Near-Death & End-of-Life Experiences

Near-death experiences in patients surviving cardiac arrest: a narrative review.  2024.  A narrative review, which summarises earlier studies rather than reporting a new one, of near-death experiences in people who survived cardiac arrest.  The article cites it for the range of rates found across the studies it covers.

1. 1a.

   “The reported incidence of near-death experiences in the included studies varied from 6.3% to 39.3%.” ↩

van Lommel, Pim et al.  “Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands.”  The Lancet 358:2039–2045.  2001.  A prospective study of 344 consecutive cardiac-arrest patients who were resuscitated in ten Dutch hospitals.  The article cites it as the landmark study of the phenomenon, and for its finding that NDEs do not track how close to death the brain came.  Mirror:  Profezie3m.altervista.org ↩

1. 2a.

   “344 consecutive cardiac patients who were successfully resuscitated after cardiac arrest in ten Dutch hospitals…  62 patients (18%) reported NDE, of whom 41 (12%) described a core experience.” ↩

2. 2b.

   “Occurrence of the experience was not associated with duration of cardiac arrest or unconsciousness, medication, or fear of death before cardiac arrest.”  “If purely physiological factors resulting from cerebral anoxia caused NDE, most of our patients should have had this experience.” ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

3. 2c.

   The dentures anecdote is a coronary-care nurse's report from the study's pilot phase.  “you took my dentures out of my mouth and put them onto that car, it had all these bottles on it and there was this sliding drawer underneath and there you put my teeth.”  The nurse:  “I was especially amazed because I remembered this happening while the man was in deep coma and in the process of CPR.” ↩

van Lommel, Pim.  “Near-death experiences: the experience of the self as real and not as an illusion.”  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1234:19–28.  2011.  An essay in a journal issue on the self, by a cardiologist who helped start the Dutch study of cardiac-arrest survivors that began in 1988.  It argues that the NDE is an authentic experience that cannot be reduced to imagination, fear of death, hallucination, psychosis, drugs, or lack of oxygen.  The article cites it for the poll figure that about 4% of the Western public has had an NDE.

1. 3a.

   Page 19:  “According to a recent random poll in the United States and Germany, about 4% of the total population in the Western world have experienced NDEs,”.  It cites Gallup and Proctor 1982.  Gallup's looser "verge of death" question yielded 15%. ↩

Greyson, Bruce.  “The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity.”  Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 171:369–375.  1983.  A paper that sets out a scale for measuring near-death experiences.  The scale has 16 items, each scored from 0 to 2, for a total from 0 to 32, and a total of 7 or more counts as an NDE.  The article cites it as the standard instrument for measuring the experience. ↩ ↩

de Vries, J. W. et al.  “Changes in cerebral oxygen uptake and cerebral electrical activity during defibrillation threshold testing.”  Anesthesia & Analgesia 87:16–20.  1998.  “declining to isoelectricity within 11 ± 2 seconds”.  A study of how brain oxygen use and brain electrical activity change during defibrillation threshold testing, a test of the electric shock needed to restart the heart.  During induced ventricular fibrillation (a chaotic heart rhythm in which the heart quivers instead of pumping), the EEG (the recording of the brain's electrical rhythms) showed ischemic changes (signs of too little blood reaching the brain).  The article uses it for how quickly the brain's electrical activity goes flat after the heart stops. ↩ ↩

Clute, H. L., and W. J. Levy.  “Electroencephalographic changes during brief cardiac arrest in humans.”  Anesthesiology 73:821–825.  1990.  “occurred an average of 10.2 s after the last normal heart beat”.  A study of the brain's electrical activity (EEG, the recording of its rhythms) during 93 brief cardiac arrests in humans.  The article uses it as a second, separate measurement of how soon the EEG changes after the heart stops. ↩ ↩

Greyson, Bruce.  “Implications of near-death experiences for a postmaterialist psychology.”  Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 2(1):37–45.  2010.  An essay by Bruce Greyson of the University of Virginia's Division of Perceptual Studies.  It argues that the materialist view, that the mind is only what the brain does, cannot account for NDE features such as thinking and memory during cerebral impairment, accurate perceptions from outside the body, and visions of deceased people.  The article uses it for the point that arrest survivors are usually confused and amnesic, which makes the detailed memories of NDEs a puzzle.

1. 7a.

   Page 40:  Greyson writes:  “unconsciousness produced by cardiac arrest characteristically leaves patients amnesic and confused for events immediately preceding and following these episodes”.  Of confusional states, he writes.  “do not have the life-transforming impact so characteristic of NDEs”.  Hippocampal cells are.  “especially vulnerable to the effects of anoxia”.  Greyson also writes.  “In our collection at the University of Virginia, 22% of our NDE cases occurred under anesthesia”. ↩ ↩ ↩

Thonnard, Marie et al.  “Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories.”  PLoS ONE 8(3):e57620.  2013.  “NDE memories have more characteristics than memories of imagined and real events”.  The result is reported at p<0.02.  The authors' own naturalistic gloss on the memories:  “flashbulb memories of really perceived hallucinations”.  A study by the Coma Science Group in Liège, which compared memories of near-death experiences with memories of real and imagined events.  The article cites it for the memory paradox, where NDE memories look more like real memories than invented ones. ↩ ↩

Moore, Lauren E., and Bruce Greyson.  “Characteristics of memories for near-death experiences.”  Consciousness and Cognition 51:116–124.  2017.  Page 116:  “memories of near-death experiences are recalled as 'realer' than real events or imagined events.”  A study of 122 people who had near-death experiences, each of whom rated three memories on the Memory Characteristics Questionnaire (a questionnaire that scores how much sensory and contextual detail a memory has): the NDE, a real event from around the same time, and an imagined event.  The NDE memory scored higher than the real memory, which scored higher than the imagined one (F=113.67, p<0.001).  The article uses it for the memory paradox, the finding that NDE memories feel more real than real events. ↩ ↩

Parnia, Sam et al.  “AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation—A prospective study.”  Resuscitation 85:1799–1805.  2014.  A four-year multi-center observational study of cardiac arrests, in which survivors were interviewed in stages and specific tests examined whether claims of seeing and hearing could be objectively tested.  In the abstract, 46% had memories, 9% had NDEs, and 2% described explicit awareness of actual events, seen and heard, during their resuscitation.  The article cites it for the shelf test and for the one case that the medical records corroborated. ↩

1. 10a.

