Appendix B
The following bibliography gathers the most important works relevant to the arguments of this book. It is organized into six categories: (1) skeptical critiques of NDEs, (2) pro-NDE research and evidence, (3) consciousness and philosophy of mind, (4) substance dualism and philosophical anthropology, (5) biblical and theological anthropology, and (6) general background and methodology. Each entry is formatted in Turabian style and includes a brief annotation describing the work’s content and significance for the study of near-death experiences and the consciousness debate.
Marsh, Michael N. Out-of-Body and Near-Death Experiences: Brain-State Phenomena or Glimpses of Immortality? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
The primary skeptical text engaged in this book. Marsh, a medical doctor with a D.Phil. from Oxford, argues that extra-corporeal experiences (ECEs) are brain-state phenomena generated by metabolically disturbed brains recovering from severe insult. He draws on extensive neurophysiological literature—covering body-image disturbances, temporal lobe pathology, dream-state mentation, vestibular dysfunction, and endorphin release—to build a comprehensive case against interpreting NDEs as evidence for consciousness surviving death. He also argues against substance dualism on theological grounds, contending that resurrection, not the soul’s escape from the body, is the proper Christian hope.
Fischer, John Martin, and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
The secondary skeptical text engaged in this book. Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin, both professional philosophers, bring analytic rigor to the NDE debate. They argue that no single NDE case provides compelling evidence for an afterlife, that veridical claims can be explained by normal means, and that Occam’s Razor favors physicalist explanations. Their “piecemeal strategy” contends that different features of NDEs can be explained by different natural mechanisms without needing a single unified theory. They address the Pam Reynolds case, blind NDEs, children’s NDEs, and the transformation argument.
Blackmore, Susan. Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1993.
An influential early skeptical treatment of NDEs. Blackmore proposes the “dying brain” hypothesis—that NDEs are the product of a brain shutting down, with oxygen deprivation and random neural firing producing tunnel experiences, bright lights, and feelings of peace. While widely cited, her model has been criticized for failing to account for the lucidity, coherence, and veridical elements of NDEs, as well as for relying on outdated neurological assumptions.
Lawrence, Raymond J. Blinded by the Light: A Critical Look at the Near-Death Experience. Independently Published, 2019.
A sharp critique of the NDE movement from a pastoral and intellectual perspective. Lawrence argues that NDE proponents are driven by wishful thinking and that the popular NDE literature is riddled with sensationalism, poor documentation, and theological carelessness. While he raises some legitimate concerns about popular NDE accounts, he does not engage the peer-reviewed veridical evidence in depth.
Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: A Neurologist’s Search for the God Experience. New York: Dutton, 2011.
Nelson, a neurologist, proposes that NDEs are caused by REM intrusion—an overlap between waking consciousness and the dream state triggered by physiological crisis. His model attempts to explain the vivid, “real” quality of NDEs by appeal to the brain’s dream-generating mechanisms. Critics have pointed out that REM intrusion during cardiac arrest is physiologically implausible, and that his model cannot account for veridical perception during NDEs.
Augustine, Keith. “Hallucinatory Near-Death Experiences.” Journal of Near-Death Studies 26, no. 1 (2007): 3–56.
Augustine marshals evidence from cases where NDE reports contain errors or culturally conditioned elements, arguing that such discrepancies prove NDEs are hallucinations. His work has been countered by Greyson, Holden, and others who note that his cherry-picked error cases do not negate the far larger body of accurately verified reports and that some variability is expected in any genuine perceptual experience.
Woerlee, Gerald. Mortal Minds: The Biology of Near-Death Experiences. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2005.
An anesthesiologist’s attempt to explain NDEs through the lens of anesthetic pharmacology and awareness during surgery. Woerlee argues that many NDE cases can be explained by residual consciousness under anesthesia, but his model struggles to account for cases of veridical perception during documented cardiac arrest with flat EEG readings.
Nelson, Thomas, ed. Selling the Stairway to Heaven: Critiquing the Claims of Heaven Tourists. Various contributors, n.d.
