Mind of deceased exists: Mays excerpt #23

The Mays write: ADCs provide strong evidence indicating not only the survival of death of the individual but also a persistence of that person’s personality, memory, and relationships with those still living. As with NDErs meeting deceased loved ones, ADCs indicate that the deceased person’s consciousness, personality, and identity continue on after death. Shared ADCs, that is, encounters in which two or more people witness the deceased person, provide objective corroboration of the event and cannot be attributed to imagination or wishful thinking.

In Part 2 of this essay, in Sections 10–12, we presented the evidence of encounters with deceased loved ones and friends from NDEs and other death-related phenomena.

In Section 10, we presented evidence from encounters with a deceased person during an NDE who communicated accurate veridical information. The person may be a deceased person known to the NDEr but not known to have died or a deceased person not known to the NDEr but later identified. Veridical communication with someone who has already died is evidence implicitly for personal survival of physical death. These cases are strong objective evidence of contact with those who have died and that the minds of deceased persons continue after physical death.

In Section 11, we described the phenomenon of shared death experiences (SDEs) in which a healthy, awake person observes the dying person’s spirit body separate from the physical body or may be drawn out-of-body with the deceased person’s spirit body and observe details of the dying process. Therefore, SDErs are objective eyewitnesses to the process of dying. The process of dying is identical to the process in an NDE, except that the dying person does not return to the physical body but continues to exist after physical death. Thus, SDEs are strong objective evidence that the deceased person’s conscious Self survives physical death.

In Section 12, we described the phenomenon of spontaneous after-death communications (ADCs) which is the experience of direct communication from a deceased family member or friend with a healthy, living person. The deceased person frequently appears completely solid, in their full form and the encounter seems more real than everyday reality. The encounter may include physical interactions, such as hugging between the witness and the deceased person. The deceased person may provide veridical information which is later verified to be accurate. Shared ADCs, that is, encounters in which two or more people together witness the deceased person provide objective corroboration of the event. Therefore, ADCs provide strong objective evidence that the deceased person continues to exist after physical death.

Thus, in Part 2, we have presented strong, convincing evidence from encounters with dying or deceased persons in NDEs, SDEs, and ADCs, that the deceased person’s mind or consciousness continues to exist after physical death. The convergence of strong evidence from these experiences supports the fact—beyond a reasonable doubt—that the mind of a deceased person continues to exist after physical death.

 

 

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.

After-death communication: Mays excerpt #22

The Mays write: Skeptics can still argue that despite the veridical information received by the SDEr and the corroboration from multiple SDEr witnesses, the evidence from SDEs of the transition of the dying person is still from a subjective experience. Is there any objective evidence that the dying person actually continues to exist or do they just disappear or merge into nothingness after their physical death?

After-death communication (ADC) is the experience of spontaneous direct communication from a deceased family member or friend with a living person. In spontaneous cases, the deceased loved one always initiates the communication.

The communication may be by sensing a presence, hearing a voice, feeling a touch, smelling a fragrance, or seeing the deceased person in partial or full appearance. The deceased person may appear completely solid or somewhat hazy, and is usually wearing their customary clothing.

ADCs are commonplace and occur in normal, healthy people. The communication may occur while the witness is completely awake, while asleep, or while falling asleep or waking up. Even during sleep, the witness experiences the encounter as more real than everyday reality.

The deceased person may provide veridical information about a lost insurance policy or hidden valuables. They may warn the witness to avoid an airplane crash. In other cases, the deceased person is not known to the witness but is later revealed to be a relative.

ADCs generally start within one year of the deceased person’s death but may occur many years later. They occur to both the bereaved and the non-bereaved. The witness may continue to sense the deceased person’s presence throughout their life.

Researchers estimate that one-third of the worldwide population has had one or more ADCs. ADCs provide objective evidence that the deceased person continues to exist after physical death.

Reports Lucille's case

Lucille was a 39-year-old hotel housekeeper in Florida. She had been adopted after birth. Her birth name was Mary but her adoptive parents had changed it to Lucille.

