The summary should identify key points in each reading, including a statement of the thesis or central claim. Do NOT USE ANY OUTSIDE SOURCES. This is a summary of pages (157-179) Reading: Fischer and

Chapter 13 Awe, Wonder, and Hope Near- death experiences elicit deep awe and wonder, and they inspire great hope. One might worry that our project here, of explaining near- death experiences in wholly physical terms, would eliminate these features. The concern stems from the idea that if near- death experiences can be explained physically, this would threaten the meaningfulness of life, and with it, awe, wonder, and hope. But just as we argued (in Chapter 10) that we need not cede the territory of profound transformation or moral sensibility to those who invoke the supernatural in order to explain near- death experiences, we will argue here that we need not cede the territory of meaningfulness. That something can be explained physically does not imply that it cannot be seen as deeply meaningful, and as capable of inspiring awe, wonder, and hope. The worry seems to rest on an outdated view about the relation - ship between scientific inquiry and affective responses, such as awe and wonder. 1 It assumes that these responses are stifled by scien - tific explanation. Wonder at the incomprehensible may prompt us to seek explanations, it is assumed; but these explanations dispel our awe by pulling the phenomena back down to earth. This may 1. For an excellent discussion of these issues, see Daston (2014). Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 158 have been the ancient or medieval view. But nowadays we recog - nize that the outputs of science— the very explanations prompted by our curiosity in the face of a lack of understanding— can them - selves inspire feelings of awe and wonder. Science can touch our emotions by presenting us with elegant explanations. Everyday experience confirms the power of the natural world to inspire deep feeling in us. It is evidently not the case that only experiences understood in supernatural terms may be powerful and wonderful. Think of the beauty of a sunset. More specifically, think, again, of a sunset over the Grand Canyon. To witness this daily event is to be taken aback by breathtaking beauty. A beauti - ful sunset can fill us with a sense of awe and wonder. But a sunset is a purely physical phenomenon; it is the result of the interaction of light waves with water vapor. We can be filled with awe and wonder even with the fact clearly in mind that what we are wit - nessing is a purely physical phenomenon. Think also of majestic mountain peaks, giant redwood trees, and the power of a thunder - storm. Awe and wonder are not only appropriate in reaction to the supernatural. Contemplating the products of human design and coordina - tion can even fill us with awe. Think, for instance, of stunning modern skyscrapers or the pyramids in Eg ypt. W hen contemplat - ing the fact that human beings designed and built the pyramids, one can be filled with a sense of awe at this remarkable human accomplishment. A nd yet, the pyramids are manifestly physical phenomena and clearly the product of human toil. Indeed, it is partly the recognition of this human toil, unaided by machines, that inspires awe at the pyramids. Thus, awe and wonder need not even be a reaction to the natural, in a sense that requires separa - tion from human intervention. A nd they need not be reactions to Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 159 something bigger than oneself. Though many of the human cre - ations that inspire awe and wonder are the work of many individu - als together, this need not be the case. One can experience awe and wonder at one’s own achievements. Think of baking a perfectly shaped loaf of bread, running a marathon, or painting a beautiful landscape. These are individual achievements one might not only take pride in but also appreciate with a sense of awe and wonder at what one has done. A nd this appreciation does not require regard - ing these as acts of supernatural origin in any sense. Howard Wettstein, in a fascinating study of awe, offers a helpful catalogue of various kinds of contexts that do not nec - essarily imply anything supernatural but that typically invoke deep awe: 1. Cases of awe at natural grandeur; the feelings of an astro - naut standing on the moon, or someone powerfully moved by the night sky at the top of a mountain, or a relevantly similar ocean experience. 2. Awe at human grandeur. There are examples that seem available to ever yone, given a certain openness and sensi - tivity: awe at the power of people to find inner resources in horrible circumstances, awe at human goodness and caring.

