Jun 10, 2025 10:40 PM
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-b...xperiences
EXCERPTS: . . . These are exciting developments, but many experts involved in NDEs aren’t persuaded by purely neurobiological explanations. Right up until his death in November 2024, Fenwick remained convinced that something more profound is going on. To him, accounts of NDEs provide evidence that the human soul exists beyond the brain.
Similarly, the University of North Texas’s Professor Emerita Janice Holden – the current President of the International Association of Near-Death Studies – has serious doubts about the brain research, claiming spikes in serotonin and similar neurotransmitters offer too simplistic an explanation for these profound experiences.
“Small, brief, limited brain emissions, even if shown to occur reliably in association with NDEs – which as yet they have not – cannot account for the complex cognition involved in NDEs,” she says. She also adds a surge of neurotransmitters can’t explain what the literature refers to as “verified perceptions” from NDEs, such as the ability for the dying person to witness events located elsewhere.
“How could a brief gamma wave spike in the brain explain the accurate report of a leg amputation in the operating room next door?” she asks, referencing a case documented by French anaesthesiologist Dr Jean Jacques Charbonier.
(For their part, the neuroscientists say these perceptions have yet to be proven conclusively. “That said, the non-local consciousness hypothesis remains a possibility,” concedes Martial. “One we’re currently testing in one of our ongoing hospital studies.”)
For Holden and many others working in this area, a possibly more important strand of investigation concerns the psychological consequences for people who have lived through a NDE.
[...] This increased openness about NDEs will assist the work of neuroscientists as they continue to uncover more details of what’s happening in the brain during these transformative moments. As they do so, the debate over whether there can ever be a purely biological explanation is likely to rumble on.
But what’s indisputable is the emotional power of NDEs for those who live through them.
“After that NDE experience, my life [will] never be the same,” says Leanda Pringle. “Although it has taken me a long time to fully integrate the experience, the abilities I now possess seem like something from a sci-fi movie. I truly believe I brought some of that realm back with me.” (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . These are exciting developments, but many experts involved in NDEs aren’t persuaded by purely neurobiological explanations. Right up until his death in November 2024, Fenwick remained convinced that something more profound is going on. To him, accounts of NDEs provide evidence that the human soul exists beyond the brain.
Similarly, the University of North Texas’s Professor Emerita Janice Holden – the current President of the International Association of Near-Death Studies – has serious doubts about the brain research, claiming spikes in serotonin and similar neurotransmitters offer too simplistic an explanation for these profound experiences.
“Small, brief, limited brain emissions, even if shown to occur reliably in association with NDEs – which as yet they have not – cannot account for the complex cognition involved in NDEs,” she says. She also adds a surge of neurotransmitters can’t explain what the literature refers to as “verified perceptions” from NDEs, such as the ability for the dying person to witness events located elsewhere.
“How could a brief gamma wave spike in the brain explain the accurate report of a leg amputation in the operating room next door?” she asks, referencing a case documented by French anaesthesiologist Dr Jean Jacques Charbonier.
(For their part, the neuroscientists say these perceptions have yet to be proven conclusively. “That said, the non-local consciousness hypothesis remains a possibility,” concedes Martial. “One we’re currently testing in one of our ongoing hospital studies.”)
For Holden and many others working in this area, a possibly more important strand of investigation concerns the psychological consequences for people who have lived through a NDE.
[...] This increased openness about NDEs will assist the work of neuroscientists as they continue to uncover more details of what’s happening in the brain during these transformative moments. As they do so, the debate over whether there can ever be a purely biological explanation is likely to rumble on.
But what’s indisputable is the emotional power of NDEs for those who live through them.
“After that NDE experience, my life [will] never be the same,” says Leanda Pringle. “Although it has taken me a long time to fully integrate the experience, the abilities I now possess seem like something from a sci-fi movie. I truly believe I brought some of that realm back with me.” (MORE - missing details)