A collection of essays critiquing popular “heaven tourism” books such as 90 Minutes in Heaven, Heaven Is for Real, and Proof of Heaven. The contributors raise legitimate concerns about sensationalism, doctrinal inconsistency, and poor documentation in these popular accounts. The weakness of this volume is its failure to distinguish between popular NDE stories and the peer-reviewed scientific research on veridical NDEs.
Fox, Mark. Religion, Spirituality and the Near-Death Experience. London: Routledge, 2003.
A balanced academic treatment examining NDEs through the lens of religious studies. Fox surveys both pro- and anti-NDE arguments and explores how cultural and religious background shapes the interpretation (though not necessarily the core content) of NDEs. A useful overview for readers wanting a scholarly introduction that does not commit to either the skeptical or the survivalist position.
Braithwaite, Jason J. “Towards a Cognitive Neuroscience of the Dying Brain.” Skeptic 21, no. 2 (2008): 8–16.
Braithwaite argues that anomalous experiences associated with the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) can account for the out-of-body component of NDEs. His work extends Blanke’s cortical stimulation research, but critics note that Blanke’s stimulated OBEs are fragmentary and do not involve veridical perception, unlike the detailed and verified OBEs reported during cardiac arrest NDEs.
Rivas, Titus, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf Smit. The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences. Durham, NC: IANDS Publications, 2016.
The single most important collection of veridical NDE evidence and a primary source for this book. Rivas, Dirven, and Smit catalog over one hundred cases of verified paranormal phenomena reported during NDEs, organized by type: visual perceptions during cardiac arrest, perceptions of events in distant locations, knowledge of deceased relatives unknown to the experiencer, and more. Each case is documented with sources and corroboration. This volume demolishes the claim that no veridical NDE evidence exists.
van Lommel, Pim. Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience. New York: HarperOne, 2010.
A landmark work by the Dutch cardiologist whose prospective study of cardiac arrest survivors, published in The Lancet in 2001, remains one of the most rigorous NDE studies ever conducted. Van Lommel found that 18% of cardiac arrest survivors reported NDEs, and that the depth and occurrence of NDEs could not be explained by physiological, pharmacological, or psychological factors. He proposes a non-local consciousness model in which the brain functions as an interface rather than a generator of consciousness.
van Lommel, Pim, Ruud van Wees, Gerhard Meyers, and Ingrid Elfferich. “Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands.” The Lancet 358 (2001): 2039–45.
The seminal prospective study that brought NDE research into mainstream medical science. Van Lommel and colleagues studied 344 consecutive cardiac arrest patients in ten Dutch hospitals over a thirteen-year period. They found that purely physiological factors such as the duration of cardiac arrest, medications administered, or fear of death could not account for why some patients reported NDEs and others did not. This study remains a cornerstone of the empirical case for NDEs.
Parnia, Sam. Erasing Death: The Science That Is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death. New York: HarperOne, 2013.
Parnia, a critical care physician and director of the AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study, describes the cutting edge of resuscitation science and its implications for understanding consciousness at the point of death. He documents cases of verified awareness during cardiac arrest and argues that the AWARE study’s methodology—using hidden targets to test out-of-body perception—represents the gold standard for NDE research. His measured, cautious scientific tone lends significant credibility to the evidence.
Parnia, Sam, et al. “AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation—A Prospective Study.” Resuscitation 85, no. 12 (2014): 1799–1805.
The published results of the first AWARE study, a multi-center prospective investigation of consciousness during cardiac arrest. While the hidden-target protocol yielded limited results due to very few cardiac arrests occurring in target-equipped rooms, the study confirmed that verified awareness occurs during cardiac arrest when the brain shows no measurable activity. One patient provided a detailed, verified account of events during a three-minute period of cardiac arrest.
Sabom, Michael. Light and Death: One Doctor’s Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.
Sabom, a cardiologist, provides the most detailed medical analysis of the Pam Reynolds case and other NDEs from his clinical practice. His careful documentation of Reynolds’s hypothermic cardiac arrest operation and her subsequent NDE testimony remains a foundational text for the pro-NDE case. Sabom also offers a Christian theological perspective on NDEs, arguing for their compatibility with biblical anthropology.
