cover image Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife

Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife

John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Oxford Univ, $24.95 (200p) ISBN 978-0-19-046660-2

Taking on recent bestselling claims of visits to heaven as well as a few other storied examples of proof of afterlife, Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin systematically challenge the desire to reach for supernatural explanations for near-death experiences (NDEs). In dry and analytic fashion, they show how unusual phenomena associated with NDEs can have natural, physical explanations, making it unnecessary to reach for unproven additional interpretations. The authors, both philosophy professors, are nicely positioned to comment on the subject of NDEs: both participated in a three-year research project on immortality (Fischer was the project leader). Repeatedly protesting that they do not intend to debunk a religious understanding of reality, Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin nonetheless spend a lot of time arguing for the superiority of the physical explanation for NDEs. The book only veers from a lecture-hall tone at the end, when the authors reflect on awe: “Dull explanations are unsatisfying because they leave us without a sense of the significance of what is being understood.” They rightly understand that humans appreciate the thrill of story as well as the truth of explanation. Unfortunately, their explanation of NDEs is written in a most dull manner. (June)