Other examples require artistic and/ or intellectual sophis - tication: powerful responses to great art of all varieties, or to great achievements in science, mathematics, philosophy. 3. Awe at the birth of one’s children. Perhaps this is a com - pound of or intermediate between 1 and 2. 4. Even more sophisticated, more rare, are other sorts of com - binations of 1 and 2. For example, one at the top of the mountain, awestruck not only by the over whelming beauty Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 16 0 and majesty of nature, but also by the fact that humans, con - structed of the stuff of the mountain, can take such a thing in, and indeed that they can feel awe at it. 2 The key idea Wettstein expresses here is that these contexts are all apt to produce deep reactions in human beings, and yet it is not tempting to invoke supernatural objects or causes. You might agree with all of this but still insist that there is something fundamentally different about near- death experiences.

These are not artifacts, like the pyramids, or natural wonders, like the Grand Canyon, but rather experiences with special character - istics. You might think that this sets them apart. Perhaps we can appreciate with awe and wonder the beauty of the natural world or the fruits of our own labor without regarding the objects of our appreciation as supernatural in any way. But the same is not the case with respect to near- death experiences. W hy should near- death experiences be regarded as special in this way? One thought would be that it is due to the special phe - nomena characteristic of them. But there are other kinds of experi - ences characterized by similar phenomena. A nd these experiences may be awe- inspiring and meaningful. So it does not seem that the significance of near- death experiences is due to their special characteristics. Moreover, these similar experiences are not ones that we are tempted to understand in supernatural terms. A nd yet they inspire awe and wonder. So it does not seem that the awe and wonder engendered by near- death experiences is due even to the combination of these special characteristics and understanding them in supernatural terms.

2. Wettstein (2012: \f0).

Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 161 W hat are these similar experiences we are referring to? Consider the following description of an LSD trip: I was in my late twenties when a friend and I took some LSD.

I had tripped many times before but this acid was different. . . . We noticed that we were talking to each other mentally through thoughts only, no verbal talk, tele- communicating.

I thought in my head, “I want a beer,” and he heard me and got me a beer; he thought, “Turn the music up” and I turned the music up. . . . It went on like this for some time. Then I went to urinate, and in my urine stream was a video or movie of the past played back in reverse. Ever ything that had just happened in the room was coming out of me like watch - ing a movie in my urine stream, playing in reverse. This totally blew my mind. Then my eyes became a microscope, and I looked at my wrist and was able to see each individual cell breathing or respi - rating, like little factories with little puffs of gas shooting out of each cell, some blowing perfect smoke rings. My eyes were able to see inside each skin cell, and I saw that I was choking myself from the inside by smoking five packs of cigarettes a day and the debris was clogging my cells. At that second I quit smoking. Then I left my body and hovered in the room above the whole scene, then found myself traveling through a tunnel of beautiful light into space and was filled with a feeling of total love and acceptance. The light was the most beautiful, warm and inviting light I ever felt. I heard a voice ask me if I wanted to go back to Earth and finish my life or . . . to go in to the beau - tiful love and light in the sky. In the love and light was ever y person that ever lived. Then my whole life flashed in my mind from birth to the present, with ever y detail that ever happened, Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 162 ever y feeling and thought, visual and emotional was there in an instant. The voice told me that humans are “Love and Light.”. . . That day will live with me forever; I feel I was shown a side of life that most people can’t even imagine. I feel a special con - nection to ever y day, that even the simple and mundane have such power and meaning. 3 The experience described here has many of the hallmarks of a near- death experience— a life review, an out- of- body experience, traveling through a tunnel of light, pleasant feelings, deceased people— and the subject experienced it as powerfully meaning - ful. Yet it was induced by LSD, and he knew this, both as it was happening and when he reflected on it in the retelling. This man’s awareness of the physical explanation of his experience does not seem to have diminished its significance for him in the least. 4 This LSD case strongly suggests that it is not necessar y to understand experiences very similar to near- death experiences in nonphysical or supernatural terms in order to appreciate them with awe and wonder. But perhaps this is too hasty. A fter all, there does seem to be a clear difference between the way subjects of near- death experiences relate to the contents of their experiences and the way in which it would be most reasonable for the subject of this LSD trip to relate to the contents of his experience. Eben A lexander, Colton Burpo, and many others who have near- death experiences take the contents of their experiences to be accurate.

Even if it requires expanding their conception of what the world is like, these people take their experiences to represent reality.

