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Friday July 30,2010

Are scientists changing their position on NDEs?

by Leroy Kattein

Is it true that some scientists are changing their position on Near Death Experiences?

I found this post in the NDE newsgroup. It shows that Dr. Janson who wrote the paper at: (http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/synthetics/ketamine/Ketamine_near-death.html) has now reconsidered.

Dr. Jansen published a later version of the above article in the Fall, 1997 (vol 16) issue of the Journal of Near-Death Studies. This issue was dedicated to this article and follow-up commentaries and concluding with Jansen's response to these commentaries. I found Jansen's final Postscript interesting and will reprint it here.

Dr. Janson wrote:

"I am no longer opposed to spiritual explanations of near-death phenomena as my article and my response to the commentaries on it would suggest. Over the past two years (it has been quite some time since I first drafted the article) I have moved more towards the views put forward by John Lilly and Stanislav Grof: namely, that drugs and psychological disciplines such as meditation and yoga may render certain 'states' more accessible. The complication then becomes defining just what we mean by 'states' and where they are located, If indeed 'location' is an appropriate term at all. But the apparent emphasis on matter over nonmatter contained within my article no longer represents my attitudes."

"My forthcoming book Ketamine will consider mystical issues from quite a different perspective, and will give a much stronger voice to those who see drugs as just another door to a space, and not as actually producing that space. After 12 years of studying Ketamine, I now believe that there most definitely is a soul that is independent of experience. It exists when we begin, and may persist when we end. Ketamine is a door to a place we cannot normally get to; it is definitely not evidence that such a place does not exist."

"I regret my past emphasis on the overriding importance of theories of matter as they stood in the late 1980s. Ketamine suggests we still have much to learn."

Leroy Kattein had his first NDE experience when he went for heart surgery in 1987. He published his website at ndeweb.com to reach other people who have had NDE's. He wants to share the love and the wonder he has gained through having an NDE. All are welcomed at his website.