“A man came to the foot of my bed one night. I was scared because I didn’t recognize him. He said, ‘Mary, your mother loves you. ... Your mother is looking for you. Start looking for her. Find your mother! I love you.’ I remember asking him who he was just before I couldn’t see him anymore. And he said, ‘You’ll find out.’ The next thing I knew, he was gone. I was still scared, yet I had tears of happiness. I was glad to know that my birth mother was looking for me. This gave me the incentive to find my biological mother. I was always dreaming about finding her, but I didn’t want to hurt my adoptive parents. Then I went to a club for adoptees, and I found my mother with just one phone call! She asked, ‘How did you find me?’ I told her an elderly man came to the foot of my bed. I described what he looked like, and she said, ‘That’s your grandfather!’ I learned when Grandpa was dying, he told my mother, ‘Find your daughter. Find your baby.’ He wanted to rest in peace knowing we would be together again. ... When we met [the next day], [my mother] showed me a picture of my grandfather, and that was the man who had been standing at the foot of my bed. Grandpa had the same suit on in the photograph that he wore when he came to me. Then I knew my experience was real!”

In this case, Lucille sees an unknown deceased man who gives her a message about her birth mother, addressing her with her birth name. Lucille confirms that the person she saw was her deceased biological grandfather from the photograph of him her mother showed her. This case is similar to the NDEr seeing an unknown deceased man and later finding out he was his biological father. Lucille’s perception of her deceased grandfather was accurate, that is, veridical. The information her father told her, that her mother was looking for her, was also veridical.

In another example, the deceased person can be seen by two or more people independently and their individual accounts corroborate each other.

Blair was a business executive, age 45. Her father had died from a series of strokes. She and her five-year-old son were together in a hotel room the night before the funeral. Blair was sitting in a chair and her son was in bed. As she was praying for her father:

“The lights in the room seemed to grow dim, and all of a sudden, there was my father! He seemed very, very solid. Though he was in his eighties when he died, now he appeared to be more like a man in his sixties. ... He stood there and told me, ‘Be strong and take care of your mother. Remember, I love you. Good-bye.’ Dad’s facial expression softened considerably when he said, ‘Remember, I love you.’ It lasted only a few seconds, and then he left. My little boy, who was in bed, got up. I thought he had been asleep. He ran to me and said, ‘My granddaddy! My granddaddy!’ I said, ‘Your granddaddy is gone.’ And he said, ‘No! My granddaddy was right here!’ So my son saw him too!”

In this case, the agreement of two living people simultaneously witnessing the same ADC event provides objective corroboration of the event. To Blair, her father seemed “very, very solid” rather than ethereal and about 20 years younger. It is not unusual for the deceased person in an NDE, SDE or ADC to appear younger than they looked at the time of their death.

In another example, a deceased son was seen and touched by his father who was fully awake; there was an energetic interaction between father and son.

Twenty-five-year-old Eric Zimmerman was killed in an automobile accident and appeared to his father, Fred, forty-five days later. That morning, Fred had been up for half-an-hour and was stepping toward the bathroom.

“I felt a tremendous squeeze and hug on both sides of my body that stopped me in my tracks. Eric appeared right in front of my face, smiling, and the whole room was full of energy. It’s like the molecules, atoms, and air are all moving at a tremendous speed. It was forceful, explosive, loving, highly energized— the most exhilarating experience that I have ever had! I hugged Eric. I was hugging an energy force, not a real physical body. I kissed him on his right cheek and felt his beard/whiskers on my lips. He was moving so fast ... as though he was flying through the house.

“My mind was ecstatic, lucid, fully awake and aware of what was happening. I could see the tremendous love in the complete environment that Eric brought with him. I knew this was real, on purpose, planned by Eric as I could never have written or wished the events in this spontaneous experience. The force field, aura, and energy surrounding Eric was so strong and charged that it pushed me back onto the bed. ... As I had my arms around Eric, his image and I were falling toward the bed. He told me telepathically, ‘I love you Dad. I love you Mom.’ ... As we fell, he rolled over the top of me and I could see his whole body.”

In this case, Fred was fully awake and lucid. The entire encounter lasted only about ten seconds. Eric’s presence was instantly evident through Eric’s face and the touch of his beard, through the power of his personality, through the wrestling with his dad onto the bed, and through his message to his parents, “I love you Dad. I love you Mom.” The entire atmosphere was suffused with his love for them.

