Peter Fenwick's Studies of End-of-Life-Phenomena

Peter Fenwick (born 25 May 1935) is a neuropsychiatrist and neurophysiologist who is known for his pioneering studies of end-of-life phenomena. In this interview he talks about near-death-experiences (NDE), death-bed-visitors and how we can achieve a good death. NDE research is at the cutting edge of consciousness research and offers a convincing model for the understanding of what happens when we die. Peter Fenwick describes the different transitional phases of the dying process and highlights the importance of letting go at the end of ones life. He offers fascinating insights into common phenomena at the end of life, such as premonitions, seeing a light, death-bed-visions and coincidences. In his opinion everybody should know about death and the dying process, because it is a normal part of living.

Contents:

01:08 What is a neuropsychiatrist?
01:45 What does your daily work involve?
03:13 In broad terms, what can we learn from these scans?
04:18 How did you get involved with near-death experiences?
05:18 How did you go about studying these phenomena?
08:35 Did you get the whole spectrum of near-death experiences?
10:00 Is that dependent on your worldview, on your background?
10:18 What do you think is the value of NDE research?
11:24 Do you think that near-death experiences provide some kind of proof that consciousness can exist without a brain?
16:32 Can you tell us about the end-of-life phenomena which you describe in your book?
23:52 So there are visitors and spiritual beings. Are there any other phenomena around death?
28:35 What happens then when the dying is more difficult?
40:09 Do you have a sense of frequently these things occurring?
41:48 How can we achieve a good death?
47:42 Do you think there is any connection between the way we think and the way we live our lives and the way we experience our death and what comes after?
50:37 The cliché we often find in movies and in literature that a good person has a good death and a bad guy has a bad death – is this what you observed in your research?
51:47 Many of my colleagues, many doctors would say these are just hallucinations. What do you say about that?
53:05 What do you say about the so-called hellish near-death experiences?
55:56 What have you learnt from all this? Is there a special message for our culture?

[Laird]

Very interesting. Lots of good information and wisdom. The main sticking point for me was that he affirms that death is "non-dual", in which one merges with the universe - and presumably then loses individuality; a "real" death: the dissolution of the person. I'm skeptical that this is what happens, especially given evidence that the individual persists after death, such as from CORTs and mediumship, and even NDEs themselves.

Very interesting. Lots of good information and wisdom. The main sticking point for me was that he affirms that death is "non-dual", in which one merges with the universe - and presumably then loses individuality; a "real" death: the dissolution of the person. I'm skeptical that this is what happens, especially given evidence that the individual persists after death, such as from CORTs and mediumship, and even NDEs themselves.

Peter Fenwick has studied this subject for decades, so I'm confident he is aware of all the available evidence and simply interprets it differently than you do. He has also written a book on reincarnation.

He is however without any doubt a dualist. I think with “non-dual” death he means you loose the physical part of being “dual”. He doesn’t elaborate on what merging with the universe means and in truth we could probably never know (even if dualism is true)

[Laird]

He doesn’t elaborate on what merging with the universe means

Yes, and I might be misinterpreting him as implying that it means the dissolution of the person. I'd be interested to know exactly what he does mean.

Yes, and I might be misinterpreting him as implying that it means the dissolution of the person. I'd be interested to know exactly what he does mean.

Ask him.

This interview implies that Fenwick doesn't mean the dissolution of the person.

“It’s such an interesting question. What is individual consciousness? The evidence is very good that there is continuity of consciousness after death – that you retain your sense of individuality, your sense of self, all the way through the process of dying and then you will hop into a new coat, as it were. Individual consciousness as your marker on it. It’s you."

“Oh yes. Absolutely. There is no death, I know that now. There is death of the body, but there is no death of the individual person.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitne...r-fenwick/

[Laird]

Ask him.

I'll decide on whether or not to do that after reading his book The Art of Dying, which I've just ordered. It would be discourteous to ask if it's explained in his book and I hadn't read it. Plus, my father and stepmother aren't getting any younger, so this might be a good book to share with them after I've read it myself.

This interview implies that Fenwick doesn't mean the dissolution of the person.

That's a relief. Thanks for digging that up.

It tells us one thing that he doesn't mean by a non-dual death in which one merges with the universe. Now to try to find out what he does mean.

I'll decide on whether or not to do that after reading his book The Art of Dying, which I've just ordered. It would be discourteous to ask if it's explained in his book and I hadn't read it.

I have that book in my collection. It is a great book, but you won't find the answer to that question there.

[Laird]

I have that book in my collection. It is a great book,

I look forward to reading it then.

but you won't find the answer to that question there.

That's disappointing. I wonder whether he's answered it anywhere that you or other folk here know of. Otherwise, maybe it does need to be explicitly asked of him.

This interview implies that Fenwick doesn't mean the dissolution of the person.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitne...r-fenwick/

Another quote from the same interview:

The evidence is very good that there is continuity of consciousness after death – that you retain your sense of individuality, your sense of self, all the way through the process of dying and then you will hop into a new coat, as it were. Individual consciousness as your marker on it. It’s you.

Strictly speaking, these statements are a little ambiguous. He could be talking only about just the entrance to the beginning stages of the afterlife, during which the NDE OBE evidence does indicate that the individual personality persists at least temporarily after separation from the dying body. He may consider that in the overall long life of the soul eventually there is some sort of ending with a merging with all that is, in which indeed the individual personality is extinguished.