Month: January 2010

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93. University of Kentucky Researcher, Dr. Kevin Nelson Skeptical of Near-Death Experience Accounts

Alex Tsakiris
0
111
Near-Death Experience

Near-death experience skeptic, Dr. Kevin Nelson says the burden of proof is on experiencers to show their experiences are real. We all dream, but do we know when we're dreaming?  Recent research from Dr. Kevin Nelson of the University of Kentucky suggests that near-death experience is akin to dreaming, and uses the same rapid eye movement mechanism associated with sleep.  In a recent interview on Sketiko.com, Dr. Nelson defends this controversial research that contradicts the accounts of thousands of near-death experiencers: Dr. Kevin Nelson: Then you ask how can we have experiences with a flat EEG? My question to you is, that's an extraordinary claim. Where is the data that says the experience that they later remembered actually happened at the time the EEG was flat? Alex Tsakiris: Penny Sartori's research, where she went and interviewed people about their resuscitation process and found that people who have a near-death experience are much more accurate in reporting the specific events that go on during resuscitation, is pretty good, solid research that backs up what so many of the near-death experiencers say, which is that this was... Dr. Kevin Nelson: Where's the data? Alex Tsakiris: Well, that's data. I mean, if you ask people... Dr. Kevin Nelson: No, what is her data? Alex Tsakiris: Her data is that they're statistically significantly more likely to recount the... Dr. Kevin Nelson: No, that's her conclusion. What's her data? Alex Tsakiris: Her data is the number of events in the resuscitation process that they're able to recall. That's the data. Play it: Download MP3 (13:15 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and on this episode of Skeptiko, I'm going to dig into the near-death experience research a little bit further. It's just fascinating to me. Every time I turn over a new stone, it gets more and more interesting. The stone I was looking to turn over today came about when I was Googling near-death experience research. What pops up over and over again in the most popular mainstream science kind of publications like CNN Health or CBS Science News, Time Magazine, these folks who just touch on this, what pops up over and over again is some research that was done a couple years ago by this guy at the University of Kentucky named Kevin Nelson. You're going to hear from him today. The way CNN summed up his research is as follows: "Nelson thinks that near-death experiences are a part of the dream mechanism and that the person having the experience is in a REM (rapid eye movement) state."

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92. Dr. Rupert Sheldrake’s Telephone Telepathy Project Seeks Intern

Alex Tsakiris
0
49
Parapsychology

Biologist, and noted telepathy researcher, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake is developing an automated telephone telepathy system and is looking for qualified interns to help. Despite the ever increasing pace of modern life many of us experience brief glimpses of a reality just beyond our grasp.  One such example is the experience of hearing the phone ring and having an unexplainable sense of knowing who is calling.  The phenomenon has been called telephone telepathy by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. Sheldrake, a former Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge and current director of the Perrott-Warrick project, has developed a automated system for testing the telephone telepathy phenomenon in the U.K. "The experiments we've run in Britain have yielded impressive results, but the new telephone telepathy system we're developing will allow us to take these tests to the next level and further investigate this interesting phenomenon throughout the U.S. and Canada." Sheldrake continued, "We're in need of talented people with technical and project management experience who can assist in bringing this web-based system to completion.  It's a chance for someone to join a research project that has a chance to fundamentally change long held scientific beliefs about our connection to one and other... it's very exciting." For information on the internship opportunities with Dr. Sheldrake's telephone telepathy project please email intern@telepathyexperiment.com. Play it: Download MP3 (13:15 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and on this episode of Skeptiko I have another brief update for you. If you recall, on the last episode of Skeptiko, we talked a little bit about the Global Consciousness Project and how we've gotten involved with that a little bit. One of the other projects that regular listeners will know that we've been involved with for a long time is some of the research of Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. Now as many of you know, Dr. Sheldrake is a long-time friend of the Skeptiko show and was actually one of our first guests on Skeptiko and has been on a couple times since.