Sabom, Michael. Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
One of the earliest prospective medical studies of NDEs. Sabom compared the accuracy of NDE reports about resuscitation procedures with those of cardiac patients who had not had NDEs. He found that NDE patients described their resuscitations with remarkable accuracy, while non-NDE patients made significant errors when asked to guess what their resuscitation looked like. This controlled comparison remains a powerful piece of evidence for the veridicality of NDE perceptions.
Greyson, Bruce. After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond. New York: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2021.
A comprehensive summary of five decades of NDE research by one of the field’s most respected scientists. Greyson, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia, presents the evidence with rigorous scientific caution while acknowledging that the data challenge the materialist paradigm. He developed the widely used Greyson NDE Scale and has published over one hundred peer-reviewed articles on NDEs. This book is an excellent accessible entry point into the serious research literature.
Long, Jeffrey, with Paul Perry. Evidence of the Afterlife: The Science of Near-Death Experiences. New York: HarperOne, 2010.
Long, a radiation oncologist, draws on data from the Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), the largest NDE database in the world. He identifies nine lines of evidence supporting the reality of NDEs, including the lucidity of experience during clinical death, the consistency of reports across cultures, and the verified accurate perceptions. A useful popular-level summary of the cumulative empirical case.
Long, Jeffrey, with Paul Perry. God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience. New York: HarperOne, 2016.
A follow-up to Evidence of the Afterlife, this volume focuses specifically on what NDEs reveal about the existence and nature of God. Drawing on the expanded NDERF database, Long examines how NDErs across religious and cultural backgrounds consistently report encountering a supreme being of overwhelming love. Relevant to the theological chapters of this book for its documentation of the spiritual content of NDEs.
Carter, Chris. Science and the Near-Death Experience: How Consciousness Survives Death. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2010.
A comprehensive defense of NDE evidence against skeptical objections, and one of the most important pro-NDE sources drawn upon in this book. Carter systematically dismantles the dying brain hypothesis, the hypoxia model, the temporal lobe explanation, the ketamine analogy, and other skeptical arguments. He also provides a thorough defense of the filter/transmission model of consciousness. His treatment of Susan Blackmore’s arguments is particularly devastating.
Ring, Kenneth, and Sharon Cooper. Mindsight: Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind. Palo Alto, CA: William James Center for Consciousness Studies, 1999.
A groundbreaking study documenting NDE and OBE reports from congenitally blind individuals—people who have never had visual experience—who report vivid visual perception during their NDEs. Ring and Cooper’s research poses a profound challenge to the physicalist explanation of NDEs, since there is no neural mechanism by which a congenitally blind brain could generate visual imagery it has never processed. This is one of the most evidentially significant studies in the NDE literature.
Ring, Kenneth. Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience. Needham, MA: Moment Point Press, 2006.
Ring, one of the founding researchers in the field of NDE studies, offers both a summary of the evidence and a reflection on what NDEs mean for how we live. He documents the consistent transformative effects of NDEs—increased compassion, decreased fear of death, enhanced sense of purpose—and argues that these effects are significant evidence that NDEs are not mere hallucinations.
Holden, Janice Miner, Bruce Greyson, and Debbie James, eds. The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009.
The definitive academic reference volume on NDE research as of its publication. Chapters by leading researchers cover the full range of NDE topics: phenomenology, frequency, veridical perception, cross-cultural studies, aftereffects, children’s NDEs, and methodological considerations. Holden’s chapter analyzing veridical OBE reports—finding 92% accuracy across dozens of cases—is particularly important for the argument of this book.
Bellg, Laurin. Near Death in the ICU: Stories from Patients Near Death and Why We Should Listen to Them. Sloan Press, 2016.
