NDE

This paper investigates the relationship between psychoactive substances and so-called paranormal phenomena falling within the study of parapsychology. It is primarily concerned with extrasensory perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—as well as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Psychokinesis (PK), aura vision, encounter experiences, and sleep paralysis only make a very limited contribution to this review as they are seldom related to psychoactive drugs within the parapsychological literature. The paper borrows widely, but by no means exhaustively, from parapsychology as well as transpersonal studies, anthropology, ethnobotany, phytochemistry, psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and neurobiology, particularly neurochemistry. It is organized into neurochemical models of paranormal experience (section 1), field reports of intentional and spontaneous phenomena incorporating anthropological, historical and clinical cases, and personal accounts (section 2), surveys of paranormal belief and experience (section 3), experimental research (section 4), and a methodological critique of the experimental research with recommendations for further work (section 5).

After having demonstrated that it is possible to control an OBE (Out of Body Experience) by means of hypnotic suggestions, we furthered our knowledge of this type of experience by carrying out many OBEs with different subjects, all of whom had particular talents; some of them repeated the experiment many times, such that a total of over 20 hours of OBEs were completed for each of these individual subjects. This allowed us to formulate a clear description of the means of induction as well as standard reactions and ways to circumvent fears and obstacles. The purpose of this work is to publicize these experiences to date, and enable the reproduction of the hypnotic OBE experience by providing descriptions of induction, first level OBE training, and then more advanced training, including all expedients to facilitate mastery of this state of consciousness.

It is a common practice in the oil and gas industry to employ various Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE)
methods during in-service inspections to detect the cracks in the pipeline. The capability of NDE method
is expressed by the metric called as the Probability of Detection (POD), which is stated as a function of crack size through the POD curve. This manuscript thus deals with various aspects of POD. Firstly, a brief discussion about NDE reliability and POD is presented. Thereafter, based on the literature review the history and development of POD curves is provided. Finally, a brief discussion about the future of POD i.e. model assisted POD is presented.

Physically, reality is all, known and unknown, that exists within a system. It ‘is the totality of all things, structures (actual and conceptual), events (past and present) and phenomena, whether observable or not. The author has explored this subject and mysticism in general from the scientific and the Quranic perspectives. Whatever reality we observe, it is through our brain.  The author has explored the realties we experience or will experience through our brain.

The study suggests that there are five dimensions to the reality we experience. The baseline reality, the reality of the external world, is the reality we deal with in the waking hours. It is the representation in the mind developed by fully integrating perceptions from tertiary association areas of our brain based on the signals received from our senses. In addition to this, dream is a reality which most of the human experience during sleep. Instead of sensory signals, it is triggered by the internal stimuli originating from the memory. Its content, however, is unique to the individuals experiencing it.

Though the baseline reality and dreams are common to all, individuals practicing meditation experience another kind of reality which is called the mystical reality. Meditation causes deafferentation in certain portions of mind resulting in the person experiencing a sense of attaining absolute reality, union with God or the Absolute, a sense of either bliss or utter tranquility.

At times of severe physical trauma such as near-drownings or major surgery people experience a reality which is called Near-death experiences (NDE). Typically the experience includes: a sense of being dead; a feeling of peace and painlessness; hearing of various non-physical sounds, an out-of-body experience; a tunnel experience; encountering "beings of light" and a God-like figure or similar entities; being given a "life review", and a reluctance to return to life. Along with many other factors, the NDE is activated by the stimulation of the lower part of temporal lobe (including amygdala and hippocampus). These regions are involved in eliciting vivid memories, complex hallucinations, dream like states, and other sensations in states of markedly decreased input into these regions. A subset of the NDE is the out of body experiences (OBE) which results in a sense of being detached from the body. It can also happen independently. It is due to illusory reduplications of one’s own body due to interference with the temporo-parietal junction in the brain.

The fifth reality is the Ultimate reality, which the whole humanity will experience on the Day of Judgement. The Quran calls it ‘Al-Haqqah’ (the Sure Reality) and Al-Waqiah (the Event or the Inevitability). It will be experienced on the day when people will be raised again and will be judged. Some will be experiencing a permanent blissfulness and some a permanent misery.

The brain is thus a multifaceted instrument. It is normally used to observe the baseline reality, but can also be used to have other experiences.

