greyson discusses the several features of nde’s in his article. “perhaps the most important of these features, because it is so commonly reported in nde’s, is the occurrence of normal or even enhanced mental activity at times when, according to the mind-brain identity model, such activity should be diminishing, if not impossible. individuals reporting nde’s often describe their mental processes . . . as remarkably clear and lucid and their sensory experiences as unusually vivid, equaling or even surpassing those of their normal waking state. reports of nde’s from widely divergent cultures confirm that people have consistently reported, from different parts of the world and across different periods of history, having had complicated cognitive and perceptual experiences at times when brain functioning was severely impaired.
“another example of enhanced mental functioning during an nde is a rapid revival of memories that sometimes extends over the person’s entire life. . . . memories revived during an nde are frequently described as being ‘many’ or even as an almost instantaneous ‘panoramic’ review of the person’s entire life.
“another important feature of nde’s that materialist reductionism cannot adequately account for is the experience of being out of the body and perceiving events that one could not ordinarily have perceived.
"an even more difficult challenge to materialistic models of nde’s comes from cases in which experiencers report that, while out of the body, they became aware of events occurring at a distance or that in some other way would have been beyond the reach of their ordinary senses even if they had been fully and normally conscious. . . . [greyson shared a report of] “cases of blind individuals, nearly half of them blind from birth, who experienced during their nde’s quasi-visual and sometimes veridical perceptions of objects and events.”
greyson related an especially interesting account “of a man who had an nde during cardiac arrest in which he saw his deceased grandmother and an unknown man. later shown a picture of his biological father, whom he had never known and who had died years ago, he immediately recognized him as the man he had seen in his nde.”
greyson summarizes his article by stating that “the challenge of nde’s to materialist reductionism lies in asking how complex consciousness, including mentation, sensory perception, and memory, can occur under conditions in which current physiological models of mind deem it impossible.”
I recommend this article to you. we are learning that mentation can continue without an interaction with the synaptic networks of the brain, a “both-and” situation of dualist interaction between the immaterial mind and material components of the brain and an action of the immaterial mind that appears not to involve the synaptic networks of the brain during a nde. the mechanism remains to be determined. Of special interest is how memory is encoded within neural networks of the brain but is also an immaterial entity within the framework of awareness beyond the physical brain. this revelation reflects how the mind of man has been wonderfully created in the image of the mind of god!
I continue to refer to the article by Greyson:
Individuals who have had nde’s are “convinced that during the nde they temporarily separated from their physical bodies.” greyson points out that “the idea that mind and brain are not identical is not inherently unscientific. . . . although most psychologists and neuroscientists accept the reductionistic model that brain produces mind, or indeed is the mind, several features of nde’s call into question whether materialist reductionism will ever provide a full explanation of them.”
bruce greyson of the university of virginia has published an article entitled, “implications of near-death experiences for a postmaterialist psychlogy,” psychology of religion and spirituality, 2010, vol. 2, no. 1, 37-45. the author stated that materialist psychology has “proved insufficient for describing mentation under extreme conditions, such as the continuation of mental function when the brain is inactive or impaired, such AS OCCURS NEAR DEATH.” HE NOTES THAT “ENHANCED MENTATION AND MEMORY . . . ACCURATE PERCEPTIONS FROM A PERSPECTIVE OUTSIDE THE BODY, AND . . . VISIONS OF DECEASED PERSONS, INCLUDING THOSE NOT KNOWN TO BE DECEASED” CANNOT BE EXPLAINED BY MATERIALISt REDUCTIONISM and its mind-brain identity model.
greyson lists the features common to near death experiences (nde) and notes that “mental clarity, vivid sensory imagery, a clear memory of the experience, and a conviction that the experience seemed more real than ordinary consciousness are the norm for nde’s.” his article suggests that memory exists in the immaterial mind beyond those archived in the codes of neural synaptic networks. in cardiac arrest “neuronal action-potentials, the ultimate physical basis for coordination of neural activity between widely separated brain regions, are rapidly abolished . . . [and] cells in the hippocampus, the region thought to be essential for memory formation, are especially vulnerable to the effects of anoxia.” he states that it is not credible that nde’s “can be accounted for in terms of some hypothetical residual capacity of the brain to process and store complex information under those conditions. . . . a substantial number of nde’s contain apparent time ‘anchors’ in the form of verifiable reports of events occuring during the period of insult itself.”