\f. Sack s (2 012 a: 101– 10 2).4. For many similar examples of profound spiritual ex periences induced by psychedelic drugs, see Shroder (2014) and Pollan (201\b).

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 16 3 However, it would seem unreasonable to both hold in mind the fact that one’s experience is caused by a hallucinogen and also to take it to represent reality. The point of taking a hallucinogen is to check out of the real world for a while. Certainly we should not interpret this man’s LSD trip as containing more than illusions.

A nd we shouldn’t take him to think that it contains anything different. But then the sense in which this experience was meaningful to him does appear to be different in a crucial respect from how near- death experiences seem to be meaningful to those who have them.

In the case of a near- death experience, some of its significance may be attributed to the fact that it is interpreted as putting the sub - ject in touch with aspects of reality that would otherwise be closed to him. It is meaningful, at least in part, because it allows him to gain a perspective on this world that he would not otherwise have or because it reveals that heaven is for real. But the content of an LSD trip is not taken to present aspects of reality in this way. W hat one sees while tripping is not taken to be real, at least not after the moment has passed. The feelings one has while seeing the sights, or the connection one feels to others along the journey— these may be interpreted as very real emotions and connections. But the real - ity and importance of these feelings does not rest on the accuracy of the contents of the experience in the way that the significance of near- death experiences seems to rest on the purported reality of their contents. So there is a genuine distinction to be made between the sig - nificance of near- death experiences and the significance of experi - ences of similar contents, such as the LSD trip described above.

In particular, there is a real case to be made for the claim that the significance of near- death experiences may depend on a super - natural interpretation, even if the significance of an LSD trip with Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 16 4 similar features does not. If the significance of a near- death experi - ence depends, at least in part, on the accuracy of its contents, and if these contents are supernatural in nature, as heaven surely is, then perhaps the awe and wonder this experience provokes would be undermined by a wholly physical understanding of it. This is a good challenge to our claim that a physicalist- friendly understanding of near- death experiences would not undermine their significance. But we think it can be overcome.

This interpretation of the significance of near- death experiences takes the apparent accuracy of their contents to be central. This is the basis for distinguishing between them and the LSD trip, which is significant and meaningful even though it is not taken to represent reality. But there is a different way of making sense of the meaning of our experiences that does not emphasize accu - racy in this way. A nd we think that this alternative conception of meaningfulness is both generally applicable to human experi - ence and also helps to point to a shared manner in which both the near- death experiences and the LSD trip may be meaningful to their subjects. Consider the difference between explanation and storytelling. These are two deep- seated aspects of our human nature, distinct ways in which we seek to come to grips with the world and our - selves in it. Storytelling is how we sort through the significance of what happens to us. Sometimes our stories are entertaining, and sometimes profound. Other times they are dry, factual, and to the point. W hatever they are like, the stories we tell help us to come to terms with our lives . . . and also our deaths. They help us to sort out this experience we call living. A nd they do so by placing events into emotionally recognizable patterns. We feel the pull of narra - tives because they take us— both in body and in mind— through recognizable emotional landscapes. We feel the tension of drama, Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 16 5 the crushing pain of tragedy, the comic release. This is the distinc - tive way in which stories make sense to us. But we don’t just tell stories. We explore the world, including ourselves, in an effort to understand the way things work. We use the tools of science to discover what is out there— and in here— and how it all fits together. We observe, hypothesize, and test. We refine our vocabulary for describing what we find, and we con - stantly revise our explanations for why things are the way they are.

In doing so, we are searching for the truth. Unlike our drive to find meaning, our drive to explain is not satisfied by fictional represen - tations. A good explanation touches the world, just as a good story touches the heart. These two enterprises— storytelling and explanation— are uniquely and essentially human. W hen it comes to making sense of the world and ourselves, human nature is multi- faceted. We want to understand the way things work, and we want to grasp the meaning of it all. These two pursuits are not necessarily in tension.

