Near Death Experiences: The Lines Between Phenomenology and Science
How do we look beyond the boundaries of objective understanding?
Every now and then there seems to be another bestseller doing the rounds by someone who has turned a near death experience into a popular book full of sweeping conclusions and spiritual guarantees. Perhaps best known in America is Eben Alexander, a neuroscientist whose book Proof of Heaven recounts a NDE while suffering from bacterial meningitis and apparent brain death in which he experienced a magical realm of flowers and waterfalls: “swooping golden orbs in the sky above, angelic choirs emanating chants and anthems that thundered through my awareness, and a lovely girl on a butterfly wing who proved months later to be central to my understanding of the reality of the experience”. (I)
There is little doubting that such experiences exist and are real, although plenty are skeptical about the subsequent claims made or the conclusions we might draw. Some have questioned whether Alexander is conflating brain death with a medical coma, and even so there is a natural hesitation to assuming that leaping upon experience as proof by itself is anything but scientifically dubious. Something is going on, the questions of what a why remain largely open ended.