Fred’s interaction with his son included an energetic force that was strong enough to hold Fred and to push him physically backwards onto the bed. Eric’s “body” was not material but an “energy force” that Fred could touch, kiss and hug. Fred could feel the whiskers on Eric’s face.

This ADC encounter provides additional evidence suggesting that the nonmaterial mind entity can exert a measurable force on physical matter. 

 

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.

Shared death evidence: Mays excerpt #21

The Mays write: In shared death experiences (SDEs), the SDEr is healthy and awake. They may observe the dying person separate from the physical body at the time of death. Alternatively, they may themselves be drawn out-of-body with the deceased person’s spirit body. The SDEr may observe the life review of the deceased person, similar to the life review in NDEs. The SDEr may observe deceased relatives or friends come to welcome and escort the deceased person to a different realm.

The SDErs are healthy, credible eyewitnesses of the objective facts they observe. If more than one person is present with the dying person, their individual accounts frequently corroborate each other. For example:

Scott Taylor’s shared death experience: In 1981, Scott Taylor’s girlfriend Mary Frances and her seven- year-old son Nolan were involved in a horrific car accident. Mary Fran was killed outright and her son survived for an additional six days with a severe head wound. At the time of Nolan’s transition, Scott and a number of Mary Fran’s family were in the hospital room. Scott witnessed Mary Fran come “across the veil,” approach Nolan, scoop him up out of his physical body, and hold him in a loving embrace. To his surprise, the two of them turned to Scott, embraced him and the three of them “went to the light.” About 10 years later, Scott spoke with another family member who had the exact same experience at the time of Nolan’s death: When Nolan flatlined, she witnessed Mary Fran come “across the veil” and scoop Nolan up out of his physical body. They embraced and she got to be part of that embrace. At some point they turned to her and the three of them “went to the light.” She used the exact same words that Scott used to describe his experience.

The SDEr observes the dying person’s transition to actual death in three ways: (1) Many of the elements observed by SDErs are identical with NDE elements but are observed from a third-person perspective. (2) We can infer from the SDEr’s descriptions many of the things the dying person experiences. These are the same phenomena as the first-person perspective in an NDE. Finally, (3) the SDEr directly experiences elements that commonly occur in NDEs:

The SDEr observes that the dying person is out-of-body, meets deceased persons and a mystical being or presence. The SDEr observes that the dying person sees or is enveloped in a brilliant light and enters an unearthly or heavenly realm.

We can infer from the SDEr’s description of the dying person’s reactions and behavior that the dying person experiences a life review. From the dying person’s expressions of happiness or joy and peace, we can infer they are free from pain, having shed their physical body.

The SDEr themselves describes that their senses were more vivid and their sense of time changed. The SDEr receives veridical information from their experience which they later verify as accurate. The SDEr is told by the deceased person that they need to return to the body or the SDEr just finds themselves back in the body.

The SDEr’s observations indicate that the dying person experiences the same things that NDErs experience in their NDE. If we could administer the NDE Scale to the deceased person, the experience would be counted as an NDE. The elements in the two processes are indistinguishable. The only difference is that the dying person does not return to the physical body but continues to exist after physical death.

Thus, the “spirit body” of the deceased person observed by SDErs is the same as the mind entity that we propose is the essential aspect of the human being. The only difference between the deceased person and the NDEr is that the NDEr returns to physical embodiment whereas the deceased person moves on into a another realm. Thus the deceased person’s conscious Self survives physical death.

 

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.