Sometimes they work in tandem. Placing an explanation in the context of a narrative can be a powerful way of getting the message out and making it comprehensible. It can help to communicate the deep significance of the events being explained, and to help people feel the importance of the topic. But other times these two sides of human curiosity are at odds. Dull explanations are unsatisf ying because they leave us without a sense of the significance of what is being understood. We run the danger of crowding out mean - ing in search of the truth. Conversely, a gripping tale may reveal the significance of what goes on in the world at the expense of an accurate representation of the way things work. We can find deep meaning in patterns of fictional events. A nd it can be tempting to interweave or replace rudimentary explanations with meaningful stories in order to plug gaps in our understanding. But doing so Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 16 6 frustrates the explanatory pursuit of truth. It is difficult to make adequate room for both sides of our nature, and all too easy for one aspect of human curiosity to crowd out the other. This danger is most pronounced in the case of topics that grip us deeply. Near- death experiences, we contend, is just such a topic. So far, this book has focused on explanation, in particular, scientific explanation. We have been concerned with this pur - suit, which aims at the truth, and how it can help us to make sense of near- death experiences. A nd we have contended that the prospects are better for coming to understand these experiences within the physicalist framework of scientific explanation than they are for making sense of them in supernatural terms. Now we want to consider the limits of scientific explanation and how some of the significance of near- death experiences can be made sense of in narrative terms. Our aim in doing so is the same as it has been.

We want to make the case that coming to grips with near- death experiences does not require abandoning physicalism. Our main contention will be that the stories we tell about these experiences, and even our impulse to tell such stories, are wholly compatible with physicalism. The basic idea behind our impulse to make sense of the world by means of stories is that placing events into a narrative form helps to render them meaningful for us. 5 Certain patterns of events are intelligible to us in a special way that allows them to have a dis - tinctive kind of meaning. They resonate. Our understanding of \b. Here we are draw ing on Velleman (200\f) and (2009). See also Fischer (2009, Chs. 9 and 10) for f urther discussion of the role of narrative. Velleman’s concern w ith narra - tive centers on issues about practical reasoning , and Fischer is concerned w ith issues about value, such as the value of lives and the value of acting freely. Our concern here is slightly different. We focus on the importance of narrative form for finding meaning in experience.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 167 these sequences of events is not the same as the understanding we achieve through scientific explanation. Narrative understand - ing does not so much satisf y our yearning for an intellectual grasp of how things fit together. It satisfies our emotional sensitivity.

Stories allow the world to become meaningful for us as creatures with feelings. They afford us a sentimental and often very deep grasp of what’s around us. A nd they do this by placing sequences of events into patterns that grip our affective sensibilities. We feel the rise and fall of the narrative as it unfolds. Think of the first time you read Romeo and Juliet . Recall your anxious excitement as the young lovers see each other for the first time, feverish expectation at their courtship, crushing heartache at their deaths. Crucially for our earlier claims about the similarity between the underpinnings of the significance of a near- death experience and an LSD trip, the meaning provided by a narrative grasp of things does not depend on an assumption that the events being placed in a narrative frame are real. Fiction can be meaningful, even fiction understood as such. We connect with made- up char - acters and their lives. A nd we do so knowing full well that they are figments of someone’s imagination— projections in our own imaginations. The key to grasping the meaning provided by a nar - rative is the form that is taken by the events represented in that story. The connection between those events and an independent reality are beside the narrative point. The moment Juliet stabs herself with the dagger is as inevitable as the moment Romeo drinks the poison. It just had to be that way.

A nd yet we feel a certain kind of release, we achieve a sense of clo - sure when the action of the play sweeps across the inevitable shores of the star- crossed lovers’ deaths. We know where we are going, we cringe at the thought of the cruel fate that awaits our gaze, and yet we cannot help but feel relieved when we get there. The peace Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 16 8 between their families is an afterthought. It seems inevitable as well, but no more than an elixir to dull the pain in our hearts. A nd yet that pain is the point. It ties everything together. The story of Romeo and Juliet, the story of stymied love throughout the ages, is meaningful precisely because it ends in sorrow and pain. It makes sense because we feel the predictable, foreseeable twists and turns of the plot as it unfolds. We ride the highs of the balcony and suf - fer the lows of the crypt because that is what it takes to achieve closure. Otherwise, none of this crazy, mixed- up dramatic world makes sense. Everyone knows a Romeo and a Juliet. But they are not actually Romeo and Juliet. They do not really climb up on balconies and spurn Paris. The world gets in the way of their love, all right, but it does not end in deadly confusion for them. They mourn and move on, as people do. We console them and help them along their way.

