The Mysteries of Near Death Experiences | Letters
Alex Blasdel’s long read contains some fascinating facts and speculation (The New Science of Death: ‘Something Happens in the Brain that Doesn’t Make Sense, April 2). However, it is strange to suggest that there are only three approaches to understanding so-called near-death experiences: the physicalist, the parapsychological and the spiritualist.
While the field of near-death studies is indeed full of “crazies and frauds,” many serious scientists and rational thinkers in this and other fields, who are neither parapsychologists nor spiritualists, are now openly debating alternatives to physicalism. There are other, arguably better, metaphysical lenses through which to interpret the evidence, such as panpsychism and idealism (particularly, in my view, the rigorously rationalist “analytic idealism” put forward by the philosopher and computer engineer Bernardo Kastrup).
Alan Davis
Dale, Pembrokeshire
It is a bit surprising that Alex Blasdel has not drawn from the (misnamed) Tibetan Book of the Dead in this article about near-death experiences. The Bardo Thodol is a set of instructions on how the dying person can enter death, or rather, a form of consciousness after death, and much of the initial stages resemble stories of near-death experiences.
The clear belief in the book is that some form of consciousness persists after clinical death. If I remember correctly, this is a maximum of three days. The parallels are so strong that it seems as if the original author of the text had access to accounts of near-death experiences.
Tom Wilson
Emeritus Professor, University of Sheffield
Since 1958, I have been working as a mathematician with computer operating system software, sometimes specializing in the efficient digitization, storage and retrieval of data. I always had to know what was possible with the hardware. Alex Blasdel’s article did not mention the “hardware” of the brain. We need to know much more about the brain’s everyday processing, storage, and retrieval of data and video before we start working on system startup and shutdown.
Jim Smith
Bromley, London
While Descartes might have enjoyed the long read (Letters, April 4), Gilbert Ryle would have turned in his grave.
Dr. Allan Dodds
Bramcote, Nottinghamshire