Near death experiences - where science points to spirituality

1. Near-death
Experiences:
Where Science points to
spirituality

2. The Mystery
How can we be conscious when we are not
conscious?
Near-death Experiences (NDEs) are
the extraordinary perceptions of
physically unconscious people who
were close to death

3. NDEs – two aspects
Other-worldly perceptions:
scientifically unexaminable
This-worldly perceptions:
scientifically examinable

4. Hallucinations?
Hallucinations are:
1. Disorderly
2. Disturbing
3. Not life-transforming
NDEs are the opposite

5. NDEs are not hallucinations
“With a purely physiological
explanation [for NDE] such as
cerebral anoxia [absence of oxygen]
for the experience, most patients who
have been clinically dead should
report one.”
- Dr Pim Van Lommel, Lancet article

6. Prior general knowledge?
How could a person who was almost
certainly unconscious, in the middle of
cardiac arrest, about to be jolted by an
electric shock, and lying down in such a way
that he could not see the defibrillator meter
observe minutely the motion of the needles
on its dial?
Re: Dr Michael Sabom, Recollections of Death

7. Partial consciousness?
The case of Maria reported by Dr
Kimberly Clark
Maria described details of a tennis
shoe on a hospital window-ledge,
details impossible to see from any
window

8. When the blind see
NDEs of the Blind: Mindsight -
Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper
The case of Vicki Umipeg

9. Operation standstill: Pam Reynolds
Giant basilar artery aneurysm
Body temperature lowered to 60 F,
Heartbeat and breathing stopped,
Brain waves flattened, and
Blood drained from her head.
Special earpieces emitting 90 to 100 decibel
clicks at a rate of 11 to 13 clicks per second.

10. Operation standstill
“At that stage in the operation, nobody can observe, hear,
in that state, And I find it inconceivable that your normal
senses, such as hearing, let alone the fact that she had
clicking modules in each ear, that there was any way to
hear through normal auditory pathways. I don't have an
explanation for it. I don't know how it's possible for it to
happen, considering the physiological state she was in. At
the same time, I have seen so many things that I can't
explain, that I don't want to be so arrogant as to be able to
say that there's no way it can happen.” - Dr. Spetzler

11. Fraud?
"That [Deception] is certainly always a possibility
to be guarded against in individual cases; but
when this suggestion is used repeatedly and
without supporting evidence as a blanket defense
against the entire body of evidence, it should be
recognized for what it is, which is simply an
unwillingness to examine that evidence in a truly
scientific spirit."
- Dr Emily Williams Kelly, Irreducible Mind

12. The Implication
"What is clear is that something
profound is happening. The mind -
the thing that is 'you' - your 'soul' if
you will - carries on after
conventional science says it should
have drifted into nothingness."
- Dr Sam Parnia

13. Expanding the frontiers of science
Relativity and Quantum physics
developed because scientists
confronted the evidence that
classical physical couldn’t explain

14. The Gita’s tripartite model of the self
Body – Hardware
Mind – Software
Soul – User

15. Soul Eye
Subtle Body
Gross Body
Normal Vision
O
u
t
s
i
d
e
W
o
r
l
d
Subtle
Eye
Brain
Area pervaded
by consciousness

16. Soul
Subtle Body
EyeBrain
Gross Body
No sight
No Activity at all
O
u
t
s
i
d
e
W
o
r
l
d
NDE Vision
Subtle
Eye
Area pervaded
by consciousness

18. Redefining progress & happiness
Materialism’s consequences:
 “We have guided missiles &
misguided men”
 A million suicides every year

19. The Ultimate Positive Thinking
You are indestructible.
Go beyond positive perception
of reality to the perception of
positive reality
Eg Airlifted out of disaster zone

20. Questions?
www.thespiritualscientist.com