Fingerprints of God (44 page)
Read Fingerprints of God Online
Authors: Barbara Bradley Hagerty
3
One category of research examines whether these people are mad or not. In terms of psychological health, near-death experiencers are as sturdy as those who do not report these unusual death experiences. See Michael Sabom,
Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation
(New York: Harper & Row, 1982); H. J. Irwin,
Flight of Mind: A Psychological Study of the Out-of-Body Experience
(Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985); and B. Greyson, “Near-Death Experiences Precipitated by Suicide Attempt: Lack of Influence of Psychopathology, Religion, and Expectations,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
9 (1991): 183-88.
One category of research examines whether these people are mad or not. In terms of psychological health, near-death experiencers are as sturdy as those who do not report these unusual death experiences. See Michael Sabom,
Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation
(New York: Harper & Row, 1982); H. J. Irwin,
Flight of Mind: A Psychological Study of the Out-of-Body Experience
(Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985); and B. Greyson, “Near-Death Experiences Precipitated by Suicide Attempt: Lack of Influence of Psychopathology, Religion, and Expectations,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
9 (1991): 183-88.
Near-death experiencers score the same in intelligence, mental health, and personality traits such as neuroticism (proneness to anxiety, fear, and depression) and extroversion (talkativeness, assertiveness, enthusiasm). See T. P. Locke and F. C. Shontz, “Personality Correlates of the Near-Death Experience: A Preliminary Study,”
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
77 (1983): 311-18. But look closely at this seemingly normal group and you find a few quirks. Bruce Greyson at the University of Virginia has collected stories from more than 1,000 people and found that those who report near-death experiences are more likely to report paranormal experiences, such as out-of-body experiences or vivid dreams. They tend to be putty in the hands of a hypnotist. One intriguing theory is that near-death experiencers enjoy vivid imaginations. For example, they score higher than average on being “fantasy prone”—that is, likely to report religious visions, ghosts, near-death experiences, and psychic abilities. See S. C. Wilson and T. X. Barber, “Vivid Fantasy and Hallucinatory Abilities in the Life Histories of Excellent Hypnotic Subjects (‘Somnambules’): Preliminary Report with Female Subjects,” in E. Klinger, ed.,
Imagery
, vol. 2:
Concepts, Results, and Applications
(New York: Plenum, 1981), 133-49.
Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research
77 (1983): 311-18. But look closely at this seemingly normal group and you find a few quirks. Bruce Greyson at the University of Virginia has collected stories from more than 1,000 people and found that those who report near-death experiences are more likely to report paranormal experiences, such as out-of-body experiences or vivid dreams. They tend to be putty in the hands of a hypnotist. One intriguing theory is that near-death experiencers enjoy vivid imaginations. For example, they score higher than average on being “fantasy prone”—that is, likely to report religious visions, ghosts, near-death experiences, and psychic abilities. See S. C. Wilson and T. X. Barber, “Vivid Fantasy and Hallucinatory Abilities in the Life Histories of Excellent Hypnotic Subjects (‘Somnambules’): Preliminary Report with Female Subjects,” in E. Klinger, ed.,
Imagery
, vol. 2:
Concepts, Results, and Applications
(New York: Plenum, 1981), 133-49.
They also seem able to dissociate—replace an unpleasant reality with pleasurable fantasies to shield them from the emotional shock. Kenneth Ring and others have found that near-death experiencers report more abuse as a child than the average person. His theory is that these people learned early to cope with traumatic events by accessing “alternate realities”; later, faced with another traumatic event, these people are more likely to “flip” into that alternative consciousness and perceive things that others may not. See K. Ring,
The Omega Project: Near-Death Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large
(New York: William Morrow, 1992).
The Omega Project: Near-Death Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large
(New York: William Morrow, 1992).
They also tend toward “absorption.” They often become focused on their thought life—particularly their imaginations—and can shut out the world. (Frankly, this sounds to me a whole lot like a reporter on deadline.) See A. Tellegen and G. Atkinson, “Openness to Absorbing and Self-Altering Experiences (‘Absorption’) a Trait Related to Hypnotic Susceptibility,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
2 (1974): 132-39.
Journal of Near-Death Studies
2 (1974): 132-39.
4
After a while, I came to think of the temporal lobe as the all-purpose lobe that skeptics say is responsible for virtually every type of spiritual experience. Nonetheless, the temporal lobe, with its electrical spikes and auditory hallucinations and flashes of memory, plays a central role in explaining spiritual experience for many scientists. See M. L. Morse, D. Venecia, and J. Milstein, “Near-Death Experiences: A Neurophysiological Explanatory Model,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
8 (1989): 45-53; also J. C. Saavedra-Aguilar and J. S. Gómez-Jeria, “A Neurobiological Model for Near-Death Experiences,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
7 (1989): 205-22.
After a while, I came to think of the temporal lobe as the all-purpose lobe that skeptics say is responsible for virtually every type of spiritual experience. Nonetheless, the temporal lobe, with its electrical spikes and auditory hallucinations and flashes of memory, plays a central role in explaining spiritual experience for many scientists. See M. L. Morse, D. Venecia, and J. Milstein, “Near-Death Experiences: A Neurophysiological Explanatory Model,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
8 (1989): 45-53; also J. C. Saavedra-Aguilar and J. S. Gómez-Jeria, “A Neurobiological Model for Near-Death Experiences,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
7 (1989): 205-22.
Willoughby Britton, a graduate student at the University of Arizona, compared twenty-three people who reported near-death experiences with twenty others who had not; he stuck electrodes on their heads overnight and recorded their brain activity as they slept. Five (21 percent) of the near-death experiencers recorded some mild anomalies in the left temporal lobe. Only one person (5 percent) in the control group exhibited these anomalies. They were not seizures, nor were they spikes; they wouldn’t draw as much as a second glance from a neurologist looking for signs of epilepsy. But, Britton concluded, near-death experiences may involve the temporal lobe. See W. B. Britton and R. R. Bootzin, “Near-Death Experiences and the Temporal Lobe,”
Psychological Science
15, no. 4 (2004): 254-58.
Psychological Science
15, no. 4 (2004): 254-58.
5
G. M. Woerlee, “Cardiac Arrest and Near-Death Experiences,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
22, no. 4 (2004): 245.
G. M. Woerlee, “Cardiac Arrest and Near-Death Experiences,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
22, no. 4 (2004): 245.
6
An intriguing scenario involved pilots in accelerator machines. They suffered blood loss to the head and felt some of the elements of a near-death experience: tunnel vision and bright lights, floating sensations, paralysis, “dreamlets” that featured family members. But these sensations were fragmented, and contained no life review or panoramic memory. See J. E. Whinnery, “Psychophysiologic Correlates of Unconsciousness and Near-Death Experiences,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
15 (1997): 473-79. Susan Blackmore advances a variation on the dying-brain theme. A British parapsychologist turned skeptic who has written several books on the phenomenon, Blackmore argues that oxygen deprivation in the visual areas of the brain creates lights and tunnels. The brain releases endorphins, creating feelings of peace and euphoria, similar to a runner’s high. Seizures in the temporal lobe and limbic system trigger the life review, and out-of-body experiences arise when the brain attempts to reconstruct a plausible scenario of what happened, after the fact. I tried to interview Blackmore on the subject, but was politely rebuffed. I caught a note of exasperation in her e-mail of Nov. 4, 2006: “I am sure you will understand when I say that I am not prepared to talk about NDEs any more. You may have seen on my website that I gave up all my research and media work on the paranormal and related topics many years ago.
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/journalism/NS2000.html
I am not going back on this. Media treatment of NDEs is (with very few exceptions) appalling. In every case I have been involved in the argument is polarised into ‘Yes/No,’ ‘Life after death/boring science.’ Over 30 years I failed completely to put over the alternative that NDEs are life-changing important experiences that tell us a lot about human nature and are therefore worth researching even though the idea of life after death is daft and entirely without evidence. Having been burned so many times,” she concluded, “I am not going to talk about it any more.”
