I've written about NDEs (Near Death Experiences) before and have said that I used to be skeptical about them (although a character in my 2015 novel Bridging the Abyss has one), but the scientific and philosophical literature has become so large regarding these phenomena and the experiences people report have been documented by so many medical professionals, that I've come to believe that these reports, or at least some of them, are very likely to be veridical.
I'm still a bit leery of reports that the individual experienced heaven or hell. Those reports are, by their nature, not confirmable, since, with a couple of notable exceptions, the person who makes them can provide no details that can lead to a verification of the truth of what they recount.
So I'm generally withholding final judgment on those, but reports that contain details that the person could not have known apart from having an Out of the Body Experience (OBE) and which can actually be confirmed are another matter.
If those reports are indeed true they must count as very powerful evidence against philosophical materialism, a view which says that our conscious experience is the product solely of our physical brain. After all, if individuals who show no brain activity are having conscious experience then there's something else involved in producing that experience besides the material brain.
I recently came across a podcast that features an interview with a cardiac physician named Dr. Jeffrey Long who has investigated thousands of these reports and who is featured in the forthcoming documentary titled After Death (see the trailer below). The information discussed in the podcast is fascinating, and I commend it to anyone who's interested in NDEs.
I did have a couple of questions, though, about the podcast. For example, according to the trailer, 23% of those who report an experience of either heaven or hell describe something that sounds hellish, but Dr. Long says several times that the experience is wonderful for everyone who has had it. I'm not sure how to reconcile those two claims.
At any rate, here's the podcast:
Here's the trailer for After Death which is being released to theaters tonight (Oct. 27th):
