From: mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu (Robert McGrath)
Subject: Re: Out-of-body near-death experiences
Reply-To: mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept of Computer Science
Distribution: sci.skeptic
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 14:00:14 GMT

In article <1992Oct8.232852.13652@news.cs.indiana.edu>, hagerp@moose.cs.indiana.edu (Paul Hager) writes in part:
|> linley@qucis.queensu.ca (Richard Linley) writes:
|> 
|> >Maybe I missed it(?), but I didn't see anything about these in the FAQ file.
|> 
|> >The subject has come up twice today, once in a University lecture in which
|> >the Prof announced that "medical doctors" now "accept" these experiences as
|> >evidence that there is some awareness beyond life.
|> 
|> Oh, they do, do they?  Dr. Susan Blackmore has done extensive research
|> in this area and has published numberous papers.  She wrote a book called
|> "Beyond the Body" about 10 years ago which has been recently reprinted.
|> This book deals with various conjectures about NDEs and OBEs and offers
|> some tentative hypotheses.  Since then, Dr. Blackmore has homed in more
|> and more on the physical bases of these phenomena.

"Beyond the Body" is now available again in paperback.  I hope to post
a long commentary on this book RSN.

Here is the bottom line:  The "out of body EXPERIENCE" and "near death
EXPERIENCE" are solidly supported as psychological facts, but the
explanation is not know.

There seems to be a fairly common (private) experience corresponding
to both OBEs and NDEs.  These have about the same standing as dreams
and hallucinations--we can be pretty sure they happen, but we can't
actually verify claims made about what was experienced, we can only
take waht reports we can get from the people who experience them.

It is almost universally believed that one form or another of "astral 
travel" explains OBEs, and the the survival of one form or another
of discarnate "soul" explains NDEs.

Examination of the evidence (not to mention the internal contradictions
of these hypotheses) shows that these widely held theories are probably
incorrect.  In particular, more than a century of research shows that
there is no evidence at all that anything leaves the body during
an OBE or an NDE.

In seeking a better explanation, Blackmore (and now others) have been
working on a psychological and physiological explanation.  These ideas
look to known mechanisms of perception, memory, and visualization, and
possible physiological factors.  SB, among others, has proposed some
plausible ideas.

(Boring psuedocritics please note:  here is yet another area where
"skeptics" are a brave minority who are fearlessly exploring nature
in search of the "truth", despite the efforts of scoffers, know-it-all-
since-kindergarden-ers, and nay-sayers.  I note that, despite the
solid work, most enthusiasts for the "paranormal" seem to ignore or 
reject Blackmore's work.  How does this fit into your theory that 
"skeptics are those who just say 'no-it-isn't'", while all those
brave psychic explorers are the only true and pure investigators?)

|> A final note:
|> Skeptical Inquirer has published articles by Blackmore that have
|> references -- try looking at recent issues in which her work has
|> appeared.  You really need to straighten your Prof out.

M. Lindley had difficulty finding SI, so I sent him a packet.

-- 
  Robert E. McGrath
  Urbana Illinois
  mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic