For over forty years now, since Elizabeth Kubler Ross' work, then Ray Moody's and Michael Sabom's, "near death experiences" or NDEs have had a large cult following. The general consensus has been that the NDE phenomenon highlights an experiential basis for the theological belief that we live on after death.
It doesn't matter that the NDE has never been shown to be an actual valid case of clinical death, for example, no one's seen a stiff come back from the morgue to describe what he experienced. Thus, for the skeptic, the NDE has emerged as more a form of brain hallucination, since the same "white light" is reported in a majority of cases.
Now new insights may shed better light, specifically from a book by Dr. Kevin Nelson: "The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: A Neurologist's Search for the God Experience".
Nelson is one of the world's leading researchers in the biology of near-death and other related experiences, and his book takes the reader from investigations of MRI (magnetic imaging resonance) studies of the brain to historical anecdotes and philosophical inquiry. Three decades of research led Dr. Nelson to a unique and unexpected conclusion about near-death experiences -- rather than arising from parts of the brain that are unique to higher cognitive functions, they actually involve the oldest, most primitive parts of our brain, and might also relate to having dreams while still awake. (What we call "lucid dreaming")
Two of the NDE aspects that have come under scrutiny in Nelson's book are: the tunnel which people traverse, and the white light.
Regarding the tunnel, in his words:
"The tunnel is easy to explain. Much of the near-death experience is caused by low blood flow to the brain and to the head. When this happens, the eye fails before the brain fails. The outside field of vision goes first, but the center is preserved until the very end, so you develop a tunnel-like sensation. This sensation is also common in people who are about to faint."
And as for the white light which beckons:
"As for the light, when your eye loses blood flow, light might become all that you're capable of seeing. Another reason for the light is the REM system, which is the "rapid eye movement" state of sleep. When the eye and the retina shut down, the remaining control system for vision is the REM system -- this is why you can see things when you're dreaming, and this type of vision might be activated during a near-death experience and cause a person to see light"
In other words, there is a totally physical explanation for both effects. No supernaturalist hokum need be invoked.
Another key aspect of the NDE is the "OBE" or out of body experience, and Nelson makes clear one can experience OBEs outside of the NDEs. In one experiment, scientists actually induced fainting episodes in the test subjects, and many of them had an out-of-body experience while they fainted, which also commonly occurs during real near-death experiences. So in fact, many individuals know what it's like to have a near-death experience.
In regard to some people who don't see a white light but rather a kind of "Hell" or very distraught emotions, Nelson explains that not everybody sees light, not everybody has a sense of euphoria -- some people actually have an unpleasant emotional response during the near-death experience. What generally happens here is the pleasure system of the brain is engaged. This happens with spiritual experiences in general. When the Russian novelist Dostoevsky faced execution and lived to tell about it, he related a story of ecstasy and spiritual awakening. The dopamine reward system seems to be activated when a person believes they are near death, and the REM system, counterintuitively, is also activated. Experiments have shown that if you destroy parts of the brain that support REM sleep, you also take away the effectiveness of the dopamine reward system. Many pieces of the puzzle are missing, but we know there's a connection.
In respect of whether the NDE and coming out of it really shows a person coming back from the dead, Nelson is adamant:
"Returning from death is not something that people do. When a person drowns in ice water, the brain cells shut down and stop functioning, but they don't die. But when a person's heart stops, their brain cells burst after about five minutes. When the cells burst, they're dead and don't come back. If the cells are frozen instead, they don't burst, and when they warm up, they start functioning again."
In other words, when you're gone, you're gone.
What about any God connection?
Nelson is clear and succinct:
"You don't need to know how the brain is working in order to dismiss God, and knowing how the brain works doesn't prove or disprove a God. These are separate questions. Does evolution prove that God doesn't exist? I don't think so. Does it make it easier to explain consciousness in a Godless universe? Yes, but you can also conclude that there is no God without knowing anything about evolution or how the brain works"
We tend to agree, and will follow up with a further examination of why in a future blog. Though this issue has been touched on in earlier blogs, but in more peripheral ways - concerning the quality of truth claims in general.
For now, one only needs to process that NDEs are no evidence that one can return from the dead, or that one even gleans some objective experience about it. Even the Bible agrees that there is nothing after death, for example Job (6:18) teaches that there is no existence after death; men "go to nothing, and perish," and "he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more." (7:9). Meanwhile, The Book of Ecclesiastes (3:19-20) says men are like beasts; "as one dieth, so dieth the other," that man "hath no pre-eminence above a beast"; "all go into one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again."
