Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryNear-Death Experiences

doctor-writing-on-a-clipboard-in-a-high-tech-medical-environ-955475674-stockpack-adobe_stock
Doctor writing on a clipboard in a high-tech medical environment, monitors displaying vital signs

5. NDEs: The Enduring Mystery of the Pam Reynolds Case

There can be no question that Reynolds was dead when she had an NDE during a risky operation. To succeed, the procedure required her to be dead…
As evidence for NDEs accumulates, we hear from cardiologists rather than mediums on the subject and that is a promising development for future research. Read More ›
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Colorful sunset over ocean on Maldives

4. A Prominent Physicist’s Report of a Deathbed Vision

He was intrigued by the fact that the young woman, soon to die, knew that her sister had died. But no one had told her…
Deathbed experiences that include knowledge of information not otherwise communicated to the experiencer would seem to rule out naturalistic explanations. Read More ›
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Doctor using defibrillator in hospital ward. Clinic staff saving patient life.

3. A Cardiologist Encounters a Near Death Experience

Dr. Aufderheide hardly expected the patient, who was in prolonged cardiac arrest, to tell him what he had been doing — and thinking — when he was in the patient's room
As Sean McDowell points out, a research physician like Dr. Aufderheide, with nothing much to gain from telling the story, should be taken seriously. Read More ›
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child in danger drowning in the pool, kid girl cannot swim to deep water and raise two hand for help on swimming pool.

2. When information from a near-death experience is confirmed…

A seven-year-old girl who was a near-fatal drowning victim reported things that she saw during a state of clinical death that were later confirmed
A seven-year-old girl who was a near-fatal drowning victim reported things that she saw during a state of clinical death that were later confirmed Read More ›
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Experience the eerie charm of Battlefield House Museum at night in Hamilton

A Novelist Posts on the Paranormal

Accounting for experiences of the supernatural
Lin notes that scientists and online outlets like Wikipedia, entrenched in a materialistic perspective, tend to simply dismiss them. Read More ›
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Dreamy foggy dark forest. Trail in moody forest. Alone and creepy feeling in the woods

1. When actual experiences challenge the viewpoints of skeptics

Sean McDowell recently hosted J. Steve Miller to talk about his top five believable near-death experiences
Mark Twain and Michael Shermer each had an anomalous experience that he could not explain but would not deny. Read More ›
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Brain mind way soul and hope concept art, illustration, surreal mystery artwork, imagination painting, conceptual idea of success

Soul Survives Death? ER Doc Sam Parnia Faces Skeptical Questions

In discussion with Closer to Truth host Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Parnia stuck to his clearly defined evidence, avoiding religious digressions
Confirmation of post-death consciousness during trauma might seem a little thing. But in science persistent little discrepancies are often the ones that matter. Read More ›
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Beautiful sunrise over the sea

Does Science Show That the Soul Persists After Death?

Gradually, medical findings about what happens to the mind around the time of death are undermining the assumption that the soul dies with the body
Life after death: A gap is growing between “no way” and “impossible to disclaim.” That gap is probably going to get bigger rather than smaller. Read More ›
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Emergency Department: Doctors, Nurses and Surgeons Move Seriously Injured Patient Lying on a Stretcher Through Hospital Corridors. Medical Staff in a Hurry Move Patient into Operating Theater.

The Mind Is Not Annihilated at Death, Emergency Room Doctor Says

ER specialist Sam Parnia is making waves with his challenge, based on his clinical experience and research, to the claim that the human mind is annihilated at death
Parnia says he is not religious. Rather, his views are the outcome of clinical experience in a field where doctors have literally never gone before. Read More ›
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The Threshold of Near-Death Experience, Between Two Worlds

Heart Attack Doctor: Science Shows That Death Is Not the End

Sam Parnia began by wondering how brain cells can give rise to thoughts. He came to see that the message “from science” was not what he had been led to expect
Parnia concludes that science suggests, at a minimum, that our consciousness and selfhood “are not annihilated when we cross over into death.” Read More ›
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Feigning Opossum

Once Again: Near-Death Experiences as Possum Tales

In the recent Scientific American article, we learn once again that NDEs evolved as a human way of “playing dead”
Hypotheses based on evolution sometimes proceed without establishing basic evidence, for example, whether thanatosis is even common in humans. Read More ›
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tunnel of light

Scientific American: Near-Death Experiences Compared To Drug Trip

Now that NDEs are accepted as a clinical fact, more effort is underway to account for them as part of physical nature, like hallucinogenic chemicals
There are significant differences between NDEs and drug trips, as psychologist Steve Taylor notes. Read More ›