A nd yet we grasp the significance of what they are going through because we are familiar with the tale. It begins with a glimpse that gets the blood pumping and ends with heartache. The pattern is familiar. Sometimes it hits us that life is like a story. Stories render events meaningful, thereby allowing us to com - prehend them in a distinctive way. There is more than one form a sensible narrative can take. It can be one of high hopes dashed, of hard work rewarded, of the comeuppance that is one’s due. W hat unites the various forms stories can take is that they allow us to fit sequences of events into familiar emotional patterns .6 The impor - tant thing with a story is not how it describes reality— that is cer - tainly not what we want in a good tale— but how it makes us feel.

Stories afford a glimpse into the meaning of events by allowing us to wrap our hearts around them.

6. Here we are, once again, draw ing on Velleman’s insightf ul work .

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 169 This view about narrative and meaning allows us to under - stand how the LSD trip described earlier in this chapter may be meaningful in precisely the same way as a near- death experience.

The trip contained the same events— a life review, an out- of- body experience, traveling through a tunnel of light, pleasant feelings, deceased people— fit into the same pattern as they might be in the context of a typical near- death experience. The LSD trip matches a typical near- death experience in both form and content . Given the view that the form of an experience is what allows it to be mean - ingful, this trip may be just as meaningful as a near- death expe - rience. Of course, the elements of the LSD trip are illusions . A nd the subject of that experience takes them to be such. This marks a difference between his experience and the typical near- death experience. But this difference should not be taken to preclude the possibility that his hallucinatory experience may be meaningful for him in the same way as a near- death experience may be mean - ingful for someone else. Stories are meaningful because of the pat - terns in which they present events. They resonate with us because of how they make us feel. Fictional events can make us laugh and cry. There is no reason to think that a hallucinatory experience cannot be deeply meaningful as well. One can keep in mind that one is tripping on LSD, and yet this experience can be deeply meaningful because of the emotional attunement one has in virtue of the pattern of events included in the experience. This suggests that one can react with awe and won - der in light of a physicalist understanding of what is going on in the case of near- death experiences. It would seem that one can keep in mind that one’s near- death experience is best explained in terms of one’s brain chemistry and psycholog y without losing one’s emo - tional grip on the whole thing. One can have a deeply meaningful experience understood in physical terms because the explanation Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 170 of the experience is a separate matter from the form of its contents.

Thus, our contention that physicalist- friendly explanations of near- death experiences are better than supernatural explanations does not necessarily threaten the awe- inspiring power of these experiences. This is not to say that focusing on the physical factors that account for why one had a given experience will never diminish its meaning or undermine feelings of awe and wonder. The point we are making is that there is good reason to think that these experi - ences may continue to be awe- inspiring even if they have physical explanations. Human beings, by our natures, seek explanation.

But also, by our natures, we tell— and live— stories. The explana - tions need not crowd out the stories; indeed, they are both aspects of a more general project of comprehending the world and our place in it. Moreover, we think that people are interested in true explana - tions. They want to understand why things really do occur. A nd from the perspective of this interest, it is neither here nor there whether a given explanation might affect one’s reaction to the expe - rience being explained. If true explanations undermine the mean - ingfulness of what is being made sense of, this does not show them to be any less true. Sometimes our interests come into conflict. 7 We want to make sense of the world, but we want to find meaning in it as well. W hen these two pursuits are incompatible, we face the dif - ficult question of which side of our nature to give in to. However, to give in to our interest in meaning is not to change the terms in which we engage in explanation. It is to abandon that pursuit.