In the moments following orgasm, it is common to enter a transcendent state and experience a brief loss of self awareness. Romantically referred to as La Petite Mort — this can be an ideal portal to a lucid dream.
Orgasm alters consciousness and acts as a powerful analgesic, it has been associated with the deactivation and activation of certain key brain regions. Some regions are responsible for modulating the perception of our relationship with reality. In the deep sense of peace that unfolds throughout our body post-orgasm, we are in a unique position to practice the art of lucid dreaming without falling asleep.

"Abstract
The recourse to entopic phenomena as an explanationof certain geometric rock-art imagery has generated considerable debate among archaeologists and anthropologists of consciousness, and even among neuropsychologists, to a lesser degree. Surprisingly little has been discussed concerning the philosophical location of this debate in relation to the mind-body problem of consciousness, however, and a new perspective presented here on the experience of form constants challenges current thinking. Considering the neuropsychological-shamanistic theory of Paleolithic rock art in light of visionary experiences among both the blind and the sighted, and under different states of altered consciousness, an argument is presented that form constants are not actually entoptic as they are currently defined, that is, made within the eye and the visual cortex. It is suggested that the entoptic rock-art model is swayed by philosophical biases that force theorists to see what they want to see, somewhat like a Rorschach ink blot test, when, rather, it actually appears that there may be more to entoptics than meets the eye."

Shamans and artists have been perceived as similar across a variety of dimensions. Nonetheless, these similarities have not been systematically explored and are poorly understood. This study was designed to investigate these similarities.

Stanley Krippner (personal communication, January 12, 2010) provided the initial definition of a shaman that, after minor modifications to more fully represent knowledge about shamans, became: A shaman is a socially designated spiritual practitioner who obtains information in ways not available to the shaman’s community through the voluntary regulation of the shaman’s own attention, which is used for the benefit of the shaman’s community and its members.  Defining constructs were operationalized and validated cross-culturally to support multidirectional comparisons between artists and shamans using archival data from psychology, archaeology, anthropology, philosophy, art history, and creativity studies.

Previous publications about 24 well-known artists provided archival data for comparisons with shamans. The dimensions explored included familial influence, talent, neurological functions, calling to vocation, social support, personality, training, initiation, inspiration, positive disintegration, transliminality, imaginal realms, altered states, purported psi experiences, mental health issues, soul retrieval, spiritual emergence, transpersonal orientation, intent to benefit, and creativity. Tables, charts, and diagrams organized archival information that, supported by descriptive comparisons, explored the nature and extent of similarities between artists and shamans. The integration of visual art, poetry, and stories provided an emic artist’s perspective and alternate ways of knowing for the reader.

The study found that four artists from traditional cultures fulfilled all defining constructs of shaman, comprising a set of prototypical shamanic artists. In contrast, twenty artists fulfilled some, but not all, constructs defining shaman. These shamanlike artists were noncentral members in a fuzzy set where the shamanlike artists had family resemblances to traditional shamans and shamanic artists.

The study identified and articulated gaps in knowledge as well as establishing a broad, well-grounded theoretical model that can serve as a foundation for future research on relationships between contemporary artists and shamans, and, potentially, contribute towards transformation of art experiences in artists, art audiences, and art institutions.

What happens to the inner light of consciousness with the death of the individual body and brain? Reductive materialism assumes it simply fades to black. Others think of consciousness as indicating a continuation of self, a transformation, an awakening or even alternatives based on the quality of life experience. In this issue, speculations drawn from philosophical research are presented.

This paper reviews the research on psychedelic substances in relation to so-called paranormal phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition (i.e., ESP), as well as out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs). Reference is made to the age-old shamanic use of these substances to specifically induce such experiences, and to contemporary reports from within academia and psychotherapy bearing witness to such phenomena. However, the review focuses primarily on describing and critically evaluating the contribution of controlled experiments that have attempted to induce ESP using psychedelics, and of surveys, which have either directly or indirectly investigated the belief in, and experience of, the paranormal in relation to the use of such substances. Furthermore, a methodological critique of the experimental research is offered alongside some recommendations for further research in this field.

Discusses cross-cut of experimental biology and exponential medicine in the quest for understanding and relieving phantom pain/associated soma-trauma.

