Mind, Brain, and Spirit with Peter Fenwick (1935 - 2024) (4K Reboot)

Summary

Neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick, a longtime epilepsy specialist at London's Maudsley Hospital, explains how a skeptical scientist came to see near-death experiences and the dying process as evidence that consciousness may extend beyond the brain. Drawing on hospice studies, he describes premonitions, deathbed visitors, terminal lucidity, deathbed coincidences and the 'emptying of the body', concluding that death is an expansion of consciousness rather than a switching off. He also describes lab experiments with spiritual teacher Alain Forger, whose apparent ability to 'give light' to students showed measurable brain-to-brain effects in simultaneous EEG recordings.

Key takeaways

• 1Fenwick studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, under Nobel laureates Lord Adrian and Andrew Huxley, and ran the epilepsy clinic at the Maudsley Hospital for about 20 years
• 2He calls the 'God spot' a myth that a journalist started after a California conference, and says he saw only about two genuinely mystical seizures in his whole career
• 3His 1988 BBC program 'Glimpses of Death' drew about 2,000 letters, which became the database for his book 'The Truth in the Light'
• 4He says Sam Parnia, Bruce Greyson and colleagues plan a paper limiting the term 'near-death experience' to cases of actual near death
• 5Hospice studies found that about 60%, and later 80-90%, of carers had witnessed deathbed phenomena, even though medical directors had insisted 'nothing happens when you die'
• 6Zurich palliative theologian Monika Renz divides dying into pre-transcendence, transition and post-transcendence; curious, praying, meditating and NDE-experienced patients suffered less
• 7Fenwick used 'hyperscanning' (EEG on two brains at once) to study Alain Forger's 'light giving', which he believes is non-local and was even perceived over FaceTime and Zoom

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

we did our own studies and were able to understand the process of dying and how you go from very few people but enough to make it interesting have a premonition that they're going to die then by the fortnight before they die you get your deathbed visitors who say they're going to take you and then what you do in the dying process is enormously interesting not everybody but some people then go into a transcendental realm which they can describe very well they go in they visit and they come back what's it like well obviously light and love and there are some spiritual beings there they say and um uh they stay there for a bit some people call it a spiritual waiting room others just call it an area of love and light and then they come back uh into the hospice again and then they may get another introduction to this area so there's a bit of back and forth thing there keep watching to learn more new thinking aloud is presented by the california institute for human science a fully accredited university offering distant learning graduate degrees that focus on mind body and spirit the topics that we cover here we are particularly excited to announce new degrees emphasizing parapsychology and the paranormal visit their website at cihs.edu the new thinking aloud magazine issue 10 on ufos and uap is now ready for free download and you can also order beautiful printed copies go to newthinkingallowed.org book four in the new thinking aloud dialogue series is charles t tart 70 years of exploring consciousness and parapsychology now available on amazon thinking aloud conversations on the leading edge of knowledge and discovery with psychologist jeffrey mishlove hello and welcome i'm jeffrey mishlove our topic today...

Excerpt from New Thinking Allowed, Sep 2, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.