Literature Review 2

 Visual:

Citation:

Long, Jeffrey. “Near-death experience. Evidence for their reality.” Missouri medicine vol. 111,5 (2014): 372-80. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6172100/ 

Summary & Author:

Jeffery Long is an oncologist and world renowned expert on near death experiences. He also established the Near Death Experience Research Foundation. This article describes the nine lines of evidence that support the reality of near death experiences. Some of the evidence includes lucid and organized experiences while clinically dead, out of body experiences, and near death experiences occurring in the blind.Dr. Long uses multiple lines of evidence to prove the idea that near death experiences cannot be medically explained or explained by any known brain function. NDEs are real events that simply cannot be explained by any known medical explanation. 

Key Terms:

One of the key terms of this article is out of body experiences. Nearly 45% of people who have a near-death experience report an OBEs, which can involve them seeing and hearing earthly events from a perspective that is apart from and usually above their physical bodies. Studies have found that near death experiencers can often recount their resuscitations in great details that they normally would not know about. Another key term is brain function. Long discusses how there have been over 20 different explanations of NDEs over the years. However he also mentions that if any of these explanations were plausible or realistic, then there would not be so many. There is just no way to explain NDEs through any known brain functions as of right now. 

Quotes: 

“The combination of the preceding nine lines of evidence converges on the conclusion that near-death experiences are medically inexplicable.” (Long)

“Multiple lines of evidence point to the conclusion that near-death experiences are medically inexplicable and cannot be explained by known physical brain function.” (Long)

“Very young children have near-death experience content that is strikingly similar to older children and adults. This is further evidence that NDEs are occurring independently of preexisting cultural beliefs, religious training, or awareness of the existence of NDE.” (Long)

Value:

This article discusses multiple pieces of evidence that support the reality of near death experiences. In addition, Long points out that there is no scientific or medical explanation behind near death experiences.