Is there life after death? The term is tautological. Biological life ends with death – so that's the end of biological life. The right term for what we're searching for is survival of consciousness after death.
And here already we have the big split. Materialists believe that consciousness is merely a byproduct of biological evolution; an epiphenomenon of emergent complexity. Consciousness, they hold, resides only within the skulls of higher-order animals, upon this planet, the only one we currently know to host intelligent life. Panpsychists, however, believe that consciousness is the fundamental property of the Cosmos; without Big-C consciousness, there would be no universe for us to observe, no space, no time, no matter. The 'vacuum of space' is actually filled with consciousness.
If you are a materialist, for you nothing exists but matter, so I'd suggest there's little point in you reading further. For you, biological death equates with the snuffing out of conscious experience forever. An eternity of oblivion awaits. End of, get over it. YOLO.
If, however, you hold that consciousness is indeed fundamental, read on; there are several key questions worth pondering over as to the survival of your consciousness after biological death.
The topic of near-death experience (NDE) and research into this phenomenon is fascinating and controversial. Reported experiences all share similar features – a life review, moving through a tunnel towards light, being met by loved ones who've already died, and a changed attitude to life and death following the experience. There is a growing body of scientific literature* into the phenomenon which suggests it cannot be ignored out of hand.
Yet it's by no means universal; not everyone who's brought back from clinical death claims to have had an NDE. Various studies point to between 10% and 50% of resuscitated patients reporting one. And there's no clear evidence of a sheep-and-goat effect (NDEs are reported by materialists/atheists as well as religious believers).
Debunkers have come up with numerous rational explanations for NDEs, but still the phenomenon remains. More and more quantitative research data from successive studies is building up. This is not just wishful thinking; advances in medical science means people can be resuscitated from ever-longer periods of heart or brain inactivity. And as more and more people are brought back from the brink, more reports of what some of them at least have experienced are being collected.
As with psi phenomena, the problem that science has is to do with the fact that NDEs just don't fit the established scientific model, and so a priori, they need to be dismissed or ignored. Science looks for mechanisms, vectors, forces; physical causes that lead to physical effects. Here, we have none of which science is currently aware of. We can but postulate – quantum effects in the brain? Yet these are said to be tens of trillion trillion times weaker than necessary to have any noticeable effect on cellular structures.
But a panpsychist approach, accepting the existence of non-local consciousness, makes some sense here. NDEs can be seen as small-c consciousness merging into Big-C consciousness. Whilst this makes sense, it raises the question I posed earlier on in this year's Lenten series of blog posts, namely – does the individual identity fade away into the collective consciousness of the Cosmos? And if so – does this equate with oblivion – at least, oblivion of the Self?
More tomorrow. More questions than answers!
* Leading researchers in this field that are worth looking for on YouTube are Sam Parnia, Pim van Lommel and Bruce Greyson.
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