Is there life after death Mommy? Of course there is you silly goose; Dr. Long said so on Bill O'Reilly’s show last night.
A massive douche has recently been making the rounds on popular news programs claiming to have proved the existence of life after death. In his new book, “Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences,” Dr. Jeffrey Long submits his “evidence” of the soul’s immortality, which is based solely upon a large accumulation of anecdotal reports from people that have had near-death experiences (NDEs). His research suggests that NDEs reveal fairly consistent themes across different age groups and cultures (e.g., approaching a white light, leaving one’s body, meeting a deity, revisiting long-forgotten memories, etc). Although these phenomena are certainly interesting and worthy of study, they do not in any way prove the existence of an afterlife.
Dr. Long’s wild claim that he has uncovered proof of an afterlife constitutes a shameless act of quackery. If he cared at all for the scientific method of which he was trained, he never would have dared to go public with such a bold statement. The title of his book really should be something like: Anecdotal Evidence of Afterlife-type Phenomena: The Phenomenology of Near-Death Experiences. This would be a scientifically honest title and represent an accurate assessment of the data that has been accumulated through his research. Of course, this title would not likely land his book on the bestseller list, nor would it attract the type of publicity he so obviously craves.
I suspect that Dr. Long was inclined to believe in an afterlife before he began researching near-death experiences. If this is true, then perhaps the “evidence” he has compiled serves to help him feel more secure in this belief. In any case, I think it’s clear that his primary motivation for writing this book was fame and fortune. The grandiosity inherent in his claims can also be viewed, ironically, as a herculean attempt to secure a taste of symbolic immortality. By championing himself as the first professional (official) person to “prove” the existence of life after death, Dr. Long must see himself as a renegade hero among the medical establishment. Indeed, his claims suggest that all who have ever grappled with the great spiritual mysteries of human life can breathe a collective sigh of relief now that he has scientifically proven that humans possess an immortal soul. Way to go Dr. Quackjob! The reality is, however, that his “evidence” really comes no closer to proving the existence of an afterlife than the billions of such claims that have been made from time immemorial.
Most of Dr. Long’s evidence of an afterlife is based upon the significant similarities of reports from people that have had NDEs, which by itself does absolutely nothing to support his main hypothesis. The most important question to consider is whether or not NDErs have any brain functioning at the time that they report having these lucid experiences. If we could be sure that all of the reports Dr. Long analyzed took place when the subjects’ brains had entirely ceased to function, the evidence for an afterlife would be much more compelling; however, this cannot be proven conclusively. Most of the subjects were surely close to death and thus were unconscious in the usual sense while having their NDEs, but that does not mean that their brains had stopped working entirely.
Human consciousness is a fascinating subject of which we are learning new things about all the time. Recent (2006) fMRI research has demonstrated, for example, how some comatose patients can actually be capable of processing thought. When a girl in a completely vegetative state was asked to imagine herself playing tennis, the same brain activity expected to be witnessed in healthy subjects showed up on her scan. This is just one example of how someone that is typically considered unconscious may still be capable of using various modes of perception. This same rule probably applies to those who are on the brink of death as well. Dr. Long, however, seems to have a fairly unenlightened perspective on what it means to be conscious (or unconscious). Here is a quote of him explaining perhaps his best argument for the existence of an afterlife:
“Medically, I can’t conceive of any meaningful experience that could occur near death. Aren’t people near death generally unconscious? Doesn’t the very term unconscious mean that there is no possibility of an organized conscious experience? Yet despite what should be a blank slate for NDErs, they describe highly lucid, organized, and real experiences.”
Dr. Long’s dimwitted explanation here leads me to believe that he would dismiss the aforementioned evidence that comatose patients can be capable of processing thought, simply because they appear to be unconscious. What a douche. People are also “unconscious” in this sense when dreaming. In fact, the experiences described by NDErs closely resemble the types of altered states of consciousness witnessed in lucid dreaming, for example. In this state, a certain level of consciousness is attained while in the dream, although this is still significantly different from usual waking states. As far as I can tell, Dr. Long is conveniently leaving out of his discussion the parallels between NDEs and various other altered states. This parallel, however, seems to indicate that at least some part of the brain remains functioning in NDEs. In other words, NDErs are never completely deceased and hence are likely still capable of generating some state of consciousness, even if we don't currently understand exactly how that process works. Thus, although NDEs certainly constitute an anomalous experience in the realm of human consciousness, there is no basis from which to assume that these experiences account for actual journeys to the great beyond.
Since the brain is likely still working on some level during the NDE, we should not view this as evidence of an afterlife any more than similar experiences brought about by other means. If we follow Dr. Long’s logic, however, we should probably consider afterlife phenomena brought about by psychedelic use, for example, to also be evidence of the soul’s immortality. While we’re at it, we could also conclude that the common experience reported by DMT smokers of communicating with aliens and machine-elves should serve as proof for the existence of both of these entities. Again, the fact that people who come close to death often have subjective experiences of an afterlife cannot be refuted. It cannot, however, be proven that those experiences are representative of any kind of objective reality, which is essentially what Dr. Long is claiming. Have fun quacking all the way to the bank you douche.
I would not be taking issue with Dr. Long’s beliefs had he not taken things a step too far by trying to pass off his research data as objective proof of an afterlife. I personally prefer to take an agnostic position on such things, which to me seems like the most honest way to go. Religious people have an easy enough time believing things based on faith alone; they do not need quacks like Dr. Long throwing around the label of science to add an air of legitimacy to their beliefs.
Here is a recent clip of Dr. Long on the O‘Reilly Factor. Despite his tossing around of words like “scholarly” and “evidence,” it is hard to tell whether or not Dr. Long is the more sensible one in this exchange.
~Wolf