An intriguing scenario involved pilots in accelerator machines. They suffered blood loss to the head and felt some of the elements of a near-death experience: tunnel vision and bright lights, floating sensations, paralysis, “dreamlets” that featured family members. But these sensations were fragmented, and contained no life review or panoramic memory. See J. E. Whinnery, “Psychophysiologic Correlates of Unconsciousness and Near-Death Experiences,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
15 (1997): 473-79. Susan Blackmore advances a variation on the dying-brain theme. A British parapsychologist turned skeptic who has written several books on the phenomenon, Blackmore argues that oxygen deprivation in the visual areas of the brain creates lights and tunnels. The brain releases endorphins, creating feelings of peace and euphoria, similar to a runner’s high. Seizures in the temporal lobe and limbic system trigger the life review, and out-of-body experiences arise when the brain attempts to reconstruct a plausible scenario of what happened, after the fact. I tried to interview Blackmore on the subject, but was politely rebuffed. I caught a note of exasperation in her e-mail of Nov. 4, 2006: “I am sure you will understand when I say that I am not prepared to talk about NDEs any more. You may have seen on my website that I gave up all my research and media work on the paranormal and related topics many years ago.
http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/journalism/NS2000.html
I am not going back on this. Media treatment of NDEs is (with very few exceptions) appalling. In every case I have been involved in the argument is polarised into ‘Yes/No,’ ‘Life after death/boring science.’ Over 30 years I failed completely to put over the alternative that NDEs are life-changing important experiences that tell us a lot about human nature and are therefore worth researching even though the idea of life after death is daft and entirely without evidence. Having been burned so many times,” she concluded, “I am not going to talk about it any more.”
Another controversial argument has been disavowed by its author, though it remains the favorite of many skeptics. It is this: Near-death experiences are the product of a hallucinating brain. Some scientists argue that the brain under stress creates a sort of organic LSD, triggering the visions, conversations, feelings, and story lines of near-death experiences. The strongest candidate is a neurotransmitter very similar to ketamine. Ketamine was used as an anesthetic on American soldiers during the Vietnam War, but was put on the shelf after they complained of bright lights and floating above their bodies. Dr. Karl Jansen suggested that the brain in distress might create a ketamine-like compound that would produce lights, and a sensation of floating. See K. L. R. Jansen, “The Ketamine Model of the Near-Death Experience: A Central Role for the N-methyl-D-asparate Receptor,”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
16 (1997): 5-26. “It’s pure speculation at this point,” Bruce Greyson noted. “We don’t know of any such compound. It’s never been identified. So there may be a compound like this in the brain that
may
be produced under stress that
may
produce these effects. Well, yes, it
may
be. But if you look at ketamine experiences, they don’t really mimic NDEs. There are certainly some things in common, but most ketamine experiences are terrifying, most people come back saying they do not want to go through that again, and they don’t think of it as a real experience. Whereas virtually every near-death experiencer comes back saying, ‘That was more real than me sitting here talking to you now, and I can’t wait to go back.’ ”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
16 (1997): 5-26. “It’s pure speculation at this point,” Bruce Greyson noted. “We don’t know of any such compound. It’s never been identified. So there may be a compound like this in the brain that
may
be produced under stress that
may
produce these effects. Well, yes, it
may
be. But if you look at ketamine experiences, they don’t really mimic NDEs. There are certainly some things in common, but most ketamine experiences are terrifying, most people come back saying they do not want to go through that again, and they don’t think of it as a real experience. Whereas virtually every near-death experiencer comes back saying, ‘That was more real than me sitting here talking to you now, and I can’t wait to go back.’ ”
Indeed, Jansen himself has shifted his position, suggesting that a ketamine-like chemical may be one trigger of authentic spiritual experience, while coming close to death may be another. He no longer rules out the possibility that people are catapulted—chemically or traumatically—into other worlds, and that these worlds might be, in fact, real. “I now believe that there most definitely is a soul that is independent of experience,” he wrote. “It exists when we begin and may persist when we end. Ketamine is a door to a place we cannot normally get to; it is definitely not evidence that such a place does not exist.” See K. L. R. Jansen, “Response to Commentaries on ‘The Ketamine Model of the Near-Death Experience: A Central Role for the N-methyl-D-asparate Receptor,’ ”
Journal of Near-Death Studies
16 (1997): 79-95. Blackmore insists that nothing, including consciousness, can separate from the body and survive. In fact, she asserted, “If . . . truly convincing paranormal events are documented then certainly the theory I have proposed will have to be overthrown.” See Susan Blackmore,
Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences
(New York: Prometheus, 1993), p. 262.