Deceased encounters: Mays excerpt #20

The Mays write: The encounters with deceased persons during an NDE involve more than simple recognition. Generally there is a full encounter and conversation with the deceased persons, in which they give details about who they are and exhibit characteristic aspects of their personality and their relationship to the NDEr. The exchange with the deceased loved one can even involve the resolution of a regret or a strained relationship with the deceased person. Here is an example of such an encounter from Laurelynn’s NDE during surgery:

“[N]ext I felt a presence approaching from my right, upper side. I was feeling even more peaceful and happy, especially when I discovered it was my thirty-year-old brother-in-law who had died seven months earlier. Although I couldn’t see with my eyes or hear with my ears, I instinctively knew that it was him. He didn’t have a physical form, but a presence. I could feel, hear, and see his smile, laughter, and sense of humor. It was as if I had come home, and my brother-in-law was there to greet me. I instantly thought how glad I was to be with him because now I could make up for the last time I had seen him before his death. I felt bad about not taking the time out of my busy schedule to have a heart-to-heart talk with him when he had asked me to. I felt no remorse now, but total acceptance and love from him about my actions.”

The skeptical explanations for encounters with deceased persons—that they are due to expectation, wishful thinking, imagination, or a lucky guess—don’t hold up for these particular types of cases:

The NDEr can’t be expecting or wishing to meet someone whom they know is still alive or whom they don’t know exists. There appears to be some other influence that draws particular deceased persons to the NDEr—usually a strong familial connection or a close friend relationship; less frequently, it can be the need to give the NDEr a message to living persons.

The unusual and unexpected—yet precise—nature of the veridical information received from the deceased person can’t be the result of the NDEr’s imagination or a lucky guess.

These cases are strong indications of actual contact with those who have died and therefore that the minds of deceased persons continue after physical death. 

 

Furthermore, in these cases, the deceased person seeks contact with living people in order to convey information to them, which suggests that the deceased person is aware of and cares for those still living on Earth. The reality experienced by deceased persons appears to be a shared reality with human beings living on Earth.

 

 

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.

Evidence from the deceased: Mays excerpt #19

Encountering deceased persons is an important element in NDEs. Nearly half of NDErs report seeing or sensing the presence of someone in their NDE who had died earlier; none of the NDEs in Greyson’s collection involved an NDEr mistakenly thinking a person still alive had died. Frequently the focus of the NDEr’s encounter with deceased relatives involves sorting out family relationships. The NDEr may later recognize the deceased relatives in old family photographs.

For example, in Ken Leth’s NDE at age eight in 1963, he was met by many relatives on the Leth (pronounced “Let”) side of the family:

“The people who stood out the most were two older couples, but there were many others with them. All of them were very nice, and they wanted to tell me who they were. But first they needed to know who I was. I felt incredibly small and overwhelmed when I said my name. ‘I am Kenneth Leth,’ I said with my tiny eight-year-old voice. A few of them recognized the Leth name; it got their attention. Then someone asked who my father was. ‘Lyle,’ I said. Many of them gasped when they realized they knew my father, ‘Oh, you’re Lyle’s son.’ I was a little boy, so I didn’t understand all of the sudden thoughts that flooded into my head when they telepathically tapped into our family history.

“Two of the older women introduced themselves as my father’s grandmothers. ... I was quickly introduced to a lot of departed souls from my earthly family. Both of my great-grandmothers on my father’s side of the family came to me and introduced me to my great-grandfathers, their husbands. ...

“I’m rather proud of two oval framed photos that currently hang on the walls of my home. They are of my great-grandparents, whom I met back in 1963 in the far reaches of Heaven. The photos were taken in the early 1900s, and I immediately knew who they were when my living grandmother showed them to me many years after my NDE.”

The encounter with deceased relatives, friends, or acquaintances generally involves:

• The person may be recently deceased or they may be a relative or childhood friend who died years before.

• The NDEr may see the person in full figure, may see only their face, or may merely sense their presence.

• The NDEr generally recognizes the deceased loved one for who they are. They in turn recognize and acknowledge the NDEr. They may also give details about who they are, as Ken Leth’s relatives did.

• The NDEr’s encounter with the deceased loved one may include a resolution of a regret or a strained relationship with the person.

• Typically, the message to the NDEr from the deceased loved one is “It’s not your time. You must go back.”

• The loved one or acquaintance may also give the NDEr a message to bring back to someone still living.

Skeptics can object that these experiences are really due to the NDEr’s expectation of meeting deceased loved ones because they realize they have died. Or the experience is due to wishful thinking or pure imagination. Any veridical information received from the deceased person is just a lucky guess.