   “a 57 year old man described the perception of observing events from the top corner of the room…  He accurately described people, sounds, and activities from his resuscitation…  His medical records corroborated his accounts and specifically supported his descriptions and the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED).  Based on current AED algorithms, this likely corresponded with up to 3 min of conscious awareness during CA and CPR.”  His account included.  “an automated voice saying, 'shock the patient, shock the patient'”.  and also.  “up in (the) corner of the room there was a (woman) beckoning me.” ↩ ↩

2. 10b.

   “Despite the installation of approximately 1000 shelves across the participating hospitals only 22% of CA events actually took place in the critical and acute medical wards where the shelves had been installed and consequently over 78% of CA events took place in rooms without a shelf.”  Both patients with awareness arrested in areas without shelves, so.  “further analysis of the accuracy of VA… was not possible.” ↩ ↩

3. 10c.

   “our verified case of VA suggests conscious awareness may occur beyond the first 20–30 s after CA (when some residual brain electrical activity may occur).” ↩

Augustine, Keith.  “Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 25(4):203–236.  2007.  Part I of a critique of survivalist interpretations of NDEs (readings that take them as evidence of an afterlife), by Keith Augustine, executive director of Internet Infidels, a nonprofit that promotes metaphysical naturalism online.  It reviews the evidence for veridical (accurate, checkable) observations during NDEs and finds the case for them wanting; it is one part of a three-article exchange with commentaries by Greyson, Sabom, Sharp, Sartori and others across JNDS 25(4)–26(2).  The article uses it as its audit of the famous proof cases.

1. 11a.

   “her standstill condition had absolutely nothing to do with the time when we know that her near-death OBE began:  a full two hours and five minutes before the medical staff even began to cool her blood, during perfectly normal body temperature…  Unlike the other elements of her NDE, we can precisely time when Reynolds's OBE began because she did accurately describe an operating room conversation”. ↩ ↩

2. 11b.

   Reynolds described the saw:  “a groove at the top where the saw appeared to go into the handle, but it didn't”.  Sabom called the groove description.  “a bit puzzling”.  Augustine's verdict:  “her best guess about the appearance of the bone saw was inaccurate regarding the features… that only true vision could discern”. ↩

3. 11c.

   Page 203:  “despite more than a quarter-century of near-death studies, no compelling evidence that NDErs can obtain information from remote locations during their NDEs has been forthcoming”. ↩

Ebbern, Hayden et al.  “Maria's Near-Death Experience: Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop.”  Skeptical Inquirer 20(4):27–33.  1996.  An investigation of Maria's near-death experience, published in the Skeptical Inquirer.  The article uses it for the problems with the Maria story.

1. 12a.

   Their test shoe was easily seen from inside the room, and from outside.  The authors answer Clark's.  “claim that the shoe would have been invisible from ground level outside the hospital is all the more incredible because the investigators' viewpoint was considerably inferior to what Clark's would have been seventeen years earlier”.  The authors also write:  “Clark did not publicly report the details of Maria's NDE until seven years after it occurred”.  Maria herself could not be located. ↩ ↩

Holden, Janice.  “Veridical Perception in Near-Death Experiences.”  The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation, 185–211.  Praeger.  Edited by Holden, Greyson and James.  2009.  A chapter in a 2009 handbook of near-death experience research, edited by Holden, Greyson, and James.  Veridical perception means accurate knowledge of things the experiencer could not have seen normally.  The article uses it for the finding that controlled tests of this perception in hospitals found no cases.

1. 13a.

   From Holden's own 2011 conference handout (https://inacs.org/pdf/09%20Handbook%20of%20NDEs%20handout.pdf):  “A collection of 107 anecdotes of AVP [apparently nonphysical veridical perception] revealed substantial evidence of their validity,”.  The handout also says.  “Five different controlled studies of AVP in hospitals yielded no cases of AVP.” ↩ ↩ ↩

Greyson, Bruce et al.  “Failure to Elicit Near-Death Experiences in Induced Cardiac Arrest.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 25(2):85–98.  2006.  A test run by the University of Virginia team during the implanting of heart defibrillators, devices that shock the heart back into rhythm.  The implant procedure stops the heart on purpose for a short time, so the team could show hidden visual targets to patients who might have an out-of-body view of their own resuscitation.  No patient in 52 induced cardiac arrests reported a near-death experience.  The authors say the result may have been due to the reassurance patients were given before surgery, the brief arrest, or the memory-blocking effects of the sedative medication given beforehand.  The authors designed the test to look for NDEs.  The article uses it as one of the controlled hidden-target tests that produced no verified hits.

1. 14a.

   Page 85:  25 patients receiving implantable defibrillators, 52 induced cardiac arrests, with a laptop displaying one of 12 animations in one of 5 colors facing the ceiling.  “In a series of 52 induced cardiac arrests, no patient reported having had a near-death experience, and none reported a sense of having left the physical body.” ↩ ↩

Parnia, Sam et al.  “AWAreness during REsuscitation II: A multi-center study of consciousness and awareness in cardiac arrest.”  Resuscitation 191:109903.  2023.  The analyses of the single implicit auditory hit say:  “None of these patients explicitly recalled seeing the image… or hearing the auditory stimuli.”  A multi-center study of in-hospital cardiac arrests, in which 28 of the 53 survivors were interviewed.  The article cites it for its EEG findings and its hidden-image test. ↩

1. 15a.

   567 in-hospital cardiac arrests; 53 (9.3%) survived; 28 interviewed; 11 (39.3%) reported memories or perceptions; 6 of 28 (21.4%) reported a transcendent.  “recalled experience of death.”  “Nobody identified the visual image, 1/28 (3.5%) identified the auditory stimulus”.  The latter is an implicit-grade result. ↩ ↩

2. 15b.

   “Despite marked cerebral ischemia (Mean rSO2 = 43%) normal EEG activity (delta, theta and alpha) consistent with consciousness emerged as long as 35–60 minutes into CPR.”  Interpretable EEG was obtained in 53 of ~85 monitored patients. ↩

French, Christopher C.  “Near-death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors.”  Progress in Brain Research 150:351–367.  2005.  A review chapter by Christopher C. French, a psychologist at Goldsmiths College, University of London.  It surveys the spiritual, psychological and organic theories of NDEs, then reviews studies of NDEs in cardiac arrest survivors.  The article uses it as a reviewer's own verdict that no model covers the whole set of features.

1. 16a.