While practitioners understand " meditation, " or mental training to be a process of familiarization with one's own mental life leading to long­lasting changes in cognition and emotion, little is known about this process and its impact on the brain.  It's been shown long­-term Buddhist practitioners self­-induce sustained electroencephalographic high­amplitude gamma­-band oscillations and phase­ synchrony during meditation that differs from those of controls -- in particular over lateral frontoparietal electrodes.  This on­going research data suggests mental training involves temporal integrative mechanisms and may induce short-­term and long­-term neural changes.  Refers to the University of Michigan team led by neuroscientist Jimo Borjigin​ measuring brain waves in rats after cardiac arrest (as well as pineal gland perfusion) In which high­ frequency gamma waves (the ones associated with meditation) became more intense after​ the heart stopped—more coherent and organized, in fact, than they are during ordinary wakefulness.  Compares this to phenomenon of thukdam or tudkam ​ state​ (a rare occurrence in which a monk dies but there is seemingly no physical decomposition for a week or more).  Explores guidepost work of Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin (who has spent years studying the neuroscience of meditation).  Discusses use of bioenergetics (light and sound) in the quest for understanding and developing relief protocols for phantom pain/associated soma-trauma.

The occurrence of transpersonal experiences with psychedelic substances is well attested, and several surveys have consistently found a small relationship between paranormal experiences and the use of such drugs in general. Isolated investigations of experiences with specific drugs exist, but no surveys have systematically examined whether particular experiences relate to particular drugs. In an online survey, 139 respondents were recruited through parapsychology or psychedelic interest groups and completed a questionnaire detailing psychoactive drug-use behaviour and the frequency of occurrence of a number of paranormal, shamanic, and mystical type experiences. Patterns of drug-induced transpersonal experiences reported elsewhere were mostly corroborated, particularly the proclivity for telepathic experiences with cannabis, out-of-body experiences with ketamine, entity encounter experiences with N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and plant-spirit encounters with a host of psychedelic plants. Several small correlations were found between drug-use frequency and experience frequency with certain drug and experience types, particularly those termed mystical. As expected, alcohol and opiate/opioid-use did not correlate with any transpersonal experiences although, surprisingly, no sizable correlations were found for psi experiences and the use of any one type of drug, possibly due to the high rate of occurrence of psi experiences among both drug users and non-drug users with this particular sample.

Science, as it now defines itself, will never accept paranormal and related phenomena, let alone the possibility of an afterlife, no matter how much evidence is gathered and no matter how convincing that evidence is, because science has never developed the conceptual and intellectual tools or the vocabulary to handle such possibilities. Science will only accept the paranormal and the possibility of an afterlife when a new theory of physical reality emerges, such as a unification of general relativity and the quantum theory in physics, that directly and logically implies the existence of them from its fundamental properties.

Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) uses prefabricated elements that are made continuous using cast-in-place joints. Deck joints are normally referred to as “Closure Joints.” There have been concerns about long-term durability of these joints that are expected to become rapidly serviceable. Normally, they contain reinforcing bars and enclosures of various shapes that in some cases create congestion within the joint. The specific nature of the joint application, in-situ casting, curing, material incompatibility, cold joints, cavities and steel congestion contribute to creating the potential for leaving defects and anomalies in the closure joints. This, in turn, results in a higher potential for exposure and other detrimental effects with possible degradation in time, and therefore reducing the strength and serviceability of the joint, hence creating a weak link for the structure. The long-term deflections and environmental loading will only exacerbate the situation. Hence, evaluation and health monitoring of the closure joints becomes inevitable. Despite the wide use of non-destructive testing (NDT) methods for bridge structures in general, a concerted attempt for categorization of these methods, comparison of capabilities, and selection of methods most applicable to closure joints is lacking. To address this, a research project was carried out as part of activities in the Accelerated Bridge Construction University Transportation Center (ABC-UTC) of Florida International University. This study included a comprehensive literature review with a focus on NDT methods applicable to health monitoring of ABC closure joints. The study focused on joint types relevant to precast concrete decks commonly used for ABC bridges, therefore, FRP (fiber reinforced plastic), timber (wood), and steel of any shape were excluded for the time being. The study resulted in categorizing the most common closure joints in five general groups based on their features affecting the application of the NDT methods. Accordingly, the most promising NDT methods were identified taking into account the distinctive defects and anomalies associated with closure joints. These methods were evaluated for their efficacy, ease of use and other characteristic influencing their use as preferred methods for each type of joint. A flowchart was introduced to assist in selection of the most applicable NDT method to each type of defect in closure joints. This paper summarizes the results of this study.

