At a site I read I got a link to a PhD dissertation on the topic of near-death experiences. The dissertation is entitled "Are Near-Death Experiences Veridical? A Philosophical Inquiry," and is by Monika J. Mandoki of the University of Western Ontario. I cannot recommend reading the document, which does a poor job of giving us relevant scholarship on the topic mentioned in its title. We get a 315-page document that wanders all over the map, without giving us much in the way of a discussion of the topics the author should have been writing about to properly address the question raised in the title. I guess this is what we might expect from someone doing a dissertation to get a PhD in Theory and Criticism. The dissertation reads as if the author is trying to show how much she knows or has learned about various philosophers or theorists. Along the way the reader gets little discussion relevant to the topic of whether near-death experiences are veridical in the sense of providing evidence for life after death.
Although the bibliography of the dissertation lists many books on near-death experiences, we are left with the suspicion that the author did not study accounts of near-death experiences very deeply. We don't get much in the way of quotations from such books, or discussion of the best cases in such books. The literature of near-death experiences includes quite a lot of discussion of what are called veridical near-death experiences. These are mainly cases in which someone having a near-death experiences reports seeing things or hearing things or perceiving things which should have been impossible for him, given his medical affliction or state of unconsciousness at the time. I discuss quite a few such cases in my widely-read post "The Enigma of Veridical Near-Death Experiences," which you can read here.
For example, a person who has a near-death experience while his heart stopped for minutes may report many details of what was going on during medical attempts to restart his heart, details which should have been impossible for him to have learned. Other examples of veridical near-death experiences include cases in which someone reports learning information from some nonearthly source, information that he or she never learned during regular sensory experience, information subsequently confirmed. One of many examples I could cite is the account near the beginning of my post here, in which a daughter dying during labor reports seeing in the spirit world both her mother (Mrs. Arnot, three miles away) and the daughter's infant child, both of whom died just before the daughter died, before the daughter was told of either of their deaths.
Oddly Mandoki seems to have made no serious study of such cases, despite them being so relevant to the title of her dissertation. The author has also apparently failed to pay sufficient attention to almost all of the items in a set of topics that are closely related to whether near-death experiences provide evidence for human survival after death.
The diagram below illustrates what some of these topics are, also giving some URLs where you can find out more about some of these topics:
Let me discuss some of these topics, and mention how they are extremely relevant to whether near-death experiences are important evidence for life after death. Apparition sightings: Contrary to the idea of some people that near-death experiences are a rather recent phenomenon, there are quite a few cases of such experiences dating from long before 1975 -- accounts you can read by reading my series of posts here, and continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right. But there was little discussion of such evidence before 1975. Conversely, there has been throughout history well-known evidence for apparition sightings. By the late 19th-century serious researchers at the Society for Psychical Research were able to publish the massive two-volume work Phantasms of the Living on the topic of apparitions, a work with a total of more than 1000 pages that you can read here and here. The whole topic of apparition sightings is extremely relevant to the credibility of near-death experiences. If there are credible sightings of deceased people existing outside of their bodies, such evidence helps to shore up the credibility of people reporting traveling out of their bodies during near-death experiences. Commonly related accounts of death-bed apparitions (in which deceased family members are so often reported as being seen by a dying person) provide a type of observation that is similar to what we often get in near-death experiences, in which someone may report traveling to some heavenly realm and seeing deceased family members.
There are two types of apparition sightings which have elements of the veridical, if we use that term to mean some level of evidence that can be verified independently of one person's subjective experience. One type is what are called crisis apparitions, in which a person may have an experience of seeing the apparition of a person he did not know was dead, with that witness later finding out that such a person did die at about the same time the apparition was seen. I have listed hundreds of such cases in my series of posts below:
25 Who Were "Ghost-Told" of a Death
There are also many apparition sightings that involve multiple witnesses claiming to see the same apparition. These have a strongly veridical element, in that we are not reliant on the testimony of a single witness. Some of these cases can be read about in my posts below:
When an Apparition Is Seen by Not Just One
Apparition sightings and their veridical elements are extremely relevant to the credibility of near-death experiences as evidence for life after death. But strangely Mandoki makes no relevant mention of such sightings, completely ignoring the topic.