A collection of NDE accounts from the clinical practice of Dr. Laurin Bellg, a critical care physician. What distinguishes this volume is Bellg’s firsthand medical perspective: she witnessed many of these cases directly and can attest to the patients’ medical conditions at the time of their reported experiences. Her accounts of shared death experiences and deathbed visions add additional evidential dimensions to the NDE literature.
Miller, J. Steve. Near-Death Experiences as Evidence for the Existence of God and Heaven: A Brief Introduction in Plain Language. Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2012.
An accessible introduction to the NDE evidence written for a general audience. Miller surveys the strongest cases, addresses the most common skeptical objections, and argues that NDEs provide significant evidence for God and an afterlife. His clear, plain-language approach makes this an excellent entry point for readers new to the subject.
Miller, J. Steve. Deathbed Experiences as Evidence for the Afterlife. Volume 1: A Groundbreaking, Scientific Apologetic, Evaluating Death-Related Visions, Terminal Lucidity and After Death Communications. Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, 2019.
A thorough examination of deathbed visions, terminal lucidity, and after-death communications as evidence for the afterlife. Miller evaluates the classic Osis and Haraldsson research, documents modern cases, and argues that these phenomena—especially terminal lucidity, where severely brain-damaged patients suddenly regain full cognitive function shortly before death—constitute a powerful challenge to physicalism.
Miller, J. Steve. Is Christianity Compatible with Deathbed and Near-Death Experiences? The Surprising Presence of Jesus, Scarcity of Anti-Christian Elements, and Compatibility with Historic Christian Teachings. Acworth, GA: Wisdom Creek Press, n.d.
An apologetic work addressing the question of whether NDEs are compatible with orthodox Christian theology. Miller demonstrates that Jesus appears frequently in NDE reports, that anti-Christian elements are rare, and that the core features of NDEs are consistent with biblical teachings about the conscious intermediate state. An important source for Chapters 26–28 of this book.
Alexander, Eben. Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012.
A first-person NDE account by a Harvard neurosurgeon who experienced a vivid NDE during a week-long coma caused by bacterial meningitis. Alexander’s case is notable because his neocortex was demonstrably nonfunctional during his experience, eliminating many of the standard neurological explanations. While popular-level rather than peer-reviewed, his neuroscientific expertise lends the account unusual weight. Critics have questioned some details, but the core medical facts are documented.
Moody, Raymond. Life After Life: The Bestselling Original Investigation That Revealed “Near-Death Experiences.” New York: HarperOne, 2001. First published 1975.
The book that launched modern NDE research. Moody identified and named the “near-death experience” and cataloged its common features: the out-of-body experience, the tunnel, the light, encounters with deceased relatives, the life review, and the reluctant return. While his methodology has been rightly criticized as unsystematic and anecdotal, his foundational observations have been confirmed by subsequent rigorous research.
Moody, Raymond. Glimpses of Eternity: Sharing a Loved One’s Passage from This Life to the Next. New York: Guideposts, 2010.
Moody documents the phenomenon of shared death experiences—instances in which healthy bystanders report NDE-like phenomena (seeing a light, encountering deceased relatives, panoramic life reviews) at the moment of a loved one’s death. These cases are evidentially significant because the bystander’s brain is not dying, sick, or under anesthesia, eliminating the entire class of “dying brain” explanations.
Fenwick, Peter, and Elizabeth Fenwick. The Art of Dying. London: Continuum, 2008.
The Fenwicks, a neuropsychiatrist and his wife, survey deathbed visions, nearing-death awareness, and related end-of-life phenomena from both scientific and compassionate perspectives. Their documentation of deathbed visions in which patients see deceased relatives—sometimes relatives whose death was unknown to the patient—adds another evidential strand to the cumulative case.
Osis, Karlis, and Erlendur Haraldsson. At the Hour of Death: A New Look at Evidence for Life After Death. Rev. ed. Mamaroneck, NY: Hastings House, 1977.
A pioneering cross-cultural study of deathbed visions conducted among physicians and nurses in the United States and India. Osis and Haraldsson found that the core features of deathbed visions—encounters with deceased relatives, beings of light, otherworldly landscapes—were remarkably consistent across cultures, while cultural trappings varied. Their finding that medical factors (medication, fever, diagnosis) did not significantly affect the content of visions is important evidence against a purely physiological explanation.