The past decade has seen many exciting new developments in neurobiology.  Three particularly paradigm-rattling revelations reviewed in this report include; first, the elucidations of 'functional receptivity,' which expand multi-fold the elegant complexity of receptor function by showing that, not one, but rather, myriad unique cascades of intracellular signals leading to discrete profiles of gene activation can result from multiple receptor conformations, as opposed to merely an active or inactive state.  Second: epigenetic and state-dependent neuroplasticity which suggests monumental therapeutic potential and challenges the status quos of biological reductionism and pharmaceutical industry.  And last: receptor heteromerization wherein metabotropic receptors belonging to separate families form complexes engaging in functional, allosteric co-modulation and neurotransmitter signal integration, humbling the current level of neurological comprehension while presenting the potential for vastly improved pharmacological interventions.  The author makes use of psychedelics as a vector connecting these exciting areas noting how they have played, and will continue to play, an indispensable role in their exploration.

Phase 1 of the NDE OBE Research Project began on April 13, 2020 and ended on October 15, 2020. Its objective was to (1) identify and define differing types of perceived out-of-body experiences (OBEs), and (2) discover the differences and commonalities among them, focusing on any possible catalysts, the event itself, and the process from beginning to end. This retrospective study was exploratory in nature. This study based the primary categorization of perceived OBEs first on intent as either not self-induced or deliberately self-induced. Not selfinduced perceived OBEs were then further subcategorized based on the experient's condition or state, which included physiologically near-death perceived OBEs (NDOBEs), life-danger perceived OBEs (LDOBEs), life-danger-to-near-death perceived OBEs (LD-NDOBEs), and other spontaneous perceived OBEs (OSOBEs). While this study was not able to identify with certainty any specific catalysts for perceived OBEs, it resulted in suggesting a hypothesis that the catalyst for perceived NDOBEs, perceived LDOBEs, and perceived LD-NDOBEs may be an unconscious, adaptive, reactionary process triggered by various psychological and/or physiological stimuli initiating a non-pathological dissociation or detachment. Furthermore, this study found that there were both commonalities and differences among different types and subtypes of perceived OBEs as categorized in this study. One such finding was that most of the features reported in perceived OBEs that took place during real physiological conditions of neardeath were also found in some perceived OBEs in which individuals were not actually near death. In particular, this included features such as perceptions of seeing one's own physical body, experiencing a lack of pain, feeling a sense of peace, experiencing different perceptions of time, having a visual life review experience (VLRE), seeing perceived OBE personages, observing a bright light, encountering tunnels, and experiencing a transcendental otherworldly type of environment.

This workshop concentrates on understanding, experiencing and conceptualizing the fourth dimension of space.  Although my theoretical work in physics is based on the reality of a fourth spatial dimension, this workshop is independent of my theoretical work: The knowledge imparted in this workshop will be helpful to anyone who wishes to understand any physical theories based on higher-dimensional realities as well as expand an individual’s own consciousness.  This workshop deals directly with the intuitive geometrical notions that we all use to perceive our commonly sensed world. Questions such as ‘What is the concept of space’, ‘Why only three dimensions’, ‘Why or why not more dimensions’, and ‘What is dimension?’ are considered. Different simple methods of how to visualize a fourth spatial dimension and how they can be used as forms of meditation are also discussed. The first method dates back to the 1880s, when it was developed by Hinton, but newer methods use other visualization techniques. The ability to visualize the next higher dimension is enlightening experience if not the next step in the ongoing evolution of human consciousness, while just trying to do so expands an individual’s consciousness. Furthermore, if physical theories that use a higher dimension of space to explain survival (Beichler, Zoellner and others) are accurate, then the conscious visualization of the fourth dimension of space will help prepare each of us for what comes when our material bodies die. This knowledge should familiarize us with the local environment ‘where’ we could end up when we die.  Many people who have experienced NDEs have reported that wherever they were, the geometry was different from the geometry that they were taught in school, which is a very good description of how four-dimensional geometry relates to our commonly sensed three-dimensional geometrical world.