ADC and afterlife-related dreams: The term ADC (standing for after-death communication) refers to cases in which a living person in normal health seems to get some sign or indication which he interprets as being possibly caused by some deceased person or spirit. Although the term ADC is of relatively recent coinage, in the later half of the second nineteenth century there were innumerable reports of strange phenomena that people called "spiritual manifestations," and interpreted as coming from the deceased. Such reports are discussed in the 22 posts here, which you can read by continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right. Even today surveys indicate that a large fraction of the population reports having such experiences, or having dreams that they interpret as some kind of contact with the deceased. I will give an example of a type that I often experience. I awoke one morning pondering whether a dream I had about papayas may have been a symbolic reference to my father, the word "papayas" beginning with the same four characters as "papa." While pondering that, suddenly the circuit breaker went off mysteriously in a nearby bathroom no one had been in for more than an hour, something requiring a press of a button in that bathroom. I later realized that this spooky event occurred on my father's birthday. A similar spooky experience on a parent's birthday is described here.
Events such as these (and highly recurrent dreams about life after death and deceased relatives) may be evidence that near-death experiences are a subset of a larger class of phenomena that occurs to a fraction of the population much larger than those who have near-death experiences. I will give an example of such a dream at the end of this post. The topic is very relevant to whether near-death experiences are evidence for life after death, but Mandoki ignores the topic.
Seance and medium activity. During the second half of the nineteenth century, there was a great abundance of reports of inexplicable phenomena that were called "spiritual manifestations." These included a vast variety of phenomena including mysterious raps, inexplicable table movements, the playing of musical instruments when no one touched them, the full levitation or half-levitation of tables, the full levitation of human beings, the appearance of mysterious materialized forms at seances, and so forth. The people reporting these phenomena were extremely diligent about documenting their observations, often producing reports signed by multiple witnesses, and published within a few weeks of the reported observations. You can read many of their accounts in my posts here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. The topic is very relevant to whether near-death experiences provide evidence for life after death, but Mandoki ignores the whole topic, failing to make any reference to a medium or a seance.
Out-of-body experiences. Near-death experiences may include out-of-body experiences in which someone reports floating out of his body. But out-of-body experiences are widely reported by many who did not have a near-death experience. Long before Raymond Moody's 1975 Life After Life book bringing near-death experiences to the forefront, there were books by people reporting out-of-body experiences. The main scholar who wrote about such experiences was Robert Crookall, who wrote a series of books (mostly before 1975) citing very many out-of-body experiences reported by others (including the books here, here and here). The topic of such experiences is very relevant to the topic of near-death experiences. Mandoki does not show much of a sign of having seriously studied this topic, and fails to mention Crookall or any of the pre-1975 publications (such as those of the Society for Psychical Research) which documented reports of out-of-body experiences.
Psi: ESP, clairvoyance, etc. Systematic written evidence for ESP and clairvoyance goes back two hundred years. The 20th century saw extremely convincing results in many formal ESP tests conducted by professors, such as the results described here and here, which we would never expect to get by chance even if everyone on Earth was tested for ESP. Reports of dramatic clairvoyance (such as those here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) were written throughout most of the nineteenth century, and were often written by physicians and scientists. All evidence for ESP and clairvoyance is evidence against the claim that the human mind is merely the product of the brain, as there is no possible neural explanation for such phenomena. Evidence for ESP and clairvoyance is evidence for a human soul, which is part of the reason why so many scientists have been so stubborn in refusing to pay attention to convincing evidence for ESP and clairvoyance (they realize that materialism will receive a "bullet in the chest" the moment the reality of such evidence is admitted). Being evidence for a human soul, the evidence for psi phenomena such as ESP and clairvoyance have great relevance to the credibility of reports of souls rising out of the human body during near-death experiences. The evidence for ESP and clairvoyance corroborates such reports and helps to lend credibility to such reports. Many of the reports of "traveling clairvoyance" under hypnosis resemble reports of out-of-body experiences during near-death events. The same type of veridical details (people reporting things they should not have known of) occur in accounts of clairvoyance and near-death experiences. Mandoki makes no mention of telepathy or clairvoyance other than a passing mention.
UAP, UFOs, orbs: As discussed here and here, it has been pointed out by quite a few investigators that many UFO sightings and sightings of UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena or unidentified anomalous phenomena) can be mysterious encounters similar to near-death experiences, experiences that seem more psychic than encounters with "nuts and bolts" hardware. People often report naked-eye observations of mysterious orbs, as you can read about by viewing the 100+ posts you can read here (by continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right). There is also abundant photographic evidence for mysterious orbs, including mysterious orbs showing abundantly repeating patterns. Such observations may be evidence of some spiritual reality related to near-death experiences.
