This week, Newsweek offers readers a firsthand account of the near-death experience of a neurosurgeon.
As a neurosurgeon, I did not believe in the phenomenon of near-death experiences. I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon. I followed my father’s path and became an academic neurosurgeon, teaching at Harvard Medical School and other universities. I understand what happens to the brain when people are near death, and I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the heavenly out-of-body journeys described by those who narrowly escaped death.
The brain is an astonishingly sophisticated but extremely delicate mechanism. Reduce the amount of oxygen it receives by the smallest amount and it will react. It was no big surprise that people who had undergone severe trauma would return from their experiences with strange stories. But that didn’t mean they had journeyed anywhere real.
Although I considered myself a faithful Christian, I was so more in name than in actual belief. I didn’t begrudge those who wanted to believe that Jesus was more than simply a good man who had suffered at the hands of the world. I sympathized deeply with those who wanted to believe that there was a God somewhere out there who loved us unconditionally. In fact, I envied such people the security that those beliefs no doubt provided. But as a scientist, I simply knew better than to believe them myself.
What do you think of near-death experiences?
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I rode to the San Antonio airport in a van with Dr. John Medina, a Christian micro-biologist who specializes in how our brains work. (He’s written a fabulous and interesting book called “Brain Rules”). He pretty much writes them off as a certain kind of brain activity under duress (maybe it’s helpful to know that he thinks the best metaphor for how our brains work is NOT a video recorder but a food processor – things are hurled around at alarming speed and come at us from all directions). BUT when I read this article, I immediately wanted to know what he thought about this confirmed time of no cortex involvement. I may write and ask him, actually, and if I do – I’ll let you know what he says. Fascinating article to read and actually brought me a little slice of comfort, in a weird sorta way.
I think how one interprets an experience like this comes down to personal choice.
I can’t say for sure whether I believe in “near death experiences” or not. They aren’t really something that you can “prove” objectively, and there have been pretty well-publicized experiments on fighter pilots exposed to low-oxygen environments that reproduced a lot of the same phenomena that have been reported in “near death experiences”–seeing a dark tunnel with a bright light, etc. I’m pretty sure, being a neurosurgeon, that this guy has heard about them. However, for whatever reason, he decided that what happened was not due to hypoxia but due to a trip to heaven–I guess all I can say to that is that I can’t argue with it. No one will ever be able to really “prove” what happened one way or another.
This made me think of an experience I had several years ago when my grandmother died. The night after her funeral, I had this dream that I was standing in her kitchen doing dishes (I used to do that as a kid whenever I came to visit) and I heard her coming down the hall. I saw her shortly before I woke up and I remember being so happy to see her just like I remembered her–she wasn’t sick anymore and she was doing okay. What struck me at the time was that it was the most vivid dream that I’ve had before or since and it was all mixed up with this massive sensation of peace.
Now, the logical part of my brain says that I probably just had an unusually vivid dream because she had been on my mind a lot then–not only was there the funeral, and her health problems leading up to it, but my mom (a die-hard evangelical) had been expressing some doubts about whether or not Grandma was “really ‘saved'” in the weeks leading up to her death. Oh, yeah, and this was a couple weeks before my son was born so I had a ton of pregnancy hormones on board, too.
However, there’s this other part of my brain that interpreted that dream as a sign that not only is there a heaven, but that my Grandma is there right now. I’ll never be able to prove that to the logical half of my brain, or anyone else for that matter, but it’s something that I’ve made a concious choice to believe, no matter how whacked-out it actually is.
Thanks, Abby.
Abby,I have had the same experiences with my grandparents. Shortly after they died, I saw them in dreams and even talked with them. With my grandfather, I noticed his left ring finger was working perfectly–he had an injury from childhood which severed the nerves and he was unable to bend his finger but in the dream he could.
My grandmother talked to me. I hadn’t been able to say good bye and in the dream we talked about how I didn’t want her to go. She told me she was ok and with Papa.
I vividly remember those dreams. There is something deeper about those dreams than other dreams I remember. Maybe it is my mind wanting to believe. Or maybe life doesn’t end after death.
Thank you for your story.
Some of the comments posted under the story on the Newsweek site have been very interesting. For instance, there is a question regarding whether one needs a cortex in order to experience consciousness. When you consider one of the most primitive parts of our brain, the limbic system, which controls memory, emotions, fear, and desire, is not part of the cerebral cortex, I’m not exactly sure how his non-functioning cortex proves anything. I know we have relay systems and tracts that communicate with the cortex, but is the cortex necessary to experience those feelings? Working with people with traumatic brain injuries (TBI), I know that many people may be alert or aroused, but lack awareness. Is he comparing consciousness to awareness? I do think it’s interesting that he had the damage he had, but still remembers the experience. Most people with TBI don’t remember their first few weeks of acute rehab for that very reason.
There is also a question of whether the release of DMT is what causes these intense, vivid hallucinations/dreams/experiences.
I personally find out-of-body experiences more impressive than dream states or trips to heaven. I know someone personally who, as a child, watched two EMT’s break her jaw and resuscitate her after she was struck by lightning. To me, a psychotropic drug cannot explain how a person can accurately describe an event from outside of their body when they were clinically dead.
sometimes i struggle with reconciling my psychology training and what i understand about the brain and my faith in god. this article was encouraging and awe-inspiring. it really connects with one of my favorite attributes of god – mystery! thanks so much for sharing.