BODY AND SOUL
by Erich Habich-Traut
https://ehabich.info/singularity/portals/portal.htm

Paper for the conference "La Conscience et L’invisible: Aux Frontières De La Vie",
Eternea, Paris, 4-5th of February 2017

In this short essay I propose that the locus of the incorporeal soul resides in an electromagnetic field, giving an example of it's journey after death. I believe this account to be significant, because it contains scientifically verifiable facts.

Humanity is on the threshold of recognizing the fundamental error in its view of life and death. Both death as well as active life is necessary to the vital formation of a larger, more essential whole. In this paper, I apply the sociology of knowledge and change as it pertains to death and focus on ways in which we can step outside its traditional frameworks and limitations. I also discuss topics related to death such as birth, aging, sickness, and war, and examine cultural differences in attitudes toward death. I offer varying perspectives including the Buddhist view and from these draw implications and conclusions. I apply the lenses of contemporary social scientists such as Edgar Morin, Kenneth Gergen, Edward Stewart, Milton Bennett, Mary Catherine Bateson, E. Doyle McCarthy, Philip Slater, and Piotr Sztompka. To these I add other relevant passages from the writings and speeches of key thinkers on the topic of death, in particular, Buddhist philosopher, peacebuilder, and educator, Daisaku Ikeda. To construct a more humanistic and sustainable view of life, it is first of all crucial to establish a culture which perceives death in its larger living context as but one cycle in the expansive eternity of life.

Luke, D. (2017). Otherworlds: Psychedelics and exceptional human experience. London: Muswell Hill Press.

A psychonautic scientific trip to the weirdest outposts of the psychedelic terrain, inhaling anything and everything relevant from psychology, psychiatry, parapsychology, anthropology, neuroscience, ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, biochemistry, religious studies, cultural history, shamanism and the occult along the way.

Staring the strange straight in the third eye this eclectic collection of otherworldly entheogenic research delivers a comprehensive and yet ragtaglledy scientific exploration of syanaesthesia, extra-dimensional percepts, inter-species communication, eco-consciousness, mediumship, possession, entity encounters, near-death and out-of-body experiences, psi, alien abduction experiences and lycanthropy. Essentially, its everything you ever wanted to know about weird psychedelic experiences, but were too afraid to ask… 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1908995149

“Emphasizing parapsychological aspects of the psychedelic experience, Luke’s new book fills in a fascinating and previously neglected lacuna in the burgeoning field of human studies with these compounds. ” – Rick Strassman, PhD

“A psychedelic Indiana Jones. ” – Matt Colborn, PhD

“David Luke’s delightful one-liner about his book is that it’s ‘about weird people in weird places taking weird substances doing weird things and, importantly, having weird experiences’ . . . On reflection, it’s much more profound than that . . . So weird reader, forge ahead without fear. ” – Dean Radin, PhD

“In his fascinating book David plunges into this controversial topic and gives the backstory, the front story, and possible ways forward to bring paranormal and psychedelic research together, and further our understanding of both. ” – Dennis J. McKenna, PhD

“A remarkable collection and a necessary one. This body of research illuminates aspects of psychedelic experiences usually obscured or denied in the medical and clinical research and sensationalized in the popular press. ” – James Fadiman, PhD

“A real Dr Gonzo. ” – Will Self

Otherworlds:
Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Foreword – Dr Dean Radin
- Blasting Open the Doors of Perception

Preface
- Exceptional Psychedelic Experience
- Otherworld Cartographies
- A Strange Journey on a Crooked Path


SECTION 1: Explorations of Exceptional Entheogen Experiences

1: Notes on Getting Cactus Lodged in Your Reducing Valve: San Pedro and Psychic Abilities
- Cactus of the Four Winds
- Plant Allies and Plant Alkaloids
- Artificial Paradises or Natural Chemical Utopias?
- Cleansing the Doors of (Extrasensory) Perception
- Putting the Psi Back into Psychedelics
- Uncorking the Genie's Bottle
- Putting the Cork Back in the Bottle

