Habermas believes the evidence for the survival of persons after death is overwhelming and is the best argument against materialism, the belief that there are no immaterial substances, like minds or souls, in the universe.
He contributed a fascinating chapter on this subject to an anthology of articles on the nature of the mind titled Minding the Brain, which can be found online in three installments.
I'm going to summarize these installments over the next couple of days. In the first installment, Habermas discusses those NDEs for which there is corroborating empirical evidence of the person's claims. He writes,
[C]orroborated data may indicate the presence of human consciousness during times where neither the heart nor brain registered any observable measurements. Further, such experiences apparently took place during NDEs that involved substantiated observations that almost certainly could not have been made from the person’s bodily location, even if they had been fully conscious, healthy, and observing their surroundings at that time.Habermas states that there are well over 150 cases of empirically verifiable NDEs in the medical literature in which the experience occurred precisely within the moments when measurable heart and brain activity were absent.
[Medical research has established that] heart stoppage initiates the immediate and measurable elimination of upper brain activity just seconds later during the persistence of this state. The cessation of lower brain activity occurs just very slightly afterwards.
Therefore, verified NDE data that occur within this time frame are exceptionally crucial in indicating the potential presence of consciousness beyond the quantifiable existence of the central nervous system.
This is a major argument for continued consciousness during these moments....the sheer unlikelihood of mistakenness or deceit of one sort or another in every one of the dozens of different situations makes appeal to mistake or deceit seem incredible, particularly when the described occurrence happened precisely during those minutes rather than before or after.He gives a few examples in the chapter in Minding the Brain. Here are a couple:
One case involved a shoe found on a hospital roof. It was reported from Hartford, Connecticut by Kenneth Ring and Madelaine Lawrence. The resuscitated patient claimed to have had an NDE in which she floated above her body and then watched the resuscitation attempt going on beneath her. Then she experienced being “pulled” through several floors of the hospital until she emerged near the building’s roof, where she viewed the Hartford skyline. Looking down, she then observed a red shoe.He concludes this excerpt with this:
When nurse Kathy Milne heard the story, she reported it to a resident physician, who mocked the account as a ridiculous tale. However, in order to ascertain the accuracy of the report, he enlisted a janitor’s assistance, and was led onto the roof, where he found the red shoe!
Kristle Merzlock was a young girl who nearly drowned and was resuscitated by a doctor. Upon regaining consciousness three days later, her intensive care nurses initially heard her recollection of having visited heaven, guided by an angel. Though there was no way to verify the angel, Kristle also testified that, although she was unconscious and hooked up in the hospital, she was “allowed” to observe her parents and siblings some distance away, at home for the evening.
She provided exact details regarding where each person was located in the house, identifying the specific things they were doing, as well as the type of clothes that they were wearing. For instance, she identified that her mother was cooking roast chicken and rice for dinner. All of these particulars were subsequently confirmed very soon afterwards.
In addition to the above cases, there is a large number of reported and documented distance NDEs said to have occurred in the absence of any measurable heart or brain activity. A number of the cardiac arrest cases include some of the strongest evidential scenarios.One of the most stunning examples of a verifiable NDE of this latter sort isn't actually mentioned by Habermas in this excerpt but is recounted by neurosurgeon Michael Egnor in his recent book The Immortal Mind. It's the story of a 35 year-old woman named Pam Reynolds, who underwent surgery in 1991 to remove a brain aneurysm. The surgery was performed by the world's leading aneurysm specialist, Dr. Robert Spetzler.
Once again, as in the previous category of corroborated observation inside the room, it is exceedingly unlikely that every last one of another dozen cases exhibiting neither apparent heart nor brain activity can be meaningfully accounted for by data learned through other means, misperception or deception, coincidences, or mistakes, especially when the events described occurred precisely within the time interval of the medical crisis rather than subsequently.
The procedure required that Reynolds' body be chilled to 600F, her heart was stopped, and all the blood was drained from her brain. She had a high frequency noise directed into her ears that prevented her from hearing any ambient conversation and which allowed the doctors to know when her brain activity was completely shut down. She was essentially brain-dead.
Dr. Spetzler then carved a window into her skull to expose her brain. Afterwards, Reynolds described being pulled out of her body and watching the procedure from a vantage point like sitting on the surgeon's shoulder. She was able to accurately recount conversations among staff she heard during the procedure and describe surgical tools that were not unwrapped until after she was unconscious.
There appears to be no good materialist explanation for her experience, an experience that was thoroughly documented by Dr. Spetzler.
More tomorrow.
