Epistemological Implications of Near-Death Experiences and Other Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions: Moving Beyond the Concept of Altered State of Consciousness
📄 Original study ↗📌 Appears in:
Plain English Summary
This paper teams up Italian neuroscientists with NDE pioneer Bruce Greyson to ask a pointed question: do any of the standard brain-based explanations for near-death experiences actually hold up? They go through the usual suspects — oxygen-starved eyes, natural painkillers, seizure-like activity, and dream intrusion — and find that none of them are backed by solid clinical evidence. That's a pretty big deal. About 10-18% of people in critical condition report NDEs, and brain scans suggest these memories behave like real memories, not hallucinations. The authors argue the whole way we talk about "altered states of consciousness" is too dismissive. Instead, they propose a new label — "non-ordinary mental expressions" (NOMEs) — and call for a framework that takes both the brain data and the person's lived experience seriously, drawing on a philosophical approach called neurophenomenology.
Research Notes
Key epistemological paper bridging Facco's Padua neuroscience group with Greyson's UVA DOPS program. Provides the most systematic critique of neurobiological NDE explanations in the library and introduces the NOME concept. Central to controversy #7 (NDEs and consciousness survival). Complements Facco & Agrillo (2012) and Van Lommel (2013).
Examining epistemological implications of near-death experiences and other non-ordinary mental expressions (NOMEs), this paper critiques proposed neurobiological NDE explanations — retinal ischemia, endogenous opioids, temporal lobe epilepsy, NMDA receptors, and REM intrusion — finding each unsupported by clinical evidence. NDE incidence is 10-18% in critical-condition patients; NDE memories show theta-band EEG consistent with true episodic memory. The authors trace the mechanist-reductionist paradigm to Galileo and Descartes, proposing to replace the 'altered states of consciousness' framework with NOMEs, integrating first-person and third-person perspectives per Varela's neurophenomenology.
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Related Papers
Cites
- Incidence and Correlates of Near-Death Experiences in a Cardiac Care Unit — Greyson, Bruce (2003)
- AWARE--AWAreness during REsuscitation--A prospective study — Parnia, Sam (2014)
- Near death experiences: a multidisciplinary hypothesis — Bókkon, István (2013)
- "Reality" of near-death-experience memories: evidence from a psychodynamic and electrophysiological integrated study — Palmieri, Arianna (2014)
- Non-local Consciousness: A Concept Based on Scientific Research on Near-Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest — van Lommel, Pim (2013)
- Consistency of Near-Death Experience Accounts over Two Decades: Are Reports Embellished over Time? — Greyson, Bruce (2007)
- Seeing Dead People Not Known to Have Died: "Peak in Darien" Experiences — Greyson, Bruce (2010)
- The Near-Death Experience Scale: Construction, Reliability, and Validity — Greyson, Bruce (1983)
Companion
- Cosmological Implications of Near-Death Experiences — Greyson, Bruce (2011)
- Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories — Thonnard, Marie (2013)
- Neuro-Functional Modeling of Near-Death Experiences in Contexts of Altered States of Consciousness — Romand, Raymond (2023)
- There Is Nothing Paranormal about Near-Death Experiences: How Neuroscience Can Explain Seeing Bright Lights, Meeting the Dead, or Being Convinced You Are One of Them — Mobbs, Dean (2011)
Same Research Program
Also by these authors
More in Nde
The Central Clinical Relevance of Near-Death Experiences in Acute Care Contexts
Explanation of Near-Death Experiences: A Systematic Analysis of Case Reports and Qualitative Research
AWAreness during REsuscitation - II: A Multi-Center Study of Consciousness and Awareness in Cardiac Arrest
Which Near-Death Experience Features Are Associated with Reduced Fear of Death?
Advancing the Evidence for Survival of Consciousness
📋 Cite this paper
Facco, Enrico, Agrillo, Christian, Greyson, Bruce (2015). Epistemological Implications of Near-Death Experiences and Other Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions: Moving Beyond the Concept of Altered State of Consciousness. Medical Hypotheses. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2015.04.004
@article{facco_2015_nde_epistemological,
title = {Epistemological Implications of Near-Death Experiences and Other Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions: Moving Beyond the Concept of Altered State of Consciousness},
author = {Facco, Enrico and Agrillo, Christian and Greyson, Bruce},
year = {2015},
journal = {Medical Hypotheses},
doi = {10.1016/j.mehy.2015.04.004},
}