Nahm, Michael, Bruce Greyson, Emily Williams Kelly, and Erlendur Haraldsson. “Terminal Lucidity: A Review and a Case Collection.” Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics 55, no. 1 (2012): 138–42.
A systematic review of terminal lucidity—the unexpected return of mental clarity and memory shortly before death in patients with severe brain damage or chronic mental illness. Terminal lucidity is a profound challenge to physicalism because it demonstrates coherent consciousness in patients whose brains are severely compromised. If the brain is the sole generator of consciousness, terminal lucidity should not occur.
Thonnard, Marie, et al. “Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories.” PLoS ONE 8, no. 3 (2013): e57620.
A peer-reviewed study comparing the memory characteristics of NDE reports with memories of real events and imagined events. The researchers found that NDE memories have more characteristics of real memories than even memories of actual events, and are sharply distinguished from imagined or hallucinated events. This directly undermines the claim that NDEs are mere hallucinations or confabulations.
Chalmers, David J. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
The foundational work articulating the “hard problem of consciousness”—the question of why and how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience (qualia). Chalmers argues that consciousness cannot be reductively explained by physical processes, a conclusion that opens the door to non-physicalist accounts of the mind. Marsh himself acknowledges this problem (p. 99), making Chalmers essential background for understanding why physicalism faces a fundamental explanatory gap.
Nagel, Thomas. “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” The Philosophical Review 83, no. 4 (1974): 435–50.
A classic essay arguing that the subjective character of experience—“what it is like” to have a conscious experience—cannot be captured by any physical description. Nagel’s argument remains one of the most powerful philosophical challenges to physicalist accounts of the mind and supports the contention that consciousness is not reducible to brain activity.
Beauregard, Mario, and Denyse O’Leary. The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of the Soul. New York: HarperOne, 2007.
Beauregard, a neuroscientist, argues that the evidence from neuroscience does not support the materialist dogma that the mind is nothing but the brain. He critiques the “promissory materialism” that pervades neuroscience and presents evidence—including from NDEs and mystical experiences—supporting a non-materialist understanding of consciousness. A valuable bridge between neuroscience and the philosophical case for dualism.
Kelly, Edward F., Emily Williams Kelly, Adam Crabtree, Alan Gauld, Michael Grosso, and Bruce Greyson. Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.
A massive, encyclopedic work challenging the reductive physicalist paradigm in psychology and neuroscience. The authors—scholars from the University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies—present evidence from NDEs, savant syndrome, memory, psychophysiology, and mystical experience that consciousness cannot be explained as a mere by-product of brain activity. They revive and update the filter/transmission model of consciousness originally proposed by William James and Frederic Myers.
Kelly, Edward F., et al. Beyond Physicalism: Toward Reconciliation of Science and Spirituality. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
The sequel to Irreducible Mind, this volume moves from critique of physicalism to constructive proposals for understanding consciousness. The contributors develop various post-physicalist frameworks—including dual-aspect monism, idealism, and filter theories—that accommodate the anomalous evidence surveyed in the earlier volume. Essential reading for understanding the philosophical alternatives to materialism.
James, William. Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1898.
In this brief but seminal work, James articulates the transmission/filter model of consciousness: the idea that the brain does not produce consciousness but rather transmits or filters it, much as a prism transmits light. James argues that the dependence of consciousness on the brain is equally consistent with a transmission model as with a production model, and that the production model is an assumption, not a proven fact. This framework is central to the argument of this book.
Swinburne, Richard. Are We Bodies or Souls? Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
A rigorous philosophical defense of substance dualism by one of the most distinguished living philosophers of religion. Swinburne argues that the soul is a simple, immaterial substance that is the essential core of personal identity and that no physical account can explain subjective experience. His careful analytic argumentation provides the philosophical foundation for understanding why NDE evidence matters—it provides empirical support for what philosophical argument independently suggests.
