Abstract: I pose four questions for the "dying brain hypothesis" as propounded by Susan Blackmore in her book Dying to Live (1993). The first calls into question Blackmore's reductionist explanation of the "bird's-eye view" for a near-death experience (NDE) and asks why out-of-body perception from a supine position is not reported, given her theory. The second inquires as to how the materialist view explains NDErs' feelings of unconditional love, while the third ponders whether the variance among NDEs noted by Blackmore is not more consistent with the "afterlife hypothesis" than with the "dying brain hypothesis." The final question queries whether …
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Abstract: I pose four questions for the "dying brain hypothesis" as propounded by Susan Blackmore in her book Dying to Live (1993). The first calls into question Blackmore's reductionist explanation of the "bird's-eye view" for a near-death experience (NDE) and asks why out-of-body perception from a supine position is not reported, given her theory. The second inquires as to how the materialist view explains NDErs' feelings of unconditional love, while the third ponders whether the variance among NDEs noted by Blackmore is not more consistent with the "afterlife hypothesis" than with the "dying brain hypothesis." The final question queries whether neural disinhibition, described by Blackmore, might be a possible release mechanism for an NDE. I suggest that these four questions pose a challenge to the "dying brain hypothesis."
This article is part of the following collection of related materials.
Journal of Near-Death Studies
The Journal of Near-Death Studies is a scholarly peer-reviewed journal devoted to the field of near-death studies. It is published on a quarterly basis by the International Association for Near-Death Studies. The Journal began publication in 1982 under the name Anabiosis which was changed to its current title in 1986 with the start of Volume 6.
Quarterly journal publishing papers related to near-death experiences, including research reports; theoretical or conceptual statements; expressions of a scientific, philosophic, religious, or historical perspective on the study of near-death experiences; cross-cultural studies; individual case histories; and personal accounts of experiences or related phenomena.