To choose to preserve the significance of near- death experiences 7. Velleman (2009, Ch. 7) makes some ver y interesting remarks about this conflict in the context of practical reasoning.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 171 over a true understanding of why they occur is to take sides with one aspect of human curiosity over the other. Our interest in true explanations remains intact, but swept to the side. In other words, it may still be the case that the best explanations of near- death expe - riences are in wholly physical terms, even if we decide that we are less interested in making sense of these experiences than we are in finding awe and wonder in them. Thus far, we have argued for the claim that awe at near- death experiences is compatible with explaining them in physical terms.

But what about hope? Many people find great consolation in the interpretation of near- death experiences as pointing to the exis - tence of an afterlife. One might think that it is curmudgeonly (or worse) to advocate a view that threatens the hope afforded to so many on the basis of a supernatural understanding of near- death experiences. The first thing to say in reply is that no part of our view in any way denigrates religious belief or a belief in the afterlife. We fully recognize and respect religious beliefs, and we are deeply cogni - zant of the hope that religion, and the doctrine of the afterlife, in particular, offers to many. We want to emphasize that nothing we have written is meant to dismiss or lead to a rejection of religious views or views about an afterlife. To be clear, our aim has been to call into question a particular route to religious beliefs and beliefs about the afterlife, namely, one that appeals to near- death experi - ences as evidence for, or even proof of, the reality of the afterlife.

We have tried to show that this is not a compelling line of thought.

But our position is fully compatible with accepting that there is, in fact, an afterlife. One could agree with everything we have said and yet still hold that heaven is for real. One might believe in the afterlife for reasons that have nothing to do with near- death expe - riences. The vast majority of religious people do in fact accept Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 17 2 religion and hold views about the afterlife without basing these convictions on near- death experiences. Thus, our view is compat - ible with fully embracing the hope that religion can offer in the face of death. People yearn for genuine hope— that is, hope based in reality and on good evidence— and not false hope, tempting as it may be. Belief on the basis of bad evidence and spurious arguments is weak and unstable. One way to strengthen your convictions is to reflect on your grounds for holding them in light of the most penetrating challenges. By grappling with the best arguments for opposing views, your own convictions can be rendered deeper and more secure. On recognizing that they are unsupported, you might purge evidently false beliefs. But the process of scrutinizing the grounds for your convictions need not result in changing your beliefs; rather, you may gain a deeper understanding of what you already believed to be true and why. By coming to grips with the best arguments against one’s beliefs, you arm yourself with good ammunition for defending them to others and to yourself in times of doubt. 8 Our aim has not been to change religious people’s minds about fundamental reality. We are not aiming to make an atheist of you. Rather, we hope to have encouraged honest, thoughtful, and care - ful inquiry into a host of issues relevant to religious convictions central to many people’s lives. We will have achieved our aim if we have gotten you to think critically about the arguments we oppose.

It is all well and good, as far as we are concerned, if the end result is that you have a renewed commitment to the reality of the afterlife for some other reason than that near- death experiences seem to 8. See Mill (18\b9/ 1962: 180– 181) for discussion of some of these points.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 173 support it. Of course, we would be just as happy if our arguments have provided you with new and improved grounds for thinking that supernaturalism is false. Once again, we are convinced that what people really want is genuine hope— hope based in true explanations, not wishful thinking. Unfortunately, even false hope has its allure. Hope is powerful and wonderful, and we can be tempted by it into accept - ing explanations we would not otherwise take seriously. Consider this passage from the chapter of Map of Heaven entitled, “The Gift of Hope,” in which A lexander relates an account from Roger Ebert’s wife of her husband’s last days before succumbing to cancer: The one thing people might be surprised about— Roger said that he didn’t know if he could believe in God. He had his doubts. But toward the end, something really interesting happened. That week before Roger passed away, I would see him and he would talk about having visited this other place.

I thought he was hallucinating. I thought they were giving him too much medication. But the day before he passed away, he wrote me a note: “This is all an elaborate hoax.” I asked him, “W hat’s a hoax?” A nd he was talking about this world, this place. He said it was all an illusion. I thought he was just con - fused. But he was not confused. He wasn’t visiting heaven, not the way we think of heaven. He described it as a vastness that you can’t even imagine. It was a place where past, present, and future were happening all at once. 9 9. A lexander (2014: 12\b– 126).

