Implications of Near-Death Experiences for a Postmaterialist Psychology

Implications of Near-Death Experiences for a Postmaterialist Psychology

Bruce Greyson

Classical physics, anchored in materialist reductionism, offered adequate descriptions of everyday mechanics but ultimately proved insufficient for describing the mechanics of extremely high speeds or small sizes, and was supplemented nearly a century ago by quantum physics, which includes consciousness in its formulation. Materialist psychology, modeled on the reductionism of classical physics, likewise offered adequate descriptions of everyday mental functioning but ultimately proved insufficient for describing mentation under extreme conditions, such as the continuation of mental function when the brain is inactive or impaired, such as occurs near death. “Near-death experiences” include phenomena that challenge materialist reductionism, such as enhanced mentation and memory during cerebral impairment, accurate perceptions from a perspective outside the body, and reported visions of deceased persons, including those not previously known to be deceased. Complex consciousness, including cognition, perception, and memory, under conditions such as cardiac arrest and general anesthesia, when it cannot be associated with normal brain function, require a revised psychology anchored not in 19th-century classical physics but rather in 21st-century quantum physics that includes consciousness in its conceptual formulation.

I picked a couple of important paragraphs out, Sci. Absence of brain stem reflexes (for one)  which is very important and often a point which is not understood or accepted by some members.

…..in cardiac arrest, cerebral functioning shuts down within a few seconds. Whether the heart actually stops beating entirely or goes into ventricular fibrillation, the result is essentially instantaneous circulatory arrest, with blood flow and oxygen uptake in the brain plunging swiftly to near-zero levels.

EEG signs of cerebral ischemia, typically with global slowing and loss of fast activity, are detectable within 6–10 s and progress to iso-electricity (flat-line EEGs) within 10–20 s of the onset of arrest. In sum, full arrest leads rapidly to the three major clinical signs of death (absence of cardiac output, absence of respiration, and absence of brainstem reflexes) and provides the best model we have of the dying process(DeVries, Bakker, Visser, Diephuis, & vanHuffelin, 1998)

Sabom (1982) carried out a study specifically to examine whether claims of out-of-body perceptions could be attributed to retrospective reconstruction. He interviewed patients who reported NDEs in which they seemed to be watching what was going on around their body, most of them cardiac patients who were undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the time of their NDE.

He also interviewed “seasoned cardiac patients” who had not had an NDE during their cardiac-related crises, and asked them to describe a cardiac resuscitation procedure as if they were watching from a third-person perspective. He found that 80% of the comparison patients made at least one major error in their descriptions, whereas none of the NDE patients made any. Moreover, 19% of the NDE patients related accurate details of specific idiosyncratic or unexpected events during their resuscitation

I really don't understand why they needed to give the mediums the first names of the "discarnates" they were meant to be contacting, and although they seem to have tried to reduce the consequences of that in some circumstances, there seems to be obvious scope for clues about the people to be obtained from their names (age being an obvious example).

Also, as discussed here, there were problems with the statistical analysis of earlier studies by Beischel, so that would need to be looked at carefully:
https://psiencequest.net/forums/thread-a...wartz-2007

I picked a couple of important paragraphs out, Sci. Absence of brain stem reflexes (for one)  which is very important and often a point which is not understood or accepted by some members.

…..in cardiac arrest, cerebral functioning shuts down within a few seconds. Whether the heart actually stops beating entirely or goes into ventricular fibrillation, the result is essentially instantaneous circulatory arrest, with blood flow and oxygen uptake in the brain plunging swiftly to near-zero levels.

EEG signs of cerebral ischemia, typically with global slowing and loss of fast activity, are detectable within 6–10 s and progress to iso-electricity (flat-line EEGs) within 10–20 s of the onset of arrest. In sum, full arrest leads rapidly to the three major clinical signs of death (absence of cardiac output, absence of respiration, and absence of brainstem reflexes) and provides the best model we have of the dying process(DeVries, Bakker, Visser, Diephuis, & vanHuffelin, 1998)

Sabom (1982) carried out a study specifically to examine whether claims of out-of-body perceptions could be attributed to retrospective reconstruction. He interviewed patients who reported NDEs in which they seemed to be watching what was going on around their body, most of them cardiac patients who were undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the time of their NDE.

He also interviewed “seasoned cardiac patients” who had not had an NDE during their cardiac-related crises, and asked them to describe a cardiac resuscitation procedure as if they were watching from a third-person perspective. He found that 80% of the comparison patients made at least one major error in their descriptions, whereas none of the NDE patients made any. Moreover, 19% of the NDE patients related accurate details of specific idiosyncratic or unexpected events during their resuscitation

You should really write these things up into a wiki article, tim

You should really write these things up into a wiki article, tim

Did the quotation from my comment on another thread get into that one by accident?

You should really write these things up into a wiki article, tim

Exactly what I was thinking over the past couple of days. Tim and Smithy (if still around) could add some NDE summaries of real interest to our little wiki here.

You should really write these things up into a wiki article, tim

Is this our own wiki page, Mediochre ?

Exactly what I was thinking over the past couple of days. Tim and Smithy (if still around) could add some NDE summaries of real interest to our little wiki here.

Smithy is too tired to get involved at the moment, Dave after his heart attack. I could certainly contribute if it would help. I know I could do a wiki(d) Pam Reynolds and there wouldn't be any lies in it.

Is this our own wiki page, Mediochre ?

Yes, at least as a start.

Smithy is too tired to get involved at the moment, Dave after his heart attack. I could certainly contribute if it would help. I know I could do a wiki(d) Pam Reynolds and there wouldn't be any lies in it.

Sorry to hear that, Tim. I certainly know some of what he is going through having suffered my own heart attack some years back so please forward my best wishes.

On Pam Reynolds: yes indeed - if anyone can provide a fact-based account, you can. I'm sure a Wiki page could provide enough detail to encourage others to look deeper and perhaps buy the book.

I certainly know some of what he is going through having suffered my own heart attack some years back so please forward my best wishes.

Will do that, Dave, thanks. Glad that you've recovered well !