“Death-x-Pulse”: A Hermeneutics for the “Panoramic Life Review” in Near-Death Experiences (original) (raw)
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2010
ABSTRACT: This review supports cardiologist Pim van Lommel's continuity claim for human existence in his recently published book Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (2010). Van Lommel and colleagues (van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers, & Elfferich, 2001) studied NDEs among 344 Dutch hospital patients who had been resuscitated following cardiac arrest. From their and others' NDE research findings (e.g., accurate perceptions during the arrest period), van Lommel and colleagues concluded that mental activity can take place even in the absence of cerebral function. Extrapolating from this conclusion, van Lommel claimed in Consciousness Beyond Life a fundamental continuity for individual human existence: that death and birth mark not final limits but instead the transition from one state of consciousness to another. In the course of making his continuity claim, van Lommel referred to other topics such as deathbed visions and past-life memories. In addi...
Journal of Near-Death Studies, 2010
This review supports cardiologist Pim van Lommel's continuity claim for human existence in his recently published book Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (2010). Van Lommel and colleagues (van Lommel, van Wees, Meyers, & Elfferich, 2001) studied NDEs among 344 Dutch hospital patients who had been resuscitated following cardiac arrest. From their and others' NDE research findings (e.g., accurate perceptions during the arrest period), van Lommel and colleagues concluded that mental activity can take place even in the absence of cerebral function. Extrapolating from this conclusion, van Lommel claimed in Consciousness Beyond Life a fundamental continuity for individual human existence: that death and birth mark not final limits but instead the transition from one state of consciousness to another. In the course of making his continuity claim, van Lommel referred to other topics such as deathbed visions and past-life memories. In addition to reviewing NDE research, this article reviews research and illustrative responses pertaining to these related phenomena. A convergence of corroborative evidence is consistent with van Lommel's continuity claim.
A reflection on Near Death Experiences
group of psychologists have even identified the preoccupation with our own death as one of the driving forces in organizing the way we think. Their perspective is known as Terror Management Theory.
Near-Death Experiences and Claims of Past-Life Memories
Journal of Near-Death Studies, 2021
Some features of near-death experiences (NDEs) suggest that consciousness may continue to function after death of the body. The life reviews of some NDEs include what seem to be memories of a past lifetime, some of which involve verifiable details, suggesting that the experiencer has lived more than one life and can recall events from successive lives. These apparent pastlife memories parallel the claims of young children who remember past lives. Furthermore, some children's past-life memories include scenes from the period between lives that parallel descriptions of the realm in which NDEs occur. Some children's past-life memories include anomalous features that contradict common beliefs about reincarnation. In addition, the idea that humans reincarnate into a new Earthly body seems to contradict the common NDE feature of encountering deceased persons in a non-Earthly realm. However, those apparent contradictions can be resolved by a reconceptualization of prevailing ideas about time and about what aspects of human consciousness may survive bodily death.
A History of the Study of the Near-Death Experience
The stories narrated by many people who experienced the Near-Death is being regarded by many scientists as strictly the effects of brain malfunction. Yet, other scientists are interested in collating and attempting to apply scientific methods in the study of the NDE. It is important to note that the study of the history of the phenomenon of the NDE suggests that their experiences may not be quickly shelved as ordinary or as strictly the effect of brain malfunction. The contemporary study of the mind-body relations from the perspectives of a parapsychologist and a modern physicist are beginning to shed light on the view that the NDE may not be ordinary as generally thought but a field of knowledge that has effect on the scientific meaning of death as the total end of life. The method implored in this research is historical and the aim is to highlight that the NDE is seemingly natural, ancient; and a universal phenomenon that is very important in the study of human extraordinary experiences. The researchers sided with the dualists who view the NDE as first, a phenomenon that shows the coexistence and a probable independent existence of the body from the mind; and second, that the NDE mechanism poses a challenge that can hardly be explained by the monist.
Near-Death Experiences: Actual Considerations
The notion that death represents a passing to an afterlife, where we are reunited with loved ones and live eternally in a utopian paradise, is common in the anecdotal reports of people who have encountered a " near-death experience " (NDE). These experiences are usually portrayed as being extremely pleasant including features such as a feeling of peacefulness, the vision of a dark tunnel leading to a brilliant light, the sensation of leaving the body, or the experience of a life review. NDEs are increasingly being reported as a clearly identifiable physiological and psychological reality of clinical and scientific significance. The definition and causes of the phenomenon as well as the identification of NDE experiencers are still matters of debate. The phenomenon has been thoroughly portrayed by the media, but the science of NDEs is rather recent and still lacking of rigorous experimental data and reproducible controlled experiments. It seems that the most appropriate theories to explain the phenomenon tend to integrate both psychological and neuro-biological mechanisms. The paradoxical dissociation between the richness and intensity of the memory, probably occurring during a moment of brain dysfunction, offers a unique opportunity to better understand the neural correlates of consciousness. In this chapter, we will attempt to describe NDEs and the methods to identify them. We will also briefly discuss the NDE experiencers' characteristics. We will then address the main current explicative models and the science of NDEs.