The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
JOURNAL OF NEAR-DEATH STUDIES
Death Experiences and the Unscientific Scientist (Widdison, 1982).
Not long after that undertaking, we co-chaired a session at a con-
ference of the International Association of Near-Death Studies in St
Louis. At the session, we had standing room only and some people in
attendance suggested that we write a book on the subject. We decided
to do so, and our book, The Eternal Journey: How Near-Death Experi-
ences Illuminate Our Earthly Lives, was published in 1997. In 2004,
my second book on the subject, Trailing Clouds of Glory: First Person
Glimpses into Premortality, was published.
Marsh began his book with an example of an NDE and then said
that
there exists the burgeoning field of phenomena known popularly as
out-of-body (OB) and near-death experiences (NDE). While certain
experiences succeed bereavement, depression or severe loneliness,
the majority result [sic] from acute medical crises which directly, or
indirectly, substantially embarrass cerebral activity. It is the latter
phenomenology with which this book is concerned. (p. xvi)
He then stated that he would examine eight key texts that bear
witness to an afterlife, a non-bodily existence. He wrote that he
had adopted two approaches: one neurophysiological and the other
theological.
From the neurophysiological perspective, the argument developed
is that out-of-body and near-death experiences, referred to hereafter
with my terminology 'extra-corporeal experiences' or ECE in short,
are likely to be generated by metabolically disturbed brains especially
during the period when they are regaining functional competence.
(p. xvi)
Marsh wrote that his theological approach comprised three strands:
First, I offer a critique of the prevailing view that ECE have to be con-
ceived as quasi-heavenly or religious events . . . Second I consider the
question whether ECE are capable of being ascribed a credible spiri-
tual, or even revelatory, dimension. . . Third, I have exposed a failure
on the part of the authors whose texts I evaluate to deal adequately
and systematically with the post-experiential subject. (p. xvii)
Marsh divided his work into 13 chapters:
- Chapters 1-3 cover the five authors and their eight books that Marsh
evaluated and attempted to show their inadequacies in proving that
NDEs exist and, if they do, what their correct etiology is, plus the
degree to which subjects' NDE narratives have been edited and possibly
reinterpreted. He critically evaluated the interpretations offered by
234