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 174 Roger’s note gave his wife, Chaz, hope, and this is a lovely thing.

But now consider A lexander’s analysis of the incident: It’s fascinating, and always deeply moving to me, how people on the verge of leaving the world can— often after long and ter - rible suffering— suddenly catch a glimpse of where they are going, and of where they have actually been the whole time they were here. Ebert, a man who had made his living by words, wrote his wife a few words giving her what I am sure he felt was the most valuable gift he could possibly leave her: the truth about this world. Ebert is right. This world is an illusion. It’s not real. A nd yet of course at the same time it is real, and wonder - ful, and deser ving of our deepest love and attention. We just must not forget that it is not all there is. 10 A lexander’s comments here bring to mind the lessons we dis - cussed in the previous chapter, regarding the human propensity toward confirmation bias. It involves gravitating toward confirm - ing evidence and giving it a stronger and more dramatic interpre - tation than is strictly justified by the data itself. This is surely going on in A lexander’s analysis of the episode involving the Eberts. Note, first, that Mrs. Ebert reports that Roger was taking a sig - nificant amount of medication— so much that she worried that it was too much, just as she also worried about hallucinations, a com - mon side effect of pain medication, especially in older patients.

This is an immediate tip- off that something more mundane than contact with a more fundamental reality might be going on here.

Moreover, we should pause to consider what exactly Roger might 10. A lexander (2014: 126).

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 175 have meant when he called our world “a hoax” and “an illusion.” One might reasonably suppose that an individual at the end of his or her life might say this sort of thing to convey various different ideas, including that our ordinary preoccupations (with status, money, and so forth) are all fundamentally misguided. This is a plausible interpretation, but, of course, it has nothing to do with supernaturalism. A lexander interprets Roger to be saying that we will exist— and always have existed— in a realm that is somehow more “real” than our ordinary world— a realm which is left with - out description except that “past, present, and future were all hap - pening at once.” A lexander finds it fascinating and deeply moving that people at the end of their lives often “catch a glimpse of where they are going, and of where they have actually been the whole time they were here.” But this is, frankly, to give a spin on the episode that goes way beyond what is justified by the events related by Chaz Ebert. A ll we know is that a man who is being given a significant amount of medication (presumably, pain medication) after a long and terri - ble illness has expressed the thought that our lives are in some way illusory and has had experiences that apparently had content that suggested “vastness” and some sort of mixture of past, present, and future. A lexander’s take is simply an over- interpretation of the data. Of course, it is not a surprising conclusion for A lexander to reach, as it would support his deeply held beliefs about the nature of the afterlife. This seems to be a stark instance of confirmation bias. The dependence of A lexander’s interpretation on his prior beliefs becomes all the more obvious when you seriously consider what his interpretation involves. Is it really so easy to make sense of the past, present, and future “all happening at once?” How could we understand our lives as being part of a realm in which every - thing happens at once? This is perplexing, to say the least. But there Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 176 are other available interpretations of what happened in this case.

Perhaps Roger Ebert had a kind of “mystical” experience in which time did not appear to pass. We can make sense of this experience without being forced to try to comprehend a reality that involves past, present, and future rolled into one. A nd we are not forced to conclude that Roger had a “glimpse” of another realm or reality.