2. Psychedelic Possession: The Growing Incorporation of Incorporation into Ayahuasca Use
- The Growing Incorporation of Incorporation in Ayahuasca Use
- The Prepossessing Power of Possession
- Psychedelic Possession Outside of Umbandaime and Barquinha
- Any Body for Anybody: Shape Sharing or Shape Shifting?
- Psychedelic Possession Outside of Shamanism, and Inside Ordinary People
- So Why is Umbandaime on the Rise?
- Shamanic… or Individualistic, Pluralistic, Consumerist and Technologized?
- Synthesis and Analysis
- Postscript: Flying High with Goose and Crow

3. The Induction of Synaesthesia with Chemical Agents: A Systematic Review
(with Devin Terhune)
- Methods
- Results
- Discussion
- Postscript: A Placebo-Controlled LSD-induced Synaesthesia Experiment

4. Rock Art or Rorschach: Is There More to Entoptics Than Meets the Eye?
- Entoptics as Hallucinations and Projections: Both, Either, or Neither?
- Multidimensional Form Constants
- The Extra Dimensions of Cyberdelia
- Turning a Blind Eye to Entoptic Phenomena
- Omni-directional Perception
- Paranormal Visual Perception
- Conclusions: Cleansing the Doors of Misperception
- Postscript: Hurling Algebra at the Hard Problem of Consciousness to Obscure Absurd Infinite Regress

5. Discarnate Entities and Dimethyltryptamine (DMT): Psychopharmacology, Phenomenology and Ontology
- History of DMT Biochemistry
- The Speculated Psychopharmacology of DMT, its Related Compounds and the Pineal Gland 
- Neurochemical Action of DMT
- Phenomenology of the DMT Experience
- Mental Imagery
- DMT and Veridical Visions
- Phenomenological Cartography of the DMT World
- Discarnate Entities
- Ontology of DMT Beings

6. Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An Investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters
- A Brief Glance at the Truly Forbidden
- Snake Eyes
- Sentient Entities
- Postscript: More Fishy Than the Greenwich Pie n Eel Shop

7. Psychedelics and Species Connectedness
- Turning Topiary
- Ecodelia
- Shamanism, Animism and Animaphany
- Interspecies Communication


SECTION 2: Do Psychedelics Like Psilocybin Really Cause Psi?

8. Psychoactive Substances and Paranormal Phenomena Review

9. Psychedelic/Neurochemical Models of Paranormal Experience
- Brain as Filter
- β-Carbolines, Tryptamines and Psi
- DMT, Near-Death and Other Exceptional Experiences
- Ketamine and NDEs
- Dopamine and Paranormal Beliefs and Experiences
- Overview of Psychedelic/Neurochemical Models of Paranormal Experience

10. Field Reports of Psychedelic Paranormal Phenomena
- Anthropological and Historical Reports
- Personal Views and Experiences
- Clinical Reports
- Evaluation of Field Reports

11. Surveys of Psychedelic Paranormal Beliefs and Experiences
- Surveys of Belief in the Paranormal
- Surveys of Paranormal Experiences
- Surveys and Out-of-body Experiences
- Summary of Survey Research

12. Experimental Psychedelic ESP Research
- Forced Choice Designs
- Free Response Psychometry (Object Reading) Experiments
- Other Free Response Clairvoyance Experiments
- Free Response Telepathy Experiments
- Summary of Experimental Research

13. Methodological Critique of Experimental ESP Research

14. General Summary and Conclusions on Psychedelic Parapsychological Research

Afterword: Pulling Magicians out of a Rabbit Hole

References

Index

ABSTRACT: An article titled “A Prospectively Studied Near-Death
Experience
with Corroborated Out-of-Body
Perceptions and Unexplained Healing” by Penny
Sartori, Paul Badham, and Peter Fenwick was published in the Journal of Near-Death
Studies in 2006. The authors concluded that the reported case strengthened
“the cumulative experience derived from many other individual cases . . .
that suggest that our current models of consciousness must expand in order to
provide an adequate explanation of NDEs” (p. 83). However, a closer examination
of Sartori et al.’s paper raises significant questions about their methodology
and interpretation of their findings. In particular, certain methodological
weakness and possible interpretation biases undermine the paper’s conclusions.
This critique addresses both Sartori et al.’s original paper and relevant parts of
Sartori’s (2008) Ph.D. thesis published subsequently.
KEY WORDS: near-death experience; critique; methodology; memory;
expectation.

