Sorry Stephen,
I have not had a chance to respond to your NDE links, and even now I've only looked at one. NDE's are close to off topic, but I suppose they are relevant to whether God exists (or the existence of a soul that a God might be interested in).
The link I studied, was Melvin Morse MD. After perusing his site, I conclude the following:
- Melvin is merely a doctor, not a scientist
- Melvin has dealt with the tradgedy of the death of illness and death in children for many years. His site is probably his way of helping parents cope and his own personal way of dealing with the tradgedy of his field of medicine
- Melvin is a quack
Firstly, his lengthy essay, which you link to, contains a body of anedoctal stories in support of supernatural experiences in NDE's. Probably the most informative part in his essay, is where he refers to mainstream scientifc and medical opinion of NDE's (which I outlined in a previous post):
I believe that most physicians and scientists interpret NDEs as secondary falsifications, distortions of man's perception of his environment while the brain is malfunctioning. As Negovsky54 speculates, "auditory perception may be preserved when areas of the cerebral cortex serving vision have ceased functioning and after motor activity has ceased." Without any mystical explanations we can understand why the dying and then revived person can tell us he or she heard the voices of physicians. The fact that resuscitated people in different countries can recall similar images seen by them during dying or resuscitation does not prove life after death. It can be explained by the dynamics of the disintegration of cerebral function caused by different resistances to anoxia of the various areas of the central nervous system.
Blackmore102 has developed a computer model of the images the brain receives from the retina at the point of death. The macula may cause a persistence of light images as the brain dies. As the brain dies, she speculates that an increase in cortical acceptability could destabilize the uniform visual image we perceive and result in the perception of concentric rings, lines, and tunnel.
The psychiatric literature is in general agreement that the experience is triggered by death anxiety, psychologic stress, and the fear of death.
The most articulate proponent of this concept is UCLA psychiatrist, Ron Siegel, one of the foremost experts on hallucinations. He points out that all of the elements of the NDE, tunnels, lights, religious figures, childhood memories, heavenly music, and the like are commonly seen in a wide variety of hallucinatory experiences. He sees the NDE as the dissociative hallucinatory activity of the brain and the common elements simply being common reactions of the central nervous system to stress coupled with cultural expectations and influences. His superb article should be read by anyone interested in this area and is difficult to adequately summarize.38
Footnote:
Sigel RK. The psychology of life after death. Am Psychol 1980;35:911-31.
How do I conclude Dr Morse is a quack? Well, meet Dr Morse:
melvinmorse.com | DNS PTR Record
On that page you'll see some gems, like:
When we die, we become fully conscious, aware of our surroundings, and experience spiritual insights we do not often have at other times in our lives.
When we die? NDEs are, by definition, not actually death. No one has ever come back from complete brain death. Morse's conclusion cannot simply not be made from the study of NDEs.
Dr Morse is making a manual:
A How-to Manual to Understand
Our Right Temporal Lobe:
I am developing a practical manual to teach people how to use the area of our brain linked to near death experiences. We evolved our brains about 200,000 years ago, and it came without an owners manual. We have many residual or unused talents such as remote viewing, telepathy, healing touch, and weak telekinetic abilities which are linked to this same brain area. Anyone can learn to use this latent area of our brain and have spiritual and near death experiences.
This is nutcase stuff. He is either a new age nutter, or just trying to make a buck. Of course if he truly believed that people had the above powers he could demonstrate them to James Randi and score a million dollars.
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