Do brains make minds? The very large topic of whether the human brain can explain the human mind is one of the greatest relevance in discussing whether near-death experiences are compelling evidence for life after death. A materialist will appeal to the dogma that all mental activity is the result of brain activity to try to present a fatal objection to all reports of experiences occurring when a brain was shut down during cardiac arrest. The materialist will also appeal to such a dogma to try and slam the door on all discussion of life after death. The materialist reasoning is "permanently dead brains equals permanently dead minds." The topic of whether such claims are valid therefore has the greatest relevance to discussions of whether near-death experiences provide evidence of life after death. Mandoki makes almost no mention of the topic.
Cases of a bad brain and good mind. There are very many neuroscience case histories that dramatically defy claims that the human brain is the source of the human mind. Some of those cases are discussed here and here. Many of these cases involve people who retained high-performing minds after the most severe brain damage, such as loss of the left half of the brain, loss of the right half of the brain, or even loss of more than half of the brain.
The topic of whether the brain can credibly explain the human mind is a topic of very great depth, requiring an inquiry into many smaller topics such as whether scientists have any credible brain explanation for memory formation, whether scientists have any credible brain explanation for memory persistence for fifty years, whether scientists have any credible brain explanation for instant memory retrieval, whether scientists have any credible neural explanation for self-hood, creativity and thinking, and so forth. You can read my extremely detailed "deep dive" into this topic by reading the very many posts on my "Head Truth" blog here. A sufficiently deep and objective examination of the topic will lead you to the conclusion that the "brains make minds" dogma is untenable, and that boasts that scientists have neural explanations for minds are groundless achievement legends. The innumerable failures of "brains make minds" claims is of the greatest relevance to whether near-death experiences provide evidence for life after death. Mandoki briefly mentions some of these cases around page 180 of her dissertation.
Brain physical shortfalls. Investigating the question above leads to the extremely relevant topic of brain physical shortfalls, which are physical limitations of every brain that seem to imply that the brain cannot possibly be the source of the human mind and the storage place of human memories. Such shortfalls have a clear relevance to the evidence value of near-death experiences. You can read about such shortfalls here. Mandoki fails to discuss this topic, and seems to make little or no substantive discussion of neuroscience.
Marvels of mind and memory: HSAM, memorizing long books, etc: I refer here to the topic of the most impressive cases of human mental performance, such as HSAM (Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, in which someone can remember almost all days of his adult life), the ability of some humans to perform marvels of memory such as memorizing long books such as the Quran, the New Testament, and the Aeneid, the ability of certain math marvels to perform very quickly very hard math problems without touching paper, pen or computer, and so forth. The more such cases there are (cases that cannot be explained by human brains with many physical shortfalls such as a lack of addressing and indexes, and unreliable synaptic transmission), the more credible is the idea that human minds are souls rather than the outputs of brains; and the more credible such an idea is, the more credible is the idea that accounts of near-death experiences are evidence of life after death.
Lack of credible neural explanations for selves, memory and cognition: this topic involves the failure of neuroscientists to give credible neural explanations for things such as memories that can last for 50 years or more, instant recall, creativity, imagination, and self-hood. This failure is of very great relevance to accounts of near-death experiences. The more badly neuroscience fails to explain basic abilities of the human mind (as discussed in many posts here), the more plausible is the idea that human minds are souls that can leave a human body in near-death experiences.
In an interview in Psychology Today, Mandoki states this:
"Looking at reality this way, I examined the possibility of materialism (physicalism), mind-body dualism (there is a separate mind and a separate body in existence), and philosophical idealism (reality is mind-created and/or mind-dependent). Initially, I was uncertain whether any of these theories were viable. Soon, I dismissed materialism entirely and I found that mind-body dualism does not work in any form because the theory is very difficult to make it workable."
