Abstract
This chapter seeks to explore the evidential value of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) as ‘proofs’ of human immortality. Taking as its starting-point the fact that such experiences might reasonably be said to have a bearing on the question of whether or not some aspect of personhood might survive bodily death, it examines the contribution that the last forty years of research into NDEs has made to selected debates surrounding the possibility of life after death. It examines the assumptions that might be involved in taking NDEs at ‘face value’ and presents and evaluates some of the key case studies and research programmes that have emerged during the last forty years of Near-Death Studies.
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Notes
- 1.
For a recent and comprehensive overview of the latest neurophysiological interpretations of NDEs, see Michael Marsh: Out-of-Body and NDEs: Brain-State Phenomena or Glimpses of Immortality? (Oxford, OUP, 2010)
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Fox, M. (2017). Do Near-Death Experiences Provide Evidence of an Afterlife?. In: Nagasawa, Y., Matheson, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of the Afterlife. Palgrave Frontiers in Philosophy of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48609-7_21
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