Journal of Near-Death Studies
16 (1997): 79-95. Blackmore insists that nothing, including consciousness, can separate from the body and survive. In fact, she asserted, “If . . . truly convincing paranormal events are documented then certainly the theory I have proposed will have to be overthrown.” See Susan Blackmore,
Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences
(New York: Prometheus, 1993), p. 262.
7
Peter Fenwick, “Science and Spirituality: A Challenge for the 21st Century,” paper presented at International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) 2004 Conference, Evanston, Illinois.
Peter Fenwick, “Science and Spirituality: A Challenge for the 21st Century,” paper presented at International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) 2004 Conference, Evanston, Illinois.
8
Mario Beauregard and Vincent Paquette, “Neural Correlates of a Mystical Experience in Carmelite Nuns,”
Neuroscience Letters
405 (2006): 186-90.
Mario Beauregard and Vincent Paquette, “Neural Correlates of a Mystical Experience in Carmelite Nuns,”
Neuroscience Letters
405 (2006): 186-90.
9
Specifically, one area that lit up in the brains of both nuns and near-death experiencers was a region of the temporal lobe called the middle temporal gyrus. Having considered reports by clinical neurologists and research on people with temporal lobe epilepsy, Beauregard said, “I hypothesize that this activation is related to the subjective perception of contacting a spiritual reality.”
Specifically, one area that lit up in the brains of both nuns and near-death experiencers was a region of the temporal lobe called the middle temporal gyrus. Having considered reports by clinical neurologists and research on people with temporal lobe epilepsy, Beauregard said, “I hypothesize that this activation is related to the subjective perception of contacting a spiritual reality.”
Another curiosity concerned the caudate nucleus, which is involved with feelings of intense love. “We just finished a study on unconditional love and we found out that this caudate nucleus was crucially involved with unconditional love. But it’s also involved in other forms of love, like romantic love and maternal love. The major puzzle involved the parietal lobe, the area that helps you determine your body schema. In the nuns’ brains, this area showed unusual activity, suggesting they were being absorbed into a larger being. The near-death experiencers showed no unusual activity at all, even though they talked about walking toward the light. “I’ll have to think about this,” was all Beauregard would say.
10
It is unlikely that a brain would rewire itself in an instant, Andrew Newberg told me. Newberg has puzzled over this, and says that if further research shows that a person’s brain structure or brain-wave patterns do in fact behave differently as a result of a near-death or other experience, he can imagine a couple of mechanisms. Perhaps the jolting experience suddenly taps into unconscious areas of the brain; or perhaps it activates and strengthens weak connections in the brain, and the newly robust connections create a new pattern of brain activity that becomes the norm.
It is unlikely that a brain would rewire itself in an instant, Andrew Newberg told me. Newberg has puzzled over this, and says that if further research shows that a person’s brain structure or brain-wave patterns do in fact behave differently as a result of a near-death or other experience, he can imagine a couple of mechanisms. Perhaps the jolting experience suddenly taps into unconscious areas of the brain; or perhaps it activates and strengthens weak connections in the brain, and the newly robust connections create a new pattern of brain activity that becomes the norm.
11
William James recognized this phenomenon a century ago. Mystical states, he wrote, in
The Varieties of Religious Experience
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985; originally published 1902), allow the mystic to become one with the Absolute, and to be aware of that oneness—a tradition that defied “clime or creed.” “In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in Christian mysticism, in Whitmanism, we find the same recurring note, so that there is about mystical utterances an eternal unanimity which ought to make a critic stop and think, and which brings it about that the mystical classics have, as has been said, neither birthday nor native land” (p. 324).
William James recognized this phenomenon a century ago. Mystical states, he wrote, in
The Varieties of Religious Experience
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1985; originally published 1902), allow the mystic to become one with the Absolute, and to be aware of that oneness—a tradition that defied “clime or creed.” “In Hinduism, in Neoplatonism, in Sufism, in Christian mysticism, in Whitmanism, we find the same recurring note, so that there is about mystical utterances an eternal unanimity which ought to make a critic stop and think, and which brings it about that the mystical classics have, as has been said, neither birthday nor native land” (p. 324).
CHAPTER 11. A NEW NAME FOR GOD
2
For an excellent account of Einstein’s “God,” see Walter Isaacson,
Einstein: His Life and Universe
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), pp. 384-93.
For an excellent account of Einstein’s “God,” see Walter Isaacson,
Einstein: His Life and Universe
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), pp. 384-93.
4
Gregory Benford, “Leaping the Abyss: Stephen Hawking on Black Holes, Unified Field Theory and Marilyn Monroe,”
Reason,
April 2002, p. 29.
Gregory Benford, “Leaping the Abyss: Stephen Hawking on Black Holes, Unified Field Theory and Marilyn Monroe,”
Reason,
April 2002, p. 29.
5
Paul A. M. Dirac, “The Evolution of the Physicist’s Picture of Nature,”
Scientific American
208 (May 1963): 53.
Paul A. M. Dirac, “The Evolution of the Physicist’s Picture of Nature,”
Scientific American
208 (May 1963): 53.
6
Max Planck, quoted in Charles C. Gillespie, ed.,
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
(New York: Scribner, 1975), p. 15.
Max Planck, quoted in Charles C. Gillespie, ed.,
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
(New York: Scribner, 1975), p. 15.
7
Anthony Flew,
There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
(New York: Harper One, 2007), p. 155.
Anthony Flew,
There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind
(New York: Harper One, 2007), p. 155.
10
The analogy breaks down slightly because, as Dossey and others have it, non-local mind possesses infinite information, not just boatloads of it, and non-local mind knows what is happening in the past, present, and future.
The analogy breaks down slightly because, as Dossey and others have it, non-local mind possesses infinite information, not just boatloads of it, and non-local mind knows what is happening in the past, present, and future.
12
A. Aspect, P. Grangier, and G. Roger, “Experimental Realization of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm Gedankenexperiment: A New Violation of Bell’s Inequalities,”
Physical Review Letters
49 (1992): 91-94. Many experiments have proved the same thing, separating particles by as much as thirty-one miles and still seeing entanglement.
A. Aspect, P. Grangier, and G. Roger, “Experimental Realization of Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen-Bohm Gedankenexperiment: A New Violation of Bell’s Inequalities,”
Physical Review Letters
49 (1992): 91-94. Many experiments have proved the same thing, separating particles by as much as thirty-one miles and still seeing entanglement.
13
Radin argues that each level is built on smaller ones: atoms are built from subatomic particles, molecules are built from atoms, chemicals are a lot of molecules, biology emerges from chemicals, society is a group of biological beings—all the way up to the level of the universe. He believes that science will find unexpected properties in biological systems (including ESP) that emerge from elementary forms of entanglement, just as water emerges from a unique combination of oxygen and hydrogen. From either individual element alone, you could not predict water.
Radin argues that each level is built on smaller ones: atoms are built from subatomic particles, molecules are built from atoms, chemicals are a lot of molecules, biology emerges from chemicals, society is a group of biological beings—all the way up to the level of the universe. He believes that science will find unexpected properties in biological systems (including ESP) that emerge from elementary forms of entanglement, just as water emerges from a unique combination of oxygen and hydrogen. From either individual element alone, you could not predict water.
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