If qualia is real, why does it have to be paranormal

My mind has been changed before. So it's untrue you
can never change my mind. For example, I used to
believe the fat hypothesis, I was once a born again
Christian.   Your goal should however to refine
your own articulation of your thoughts.

Given Shermer's interests and his lack of gainful employment elsewhere, 
I'd be shocked if he never read a serious book
on NDEs. He has made debunking his job.  He certainly is biased
but he probably read studies.

His brain hypothesis is partially routed in his
person experience. He suffered an hallucination
during a biking accident.   If one envisions
two opposing hypotheses, we pretty well have 
something happening to the brain vs brain
not being involved.

Michael Shermer » Skeptical About Skeptics 
                  
He particularly warns his readers against people who have ideologies to pursue, whose pattern of thinking “consistently ignores or distorts data not for creative purposes but for ideological agendas”. Unfortunately he himself has an ideology to pursue and makes untruthful and pseudoscientific claims.

For example, in his “Skeptic” column in Scientific American in March 2003, Shermer cited a research study published in The Lancet, a leading medical journal, by Pim van Lommel and colleagues (Near death experiences in survivors of cardiac arrest).

He asserted this study “delivered a blow” to the idea that the mind and the brain could separate. 

Yet the researchers stated the exact opposite, and showed that conscious experience took place during a period of clinical death when the brain was flatlined. As Jay Ingram, of the Canadian Discovery Channel, commented: “His use of this study to bolster his point is bogus … He could have said, ‘The authors think there’s a mystery, but I choose to interpret their findings differently’. But he didn’t. I find that very disappointing.” (Toronto Star, March 16, 2003).