   French writes:  “While none of the studies produced evidence in support of any of the organic theories of NDEs, it should be noted that two of the four prospective studies… did not attempt to collect data relevant to such theories”.  “If it really is occurring… during a period of flat EEG with no cortical activity, then modern neuroscience would require serious revision.  This would also be the case if the OBE… could be shown to be veridical.  However, both of these claims currently remain open to dispute”. ↩ ↩ ↩

Blackmore, Susan.  “Near-Death Experiences.”  susanblackmore.uk.  n.d.  Her tunnel model says that visual-cortex cells concentrate on the central field, so.  “random excitation will produce the effect of a bright light in the center fading out toward darkness—in other words, a tunnel effect”.  The model was published with Troscianko in the Journal of Near-Death Studies 8 in 1988.  A summary chapter on the author's website.  Her full theory is in the book Dying to Live (Prometheus, 1993).  The article uses it for the tunnel and dying-brain explanations. ↩

1. 17a.

   “none of the previous mechanisms can account entirely for the NDE”. ↩

Xu, Gang et al.  “Surge of neurophysiological coupling and connectivity of gamma oscillations in the dying human brain.”  PNAS 120:e2216268120.  2023.  A study of gamma oscillations (fast electrical rhythms in the brain) in four comatose patients after their ventilators were withdrawn.  The article uses it for what the human data show and for the limits its authors place on them.

1. 18a.

   Two of the four comatose patients, after ventilator withdrawal, showed a gamma surge in the temporo-parieto-occipital junction (the area at the back of the brain where the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes meet).  The authors write:  “is suggestive of elevated conscious processing in these patients, [but] it does not demonstrate it”.  “we cannot determine whether the activation… was correlated with having a subjective experience, as none survived”.  “it remains possible that this neurophysiological surge is epiphenomenal or pathological”. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

Parnia, Sam et al.  “Guidelines and standards for the study of death and recalled experiences of death: a multidisciplinary consensus statement and proposed future directions.”  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1511:5–21.  2022.  A consensus statement by a multidisciplinary group that reviews the literature on death and recalled experiences of death, and proposes standards for studying them.  Its authors include Sam Parnia, Bruce Greyson and Peter Fenwick, who are also authors of the AWARE 2014 paper.  The article cites it for the call to rename the phenomenon and for its statement that these experiences are inconsistent with hallucinations and other illusions.

1. 19a.

   “These features make them inconsistent with hallucinations, illusions, delusions, or conventional dreams that also occur in the context of ICU survival.” ↩

2. 19b.

   Section Conclusion 9:  “data from high-quality studies are missing to support these theories.  No specific neuromodulators have been identified to account for recalled experiences of death.” ↩

Kellehear, Allan.  “Culture, Biology, and the Near-Death Experience: A Reappraisal.”  Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 181(3):148–156.  1993.  “Life review and tunnel sensation in near-death experiences appear to be culture-bound phenomena, confined largely to societies where historic religions are dominant”.  A reappraisal of near-death experience research on whether its features depend on culture or on biology.  It concludes that the life review and the tunnel are culture-bound.  The article uses it for the claim that tunnels and life reviews are largely Western. ↩ ↩

Pasricha, Satwant, and Ian Stevenson.  “Near-Death Experiences in India: A Preliminary Report.”  Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 174(3):165–170.  1986.  A preliminary report on 16 near-death experiences in India, compared with 78 American cases analyzed earlier.  The cases came to the authors incidentally, during studies of cases of the reincarnation type, not from a systematic search, and the authors asked less about the content of the Indian experiences than about the American ones.  The authors note that some features seem culture-bound, but they caution that this does not show the cases come only from culturally shaped beliefs.  The article uses it for the sharpest contrast it draws, between the Indian pattern of messengers and a clerical mistake and the American cases.

1. 21a.

   “the subject is taken in hand by 'messengers' and brought before a man or woman who is often described as having a book or papers that he or she consults.  A mistake is discovered.  The subject… is not the person intended to be summoned, and he is 'sent back.'” ↩ ↩

2. 21b.

   Of the 16 Indian cases: taken by messengers, 75%; man with a book, 50%; sent back because of a mistake, 62%; residual marks on the body attributed to the experience, 25%.  The authors write.  “Subjects of Indian NDEs do not report seeing their own physical body during the NDE”.  (versus 65% of the 78 American comparison cases); life review 0% versus 27%. ↩

Zaleski, Carol.  Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times.  Oxford University Press.  1987.  A book comparing near-death accounts from medieval times with modern ones.  Its comparison finds the medieval accounts heavy with judgment, torment, and test-bridges, while the modern accounts are marked by optimism and education.  The article uses it for the claim that time shapes what people report about the afterlife as much as geography does. ↩ ↩

Bush, Nancy Evans, and Bruce Greyson.  “Distressing Near-Death Experiences: The Basics.”  Missouri Medicine 111(5):372–376.  2014.  A review of distressing near-death experiences, the ones that frighten or harm the person who has them.  It names three types, and it reports that as many as one in five near-death experiences may be mostly distressing.  It says experiencers are reluctant to report distressing ones, which limits the data on how common they are.  The article uses it for its point that up to one in five NDEs is distressing and that experiencers hide them.

1. 23a.

   “We have documented three types of distressing NDE:  inverse, void, and hellish.”  “A literature review covering thirty years of research concludes that as many as one in five NDEs may be predominantly distressing.”  “A notorious reluctance to report a distressing NDE may lead to long-lasting trauma for individuals as well as limiting the data on occurrence.” ↩ ↩

2. 23b.

   “No evidence supports the conventional assumption that 'good' people get pleasant NDEs and 'bad' people have distressing ones.” ↩

Osis, Karlis, and Erlendur Haraldsson.  At the Hour of Death.  Avon.  1977.  A book by two researchers reporting their surveys of physicians and nurses about the deathbed visions of their patients, in the United States and India, starting with a 1961 pilot.  It analyzes the apparitions the dying reported, including 471 terminal patients who saw apparitions.  A third edition came from Hastings House in 1997.  The article uses it for the survey figures and for the finding that the apparitions usually came to take the patient away.

1. 24a.

   The 1961 pilot mailed 10,000 questionnaires to physicians and nurses; 640 returns reported.  “a total of 35,540 observations of dying patients.”  The 1977 surveys returned 1,004 US and 704 Indian questionnaires (the US returns.  “representing approximately 50,000 observations of dying patients”.  ), with 877 detailed follow-up interviews; the core apparition analysis rests on 471 terminal patients (216 US, 255 India).  Popular retellings that compress this to.  “50,000 deathbed observations”.  conflate the surveys. ↩

2. 24b.

