Ep. 5: Near-Death Experiences

Summary

In this episode, host Mark Gober explores the intriguing phenomena of near-death experiences (NDEs) through interviews with renowned experts in the field. These conversations reveal personal insights and scientific studies that challenge conventional beliefs about consciousness and the afterlife. Listeners will be encouraged to consider the possibility of existence beyond our physical reality.

Key takeaways

• 1Dr. Pim van Lommel's cardiac arrest study (2001) explores consciousness during clinical death.
• 2Dr. Sam Parnia's 2014 study documents a veridical case of consciousness after cardiac arrest.
• 3Dr. Eben Alexander's medical records undergo independent review validating his claims of an NDE.
• 4Mark Gober's book, 'An End to Upside Down Thinking,' argues for a shift in understanding consciousness.
• 5Experts like Dr. Bruce Greyson and Dannion Brinkley share their insights on NDEs and the implications for life after death.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

Here's a question we all have. It's a big one. What happens when we die? We don't know for sure, but we do have some good hints from people who have had near-death experiences, often abbreviated NDEs. Here's NDE researcher Dr. Penny Sartori. So a near-death experience is when someone has a close brush with death, and technically there should be no conscious experience at all. But what some people report is that they may leave their body and look down from above. They might go through a dark tunnel towards a very bright light. They may meet deceased relatives or friends who very often tell them they have to go back, that it's not their time. I think of all the topics we've talked about, this is maybe the one that will make people feel the most relieved. Why is that? So what we're talking about is the idea that our consciousness doesn't die when our body dies. The awareness that you have at this very instant, what we're saying is that maybe that doesn't stop when the physical body stops functioning. I think it's a pretty comforting picture. Comforting or not, that's irrelevant. We need to remove our emotions and biases and just look at what the evidence shows. And in fact, there is real scientific evidence that our consciousness survives the death of the body, whether we like it or not. When we say near-death experience or NDE, we're typically talking about someone who has had a major trauma in the body and comes back to life. It could be an illness or an injury. It's kind of mimicking what might happen when we actually do die. ...

Excerpt from Where Is My Mind?, Sep 5, 2019. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.