Moreland, J. P. The Soul: How We Know It’s Real and Why It Matters. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2014.
An accessible defense of substance dualism for a general Christian audience. Moreland presents philosophical arguments for the soul’s existence, addresses physicalist objections, and explains why the soul matters for Christian theology and ethics. He argues that the soul is a simple, immaterial substance that owns the body and its properties, and that the evidence from consciousness, free will, and personal identity supports this view.
Moreland, J. P., and Scott B. Rae. Body & Soul: Human Nature and the Crisis in Ethics. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
A thorough defense of substance dualism with implications for bioethics. Moreland and Rae argue that the physicalist reduction of the person to the body has devastating consequences for human dignity and ethical reasoning. They develop a Thomistic substance dualism that affirms both the reality of the immaterial soul and the goodness and importance of the body—a balanced position that avoids Platonic dualism’s disparagement of the physical.
Rickabaugh, Brandon, and J. P. Moreland. The Substance of Consciousness: A Comprehensive Defense of Contemporary Substance Dualism. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2023.
The most comprehensive contemporary defense of substance dualism available. Rickabaugh and Moreland engage the full range of physicalist objections—the causal closure argument, the pairing problem, the interaction problem, and arguments from neuroscience—and demonstrate that substance dualism remains a philosophically robust position. Their treatment of the interaction problem is particularly relevant to the NDE debate.
Goetz, Stewart, and Charles Taliaferro. A Brief History of the Soul. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.
A concise historical survey of philosophical thinking about the soul from the ancient Greeks through the modern period. Goetz and Taliaferro show that belief in the soul has deep roots in both Western philosophy and Christian theology, and that the modern rejection of the soul is driven more by methodological commitments than by compelling arguments. A useful companion for understanding the historical context of the dualism debate.
Hasker, William. The Emergent Self. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Hasker develops a distinctive position called “emergent dualism,” arguing that the soul or self emerges from the physical brain but is not reducible to it. While differing from traditional substance dualism in important respects, Hasker’s view shares the conviction that the mind is an irreducibly immaterial entity that cannot be explained in purely physical terms. His critique of materialism is penetrating and relevant to the NDE debate.
Plantinga, Alvin. “Against Materialism.” Faith and Philosophy 23, no. 1 (2006): 3–32.
A rigorous philosophical argument against materialism by one of the most influential analytic philosophers of the twentieth century. Plantinga deploys modal logic to argue that it is possible for a person to exist without a body, and that this possibility is incompatible with the thesis that a person is identical to a physical body. His argument supports the philosophical coherence of the kind of disembodied consciousness that NDE evidence suggests.
Cooper, John W. Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
The most important biblical defense of the intermediate state and body-soul duality in the current theological literature. Cooper demonstrates through careful exegesis that both the Old and New Testaments teach a functional duality of body and soul, and that the conscious intermediate state between death and resurrection is a genuine biblical doctrine. His critique of the physicalist readings of Hebrew anthropology—including the claim that nephesh means only “living being” and not “soul”—is essential for responding to Marsh’s theological arguments.
Wright, N. T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
An exhaustive historical and theological study of resurrection belief in ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Wright argues powerfully for the historicity of Jesus’s bodily resurrection and for the centrality of resurrection hope in Christian theology. While Wright leans toward a physicalist anthropology and minimizes the intermediate state, his emphasis on bodily resurrection does not require the denial of the soul’s existence between death and resurrection—a point Cooper and others have demonstrated.
Green, Joel B. Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008.
Green argues for a non-reductive physicalist anthropology, contending that the biblical writers understood the human person as a psychosomatic unity without an immaterial soul that survives death. While his exegetical work is careful, his conclusions are challenged by Cooper’s more thorough analysis and by the NDE evidence presented in this book. Green’s position is representative of the physicalist theological anthropology that Marsh draws upon.
Hanegraaff, Hank. AfterLife: What You Need to Know about Heaven, the Hereafter, and Near-Death Experiences. Brentwood, TN: Worthy Publishing, 2013.