my next blog will continue to feature greyson’s observations. we must remember that god, who is spirit, has a cognitive mind in whose image the mind of man has been created. i have discussed the dual interaction that is being substantiated between the immaterial mind of man (and of god) and the material neural synaptic components of the human brain. could nde’s be extending revelations of god’s creations in our time? Is memory both immaterially and materially based? we press on.
in my books and blog posts i have provided what i hope is a compelling explanation for a causal INTERACTIVE relationship between the immaterial mind and the material components of the neural synaptic networks of the brain. The learned capacity to interpret LINGUISTICALLY the frequency, amplitude and shape of neural codes transmitted through coherent synaptic pathways has been discussed. we have aN INCREASING understanding of how the mind’s intent can result in the lifting of an arm, a spoken phrase, A CREATIVE IDEA and the recall of memories from within neural networks.
near death experiences (nde) have been addressed in previous posts that raise a valid question of whether the immaterial mind CAN continue to function in the absence of THE BRAIN’S neural network codes in the face of documented death. in the next series of blogs i shall address this challenging question, ABOUT WHICH MORE AND MORE EVIDENCE IS BEING GATHERED. IS THIS A CHALLENGE TO DUALIST INTERACTION?
Pinkham, Wesley M. and Gruenberg, Jeremiah, Relational Christianity: A Remarkable Vision of God, Wipf & Stock, Eugene, Oregon, 2022
God created Man to have a personal communion with Him, a dual, bidirectional interaction between the Mind of God and the mind of Man. The Creator God is triune, comprised of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is a tripartite communion based in Love. God created mankind with spirit, soul and body, and love was to guide mankind’s interrelationships as well as with the Creator. But the relationship was lost in sin, so that Man lost an indwelling communion with the Spirit of God, manifesting thereby a spiritual death. By the grace and love of God through His sinless Son, Jesus Christ, Jesus became a sin sacrifice for all mankind for all time. By his resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit victory over spiritual death was provided to those who repented and accepted the Truth of the Gospel in faith. The Spirit of God was sent to believers through the resurrected Son who lives at the right hand of the Father. What then is the nature of the restored relationship between the triune God and believers? Doctors Pinkham and Gruenberg eloquently address this question in their book, Relational Christianity: A Remarkable Vision of God.
As Love defines the triunity of God, so also is the relationship intended between God and believers and between believers in the church. The authors characterize this relationship as holistic, consisting of an interpersonal Oneness between the triune God and believers. It is a relational Oneness that gives believers identity as Sons of God and the Father as abba. It is a “kenotic” relationship exhibited by the life and ministry of Jesus who emptied himself, revealing the Trinitarian priority of Oneness over individualism. Likewise, believers should emulate Jesus’ Oneness with the Father and the Holy Spirit, having the Spirit as an indwelling sent as Jesus promised at Pentecost. Believers are to live a servanthood lifestyle in the name of Jesus Christ. As Jesus fully depended upon the Father during his life and ministry on Earth, so also are believers to depend upon the indwelling Holy Spirit as their Counselor and Helper, a relationship for all members of the church.
The authors decried the reality that much teaching in the church today is binitarian rather than trinitarian. The Holy Spirit is neglected though fundamental to Christian orthodoxy. Drs. Pinkham and Gruenberg successfully explain how the “kenotic” relationship should be nurtured in the church, so that God’s Holy Spirit indwells believers and governs their lives as was the life of Jesus Christ during his ministry on Earth.
Thanks to advances in the technology of the neurosciences we are beginning to understand the reality and mechanism of the personal interaction between the Mind of God and the mind of Man. It is a causal interaction between the immaterial Mind of God and mind of Man through the material synaptic networks of the human brain. God does commune with Man in our time in fulfillment of His plan since the creation of Adam, a communion lost at the Fall but restored by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for all mankind.
I heartily recommend this book. It is a must read for Christian believers so that the relationship with our triune Creator and Lord is fulfilled.