   “Of all the apparitions identified as relatives, 90 percent were of the closest kind:  father, mother, spouse, siblings, offspring.” ↩

3. 24c.

   “the take-away purpose is expressed in three out of four cases (pilot, 76 percent;  U.S., 69 percent;  India, 79 percent),”.  and there was.  “not one case in which the take-away purpose was attributed to an apparition of the living.” ↩ ↩

4. 24d.

   Of 442 patients with recorded temperature, 58% were normal and only 8% at or above 103°F.  The book reports.  “The hallucinogenic disease group did not see more dead relatives,”.  and that medical factors conducive to hallucination made take-away visions less likely, not more. ↩

5. 24e.

   “U.S. patients hallucinated a greater number of deceased persons (mostly relatives), whereas the hallucinations of Indian patients were primarily involved with religious figures.”  Indian patients saw dead relatives too, at lower rates; the popular claim that.  “no Indian saw a dead relative”.  is false. ↩

6. 24f.

   Terence Hines' standing objection: the pilot.  “was based on replies received from ten thousand questionnaires…  Only 6.4 percent were returned,”.  inviting self-selection. ↩

Kerr, Christopher et al.  “End-of-life dreams and visions: a longitudinal study of hospice patients.”  Journal of Palliative Medicine 17(3):296–303.  2014.  “Dreams/visions featuring the deceased (friends, relatives, and animals/pets) were significantly more comforting than those of the living”.  “As participants approached death, comforting dreams/visions of the deceased became more prevalent”.  A longitudinal study, meaning that patients were followed over time, of the dreams and visions that hospice patients had at the end of life.  Of 66 enrolled, 59 were analyzed, and 88.1% reported at least one dream or vision across 453 interviews.  The article uses it for the finding that visions of the dead grew more frequent and more comforting as death approached. ↩ ↩

Nahm, Michael et al.  “Terminal lucidity: a review and a case collection.”  Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 55(1):138–142.  2012.  “we have identified 83 cases of terminal lucidity mentioned in the literature of the last 250 years”.  The 43% who died within the last day of life come from a dated subsample of 49 cases.  A review of the medical literature on terminal lucidity, the sudden return of clear thinking shortly before death in people with serious brain conditions, together with a collection of its case reports.  The authors found 83 cases across 250 years, reported by 55 authors, in conditions including brain abscesses, tumors, strokes, and dementia.  The article uses it as the source for the strangest phenomenon in this literature and for its timing. ↩ ↩

Batthyány, Alexander, and Bruce Greyson.  “Spontaneous remission of dementia before death: results from a study on paradoxical lucidity.”  Psychology of Consciousness 8(1):1–8.  2021.  Results of a study of caregivers' reports of lucid episodes before death, which the authors describe as spontaneous remission of dementia.  The article uses it for its count of these episodes and for what caregivers reported about how complete the remission was and how soon death followed.

1. 27a.

   187 completed caregiver surveys describing 197 lucidity episodes, 124 (72%) in diagnosed dementia.  “In more than 80% of these cases, complete remission… was reported.”  “More than two thirds of these patients died within two days of the lucid episode, and only 6% survived more than a week.” ↩ ↩

“The 'Boy Who Came Back from Heaven' Retracts Story.”  Christianity Today.  Jan 2015.  A January 2015 news report on the retraction of the story told in The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven.  Ruth Graham's July 2019 article in Slate covers the background and aftermath.  The article uses it for the retraction itself.

1. 28a.

   From Malarkey's open letter of January 13, 2015:  “I did not die.  I did not go to Heaven.”  “I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention.”  “When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible.”  “People have profited from lies, and continue to.  They should read the Bible, which is enough.” ↩ ↩

2. 28b.

   The Southern Baptist Convention passed a 2014 resolution on.  “the sufficiency of Scripture regarding the afterlife”.  LifeWay pulled all.  “experiential testimonies about heaven”.  from its stores in March 2015. ↩ ↩

3. 28c.

   Malarkey sued Tyndale in April 2018, claiming that none of the book's proceeds had been received; the case settled confidentially in March 2024. ↩

Dittrich, Luke.  “The Prophet.”  Esquire.  Jul 2013.  The key quotations are reproduced in Robert Mays's point-by-point IANDS rebuttal, titled.  “Esquire article on Eben Alexander distorts the facts”.  A 2013 Esquire investigation of Eben Alexander's account of a coma.  It reports that the ER physician placed Alexander in a chemically induced coma, and that Alexander settled malpractice suits.  The article uses it to test the central claim of Proof of Heaven, that the visions happened while the cortex was shut down.

1. 29a.

   Dr. Laura Potter, the ER physician who admitted Alexander, said she.  “had to make the decision to just place him in a chemically induced coma”.  During sedation weaning, Alexander was.  “just thrashing, trying to scream, and grabbing at his tube”.  Asked whether that state was conscious, she answered.  “Yes…  Conscious but delirious.” ↩ ↩

2. 29b.

   Per Esquire, Alexander.  “settled five malpractice suits in Virginia within a period of ten years”.  at least two involving allegations of altered medical records. ↩

3. 29c.

   Alexander said:  “Esquire's cynical article distorts the facts of my 25-year career as a neurosurgeon and is a textbook example of how unsupported assertions and cherry-picked information can be assembled at the expense of the truth.”  Mays argues that the Glasgow Coma Scale score of 8 at admission, and the infectious-disease consultant's statement that.  “he remained in a coma six days”.  predate and outweigh the sedation issue. Reports that Potter recanted her quotes are secondhand and unsigned. ↩

Challies, Tim.  “The Bestsellers: 90 Minutes in Heaven.”  challies.com.  2014.  “Emergency responders pronounced him deceased at the scene”.  No resuscitation was attempted.  “Ninety minutes after his accident, Piper awoke.”  No physician pronouncement, EEG, monitor record, or published medical documentation of death exists in any account.  ABC Nightline's 2011 segment likewise reports only paramedic pulse checks.  A 2014 review of Don Piper's book 90 Minutes in Heaven.  The article uses it to show that the claimed death rests on what responders reported at the scene, with no medical record of the death. ↩ ↩

MacArthur, John.  “The Burpo-Malarkey Doctrine.”  Grace to You.  Oct 18, 2012.  A blog post by the pastor John MacArthur, arguing from Scripture that the bestselling accounts of visits to heaven are not true, because no one raised from the dead in the Bible describes heaven.  The argument was expanded in The Glory of Heaven, second edition, Crossway, 2013.  The article uses it as the sober biblical critique of the genre.