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91. Global Consciousness Project Welcomes Collaboration With Skeptics

Alex Tsakiris
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67
Parapsychology
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When it comes to claims of a global consciousness linking us all to tragedies like the earthquake in Haiti, or the terrorist attacks of  9/11, there are many skeptics. While the research results of the 12 year old Global Consciousness Project have withstood serious skeptical examination from researchers who've dug into the millions of test results collected on the publicly available website, skepticism persists. But according to Alex Tsakiris, host of the Skpetiko science podcast, dialog between controversial science researchers and their doubters is a good for science, "it's easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to unconventional science - that's what makes it unconventional - but skeptics need to look deeper... critical thinking demands we're sometimes critical of our own cherished beliefs." Tsakiris continued: "We've helped initiate a collaboration on the Global Consciousness Research Project work of Dr. Roger Nelson, and a skeptical researcher from the University of London named Dr. Chris French.  That's a step in the right direction.  Many skeptics bemoan the lack of interest in science education, but when presented with the chance to explore topics like the Global Consciousness Project, that clearly have great fascination to the public, they shy away.  This is unfortunate. Science is a method, it's not a position.  There are no unscientific topics, just unscientific methods." Play it: Download MP3 (13:15 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and on this episode of Skeptiko I wanted to do a little bit of an update.

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90. EEG Expert Can’t Explain Near Death Experience Data… and, Dr. Penny Sartori Finds More Than Hallucinations in NDE Accounts

Alex Tsakiris
0
130
Near-Death Experience
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Neurologist and University of Toledo Neuroscience Researcher, Dr. John Greenfield considers the EEG data from patients with near death experience (NDE). For near death experience skeptics, medical evidence of a flat EEG during an out of body experience has always been a stumbling block.  After all, a brain dead patient can't hallucinate.  But, does a flat EEG really mean no brain activity?  NDE  doubters have claimed activity deep inside the brain, beyond the reach of EEG instruments, must account for the complex "realer than real" experiences reported by those who briefly pass into the afterlife.  Now, University of Toledo Neuroscience researcher, and EEG expert, Dr. John Greenfield explains why this claim doesn't hold up. "It's very unlikely that a hypoperfused brain , with no evidence of electrical activity could generate NDEs.  Human studies as well as animal studies have typically shown very little brain perfusion or glucose utilization when the EEG is flat.  There are deep brain areas involved in generating memories that might still operate at some very reduced level during cardiac arrest, but of course any subcortically generated activity can't be brought to consciousness without at least one functioning cerebral hemisphere.  So even if there were some way that NDEs were generated during the hypoxic state , you would not experience them until reperfusion allowed you to dream them or wake up and talk about them", Greenfield stated. NDE Researcher, Dr. Penny Sartori, examines memories of resuscitation by patients suffering cardiac arrest. With near death experience cases making there way into the, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Psychiatry, and other major medical journals, NDE doubters have looked to the timing of patient memories as a way of explaining this unexplainable phenomena.  If memories of out of body travel, and all embracing love occur after ones brush with death, NDEs may still fit within our medical science worldview. The timing of NDE memories is the research question Dr. Penny Sartori sought to answer, "I worked in the intensive care unit and because of the nature of my job, of course, I'd come across a lot of death. And of course makes you wonder what happens when we die.  For five years I gathered data, where I spoke to patients in the intensive care unit and particularly patients who'd had a cardiac arrest. When these patients revived, as soon as they were medically fit, I approached them and asked the simple question, 'Did you have any memory of the time that you were unconscious?'" "For the people who had a near-death experience and out of body experience was really quite accurate and I decided then to ask the control group, the people who'd had a cardiac arrest but had no recollection of anything at all. I asked them if they would reenact their resuscitation scenario and tell me what they thought that we had done to resuscitate them. And what I found is that many of the patients couldn't even guess as to what we'd done. They had no idea at all. And then some of them did make guesses, but these were based on TV hospital dramas that they'd seen. I found that what they reported was widely inaccurate. So there was a stark contrast really in the very accurate out of body experiences reported and then the guesses that the control group had made.", Dr. Sartori reported. While research like this may never be enough to convince dogmatic skeptics, the medical evidence for near death experience continues to challenge us to reexamine our beliefs about what lies beyond death. Play it: Download MP3 (29:04 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to Skeptiko, where we explore controversial science with leading researchers, thinkers, and their critics. I'm your host, Alex Tsakiris, and I want to start by thanking those of you who've contacted me directly since the last episode of Skeptiko and have joined me on Facebook or joined me on Twitter. It's been great to get to know you, to dialogue a little bit, and I hope we can keep that going.

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