It doesn't matter that the NDE has never been shown to be an actual valid case of clinical death, for example, no one's seen a stiff come back from the morgue to describe what he experienced. Thus, for the skeptic, the NDE has emerged as more a form of brain hallucination, since the same "white light" is reported in a majority of cases.
Now new insights may shed better light, specifically from a book by Dr. Kevin Nelson: "The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: A Neurologist's Search for the God Experience".
Nelson is one of the world's leading researchers in the biology of near-death and other related experiences, and his book takes the reader from investigations of MRI (magnetic imaging resonance) studies of the brain to historical anecdotes and philosophical inquiry. Three decades of research led Dr. Nelson to a unique and unexpected conclusion about near-death experiences -- rather than arising from parts of the brain that are unique to higher cognitive functions, they actually involve the oldest, most primitive parts of our brain, and might also relate to having dreams while still awake. (What we call "lucid dreaming")
Two of the NDE aspects that have come under scrutiny in Nelson's book are: the tunnel which people traverse, and the white light.
Regarding the tunnel, in his words:
"The tunnel is easy to explain. Much of the near-death experience is caused by low blood flow to the brain and to the head. When this happens, the eye fails before the brain fails. The outside field of vision goes first, but the center is preserved until the very end, so you develop a tunnel-like sensation. This sensation is also common in people who are about to faint."
And as for the white light which beckons:
"As for the light, when your eye loses blood flow, light might become all that you're capable of seeing. Another reason for the light is the REM system, which is the "rapid eye movement" state of sleep. When the eye and the retina shut down, the remaining control system for vision is the REM system -- this is why you can see things when you're dreaming, and this type of vision might be activated during a near-death experience and cause a person to see light"
In other words, there is a totally physical explanation for both effects. No supernaturalist hokum need be invoked.
Another key aspect of the NDE is the "OBE" or out of body experience, and Nelson makes clear one can experience OBEs outside of the NDEs. In one experiment, scientists actually induced fainting episodes in the test subjects, and many of them had an out-of-body experience while they fainted, which also commonly occurs during real near-death experiences. So in fact, many individuals know what it's like to have a near-death experience.
In regard to some people who don't see a white light but rather a kind of "Hell" or very distraught emotions, Nelson explains that not everybody sees light, not everybody has a sense of euphoria -- some people actually have an unpleasant emotional response during the near-death experience. What generally happens here is the pleasure system of the brain is engaged. This happens with spiritual experiences in general. When the Russian novelist Dostoevsky faced execution and lived to tell about it, he related a story of ecstasy and spiritual awakening. The dopamine reward system seems to be activated when a person believes they are near death, and the REM system, counterintuitively, is also activated. Experiments have shown that if you destroy parts of the brain that support REM sleep, you also take away the effectiveness of the dopamine reward system. Many pieces of the puzzle are missing, but we know there's a connection.
In respect of whether the NDE and coming out of it really shows a person coming back from the dead, Nelson is adamant:
"Returning from death is not something that people do. When a person drowns in ice water, the brain cells shut down and stop functioning, but they don't die. But when a person's heart stops, their brain cells burst after about five minutes. When the cells burst, they're dead and don't come back. If the cells are frozen instead, they don't burst, and when they warm up, they start functioning again."
In other words, when you're gone, you're gone.
What about any God connection?
Nelson is clear and succinct:
"You don't need to know how the brain is working in order to dismiss God, and knowing how the brain works doesn't prove or disprove a God. These are separate questions. Does evolution prove that God doesn't exist? I don't think so. Does it make it easier to explain consciousness in a Godless universe? Yes, but you can also conclude that there is no God without knowing anything about evolution or how the brain works"
We tend to agree, and will follow up with a further examination of why in a future blog. Though this issue has been touched on in earlier blogs, but in more peripheral ways - concerning the quality of truth claims in general.
For now, one only needs to process that NDEs are no evidence that one can return from the dead, or that one even gleans some objective experience about it. Even the Bible agrees that there is nothing after death, for example Job (6:18) teaches that there is no existence after death; men "go to nothing, and perish," and "he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more." (7:9). Meanwhile, The Book of Ecclesiastes (3:19-20) says men are like beasts; "as one dieth, so dieth the other," that man "hath no pre-eminence above a beast"; "all go into one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again."
Don't hold your breath for any "resurrections"!
No comments:
Post a Comment