1. 31a.

   “it is impossible to resist the conclusion that these modern testimonies—with their relentless self-focus and the relatively scant attention they pay to the glory of God—are simply untrue.”  “Not one person raised from the dead in the Old or New Testaments ever recorded for us what he or she experienced in heaven.  That includes Lazarus, who spent four days in the grave.”  Even biblical visions of heaven are.  “merely mentioned, not described”.  and Paul.  “saw things that are unlawful to utter, so he gave no details.” ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

Habermas, Gary, and J. P. Moreland.  Immortality: The Other Side of Death.  Thomas Nelson.  1992.  A 1992 book by Gary Habermas and J. P. Moreland, later expanded as Beyond Death (Crossway, 1998), arguing that near-death experiences give strong evidence for a minimal life after death, including a personal, nonphysical soul.  Michael Potts, a philosophy professor, argues in a 2002 paper that the authors go beyond the available evidence.  The article uses the book for its strongest version of the near-death case, which it then narrows to the minimal case.

1. 32a.

   Habermas and Moreland say that NDEs provide.  “strong evidence for at least a minimalistic view of life after death”.  By this they mean.  “life in the initial moments after death, not some detailed version of heavenly life or even necessarily eternal life.”  Habermas maintains the same position today.  On heaven and hell content he says.  “very little evidence is ever provided, so verifying their perceptions would be exceptionally difficult.”  Potts places the first two quotations at page 74 of the book. ↩ ↩

Moody, Raymond.  Life After Life.  Mockingbird.  1975 (edition of 2001).  A book that gathers reports from about 150 cases of this phenomenon and sorts them into elements that recur across them.  The article cites it for the origin of the term and for its list of recurring elements.

1. 33a.

   “one can easily pick out about fifteen separate elements which recur again and again throughout the mass of reports I have collected.”  “At the present time, I know of approximately 150 cases of this phenomenon.”  The elements are the chapter heads: ineffability, hearing the news, peace, the noise, the dark tunnel, out of the body, meeting others, the being of light, the review, the border, coming back, telling others, effects on lives, new views of death, corroboration. ↩

2. 33b.

   “More than 13 million copies”.  Per the Wikipedia article citing The Age (2004).  Precise figures vary by source. ↩

Ring, Kenneth.  Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience.  Coward McCann.  1980.  A book that reports a study of 102 subjects, in which about 48% had the core experience.  The article cites it for the roughly 40–48% of people who came close to death and were asked and who had the core experience. ↩

Sabom, Michael.  Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation.  Harper & Row.  1982.  A book that reports 116 cases, including 32 autoscopic out-of-body reports (reports of seeing one's own body from outside), of which 6 gave specific verifiable detail.  Its control group, asked to imagine its own resuscitation, made major errors in 20 of 23 attempted descriptions, according to a 2012 review by Arnette in the Journal of Scientific Exploration.  The article cites it for Sabom's hospital study, which found the core experience in roughly 40–48% of people who came close to death and were asked. ↩ ↩

Parnia, Sam et al.  “A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors.”  Resuscitation 48:149–156.  2001.  “partial pressure of oxygen during the arrest… was higher in the NDE group”.  Ceiling boards with hidden targets went untested because no experiencer reported an out-of-body experience (OBE).  A study that interviewed 63 cardiac-arrest survivors, of whom 4 (6.3%) had core NDEs.  The article cites it because its oxygen result points the wrong way for the anoxia theory (the idea that lack of oxygen causes NDEs). ↩ ↩ ↩

Greyson, Bruce.  “Incidence and correlates of near-death experiences in a cardiac care unit.”  General Hospital Psychiatry 25:269–276.  2003.  A study of 1,595 consecutive admissions to a cardiac care unit over 30 months.  It found NDEs in 10% of cardiac-arrest patients, against 1% of other cardiac patients.  The article cites it in its table of studies, for those 10% and 1% rates. ↩

Sartori, Penny et al.  “A Prospectively Studied Near-Death Experience with Corroborated Out-of-Body Perceptions and Unexplained Healing.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 25(2):69–84.  2006.  A case report on one patient, unconscious in an intensive therapy unit, whose out-of-body account the medical team corroborated in many details, and whose hand and gait improved afterward.  It comes from Sartori's five-year study, which found 2 NDEs among 243 ITU survivors and 7 NDEs and 2 OBEs among 39 arrest survivors; her monograph on the study is The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients (Edwin Mellen, 2008).  The article cites it as the best-documented single case. ↩

1. 38a.

   The patient, deeply unconscious with eyes closed, correctly reported the physiotherapist's presence and the consultant's penlight pupil check, with the verdict.  “Yes they are reacting, but unequal”.  The paper says:  “These events have been verified by the nurse and physiotherapist who were present, and they were also documented in the patient's medical notes.”  Afterward he spelled on a letter board:  “I died and I watched it all from above.” ↩

2. 38b.

   “Having been asked to re-enact their resuscitation, the control group's reports were very inaccurate and demonstrated misconceptions and errors…  Many of these patients either had no idea as to how they had been resuscitated or made guesses, based on what they had previously seen on television.” ↩

3. 38c.

   “None of the OBErs in this study viewed the hidden symbols placed on the monitors.” ↩

Klemenc-Ketis, Zalika et al.  “The effect of carbon dioxide on near-death experiences in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors: a prospective observational study.”  Critical Care 14:R56.  2010.  “The number of patients in the sample is the main weakness of our study.”  A prospective study of 52 out-of-hospital cardiac-arrest survivors, of whom 11 (21%) had NDEs.  It measured end-tidal CO2, the carbon dioxide level in the breath, which was 5.7±1.1 vs 4.4±1.2 kPa (p<0.01).  The article cites it for the one physiological correlate it found, which was in carbon dioxide rather than oxygen. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

Borjigin, Jimo et al.  “Surge of neurophysiological coherence and connectivity in the dying brain.”  PNAS 110:14432–14437.  2013.  “transient surge of synchronous gamma oscillations… within the first 30 s after cardiac arrest”.  A laboratory study of nine rats after cardiac arrest, recording the brain's gamma oscillations (fast electrical rhythms).  The surge exceeded waking levels.  The article uses it for the first gamma-surge finding and its timing, in its argument that the surge is not a rescue. ↩ ↩