How can we check that the deceased person is real and is the person they appear to be to the NDEr? There are two situations in encounters with a deceased person that provide strong evidence.

Persons known to the NDEr but not known to have died

For one thing, if the NDEr recognizes the deceased person and receives veridical information during the encounter that they did not know at the time but is later verified after the NDE, this is strong objective evidence that the deceased person was actually the person known to the NDEr.

The case of 9-year-old Eddie Cuomo

Physician K. M. Dale related the case of 9-year-old Eddie Cuomo, whose fever finally broke after nearly 36 hours of anxious vigil on the part of his parents and hospital personnel. As soon as he opened his eyes, at 3:00 in the morning, Eddie urgently told his parents that he had been to heaven, where he saw his deceased Grandma Cuomo, Auntie Rosa, and Uncle Lorenzo. His father was embarrassed that Dr. Dale was overhearing Eddie’s story and tried to dismiss it as feverish delirium.

Then Eddie added that he also saw his 19-year-old sister Teresa, who told him he had to go back. His father then became agitated, because he had just spoken with Teresa, who was attending college in Vermont, two nights earlier; and he asked Dr. Dale to sedate Eddie. Eddie began to cry. “Is Teresa going to stay in heaven with Grandma and Auntie Rosa and Uncle Lorenzo? Does that mean she won’t be home for Christmas time? I don’t want her to stay with them. I want her home with us!”

Later that morning, when Eddie’s parents telephoned the college, they learned that Teresa had died instantly in an automobile accident just before midnight, and that college officials had tried unsuccessfully to reach the Cuomos at their home to inform them of the tragic news.

Eddie’s sister Teresa died just three hours before Eddie woke up from his coma. The objective fact of Teresa’s death was not known to anyone in Eddie’s family until after he had reported meeting her in his NDE.

The case of Jack Bybee

NDEr Jack Bybee was hospitalized with severe pneumonia with periodic seizures at age 26 in Cape Town, South Africa. He was cared for by a nurse named Anita who had taken time off on the weekend to celebrate her twenty-first birthday. Jack had his NDE on that weekend.

“In my NDE, I met Nurse Anita on the other side. ‘What are you doing here, Anita?’ I asked. ‘Why, Jack, I’ve come to fluff up your pillows, of course, and to see that you are all right. But, Jack, you must return, go back. Tell my parents I’m sorry I wrecked the red MGB. Tell them I love them.’ Then Anita was gone—gone through and over a very green valley and through a fence, where, she told me, ‘there is a garden on the other side. But you cannot see it. For you must return, while I continue through the gate.’

“When I recovered, I told a nurse what Anita had said. This girl burst out into tears and fled the ward. I later learned that Anita and this nurse had been great friends. Anita had been surprised by her parents, who loved her dearly and had presented her with a red MGB sports car. Anita had jumped into the car, and in her excitement raced down the highway, De Waal Drive, along the slopes of Table Mountain, into ‘Suicide Corner’ and a concrete telephone pole. But I was ‘dead’ when all that happened. How could I possibly know these facts? I knew them as stated above. I was told by Anita in my experience.”

Note that Anita requested a message be given to her parents. Also note that the details of Anita’s statements to Jack about the red MGB were verified as objective facts by Anita’s friend. This case was not due to wishful thinking because Jack had no desire to see nurse Anita on her weekend off.

Persons not known to the NDEr

If the deceased person is not known to the NDEr at the time of the NDE but is later verified as the person they presented themselves to be, this is another form of strong evidence that the deceased person was objectively real.

The case of the man who looked at me lovingly

The unknown deceased person can later be verified through photographs, as Ken Leth did when his grandmother showed him portraits of his four great-grandparents.

“During my NDE following a cardiac arrest, I saw both my dead grandmother and a man who looked at me lovingly but whom I didn’t know. Over ten years later my mother confided on her death-bed that I’d been born from an extramarital affair; my biological father was a Jewish man who’d been deported and killed in World War II. My mother showed me a photograph. The unfamiliar man I’d seen more than ten years earlier during my NDE turned out to be my biological father.”

The case of the unknown sister Rietje

The unknown deceased person can later be verified by name and the circumstances of their death.