A popular-level Christian evaluation of NDEs by the host of the Bible Answer Man radio broadcast. Hanegraaff takes a cautious but generally positive view of NDEs, affirming the conscious intermediate state and the reality of the soul while warning against uncritical acceptance of every NDE claim. His treatment is useful as an example of a mainstream evangelical approach to NDEs that takes the biblical data seriously.
Habermas, Gary R., and J. P. Moreland. Beyond Death: Exploring the Evidence for Immortality. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004.
A comprehensive Christian apologetic for life after death drawing on philosophical, biblical, and empirical evidence—including NDEs. Habermas and Moreland argue that substance dualism is both philosophically defensible and biblically warranted, and that NDE evidence provides significant empirical support for the soul’s survival of bodily death. Habermas’s extensive research into NDE veridicality makes this an important source.
Habermas, Gary R. “Evidential Near-Death Experiences.” In The Blackwell Companion to Substance Dualism, edited by Jonathan J. Loose, Angus J. L. Menuge, and J. P. Moreland, 227–46. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.
Habermas surveys the strongest veridical NDE cases from the research literature and argues that they constitute significant evidence for substance dualism. He distinguishes between strong evidential cases (those with third-party corroboration) and weaker anecdotal reports, focusing exclusively on the former. His careful evidential methodology makes this chapter one of the best brief summaries of the NDE case for dualism.
Zizioulas, John D. Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985.
Zizioulas develops a relational ontology of personhood rooted in patristic theology, arguing that to be a person is to exist in communion and relationship. While Marsh draws on Zizioulas to support his physicalist-leaning theology of personhood, Zizioulas’s own framework does not require physicalism and is compatible with—indeed, enriched by—a substance dualist account that includes a conscious intermediate state.
Blanke, Olaf, and Shahar Arzy. “The Out-of-Body Experience: Disturbed Self-Processing at the Temporo-Parietal Junction.” The Neuroscientist 11, no. 1 (2005): 16–24.
Blanke and Arzy report that electrical stimulation of the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) can induce brief, fragmentary out-of-body experiences in epileptic patients. This research is frequently cited by skeptics—including Marsh—as evidence that OBEs are purely neurological. However, the stimulated OBEs are qualitatively different from NDE-associated OBEs: they are brief, involve no veridical perception, and are recognized by the patient as artificial distortions.
Jansen, Karl. Ketamine: Dreams and Realities. Sarasota, FL: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, 2001.
Jansen, a psychiatrist, initially proposed the ketamine model of NDEs—arguing that the dissociative anesthetic ketamine produces experiences remarkably similar to NDEs. Notably, Jansen later softened his position, acknowledging that the ketamine model could not fully explain NDEs and expressing openness to non-materialist interpretations. His original model and subsequent recantation are both relevant to the argument of Chapter 16.
Ramachandran, V. S., and Sandra Blakeslee. Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind. New York: William Morrow, 1998.
A fascinating exploration of phantom limb phenomena and other neurological curiosities. Ramachandran’s work on how the brain constructs body-image is relevant to Marsh’s phantom limb argument against OBEs. However, as argued in Chapter 14 of this book, phantom limbs do not involve veridical perception of the external world from a different vantage point—making the analogy to NDE-associated OBEs fundamentally flawed.
Penfield, Wilder. The Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975.
Penfield, a pioneering neurosurgeon who spent decades electrically stimulating the brains of conscious epilepsy patients, concluded that the mind cannot be fully explained by brain mechanisms. Despite being able to evoke memories, sensations, and movements through electrical stimulation, he never found a way to stimulate belief, decision, or the sense of self. His conclusion—that the mind is more than the brain—from a researcher with unparalleled direct experience of the living human brain carries enormous weight.
Strassman, Rick. DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. Rochester, VT: Park Street Press, 2001.
Strassman hypothesizes that endogenous DMT (dimethyltryptamine), released by the pineal gland at death, may be responsible for NDEs. While the DMT hypothesis has gained popular currency, it remains speculative: there is no evidence that the pineal gland produces DMT in quantities sufficient to induce an NDE, and the hypothesis cannot account for veridical perception or the consistency of NDE reports across different medical conditions.
