{"id":64311,"date":"2018-08-28T13:35:34","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T19:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=64311"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:52:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T15:52:44","slug":"the-phenomenon-remains-unexplained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/08\/the-phenomenon-remains-unexplained.html","title":{"rendered":"“The phenomenon remains unexplained”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a>
A couple minutes\u2019 walk from where I\u2019m writing. \u00a0 \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNDE,\u201d writes the Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel<\/a>, \u201cpushes at the limits of medical ideas about the range of human consciousness, and the mind-brain relation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In support of that, he offers considerable material, including the following three quotations, taken from Pim van Lommel,\u00a0Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience<\/em>\u00a0(New York: HarperCollins, 2010), pages 162-163. \u00a0The first is from Dr. Bruce Greyson<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The paradoxical occurrence of heightened, lucid awareness and logical thought processes during a period of impaired cerebral perfusion [blood flow] raises particularly perplexing questions for our current understanding of consciousness and its relation to brain function. \u00a0As prior researchers have concluded, a clear sensorium and complex perceptual processes during a period of apparent clinical death challenge the concept that consciousness is localized exclusively in the brain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second is from Dr. Sam Parnia<\/a> and Dr. Peter Fenwick<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The data suggests that in this cardiac arrest model, the NDE arises during unconsciousness. \u00a0This is a surprising conclusion, because when the brain is so dysfunctional that the patient is deeply comatose, the cerebral structures which underpin subjective experience and memory must be severely impaired. \u00a0Complex experiences such as are reported in the NDE should not arise or be retained in memory. \u00a0Such patients would be expected to have no subjective experience, . . . as those cerebral modules which generate conscious experience and underpin memory are impaired by cerebral anoxia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, the third quotation is from Dr. Penny Sartori<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The phenomenon remains unexplained when considered from the current scientific perspective of consciousness being a by-product of neurological processes. . . . \u00a0The fact that clear, lucid experiences were reported during a time when the brain was devoid of activity . . . does not sit easily with current scientific belief.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Certain fields of scholarship and science can\u00a0be described, without too much exaggeration, as being in something of a crisis:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Psychology And Other Social Sciences, Many Studies Fail The Reproducibility Test\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

How to communicate with hypothetical intelligent beings of a type that we don\u2019t know and might not even be able to comprehend?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWill the messages we sent to the stars be understood? \u00a0Four probes carry plaques or records designed to explain their origin to anyone \u2014 or anything \u2014 that might find them.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This suggestion may give a whole new significance to the film that my friend William Hamblin and I have long dreamed of making: \u00a0Bill and Dan\u2019s Excellent Adventure in Anti-Mormon Zombie Hell<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a zombie galaxy that died and came back to life, claims new study\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My blog has captured the attention of a hyperactive misreader who continually (and delightedly) laments my complete lack of scientific understanding. \u00a0Recently, he\u2019s revealed that, in my early July debate with Scientific American<\/em>\u2018s Michael Shermer<\/a>, I attacked science because of its failure to deliver \u201ccertainty.\u201d \u00a0Or else that, in some way or other, I failed to understand science on even a basic level. \u00a0Or something of that sort. \u00a0Feel free to read or to listen to what I said during the debate (it\u2019s also available on C-Span) and see whether you<\/em> can figure out where and how I did those very lamentable things.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Seaside, Oregon<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cNDE,\u201d writes the Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel, \u201cpushes at the limits of medical ideas about the range of human consciousness, and the mind-brain relation.\u201d \u00a0 In support of that, he offers considerable material, including the following three quotations, taken from Pim van Lommel,\u00a0Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience\u00a0(New York: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[216,900,903,743,243],"class_list":["post-64311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-consciousness","tag-nde","tag-near-death-experience","tag-religion","tag-science"],"yoast_head":"\n"The phenomenon remains unexplained"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    "NDE," writes the Dutch cardiologist Pim van 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