SCIENCE AND THE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE: HOW CONSCIOUSNESS SURVIVES DEATH
Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions; 2010
$18.95, paperback
Chris Carter is a man with a mission. An Oxford-trained philosopher who is firmly grounded in the physical sciences, he is well equipped for the task he has set himself — to examine, in the course of three books, the evidence surrounding parapsychology and related subjects. This field, also called psi, rests on the premise that information may be acquired from, and may be inserted into, the environment without mediation by the physical senses.
Many individuals have risen to the defense of parapsychology, but few have done so with the meticulous, full-throated enthusiasm that is Carter’s métier. The first book in his trilogy, Parapsychology and the Skeptics: A Scientific Argument for the Existence of ESP, established his credentials as a Rambo-like, one-man wrecking crew for the wearisome, perennial, often flimsy arguments of so-called skeptics — “so-called” because their tactics often depart from healthy, open-minded skepticism, which is an invaluable factor in science; and because their objections frequently embody not skepticism but distortion, dissembling, bigotry, prejudice, and pseudoscientific dogmatism. As one such scientist sneered, “This [psi] is the sort of thing I would not believe in even if it existed.” And as psi denouncer Ray Hyman, a psychologist, concedes, “The level of the debate [about psi] during the past 130 years has been an embarrassment for anyone who would like to believe that scholars and scientists adhere to standards of rationality and fair play.”
Science and the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death, the second book in Carter’s trilogy, examines evidence suggesting that some aspect of human consciousness may survive the death of the physical body. Carter’s focus is on the near-death experience, described in recent years by psychologists Raymond Moody, Kenneth Ring, and Erlendur Haraldsson; psychiatrists Bruce Greyson and Peter Fenwick, radiation oncologist Jeffrey Long, cardiologists Michael Sabom and Pim van Lommel, pediatrician Melvin Morse; researcher Karlis Osis, and others. Surveys reveal that around 13 million Americans have experienced near-death experiences, not including children. The essential components of the near-death experience are remarkably consistent in western cultures. They include a sense of peace and joy, an out-of-body sensation, entering a tunnel or darkness, encountering a light, meeting deceased individuals or guides, a life review, and encountering an unearthly realm. These features may be experienced in whole or part. On regaining consciousness and returning to daily life, NDEers typically experience a major shift in values, worldview, and a sense of serenity and peace. The fear of death generally disappears, and life takes on a deeper sense of meaning and purpose.
Science and the Near-Death Experience gets my vote for one of the best books to date on the near-death experience, and I think you’ll agree.
For more information about author Chris Carter and Science and the Near-Death Experience, visit his Web site at:
www.scienceandtheneardeathexperience.com
— Larry Dossey, MD
Executive Editor, Explore
Posted on October 26, 2010 by Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing
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