Greyson, Bruce, and Pim van Lommel.  “AWAreness during REsuscitation and EEG activity.”  Resuscitation 194:109924.  2024.  Of the 28 interviewed, only two had EEG data, and they.  “weren't among those with explicit cognitive recall… no correlation was found between reported NDEs… and specific electrical activity in the brain”.  A letter to the editor by Bruce Greyson and Pim van Lommel, who question whether the EEG findings of the AWARE-II study show consciousness.  They also ask how the team separated brain activity from muscle and motion artifacts in EEG readings taken during CPR.  The article cites it because the two patients with EEG data had no explicit recall, so no experience was matched to a brain recording. ↩ ↩

Rivas, Titus et al.  The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences.  IANDS Publications.  2016.  A compilation of 104 cases of paranormal phenomena reported in near-death experiences, by three researchers including Rudolf Smit.  The second edition, from 2023, has 128 cases.  It is the most useful compilation of veridical anecdotes and their documentation chains, but its limits are those of its genre: retrospective testimony, gathered largely by convinced investigators.  Veridical means that a reported detail checked out against the facts.  The article uses it as the fullest compilation of such cases. ↩

Sabom, Michael.  Light and Death: One Doctor's Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences.  Zondervan.  1998.  Pages 37–82:  Pages 37–82 are the sole primary source for the Pam Reynolds case.  A book by Michael Sabom, a doctor, about near-death experiences.  The article uses it as the source for Pam Reynolds's surgery and her out-of-body account of it. ↩

Woerlee, Gerald M.  “Could Pam Reynolds Hear? A New Investigation into the Possibility of Hearing During this Famous Near-Death Experience.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 30(1):3–25.  2011.  Gerald Woerlee is a practicing anesthesiologist (a doctor who gives anesthesia).  His paper argues that the four accurate hearing reports Pam Reynolds made can be explained by her hearing during periods of awareness under the anesthetic drugs used in her operation.  The same issue carries replies by Stuart Hameroff and Chris Carter, and Woerlee's rejoinder.  The article uses it for the question of whether Reynolds could have heard.

1. 44a.

   The brainstem-monitoring protocol delivered.  “Clicks of alternating polarity… at stimulus levels of 90 to 100 dB… at rates of 11 to 33/sec”.  with 40-decibel white-noise masking in the other ear.  Woerlee writes:  “Reynolds would hear bone conduction of sounds above a level of 40-50 decibels.  Consequently, neither the clicking sounds… nor the continuous white sound at a 40-decibel level preclude hearing with bone or air conduction”.  His emulation test:  “Pam Reynolds was well able to hear the sounds of speech and music during a period of awareness during her operation”. ↩

2. 44b.

   “The incidence of awareness during general anesthesia varies somewhat depending upon the type of surgery and anesthetic technique, varying between 1 to 9 per 1000 general anesthetics”. ↩

Society for Psychical Research.  “Pam Reynolds (near-death experience).”  Psi Encyclopedia.  n.d.  The technologist said the taped ear-coverings made normal hearing.  “impossible”.  Sabom contacted the saw manufacturer.  Spetzler found her recall.  “remarkably precise as to some details”.  An encyclopedia entry that summarizes the case from the proponents' side.  The article uses it for the proponents' answer on hearing. ↩

Clark, Kimberly.  “Clinical interventions with near-death experiencers.”  The Near-Death Experience: Problems, Prospects, Perspectives, 242–255.  Thomas.  Edited by Greyson and Flynn.  1984.  A chapter in a 1984 book on NDEs, edited by Greyson and Flynn.  The article cites it for the Maria case, where Clark found the shoe and said its worn toe could not be seen from inside. ↩

Sharp, Kimberly Clark.  “The Other Shoe Drops: Commentary on 'Does Paranormal Perception Occur in Near-Death Experiences?'.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 25(4):245–250.  2007.  “I showed them from outside the building approximately where I had found the shoe because I could no longer remember which exact window it was.”  A commentary in the same journal, answering Keith Augustine's critique of the shoe-on-the-ledge case.  Sharp is the researcher who investigated that case herself, and she argues that Augustine relied on a magazine account by two college students that got the facts wrong.  Her rebuttal says that 1994 construction blocked the sight-lines and that Maria "spoke very little English."  The article uses it for her rebuttal of the sight-line objection and for her admission that she could no longer remember which exact window it was. ↩

Cook, Emily Williams et al.  “Do Any Near-Death Experiences Provide Evidence for the Survival of Human Personality after Death?”  Journal of Scientific Exploration 12(3):377–406.  1998.  A paper on near-death experiences (NDEs) by three researchers at the University of Virginia's Division of Personality Studies.  It asks whether NDEs can count as evidence that consciousness survives death.  It describes seven published cases and seven from the authors' own collection that show three features: enhanced mentation (clearer and more vivid thinking than usual), seeing one's own body from a different position in space, and paranormal perception.  The authors say these cases are all, with one possible exception, somewhat weak in how they were recorded and investigated.  Al Sullivan is case 14, pages 399–401.  The article uses it for the Al Sullivan case and for the authors' own discussion of it.

1. 48a.

   “Dr. Takata could not confirm specifically that he had 'flapped' his elbows during Mr. Sullivan's surgery in particular, but he did confirm that this is a regular habit of his, done not because he has not yet scrubbed in (as reported by Mr. Sullivan), but because, after he has scrubbed in, he does not wish his hands to touch anything until he is actually ready to do the surgery.” ↩

2. 48b.

   The authors themselves raise the possibility that.  “Mr. Sullivan might have seen Dr. Takata 'flapping' his elbows when the balloon was being inserted but before he was given general anesthesia,”.  and answer it with details Sullivan supplied under later questioning (opened chest, leg-vein stripping).  His 1990 written account, quoted in the paper, also includes his heart on.  “what appeared to be a small glass table”.  and his deceased mother directing the surgeon's hand. ↩

Smit, Rudolf.  “Corroboration of the Dentures Anecdote Involving Veridical Perception in a Near-Death Experience.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 27(1):47–61.  2008.  “No, no!  Truly, the man was brought in more dead than alive.”  A follow-up investigation by Rudolf Smit, an associate of the Dutch branch of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, which publishes the journal.  Smit located and re-interviewed the nurse ("T.G.") in 2008 and asked whether the patient had ever opened his eyes during resuscitation.  The patient himself was never interviewed, and the earliest written record of the event dates from August 1991, about 12 years after it happened.  The article uses it for the 2008 follow-up that located the nurse, who confirmed the details of the dentures anecdote. ↩

1. 49a.