“When I was five years old I contracted meningitis and fell into a coma. ‘I died’ and drifted in a safe and black void where I felt no fear and no pain. I felt at home in this place. ... I saw a little girl of about ten years old. I sensed that she recognized me. We hugged and then she told me, ‘I’m your sister. I died a month after I was born. I was named after your grandmother. Our parents called me Rietje for short.’ She kissed me, and I felt her warmth and love. ‘You must go now,’ she said. ... In a flash I was back in my body. I opened my eyes and saw the happy and relieved looks on my parents’ faces. When I told them about my experience, they initially dismissed it as a dream. ... I made a drawing of my angel sister who had welcomed me and repeated everything she’d told me. My parents were so shocked that they panicked. They got up and left the room. After a while they returned. They confirmed that they had indeed lost a daughter called Rietje. She had died of poisoning about a year before I was born. They had decided not to tell me and my brother until we were old enough to understand the meaning of life and death.”

Cases of this sort can’t be due to expectation or wishful thinking, because the deceased person was completely unknown to the NDEr at the time.

 

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.

Review of NDE evidence: Mays excerpt #18

Robert G. Mays

The Mays write: We first presented the evidence from NDEs that (1) the human being consists of a nonmaterial “mind” and a physical body. (2) Although the mind is intimately integrated with the body, it is an independent, objectively real aspect of the person that can separate from the body during an NDE. (3) All of the person’s cognitive faculties reside in the mind, not in the brain. However, while in the “in-body” state, the mind is dependent on brain activity for normal cognitive activity. And (4) the nonmaterial mind interacts with the brain to produce conscious awareness. The mind’s interactions with the brain involve a point of contact and a two-way force of interaction between the mind and the brain.

In Section 2, we presented strong evidence (a) that the NDEr’s experiences in the physical realm are real; (b) that the NDEr’s mind or consciousness separates from the body during the NDE; and (c) that the mind operates independent of the body.

In Section 3, we presented strong evidence (a) that the NDEr’s mind acts as a cohesive unit and (b) carries the essence of the person. (c) The NDEr is the same person when out-of-body as within their physical body. (d) The NDEr realizes that their out-of-body mind is significantly expanded and enhanced than when in the physical body and that their physical body is not their real self.

In Section 4, we presented strong evidence (a) that the mind entity itself is objectively real; and (b) that the NDEr’s out-of-body mind is objectively present to others. Therefore, (c) the NDEr’s mind entity itself is an objectively real thing, a real being. The separate mind entity really exists.

In Section 5, we presented the mind entity hypothesis: (a) the human being consists of a nonmaterial “mind” that is spatially coextensive and intimately integrated with the physical body. (b) There are two states of consciousness: an “in-body” state, whereby the mind is dependent on brain activity for normal cognitive functions, and an “out-of-body” state whereby the mind is separated and can function completely independent of the brain and body. Given the evidence in Sections 2–4, (c) the mind entity hypothesis is a plausible picture of the human being.

In Section 6, we presented the evidence (a) that the nonmaterial mind is able to interact with physical processes; (b) that a subtle, previously unrecognized two-way interactive force is involved in mind-to-matter interactions; and (c) that the mind can interact specifically with neural electrical processes—both to sense and to trigger neural electrical activity. Finally, we presented (d) a plausible mechanism for two-way causal interactions between the nonmaterial mind and the brain.

In Section 7, we presented responses to the philosophical challenges to our interactionist dualist mind entity theory, showing (a) that the nonmaterial mind is in the same category as physical objects; (b) that the mind entity theory addresses the “causal pairing problem” and (c) satisfies the “causal closure of the physical.”

In Section 8, we presented other explanations that scientists have proposed to explain NDEs and show that they fail. (a) To be acceptable, neurological, physiological, or psychological interpretations should be able to provide a comprehensive explanation of all the various aspects of the core experience. (b) Explanations that rely on ad hoc hypotheses to explain NDEs ultimately are unscientific because they fail to account for multiple cases in a single coherent framework. (c) There is strong evidence that there must be some unifying factor which comes to bear in all NDEs—whether in life-threatening situations or not—that is, some immediate or proximate cause that applies in all NDEs. (d) Therefore, other explanations fail because they don’t address all situations in which NDEs arise.