The author conducted a follow-up of the famous case of the near-death experience of the “Man with the Dentures”. He interviewed the source of this case, A-Level nurse TG, and compared the content of this interview with an earlier inter view conducted by Ap Addink during 1994.
Despite some minor discrepancies, the story is consistent with this previous in ter view. TG provides extensive detail making it clear why the core of the near-death experience of this patient, in particular the correct perceptions of actions that occurred when he had no blood circulation, cannot be explained by current neurological theories. The author concludes the article with an assessment of the reliability and value of the case. (Please note that in the article, there is mention of a full transcript of the interview [of over 30 pages] that would be published online. We had indeed planned to upload that transcript but it adds little to nothing to the published interview, so we cancelled this plan.)

There is serious evidence for veridical perceptions during the stage of flat electroencephalogram (EEG) in so called Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). This paper addresses common counter-hypotheses for a survivalist interpretation of these experiences. The only possible alternative which would account for veridical NDEs is the false memory through retrocognition-hypothesis. It is shown why this alternative is less parsimonious than a straightforward survivalist interpretation of NDEs.

Spontaneous combustion occurs when an object self-ignites. The cause may be chemical, as when lithium oxidises explosively in water, or biological, as when a haystack catches fire due to heat generated from bacterial fermentation. There is no scientific evidence that the human body can self-ignite. However, spontaneous human combustion (SHC) as an alleged cause of death has a long and controversial history. If true, the mechanism of ignition is mysterious and challenges what we know about the human body.....

Everyone seems to have some innate idea that there is an afterlife. Developing a mental picture of the afterlife seems quite natural to us and seems be as old as humankind, more than likely predating even the earliest development of religions. However, religions have taken the initiative in dictating our most commonly held views of the afterlife over the past few thousand years even though there is no hard and fast rule stating that only religions have the right to develop views of the afterlife to the exclusion of all other forms of human knowledge.  In fact, a concept of the afterlife is more fundamental to religions as a whole than belief in a Supreme Being, God or gods. Some of religion’s grasp on concepts of the afterlife have recently slipped as moviemakers have taken the initiative in representing how we picture the afterlife. On the other hand, science has been conspicuously absent from this whole process even though science has developed more and more complex paradigms about life, mind and consciousness, just those concepts which would seem important with regard to any possible afterlife. The very silence of science on this issue is simply deafening. However, the present lack of scientific worldviews that include some form of an afterlife will soon change as science takes a greater interest in the concept of consciousness and develops working theories to explain consciousness. Only then will science begin to consider the possibility that consciousness, at the very least, could survive death of the body and brain and only then will science consider the possibility that the afterlife is another part of our physical reality requiring explanation.

Everyone seems to have some innate idea that there is an afterlife. Developing a mental picture of the afterlife seems quite natural to us and seems be as old as humankind, more than likely predating even the earliest development of religions. However, religions have taken the initiative in dictating our most commonly held views of the afterlife over the past few thousand years even though there is no hard and fast rule stating that only religions have the right to develop views of the afterlife to the exclusion of all other forms of human knowledge. In fact, a concept of the afterlife is more fundamental to religions as a whole than belief in a Supreme Being, God or gods. Some of religion’s grasp on concepts of the afterlife have recently slipped as moviemakers have taken the initiative in representing how we picture the afterlife. On the other hand, science has been conspicuously absent from this whole process even though science has developed more and more complex paradigms about life, mind and consciousness, just those concepts which would seem important with regard to any possible afterlife. The very silence of science on this issue is simply deafening. However, the present lack of scientific worldviews that include some form of an afterlife will soon change as science takes a greater interest in the concept of consciousness and develops working theories to explain consciousness. Only then will science begin to consider the possibility that consciousness, at the very least, could survive death of the body and brain and only then will science consider the possibility that the afterlife is another part of our physical reality requiring explanation.

Drowning swimmers have sometimes reported near-death experiences (NDEs). In this article, we review and suggest coping strategies that enable professional rescuers and lifeguards to provide more quality services to these individuals. We provide recommendations for the way that resuscitation should be performed, assuming that the casualty might be having an NDE, and for providing effective aftercare to an unconscious drowning casualty, a conscious casualty that cannot verbalize, and the recovered drowning casualty who had an NDE.