Greyson, Bruce. “The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity.” Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 171, no. 6 (1983): 369–75.
The paper introducing the Greyson NDE Scale, the most widely used standardized instrument for measuring the depth and features of near-death experiences. The scale’s reliability and validity have been confirmed across multiple studies and populations, and it has become the standard tool for distinguishing genuine NDEs from other types of experiences in research settings.
Holden, Janice Miner. “Veridical Perception in Near-Death Experiences.” In The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation, edited by Janice Miner Holden, Bruce Greyson, and Debbie James, 185–211. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009.
Holden’s systematic analysis of veridical perception during NDEs is one of the most important chapters in the Handbook. She reviewed every published case of apparently non-physical veridical perception during NDEs and found that 92% of the cases contained accurate details that were subsequently verified. Only 8% contained any error, and none were completely erroneous. This finding directly contradicts skeptical claims that NDE reports are confabulated or unreliable.
Whinnery, James E. “Psychophysiologic Correlates of Unconsciousness and Near-Death Experiences.” Journal of Near-Death Studies 15, no. 4 (1997): 231–58.
Whinnery’s research on G-LOC (gravity-induced loss of consciousness) in fighter pilots is sometimes cited by skeptics as a model for NDEs. However, his own data undermine this comparison: G-LOC experiences are fragmentary, confused, and brief—precisely the opposite of the lucid, coherent, and detailed experiences reported during NDEs. Whinnery himself acknowledged the differences between G-LOC episodes and genuine NDEs.
Tart, Charles T. The End of Materialism: How Evidence of the Paranormal Is Bringing Science and Spirit Together. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, 2009.
Tart, a psychologist who has spent decades investigating anomalous experiences, surveys the evidence from NDEs, remote viewing, telepathy, and other phenomena that challenge the materialist paradigm. He argues that the evidence for non-physical consciousness is strong enough to warrant serious scientific consideration, and that the reflexive dismissal of such evidence is driven by ideology rather than data.
Dossey, Larry. “Near-Death Experiences: An Essay in Medicine and Philosophy.” In The Near-Death Experience: A Reader, edited by Lee W. Bailey and Jenny Yates, 217–32. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Dossey, a physician, argues that the NDE data demand a revision of the materialist assumptions that dominate modern medicine. He contends that the evidence points toward a non-local model of consciousness—one in which consciousness is not confined to the brain or to the present moment—and that this model has profound implications for medical practice and the care of dying patients.
Sartori, Penny. The Wisdom of Near-Death Experiences: How Understanding NDEs Can Help Us Live More Fully. London: Watkins Publishing, 2014.
Sartori, a nurse researcher, conducted a five-year prospective study of NDEs in a Welsh intensive care unit. Her controlled comparisons between NDE patients and non-NDE patients showed that NDE patients described their resuscitation procedures with greater accuracy, replicating Sabom’s earlier findings. She also documents the transformative aftereffects of NDEs and argues that medical professionals should take NDE reports seriously.
Facco, Enrico, and Christian Agrillo. “Near-Death Experiences between Science and Prejudice.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 6 (2012): 209.
Facco and Agrillo argue that the dismissal of NDE evidence by mainstream science reflects methodological prejudice rather than rational evaluation. They contend that the data from NDE research are sufficiently robust to challenge the materialist paradigm, and that science’s failure to engage this evidence seriously constitutes a violation of its own epistemic standards. A useful source for addressing the charge that NDE research is “pseudoscience.”
Greyson, Bruce. “Cosmological Implications of Near-Death Experiences.” Journal of Cosmology 14 (2011): 4684–96.
Greyson examines the broader implications of NDE evidence for our understanding of the relationship between consciousness and the physical world. He argues that the evidence from NDEs—particularly veridical perception during cardiac arrest—is incompatible with the production model of consciousness and supports some form of the filter/transmission model. This paper concisely summarizes the argument that runs through the pro-NDE scientific literature.