Thus, the convergence of strong NDE evidence presented up to this point supports the fact—beyond any reasonable doubt—that the mind of a person can separate from the physical body and operate independent of it. There is a plausible mechanism for two-way causal interactions between the nonmaterial mind and the brain which successfully answers the philosophical challenges to interactionist dualism. Other explanations of NDEs that have been proposed—for example that NDEs are caused by various physiological or neurological processes—fail, because they do not apply to all NDEs and do not provide a comprehensive explanation of all the various aspects of the core experience.

However, skeptics can still argue that NDErs may have been near to death but they did not actually die, so NDEs do not provide credible evidence of survival of physical death. 

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.

 

 

NDE common proximate cause: Mays excerpt #17

Suzanne B. Mays

The Mays write: NDEs were first noticed in cases in which the person was close to death or in a state of extreme psychological or physical distress. In fact, NDEs occur in people who are not near death or in distress. For example:

In a case we described earlier, Vicky recounted her father tickling her under the chin when she was an infant. “It made me laugh so hard I would fly up through the top of my head and out of my body. From the ceiling I’d look back at my little body on the couch.” These near-death-like experiences (NDLEs) can occur even when the person is not near death but, in fact, is completely healthy. Nonetheless, they score as valid NDEs on the NDE Scale.

Another case we described earlier was the 10-year-old NDEr’s experience during sleep. Even though she was not near death, her experience included being out-of-body, being surrounded by a bright light, having feelings of peace and calmness, being filled with a feeling of love, wanting to be immersed in the light, having veridical perceptions that she later verified as accurate, and finally being snapped back to her body in bed. Her NDLE would score at least 10 on the NDE Scale.

In a study at the University of Liège, Belgium, researchers compared NDE reports resulting from life-threatening events to NDE-like experiences occurring after non-life-threatening events, such as during sleep, fainting, meditation, drug or alcohol use, etc. Surprisingly, the results showed no significant difference in either NDE content (e.g., feelings of peace, separation from the body, a brilliant light) or NDE intensity between the near-death-like experiencers (NDLErs) and the so-called “real” NDErs. The average NDE score in the study was 16 for “real” NDErs and 17 for NDLErs.

This finding means that neither the proximity to death nor specific physiological or psychological factors proposed by skeptical theorists influenced the actual content or intensity of the NDE.

Thus, NDEs cannot be distinguished whether the person was perfectly healthy or in cardiac arrest: They are the same experience. The results of the study suggest that there is no physiological or psychological explanation that can account for all NDEs. Rather, they strongly suggest that NDEs are a common altered state of consciousness that can be triggered by many different types of prior conditions or may indeed have no apparent triggering event. So the altered state of consciousness in all NDEs—feeling separated from the body, seeing a brilliant light, entering an unearthly world—suggests that there is a common proximate or immediate cause of the experience.

A life-threatening condition may occur—such as cardiac arrest—but if the proximate cause is absent, no NDE occurs. Conversely, a non-life-threatening condition—such as meditation or sleep—may trigger the proximate cause, resulting in an NDLE that is indistinguishable in content and intensity from NDEs occurring in near-death circumstances (35).

In light of very strong evidence that NDEs occur in non-life-threatening circumstances—in normal, perfectly healthy individuals—the physiological and neurological explanations described earlier cannot apply to all NDEs, let alone provide a comprehensive explanation of all the various aspects of the core experience.

What could be the unifying factor that comes to bear in all NDEs? What is common in all of these NDE and NDLE cases?

Nearly 80% of NDErs report feeling separated from their body. Therefore, we propose that the common proximate cause of all NDEs is in fact the separation of the mind from the physical body. Various physiological and psychological conditions can trigger the separation of the person’s conscious mind from the body, or the separation can occur with no apparent prior condition.

The question still remains why, under seemingly identical circumstances, some people’s minds separate from their bodies and others’ do not. Nevertheless, our separation hypothesis remains consistent with the evidence regarding the occurrence of NDEs and NDLEs. 

 

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.