Psience Quest Interview No. 4: Rudolf Smit and Titus Rivas

 

Rudolf Smit: from academics mostly indifference or straightforward rejection. Sometimes even hostile responses. As for non-academics, i.e. so-called ordinary people, more women seem interested than men. For the rest I concur with Titus’s findings.

 

Titus Rivas: People who have NDEs or other extraordinary or paranormal experiences are still being frowned upon by Western society. Not only that, they often feel that their experiences and the particular ways they are trying to interpret them are being rejected by scientists and medical doctors. This may give them feelings of loneliness, confusion and even depression .

Skeptical or rather pseudo-skeptical debunkers have always tried to refute any non-materialistic or physicalist explanation of extraordinary experiences. They have a strong tendency to distort the evidence, ridicule their opponents, and ignore anything that does not accord with their world view. Unfortunately, many experiencers are not prepared for aggressive skeptical campaigns and may even get insecure about their own views. I think the physicalist approach is irrational, very destructive, and totally uncalled for, given the evidence.

 

I'm interested to know if and when researchers such as yourselves feel a little skeptical, at least about some cases rather than others. I imagine that, after intensive study of hundreds - perhaps thousands - of cases, you must begin to get a feel for the sincere and also for the, shall we say, embellished?

For myself, a couple of the most convincing were Pam Reynolds and Anita Moorjani while one that gives me an uneasy gut feel is Eben Alexander. It is difficult to pin down why - perhaps it is my natural suspicion of commercial promotion and there seemed to be a lot of that in Alexander's case. I also have a problem with books touting religious confirmation - usually with publishers insisting on the word Heaven in the title. My understanding suggests that NDEs are mostly religiously neutral, certainly not confirmations of any particular religious teaching.