Oops, that quote makes it sound like someone acting with haste, not someone delivering a judgment from many years of study of all the relevant evidence. The most convincing case against materialism can be made, but it requires a great deal of study ranging across many different topics. The statement against mind-body dualism has no force, as it consists merely of a vague and unsubstantiated claim that it is "very difficult to make it workable." Had Mandoki deeply studied most of the topics listed above, she would have found very much in favor of mind-body dualism, something as credible or more credible than philosophical idealism (the idea that all that exists is minds and mental phenomena). Reports that people floated out of their bodies or saw apparitions of deceased relatives seem more suggestive of mind-body dualism than philosophical idealism. I wonder whether Mandoki's preference for philosophical idealism rather than mind-body dualism has been a factor in her seemingly weak study of such observational reports more suggestive of mind-body dualism than philosophical idealism. Mandoki then states this:
"I believe that a consciousness-only or mind-only reality works out better than any other types of philosophically-advanced theories because the uniformity of reality solves many difficult philosophical questions, such as the relationship of mind and body and the relationship of this world and the next. Therefore, its conclusion that consciousness or mind survives death and continues in an afterlife is the most convincing philosophical option."
The conclusion she makes in the second sentence is warranted, but in the interview she poorly states the case for such a conclusion, and her PhD dissertation does a poor job of marshalling evidence for such a conclusion, largely because she ignores or scantily discusses so many relevant lines of evidence she could have used, instead wasting way too much time on scarcely relevant discussions of philosophers. Perhaps what is going on is something that can be described like this: you are allowed in mainstream venues to present a case against materialist thinking, but only if your case is pretty weak. So you can write a PhD dissertation challenging materialist orthodoxy, but only if you write a rather evidence-weak dissertation that doesn't cause the professors reviewing your work to lose too much sleep. And you can publish an opinion piece defying the worldview of today's professors, in publications read by such professors, as long as you present a weak case, so that your readers are not too shaken. And you can get interviewed in a mainstream publication, and state a case for life after death, but only if you state your case weakly in a way that won't upset the typical readers of such a publication.
Finally, let me give that example I promised earlier of a dream seeming to symbolize life after death. Yesterday I had a dream I was walking up a stairway looking like the stairway depicted below, one with tombstone images on the stairway walls. The dream may have symbolized rising up from death to a higher level of existence. It is one of 400+ dreams I have had that seemed to refer to an afterlife.
AI art recreates my dream image
Postscript: Mandoki's failure to describe well the better examples of what are commonly called veridical near-death experiences is shown by two examples. She discusses the Pam Reynolds case, strangely turning it into a philosophical discussion of whether Reynolds was literally dead during her near-death experience. She fails to discuss why the case attracted so much attention: the fact that Reynolds reported details of her very complicated operation that should have been unknown to her. I earlier described the case like this:
"At the time of her brain operation, the late Pam Reynolds was a 35-year old who had a large brain aneurysm. She underwent a complicated operation that involved pumping out her blood and chilling her body temperature to only 60 degrees. Some twenty medical personnel worked on the complex operation.
After the successful operation was over, Reynolds reported having a near-death experience. She reported floating out of her body, and witnessing her operation. She accurately reported details of some medical equipment that was used to cut her skull open, describing it as a 'saw thing...like an electric toothbrush,' with 'interchangeable blades' that were stored in 'what looked like a socket wrench case.' She reported someone complaining that her veins and arteries were too small. These details were later verified. This was despite the fact that Reynolds eyes were covered throughout the operation, and her ears were plugged with earplugs delivering noise of 40 decibels and 90 decibels."
The Pam Reynolds case is discussed in further detail here.
Similarly, Mandoki discusses the research of Sam Parnia, mentioning the failure of subjects under cardiac arrest to detect cards hidden from them that were placed as test objects that could be seen only by a patient having an out-of-body experience. But she fails to mention the success of Parnia's original AWARE study in finding a patient reporting medical details that should have been unknown to him during his cardiac arrest. I earlier described the case like this:
"The study did 'hit the jackpot' in regard to one case of a 57-year-old patient who said that he floated out of his body while being revived from his cardiac arrest. The man said that a woman appeared in a high corner of the room, beckoning him to come up to her. He said that despite thinking that was impossible, he found himself up in the high corner of the room, looking down on the medical team trying to revive him. The man described specific details of the revival efforts, including the presence of a bald fat man with a blue hat, a nurse saying, 'Dial 444 cardiac arrest,' his blood pressure being taken, a nurse pumping on his chest, a doctor sticking something down his throat, and blood gases and blood sugar levels being taken.
Here is what the scientific paper said in regard to the accuracy of these recollections:'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 minutes of conscious awareness during CA [cardiac arrest] and CPR.' "
