like I said, it would be too tempting for Sam Harris not to debate Alexander. I will now stock up up on popcorn. this would be good…

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/science-on-the-brink-of-death

“However, the deepest problem with drawing sweeping conclusions from the NDE is that those who have had one and subsequently talked about it did not actually die. In fact, many appear to have been in no real danger of dying. And those who have reported leaving their bodies during a true medical emergency—after cardiac arrest, for instance—did not suffer the complete loss of brain activity. Even in cases where the brain is alleged to have shut down, its activity must return if the subject is to survive and describe the experience. In such cases, there is generally no way to establish that the NDE occurred while the brain was offline.

“Many students of the NDE claim that certain people have left their bodies and perceived the commotion surrounding their near death—the efforts of hospital staff to resuscitate them, details of surgery, the behavior of family members, etc. Certain subjects even say that they have learned facts while traveling beyond their bodies that would otherwise have been impossible to know—for instance, a secret told by a dead relative, the truth of which was later confirmed. Of course, reports of this kind seem especially vulnerable to self-deception, if not conscious fraud. There is another problem, however: Even if true, such phenomena might suggest only that the human mind possesses powers of extrasensory perception (e.g. clairvoyance or telepathy). This would be a very important discovery, but it wouldn’t demonstrate the survival of death. Why? Because unless we could know that a subject’s brain was not functioning when these impressions were formed, the involvement of the brain must be presumed.

…

“Having now read Alexander’s book, I can say that it is every bit as remarkable as his Newsweek cover article suggested it would be. Unfortunately, it is not remarkable in the way that its author believes. I find that my original criticism of Alexander’s thinking can stand without revision.[1] However, as he provides further “proof” of heaven in his book, there is more to say about the man’s mischief here on earth.* There is also a rumor circulating online that, after attacking Alexander from the safety of my blog, I have refused to debate him in public. This is untrue. I merely declined the privilege of appearing with him on a parapsychology podcast, in the company of an irritating and unscrupulous host. I would be happy to have a public discussion with Alexander, should it ever seem worth doing.”

but anyone who is familiar with Terence McKenna knows that McKenna was antagonistic against scientific materialism and reductionism. McKenna had a whole different model of reality which is the anti-thesis of scientific materialism.

in addition, Dr. Rick Strassman who conducted extensive experiments and research on DMT came away with a different view of reality–a reality which has more in common with Dr. Alexander’s view (e.g. religious overtones) than with Sam Harris’s model of reality.

granted, McKenna and Strassman are no neuroscientists, but it’s very telling that their models of reality go against scientific materialism.

my point: psychedelic experience challenges the assumptions of scientific materialism/reductionism (e.g. brain process = mind/consciousness). Bernardo Kastrup has a good blog post on very topic:

Quote:
“…a very interesting study recently done in the UK on the effects of psilocybin (the active ingredient of magic mushrooms) on the brain. The study caught my attention because preliminary reports suggested that the researchers observed only reductions in brain activity while subjects were having unfathomable psychedelic trips. This, of course, is counter-intuitive: If the hallucinations are not being caused by drug-induced brain activations, where does the trip come from?”
~ http://www.bernardokastrup.com/2012/01/disembodied-trippers.html

…

i will reiterate my point: if it boils down to questioning Alexander’s *interpretation* of the *content* of his own NDE experience then no debate will resolve this. this will fall in the domain of epistemology and philosophy. and rightly, so. as far as I know there is no general agreement in philosophy (or neuroscience) that the hard problem of consciousness has already been solved. some hardcore materialists may claim that brain=mind, but this is speculation. (e.g. correlation does not equal causation). it’s an acceptable hypothesis. the problem is, some of them forget that it is a hypothesis! (even Sam Harris doesn’t go that route! Harris is not an uber reductionist. he still leaves room for the mystery of consciousness. and that’s the part that i like about Sam.)

now, with regards to the medical case of Dr. Alexander, the issue there that needs to be debated is how can Alexander have an ultra-real experience during his coma and even have a clear memory of it when brain science tells us that this should not be possible (e.g. Alexander’s neocortex was “offline”. he claims that he have the medical record and brain scans to prove this). BUT my point is, it doesn’t matter what the content was! it could be a memory of another lifetime, or a life in other civilization, or even an extra-terrestrial abduction! the technical point it is this: how can a brain with an offline neocortex “generate” those ultra-real experience?

Sam’s speculation is that it was possibly due to DMT dump. fine. ok. maybe. BUT, Alexander considered that hypothesis and even discussed it with other neuroscientists and he says that a DMT dump is very unlikely. considering just this one hypothesis, who between Harris and Alexander understand neuroscience better? that question can be answered in a debate or a discussion.

alternatively, what is Sam’s hypothesis on how is it possible that Alexander could have an ultra-real experience and complete memory of his NDE? will Sam’s hypothesis stack up with Alexander’s 9-point hypothesis? will Sam’s hypothesis explain Alexander’s experience in neuroscientific terms? that is the area of debate that I would like to see.

that said, i will conclude this post with a quote from my dharma grand daddy, Joshu Sasaki Roshi–the oldest living Zen Master.

“If anybody tells me that they’ve seen God, I’ll tell them that they’re an idiot.”

go figure.

http://forum.mind-energy.net/skeptiko-podcast/4421-192-dr-sam-harris-parapsychology-psi-backwater-science-podcast-27.html#post124994

listen to this podcast episode for more context.

thanks to @Alex Tsakiris for exposing Sam’s ignorance and arrogance on psi and NDE.

“Alex Tsakiris: …I like when little nuggets of truth, like this, are revealed. Because if we just listen to Sam Harris’ public stance on Psi, on parapsychology, on Dean Radin, and Rupert Sheldrake, it’s all very open, very collaborative, very, ‘you go boys, let’s see what you got.’ But when you read this you see what he really thinks about Psi research. It’s in the “backwater” of science. That’s where is really is for Sam Harris.”

http://www.skeptiko.com/sam-harris-on-parapsychology-the-backwater-of-science/

“In Dr Alexander’s case he was very close to death while in intensive care. In fact, in a discussion with Dr Alexander’s family, his doctors discussed stopping the antibiotics as it seemed unlikely that he would survive. From my 17 years experience of working as a nurse in intensive care this is something that would be discussed if it seemed futile to continue with them. This in itself highlights the severity of Dr Alexander’s condition.

“The fact that Dr Alexander’s brain was severely dysfunctional yet he recalled a highly structured, lucid and heightened state of awareness during this time does not sit well with science’s current beliefs that consciousness is a mere by-product of the brain.

“Sam Harris has compared these experiences to DMT and I agree there are some similarities between NDEs and DMT experiences however, there are also differences. If you read Dr Rick Strassman’s book DMT: The Spirit Molecule he has documented the subjective reports from his group of experimenters – you can compare these to NDEs. DMT is produced endogenously so there may very well be some involvement of this during perception of a NDE. However, the current science believes that the brain physiology creates consciousness (and indeed NDEs) whereas it seems a much more plausible explanation that rather than creating the consciousness the brain mediates it. For Dr Alexander’s brain to create lucid consciousness would require a fully functioning brain but his clearly wasn’t (along with the brains of hundreds of thousands of other people who have reported a NDE). So how could a dysfunctional brain produce such a heightened state of consciousness? Dr Alexander, being a Harvard educated neurosurgeon has obviously questioned this premise. Coupled with having his own NDE he realises that his experience does not fit with what he had been taught in medical school (see the videolink to the Bioethics Forum).”

via ~ 
http://drpennysartori.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/dr-eben-alexanders-book-proof-of-heaven-soon-to-be-released/#comment-842