   From the Smit and Rivas rejoinder to Woerlee:  “The fact that patient B reported remembering the pain of the Thumper during his resuscitation is perhaps the only occasion where Woerlee may have a point.” ↩

Ring, Kenneth, and Sharon Cooper.  “Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind: A Study of Apparent Eyeless Vision.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 16(2):101–147.  1997.  A study of 31 blind respondents, 14 of them blind from birth, asking whether they have near-death experiences (NDEs) and out-of-body experiences (OBEs), and whether they claim to see during them.  Blind people, including those blind from birth, reported the classic NDE features, and most of them claimed to see during NDEs and OBEs.  Occasionally a visual claim could be corroborated by independent evidence.  The authors explain the findings with the concept of "transcendental awareness" rather than eyesight.  Book version: Mindsight, 1999.  The article uses it for the 80% figure and for the authors' own caution about how literally the sight reports should be taken.

1. 50a.

   31 blind respondents, 14 blind from birth.  The authors wrote:  “Overall, 80 percent of our respondents reported these claims [of sight]”.  “Even for those blind from birth, 9 of 14, or 64 percent, likewise reported sight.” ↩

2. 50b.

   The authors list.  “factors that together sounded a tocsin against an overly literal interpretation of these reports as indicative of 'seeing' as such.”  One respondent said.  “It wasn't visual.  It's really hard to describe because it wasn't visual…  It was almost like a tactile thing.”  On corroboration, the authors wrote.  “just here, not surprisingly, is where it proves difficult to gather the type of indispensable corroboration that would help to cinch the argument.”  Their conclusion proposes.  “a distinctive state of consciousness, which we would like to call transcendental awareness.” ↩

Augustine, Keith.  “Hallucinatory Near-Death Experiences.”  The Secular Web.  2003.  An online essay first posted in 2003 and updated in 2008, arguing that near-death experiences are hallucinations.  The article uses it for two points:  that the figures people see in NDEs follow the culture of the experiencer, and that the sight reported by blind people can be explained without vision.

1. 51a.

   “In the industrialized West, where Christian imagery dominates, people who encounter religious figures in their NDEs typically encounter Christian religious figures who appear as they are standardly depicted.”  “While Western NDErs tend to encounter dead friends and relatives more often than religious figures, Hindu religious figures are prominent in NDEs from India.” ↩

2. 51b.

   Augustine notes Vicki Umipeg's hospitalization at Harborview and the shared social-worker network with the Maria case, and argues generally that.  “prior knowledge, fantasy and lucky guesses and the remaining operating senses of hearing and touch… is sufficient to explain out-of-body imagery in NDEs.” ↩

Whinnery, James E.  “Psychophysiologic correlates of unconsciousness and near-death experiences.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 16(1).  1997.  “Sixteen years of observations, including nearly 1000 acceleration (+Gz)-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC) episodes”.  “Myoclonic convulsive activity was observed in association with 70 percent of the G-LOC episodes”.  Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are, in his words,  “not a common occurrence”.  Whinnery says the dreamlets are.  “indistinguishable from the dreams they experience during regular sleep”.  The differences from NDEs, in Whinnery's own caution,  “would be expected… the magnitude of the insults to the nervous system… are different”.  A review by James E. Whinnery, a researcher in fighter aviation medicine, of blackouts caused by high G forces (G-LOC) in healthy people, most of them fighter pilots.  Unconsciousness averaged 12 s, and dreamlets (brief dream-like scenes) were reported in ~35–40%.  The article uses it for the fighter-pilot blackout comparison, in which the blackouts come with convulsions and amnesia. ↩ ↩

Jansen, Karl.  “The Ketamine Model of the Near-Death Experience: A Central Role for the N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 16(1):5–26.  1997.  Jansen later wrote that he was.  “no longer as opposed to spiritual explanations of these phenomena as this article would appear to suggest”.  A 1997 article proposing a ketamine model of NDEs, with a central role for the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a brain receptor that ketamine acts on.  The article uses it as the ketamine entry in its list of brain-based explanations, and notes that Jansen later softened the claim. ↩

Timmermann, Christopher et al.  “DMT Models the Near-Death Experience.”  Frontiers in Psychology 9:1424.  2018.  The authors' own caveat:  “suggest[ing] that the NDE scale may have a somewhat liberal threshold”.  A study in which 13 volunteers took DMT (a psychedelic drug), and all 13 scored above the Greyson NDE threshold (the cut-off on the Greyson NDE scale, a standard questionnaire for NDE features) under the drug.  The authors list their own limits: placebo always came first, dosing was not uniform, and one placebo-session participant also crossed the threshold.  The article uses it as a drug model of NDE features, with the caveat that the scale may be too easy to pass. ↩

Nelson, Kevin et al.  “Does the arousal system contribute to near death experience?”  Neurology 66:1003–1009.  2006.  Greyson and Long's rebuttal says the control group of medical-center personnel showed hypnagogic rates.  “about one-fourth of that in the general population”.  The same rebuttal says causality could run in reverse.  Nelson's reply notes that 15 of 33 NDErs with REM intrusion had it before their NDE.  40% of NDErs reported no REM-intrusion history at all.  A study comparing 55 people who had an NDE with 55 controls on lifetime REM intrusion, the dream-sleep features (such as paralysis and vivid imagery) that break into waking.  The NDE group reported 60% lifetime REM intrusion against 24% of controls.  The article uses it as a naturalistic model that links NDE features to dream-sleep intrusion, and for the limits of that model. ↩

Blanke, Olaf et al.  “Stimulating illusory own-body perceptions.”  Nature 419:269–270.  2002.  “I see myself lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk”.  A two-page report in Nature on stimulation of the right angular gyrus (a brain area near the back of the head) in an epilepsy patient, which produced an illusion of the patient's own body.  The article uses it as an example of an induced out-of-body illusion that is fragmented and distorted. ↩

Mobbs, Dean, and Caroline Watt.  “There is nothing paranormal about near-death experiences.”  Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15(10).  2011.  “Taken together, the scientific evidence suggests that all aspects of the near-death experience have a neurophysiological or psychological basis”.  A three-page opinion piece, not a systematic review, by Dean Mobbs and Caroline Watt.  The article uses it as its case study of an overreaching claim, the conclusion that every feature of NDEs has a brain or psychological basis. ↩

Greyson, Bruce et al.  “There is nothing paranormal about near-death experiences revisited.”  Trends in Cognitive Sciences 16(9):445.  2012.  The reply says Mobbs and Watt.  “explained 'all aspects'… by ignoring aspects they could not explain and by overlooking a substantial body of empirical research”.  A one-page reply to Mobbs and Watt's opinion piece, by Bruce Greyson, Janice Holden and Pim van Lommel.  The article uses it to answer the claim that every feature of NDEs has a brain explanation. ↩

1. 58a.

   The reply records:  “In a subsequent radio interview, Watt acknowledged that they had avoided looking at any evidence for veridical out-of-body perception”.  The interview is Skeptiko episode 165, where Watt calls the paper.  “an opinion piece, like an editorial in a newspaper”. ↩ ↩

Kellehear, Allan.  “Census of Non-Western Near-Death Experiences to 2005: Overview of the Current Data.”  Journal of Near-Death Studies 26(4):249–265.  2008.  A census of all published non-Western near-death experience (NDE) cases in the literature up to 2005.  It is the author's third census of this kind, and it updates his earlier surveys, the first of which appeared in 1993.  It reviews only the NDE phenomena associated with illness.  It finds that encounters with other beings and other realms appear across cultures, while life reviews and tunnels seem to be culture-specific.  The article uses it for that split between shared and culture-specific features.

1. 59a.

   “In every case discussed, deceased or supernatural beings were encountered.”  “the major crosscultural features of the NDE continue to appear to include encountering other beings and other realms on the brink of death.  Life reviews and tunnel experiences seem to be culture-specific features.”  “NDErs from hunter-gatherer societies did not seem to report life reviews or tunnel experiences.”  Quoting Murphy on Thailand:  “Tunnels are rare, if not absent, in Thai NDEs.” ↩ ↩

Barrett, William.  Death-Bed Visions: The Psychical Experiences of the Dying.  Methuen.  1926.  A book by William Barrett about the psychical experiences of the dying.  It contains the Doris case of January 1924, which the article calls the founding case of its kind.  The article uses it for that case and for Barrett's judgment that cases of the dying greeting people who had died unknown to them are among the strongest arguments for survival.

1. 60a.

   The Doris case, January 1924, Mothers' Hospital, Clapton, attended by Lady Florence Barrett.  Per the mother's signed letter, Vida had died on December 25, 1923, and the news had been withheld for 18 days ("three weeks" is the Matron's rounding).  Three signed accounts exist: Lady Barrett's, Matron Miriam Castle's, and the mother's.  See also Greyson's survey of such cases, "Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died: 'Peak in Darien' Experiences" (https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/wp-content/uploads/sites/360/2017/01/OTH23_Peak-in-Darien-A-H.pdf), Anthropology and Humanism 35(2), 2010.  “Mrs. B. said, 'Oh, why there's Vida,' referring to a sister of whose death three weeks previously she had not been told.” ↩

2. 60b.

   Page 10:  “cases in which the dying "appear to see and recognize some of their relatives of whose decease they were unaware, affords perhaps one of the strongest arguments in favour of survival."” ↩

Fenwick, Peter et al.  “Comfort for the dying: five year retrospective and one year prospective studies of end of life experiences.”  Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 51(2):173–179.  2010.  “ELEs differed from drug-induced hallucinations and occurred in clear consciousness”.  In Fenwick's lecture to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the first figure reads.  “over two-thirds of the carers had had ELEs reported to them in the previous year”.  Deathbed visions came from over half, and deathbed coincidences from 54%.  Two studies of end-of-life experiences (ELEs), one looking back over five years and one looking forward over one year, based on what palliative carers reported.  The article uses it as the modern answer to the second-hand problem of the older surveys, in which reports passed through medical staff. ↩

Mashour, George et al.  “Paradoxical lucidity: A potential paradigm shift for the neurobiology and treatment of severe dementias.”  Alzheimer's & Dementia 15(8):1107–1114.  2019.  The authors say that if paradoxical lucidity holds up, the.  “framework of dementia as an inexorable and irreversible process of structural neuropathology must be revised.”  The NIA later issued funding announcements AG-20-016/017.  A framework paper, not a study, from a June 2018 workshop of the National Institute on Aging (NIA) on paradoxical lucidity, the return of clear thinking in people with severe dementia.  It sets out what the field would have to change if the phenomenon holds up.  The article uses it to show that the NIA took the question seriously enough to convene a workshop and fund research. ↩

Shared Crossing Research Initiative.  “Shared Death Experiences: A Little-Known Type of End-of-Life Phenomena Reported by Caregivers and Loved Ones.”  American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine 38(12):1479–1487.  2021.  A study of shared death experiences, which the title describes as a little-known type of end-of-life phenomena reported by caregivers and loved ones.  It gathered 107 respondents reporting 164 experiences, from retrospective written accounts and interviews, with no independent corroboration.  The article places it in its lowest tier, documented anecdote, and rests no argument on it. ↩

Harris, Sam.  “This Must Be Heaven.”  samharris.org.  Oct 12, 2012.  “Everything—absolutely everything—in Alexander's account rests on repeated assertions that his visions of heaven occurred while his cerebral cortex was 'shut down'…”  A blog post that disputes Eben Alexander's account of heaven.  It argues that everything in the account rests on repeated assertions that the visions happened while the cerebral cortex was shut down.  The article uses it for that objection. ↩

“Colton Burpo Says His 'Heaven Is for Real' Story Is True.”  Christian Post.  Jan 2015.  “I just wanted to take a second and let everyone know that I stand by my story found in my book 'Heaven is for Real.'”  “I wasn't coaxed into doing this.  I wanted to tell people about my experience.”  A January 2015 Christian Post report in which Colton Burpo stands by the story told in the book Heaven Is for Real.  The article uses it to show that, unlike the Malarkey book, this one has never been recanted. ↩

Augustine, Keith.  “Answering More of the Same: A Reply to Nahm.”  Journal of Scientific Exploration 36(2):366–398.  2022.  “most selected experiments have already been done and failed to produce the desired results”.  “There are no cases of OBEs associated with NDEs that could be verified under strictly controlled, planned conditions.”  A reply to Nahm, published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration.  It says that the experiments survival researchers most often select have already been run and have failed to produce the results they wanted, and it quotes two researchers on the lack of verified cases.  The article uses it for the point that controlled tests of out-of-body experiences have produced no verified cases.