< Back to Volume 12, Number 3
Volume 12: Number 3: Article 3
Do Any Near-Death Experiences Provide Evidence for the Survival of Human Personality after Death? Relevant Features and Illustrative Case Reports
Emily Williams Cook, Bruce Greyson, and Ian Stevenson, Division of
Personality Studies, Department of Psychiatric Medicine, University
of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908
One of the main reasons that near-death experiences have generated
so much interest in recent years among the general public is because
they seem to provide evidence that consciousness survives the death
of the physical body. It is puzzling, therefore, that most researchers
— both those interested in NDEs and those interested in survival research
— have neglected to address the question of whether NDEs do provide
evidence for survival. We describe three features of NDEs — enhanced
mentation, the experience of seeing the physical body from a different
position in space, and paranormal perceptions — that we believe might
provide convergent evidence supporting the survival hypothesis. We then
describe 7 published cases and 7 cases from our own collection that
contain all three features. These cases are all — with one possible
exception — somewhat deficient with regard to their recording and investigation,
but they exemplify the type of case that should be identified earlier
and investigated more thoroughly than these have been, and that may
then help us decide the extent to which NDEs can contribute to the evidence
for survival of consciousness after death.
Keywords: near-death experiences (NDEs), survival of death, mind-body
relationship, out-of-body experiences (OBEs), paranormal perception,
consciousness
FULL TEXT:
Do Any Near-Death Experiences Provide Evidence for the Survival of Human Personality after Death? Relevant Features and Illustrative Case Reports
To purchase back issues contact Allen Marketing & Management: 1-800-627-0629
