Near Death Experiences: Why Are the Skeptics So Skeptical?

Years ago, I became so fascinated by the subject of Near Death Experiences (NDEs), I actually wrote a novel that revolved around the subject. When I started writing, I was still somewhat skeptical about them, but by the time I finished my research, I was convinced that the skeptics had little evidence to support their argument that NDEs were mere hallucinations.

Recently, I stumbled across a short segment from an Australian TV show, Sunrise, titled Near Death Experiences: new research suggests they're all in the mind. Thinking I might learn something new, I watched the segment. To my astonishment, the "new research" had been conducted using only 17 subjects and not one of them had experienced an NDE.

The presenters barely touched on the study, but apparently it had to do with research into lucid dreams and out of body experiences. I only learned this during the course of the interview with Dr. Jeffrey Long, co-author of Evidence of the Afterlife. Dr. Long pointed it out and mentioned that his studies show no correlation between what happens in an out of body experience and in an NDE. A Near Death Experience occurs after the heart stops and the brain ceases to produce electrical activity: when the brain is dead.

The second expert interviewed was Dr. John Perkins of the Australian Atheists Association. Dr. Perkins stated that the "White Light" phenomenon so often experienced was caused by activity in the optic nerve. When asked how he explained that NDEs occurred after all brain activity had ceased, he replied that science hasn't proved that consciousness ceases as soon as brain electrical activity ceases. Since Near Death Experiences occurred after that time, therefore they were "all in the mind." This was so irrational, it was mind boggling.

The TV segment proved nothing to me, but left me wondering why skeptics would do anything, including use bad science, to "prove" that NDEs were just "figments of the imagination" and to believe there was an afterlife was just pathetic "wishful thinking." A Time article, What Happens When We Die, which includes references to Dr. Long's research, asks researcher Dr. Sam Parnia the question, "Why do you think there is such resistance to studies like yours?" Dr. Parnia replied, "If you look back at the end of the 19th century, physicists at that time had been working with Newtonian laws of motion, and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out there in the universe."

Many scientists even today continue to be true believers in Newtonian physics and feel threatened by anything that questions their belief system. Quantum physics threatened their belief system and for decades they resisted its findings. It was only when incontrovertible proof was presented to them that they reluctantly accepted the fact that Newtonian physics was not the final truth.

While skepticism can be healthy, it can also blind us to the truth, just as fundamentalist religious beliefs can blind us to the larger, more universal truths within our religious faiths. Don't let the skeptics get you down: that intuition you have that life does not come to an end after the death of the body has not been disproved by science. In fact, science is just beginning to catch up with the deeper realities of life.