Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926 – 2004)

Raymond A. Moody (1944 - )

One of the most bizarre developments in 20th Century pseudoscience was the idea to interview people who had "nearly died" (in some vague sense) about hallucinations they claimed to have had during the trauma (which often involves varying states of unconsciousness!). Books collecting such "experiences" (usually referred to as NDE) have become instant best sellers, over and over, continuously since the 1960s. These experiences can be triggered by extreme fright, non-fatal injuries, surgery, fear of surgery, lapsing into a coma(!), etc., etc., etc. The selling point of the books is that:  (1) Many patients claim to report the same sorts of hallucinations, suggesting that they are in some vague sense "real" experiences, and (2) The patients sometimes report meeting gods or other supernatural beings, and even visiting a "heavenly realm," although people of different cultures and backgrounds report totally different heavens and gods. Other (always Christian) patients report going to a realm of eternal torment inhabited by demons, and even meeting Satan. Since no description of the afterlife is to be found in Holy Texts of Western cultures, the descriptions are generally easily shown to be based closely on movies and TV shows that depict an afterlife.  The supposedly distinctive hallucinations reported by those experiencing a NDE turn out to be pretty much identical to those reported by volunteers in good health who are given a dissociative anaesthetic, particularly Ketamine. Other drugs whose use became popular in the Counterculture in the 1960s and 1970s, such as LSD and peyote, cause very vivid hallucinations that again often closely resemble NDE hallucinations. Recent research in which genuinely dying patients have volunteered to die while inside a brain-scanning device indicate that very distinctive areas of the brain are generally activated during the dying process, and that the activation persists for some significant time, even after clinical death... it takes a surprisingly long while for the brain to die from lack of oxygen. [However, one should be very skeptical of any such studies which depend upon so-called fMRI systems.  How these systems actually work is controversial and they have generated some claims that are totally preposterous.] Such brain activity has nothing directly to do with NDEs, since the unexpected activity involves real death, but it is quite possible that some of these end-stage brain activities could be prematurely triggered by extreme bodily trauma that does not end in death. Brains are complicated things, and not well understood in detail, but appeal to ignorance is never an approach that leads to genuine new knowledge. Furthermore, many commonly prescribed medications are known to induce visual hallucinations. The medications most often associated with visual hallucinations include those used to treat high blood pressure, erectile dysfunction, psychiatric and mood disorders, movement disorders like Parkinson's disease, and some antibiotics.

 

Apparently the two most common NDE and drug-induced hallucinations reported are (1) the feeling of passing through a long tunnel, and (2) the feeling of leaving one's body and hovering overhead, being able to view the whole body and things surrounding it. In fact I and many other people have had such experiences as a result of a temporary medical condition which was in no way life-threatening or frightening. For example, a high fever can bring on a tunnel hallucination, and conditions such as epilepsy bring on routine "out of body" sensations during seizures.  Check out this link for a fill-in on the many variations known of losing the brain's usual "location" information-generation.  It is the very essence of pseudoscience to "prove" life after death by using the testimony of people who are not only not dead, but were never at any risk of dying!  In recent years, wealthy people have increasingly amused themselves by taking ketamine, a drug which produces dissociation and NDEs, as part of bogus "mental therapy." One NDE often reported by conscious hospital patients is that they can see dead friends and relatives in the room with them.  Identical reports come from celebrities who regularly take ketamine! Sadly, in recent years, ketamine has become a common and dangerous drug of choice among the very wealthy. An overdose is usually  fatal. A less common but still often reported illusion is a "slideshow of memories." Actually, when I was a kid, this was an experience often described by people who had received an extreme fright. People would say, "Boy, I was so scared that my whole life passed before my eyes!" Ketamine is addictive and frequent use results in serious mental issues.

Tunnel Illusion (drug-induced)

Out of Body Illusion

Slide Show of Memories Illusion

“When you have an NDE, you must have a functioning brain to store the memory, and you have to survive with an intact brain so you can retrieve that memory and tell about it,” Kondziella says. “You can’t do that without a functioning brain, so all those arguments that NDEs prove that there’s consciousness outside the brain are simply nonsense.” Of course, but forget everything scientists have learned about this topic in the last 70 years... there is some serious money to be made!! In fact, while many polls indicate that belief in traditional religions is declining, belief in an afterlife is paradoxically increasing! Pseudoscience can and does replace religion. In many polls no encouraging trends are visible. And yet a recent Gallup poll gives very different results.  It depends on how the questions are phrased.

It is a sad fact of life that people and pets important to us die around us all the time. The longer we live, the more people and pets we lose. No longer are they available as companions. It's emotionally attractive to some people to believe that they still exist somehow, somewhere, even if we can't communicate with them. Alas, like almost all beliefs that are emotionally attractive, this belief clearly has no basis whatsoever in fact. The real universe which we can explore is not "magical" in any sense that ancient man would have understood.

Sir William Barrett (1844 - 1925) was one of two 19th Century physicists (the other being Sir William Crookes) who became a convert to the emerging 19th Century religion of Spiritualism. Here is a reprint of his last published book, on deathbed visions. Actually such visions have been reported for many centuries and in many different cultures... they are in no way new to the 20th and 21st Centuries.

Andrei Sakharov (1921 - 1989): "... Like faint glimmers of light in the dark, we have emerged for a moment from the nothingness of the dark unconsciousness of material existence. We must make good the demands of reason and create a life worthy of ourselves and of the goals we only dimly perceive."   He developed the Soviet H-bomb and the Tokomak concept, but in later life he was a tireless, outspoken and persecuted champion of freedom, truth and justice.

According to Feynman's wife and his best friend, who both sat with him in the hospital, these were Feynman's last spoken words before he died.

Pets don't get left out.  Since 1980, a whole mythology of pet afterlife has been developed in the USA. Pets themselves, however, are entirely free of any religious beliefs, nor do they respect any specific human culture.

LET'S MIX IT ALL UP, SHALL WE?

AI Summary:  Belief in an afterlife can be considered dangerous because it potentially devalues all human life, justifies fatalism or injustice, and inspires fatal actions. It may lead to risky behavior, reduce the urgency to address immediate earthly problems; and, in extreme but not uncommon cases, be used to justify violent martyrdom or terrorism, or mass murder.

Risky and Violent Behavior: The belief that death is not final, but a mere gateway to a better existence can be easily manipulated to encourage extremist behavior, such as suicide bombings or martyrdom, as seen in various historical and modern contexts.  Killing as many infidels or rioting natives as possible will guarantee a huge reward in heaven.

Avoidance of Reality:  It too often acts as a mental safety blanket that allows individuals to avoid facing the stark reality of mortality, and the need to strive to create justice and meaning in this life. Why strive ceaselessly with little reward to make your "earthly" life count, when it is just a short prelude to "real" life?

“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for.” ― Vladimir Nabokov, Speak, Memory