Personalised accounts of out-of-body (OBE) and near-death (NDE)
experiences are frequently interpreted as offering evidence for
immortality and an afterlife. Since most OBE/NDE follow severe
curtailments of cerebral circulation with loss of consciousness, the
agonal brain supposedly permits 'mind', 'soul' or 'consciousness' to
escape neural control and provide glimpses of the afterlife. Michael
Marsh critically analyses the work of five key writers who support
this so-called "dying brain" hypothesis. He firmly disagrees with such
otherworldly 'mystical' or 'psychical' interpretations, ably
demonstrating how they are explicable in terms of brain
neurophysiology and its neuropathological disturbances. The original
basis and thrust of Marsh's claim sees the recorded phenomenology as
reflections of brains rapidly reawakening to full conscious-awareness,
consistent with other reported phenomenologies attending recovery from
antecedent states of unconsciousness: the "re-awakening brain"
hypothesis. From this basis, Marsh also offers a re-classification of
NDE into early and late phase sequences, thereby dismantling the
untenable concepts of "core" and "depth" experiences. Marsh further
provides a detailed examination of the spiritual and quasi-religious
overtones accorded OBE/NDE, highlighting their inconsistencies when
compared with classical accounts of divine disclosure, and the
eschatological precepts of resurrection belief as professed credally.
In assessing the implications of anthropological, philosophical, and
theological concepts of 'personhood' and 'soul' as arguments for
personal survival after death, Marsh celebrates the role of
conventional faith in appropriating the expectant biblical promises of
a 'New Creation'.
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Brain-State Phenomena or Glimpses of Immortality?
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780191610127
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
OUP Oxford
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter