In this post I'll summarize the third excerpt from Habermas' chapter which can be read in full here.(Parenthetically, since at least some of these experiences occurred after the patient's brain and heart activity had ceased, it seems more accurate to call them Post-Death Experiences.)
Here are two more examples of documented cases that are difficult to explain from a materialist worldview:
...the NDE reports include an NDEr who suffered a cardiac arrest and did not respond to resuscitation attempts until he received a shot of epinephrine in his heart. He reported that he was “out of my body and floating above the trauma room.” Peering down from above, he observed a quarter perched on top of an eightfoot-tall medical machine underneath him. He told the physician about the quarter and that it was dated 1985.All of these examples and the thousands more that could have been cited, are consistent with what philosophers call substance dualism, the belief that human beings are comprised of two substances, matter and mind or soul. Here's Habermas:
The physician took a ladder to the ICU and while the nurses were watching, he retrieved the coin and verified that the date was exactly what the patient had recorded! The doctor later published the account.
Another NDE patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest also related that she “had observed the room from above.” In the process she noted a long, twelve-digit number listed on top of a high medical machine beneath her and, suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, memorized the number and repeated it to the nurse and others there, who wrote down the figure.
When the patient no longer required the machine, a custodian set up a ladder in order to dust the top and then moved it out. The twelve-digit number was read, and it was the same figure that the witnesses had originally been told by the NDEr. Later a nurse verified the story once again, stating that this incident was one of the most incredible occurrences that she had ever witnessed.
Aspects of NDEs, such as NDErs’ perception of leaving their body and looking down at it from above, have caused many, experiencers and scholars alike, to posit a dualist view of mind and body. This would seem to result from the manifestation of material and immaterial aspects of the self. That the NDEr identifies herself with the location of her consciousness up above, often without even initially recognizing the identity of the body below, furthers this notion.It's interesting that, as Habermas says, the NDEr always identifies him or herself with the immaterial consciousness and not the body. In other words, human beings are souls and we have bodies. Our essential self is not our material body, it's our soul or mind. A human body without a soul is a corpse.
He goes on to note that,
It often appears that the major underlying conflict in these matters is not primarily about evidence but more about a momentous clash between worldviews. It quite often makes far more difference which metaphysical position the debater favors prior to the beginning of the discussion.This is an interesting fact about human psychology. Our beliefs are not always, maybe even not often, the result of following the evidence wherever it leads. Rather, we often refuse to accept evidence that doesn't conform to our apriori metaphysical commitments. If we don't want something to be true, we'll often make the most absurd evasive maneuvers to justify not accepting it as true.
If this is accurate, then it seems that even strong evidential considerations are less likely to change minds. In fact, once minds are made up, it is often simply amazing what sort of responses are often preferred just to keep from entertaining even the possibility of an afterlife.
Naturalistic worldviews have shown many signs in recent years of major foundational fissures. Yet, it appears that many naturalists would say or do anything to maintain their naturalism. But ignoring the quickly mounting data regarding corroborated NDE incidents, or simply responding with guffaws in order to avoid dealing with such information, fails to refute the NDE argument.
According to Habermas critics of the NDE evidence pay scant attention to the best corroborated accounts. He writes that,
This is very intriguing, especially when both sides in this debate, including some of the key opponents, have conceded the crucial importance of explaining the best-evidenced claims. Many cases across the spectrum are so exceptional that the ones that were left out of this [chapter] could almost as easily have replaced those that were included with minimal loss of good data! There is simply a large plethora of evidential cases that are backed by strong corroboration.If NDEs are indeed veridical experiences, that is, if people are truly having them, then, as medical technology continues to improve and the ability of medical professionals to resuscitate patients who have flatlined also improves, we should expect many more reports of these episodes in the future.
The bottom line, then, appears to be this: the competing theses have not come close to successfully explaining the well over three hundred evidential cases narrated or listed here, especially the strongest ones.
This is precisely why, when speaking of the cardiac arrest cases accompanied by corroborated data, Rivas, Dirven, and Smit assert that, “It is for this reason that the reliability of the kind of case that appears in this chapter is so fiercely challenged by materialists.” These authors add that if this domino falls, the critics know that their cause at this point is lost.
Even while attempting not to overstate the strength of the overall case, major researchers have rated the NDE data as indicating the probable reality of consciousness at least beyond the initial cessation of heart and brain function.
In the light of this, it often appears that those who hold opposed positions chiefly desire to preserve their worldview commitments at all costs, driven by a strong dislike of any “spiritual” or “religious” options. But one thing seems clear: the alternative positions do not fare well when attempting to refute the strongest NDE evidential cases....it does not even appear to be a close contest.
Perhaps our media will even take an interest and give them wider exposure so that more people become aware of them.