Under the influence of medication and as he neared death, Roger Ebert could have taken a different perspective on reality and may have had profound and enlightening experiences; but this does not imply that he left our world and entered (even briefly) another one. In evaluating claims about the afterlife, it is sensible to keep in mind our psychological propensities, some of which compel us to leap to unsupported conclusions. It is also prudent to take advantage of the wisdom of those who have been considering these issues for many years. Let us then close with some insight - ful advice from the Dalai Lama. The context of these words is a scene in which he shares the stage with Eben A lexander. We have discussed A lexander’s near- death experience throughout this book, and it has given hope to many, including, it would seem, to A lexander himself. But as the Dalai Lama makes clear, in our quest for hope, we should be careful to inquire about the source. W hen faced with an apparently incredible story, one that we very much want to be true because it is so pregnant with hope, we should take care to properly vet the messenger. This is precisely the advice the Dalai Lama gives to the audience there to hear him and A lexander: Both are here to speak at the graduation ceremony of Maitripa College, a Buddhist college in Portland, Oregon. A lexander is slated to speak first, and when he begins, the Dalai Lama cocks his head in a quizzical way and peers at him through his thick glasses.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 17 7 A lexander tells his stor y like he’s told it so many times before, in his soft, southern, confident burr. He tells the audience about the wondrous realm he visited, about the all- powerful and all- loving God he encountered there, and about some of the lessons he’s brought back to earth. He says that among those lessons is the fact that reincarnation is real, and that knowing death is only ever temporar y has helped him understand how a loving God can permit so many “tragedies and hardships and hurdles in the physical realm.” As he did a few months ago, when Gretchen Carlson asked him whether the dead schoolchildren from Newtown remembered their slaughter, he offers comfort and hope. “I came to see all of those hardships as gifts,” he says, “as beautiful opportunities for g row t h .” The Dalai Lama is not a native English speaker, and when it’s his turn to speak, he does so much less smoothly than A lexander, sometimes stopping and snapping his fingers when a word escapes him, or turning to his interpreter for help when he’s really stuck. He is not using notes, and the impression he gives is that of a man speaking off the cuff. He opens with a brief discourse about the parallels between the Buddhist and Shinto conceptions of the afterlife, and then, after glanc - ing over at A lexander, changes the subject. He explains that Buddhists categorize phenomena in three ways. The first cat - egor y are “evident phenomena,” which can be obser ved and measured empirically and directly. The second categor y are “ hidden phenomena,” such as gravity, phenomena that can’t be seen or touched but can be inferred to exist on the basis of the first categor y of phenomena. The third categor y, he says, are “extremely hidden phenomena,” which cannot be measured at all, directly or indirectly. The only access we can ever have Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences : Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pensu/detail.action?docID=4545351.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

nea r-Death e xPer ien Ces 178 to that third categor y of phenomena is through our own first- person experience, or through the first- person testimony of others. “Now, for example,” the Dalai Lama says, “ his sort of experience.” He points at A lexander.

“For him, it’s something reality. Real. But those people who never sort of experienced that, still, his mind is a little bit sort of . . .” He taps his fingers against the side of his head. “Different!” he says, and laughs a belly laugh, his robes shaking. The audi - ence laughs with him. A lexander smiles a tight smile. “For that also, we must investigate,” the Dalai Lama says. “Through investigation we must get sure that person is truly reliable.” He wags a finger in A lexander’s direction. W hen a man makes extraordinar y claims, a “thorough investigation” is required, to ensure “that person reliable, never telling lie,” and has “no reason to lie.” Then he changes the subject, starts talking about a massive project to translate ancient Tibetan texts. 11 Our aim is not to call A lexander’s character into question and thereby discredit his account of his near- death experience. 12 As we have stressed, we are willing to take at face value the reports of those who claim to have had near- death experiences. But we agree with the Dalai Lama that, especially in a context where extraor - dinary claims are being made, the responsible thing to do is to inquire critically.

11. Dittrich (2014).12. There do, however, appear to be legitimate questions about A lexander’s credibilit y due to facts about his past, as uncovered in the reporting of Dittrich (2014).

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.

aw e, w onDer, a n D h oPe 17 9 The purpose of this book has not been to discredit those who share their near- death experiences with the rest of us. Rather, it has been to critically examine the purported implications of these pro - found experiences. W hereas others have precipitously embraced supernatural interpretations of near- death experiences, we have argued that there is good reason to try to fit our understanding of them into the worldview supported by the physical sciences. A nd we have made the case that this approach can be sensitive to the transformational nature and meaningful character of these experi - ences. In the end, we think we can have our cake and eat it too. We can gain an understanding of near- death experiences that fits with the best theories provided by the physical sciences while at the same time appreciating the profound significance of these experi - ences for those who have had them. In making sense of the world, we seek the best explanation. We aim for truth. But we also seek to be at home in the world, and so we tell stories. Here we aim for beauty— a beauty we might well find in nature.

Created from pensu on 2023-02-09 20:07:41.