of time which rendered them unconscious in an average of 15 seconds, or
Who are under general anesthesia with a flat-lined EEG showing no electrical activity in the areas of the brain capable of conscious thought, or
Who have even been declared dead with all resuscitation efforts ceased (even up to 20 minutes or more) who are yet able to report the following:
- Specific details from observing their operations and/or resuscitation efforts or activities of others from a vantage point away from their body including complex medical procedures and equipment that was used.
- Specifics of conversations that were held and people’s activities both within the same room and in remote locations away from their bodies.
- Meeting deceased friends or relatives they hadn’t known had died or in some cases they hadn’t even known they existed.

And yet these observations and reports have been verified by third parties such as the doctors and nurses who were present or family members or friends who were at a distant location and whose behavior had been observed by the person experiencing the NDE.

Summary

In summary, I think the following are the key elements of this section on near-death experiences:

As reviewed, there is substantial evidence that near-death experiences occur with frequency around the world; have occurred throughout history; and contain consistent elements.
While various hypotheses of physiological explanations have been proposed, none stand up to the evidence.
Much has been learned about NDEs in recent years as more researchers have studied them and more will be learned in upcoming years, however, the preponderance of the evidence from NDEs to date suggests that human consciousness is not tied to a functioning brain which would be a revolutionary change in our understanding of what life and death actually mean.
If life truly does continue after physical death, that opens up vast possibilities for those who believe existence ends at physical death. Which then leads to considering the possibility of the existence of a greater Being than us. So let’s explore that possibility next.

Section 1

Section 1

Is There Life After Death?

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