May 08 2008
Near Death Experiences and the Medical Literature
MIRACLE MAX: See, there’s a big difference between mostly dead, and all dead. Now, mostly dead: he’s slightly alive. All dead, well, with all dead, there’s usually only one thing that you can do.
INIGO: What’s that?
MIRACLE MAX: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
— The Princess Bride
Can you trust anyone when they purport to tell you what the medical literature says? No. As an example we will use the issue of near death experiences, or NDE’s.
We will avoid the obvious paradox in this entry, sort of the ‘everything I say is a lie paradox’ that will cause computers in the Federation to shut down.
Why am I going to comment on this issue? Well, this months Skeptic has a back and forth between Michael Shermer and Deepak Chopra about life after death.
No. I am not going to comment on whether there is life after death. I am more interested in life during life, thank you very much. I’ll let the afterlife take care of itself.
But in their point counterpoint, they both refer to a Lancet article about NDE’s and it then begs the question:
Does anyone actually read or understand the literature they quote ?
