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PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES ON OUT-OF-BODY AND NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES, edited by Craig D. Murray. New York, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2009. Pp xiii + 240. $79.00 (hardcover). ISBN 978-1-60741-705-7.
Sir William Lawrence Bragg said, "The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them" (Koestler & Smythies, 1969, p. 182). Out-of-body and near-death experiences (OBEs and NDEs) provide clues to a novel way of understanding consciousness, but as Susan Blackmore notes in this book:
One of the things that depressed me most in my decades of research is the tendency for people (and the media) to divide theories of OBEs and NDEs into two black-and-white types. On the one hand are the "good" (or "spiritual") theories - OBEs mean the spirit can leave the body, NDEs are a glimpse of life after death. On the other hand are the "bad" (or "boring," or "reductionist") theories - OBEs and NDEs don't exist or are "just hallucinations." (p. 55)
Blackmore states that brain research has changed this situation by linking OBEs to measurable processes in the brain, thereby showing that OBEs are real and that our concept of ourselves may be the true illusion. Although I agree that the research is useful, it has not resolved the debate. People with reductionist views regard these correlations as support for their view that OBEs and NDEs are just a function of our brains' ability to trick us. However, these studies are a sign that academia is lowering its resistance to considering these phenomena as legitimate areas of study.
Another indication is Craig Murray's book, which presents data and perspectives from the fields of medicine, neuropsychology, neuroscience, parapsychology, psychology and sociology. Not surprisingly, the disciplines' different epistemological theories about OBEs and NDEs have led them to interpret the same data differently and/or ignore irreconcilable data when constructing their theories.
The Pam Reynolds case is an excellent example of data that are variously interpreted. The experiment was set up very carefully by Dr. Sabom, because the major argument against...