Books in this vein are becoming a cliche. I'd like to briefly comment on this review:
i) To begin with, unless a reported NDE has veridical features, then, minimally, I'm entitled to suspend judgment about the reported experience. In the nature of the case, NDEs are essentially private experiences. Absent veridical features, an outsider can't directly evaluate the claim. I didn't experience what you allegedly did. All I have is your word for it.
ii) Mind you, that doesn't mean inverdical NDEs are inherently suspect. We shouldn't expect all or most NDEs to have veridical features. Certain advantageous circumstances must be in place for that to happen. A controlled setting. So many NDEs could be real, but inverdical. The main value of veridical NDEs is to establish the category as a factual experience, whether or not any particular candidate is factual.
iii) An objection to Don Piper's alleged experience is that it's trite. Pedestrian. And it seems to be easily explainable in terms of projecting his materialistic interpretation of Revelation onto the underlying experience, assuming his account has any basis in fact.
Likewise, I agree with Patton that this account reflects "folk theology."
iv) But with those caveats duly registered, I'd like to take issue with one of Patton's objections:
His description of people. He says that he was greeted by many people who were the same age as when they died. All of these people were those that influenced him in his spiritual walk throughout his life. Yet he talks about their physical appearance for quite some time. Most interestingly, he says that they all looked the same age as when they died. While the Bible does not tell us much about the state of existence between death and resurrection (the intermediate state), it is clear that our bodies are left behind until the resurrection. It is hard for me to conceive that the disembodied souls of believers have the physical appearance of their former selves. It is even harder for me to conceive that they look the same age as when they died. In the intermediate state their is no material bodily form which causes this type of recognition. As believers, it seems best to remain agnostic about how and if others will be recognized in the intermediate state.
I find that no more puzzling than when we dream about dead relatives.
Since departed Christians haven't been glorified, they haven't been physically rejuvenated, as of yet. So if they were to appear us, I don't find it surprising that they'd appear as we remembered them.
In principle, they could appear much younger, but that might make them less recognizable. That would be confusing or distracting.
I'd add that this isn't confined to the issue of NDEs. The same principle applies to apparitions or premonitory dreams.
At the moment I'm not vouching for any of this. Just saying that if it were to happen, it wouldn't be surprising if it took this form. If anything, that's to be expected.
The issue is what effect the brain and memory has on these perceived experiences. Many facets of NDEs and OBEs may be tied to effects of the temporo parietal junction (TPJ) and aspects of brain activity malfunctioning as it experiences trauma or begins to shut down, explaining panorama of one's life (=life flashing before one's eyes), recall of deceased loved one's, seeing room flood with light, perceiving oneself from above, moving through tunnel, etc. Olaf Blanke, for example, has been able to replicate some from stimulating the TPJ of a subject while they are awake and alert. Also, the mind may project one's convictions about what heaven is like in instances of 'seeing heaven'. Examples exist of those from different cultures experiences the 'afterlife' in terms of their cultural or societal beliefs (Christians perceive as Christian imagery; Nordic from the norse traditions; etc.).
ReplyDeleteThat also depends on whether your'e a dualist or physicalist. For instance, an annihilationist will attribute these impressions to the dying brain, since there's no immortal soul to fall back on.
Delete@Ian D. Elsasser
Delete1. Here is an article co-authored by two physicians which scrutinizes Olaf Blanke's claims and finds them lacking.
2. The most common site in the brain for a complex partial seizure (which is a type of seizure preceded by an aura and in which consciousness is impaired) is in the (mesial) temporal lobe. But many if not most of these epileptic seizures don't result in NDEs. Wouldn't we expect a higher proportion if Blanke is correct?
3. What about people who have NDEs while they're essentially "brain dead"? Or if areas of their brains which purportedly explain NDEs aren't properly functioning?