CSR & African Union Law: Olufemi Amao's research site

The Big Question: Is there an afterlife?

The key to the answer: Can the mind/soul exist outside of the brain/body?

The Religious answer: There is an after life. The mind/soul continue to exist after death of the body.

The Scientific Debate: Most scientists believe that the mind (consciousness) is localised in the brain. Death brings an end to existence. The soul is a myth. There is no afterlife.

However, an increasing number of scientists are
challenging this assumption. Such research have focused on study of consciousness, near death experiences (NDE) and out of body experiences (OBE) and the like.

This research tracks recent scientific discourse on this intriguing subject.

Neutral Resources
2002 - BBC Documentary - The Day I Died, the Brain, and Near-Death Experiences

Thonnard M, Charland-Verville V, Brédart S, Dehon H, Ledoux D, et al. (2013) 'Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories'. PLoS ONE 8(3): e57620. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057620

The Economist (May 2013) - 'Shrink wrapping' -
(Summarizes how much we know about the human brain)

Robert Kastenbaum, Is There Life After Death?: The Latest Evidence Analysed (Priori, 1995)

THE DEBATE

The Question is closed: There is
no 'possibility' of afterlife.

2011 - D Mobbs & C Watt, 'There is nothing paranormal about near death experiences.' Trends Cogn. Sci.15 447. (Note: See Greyson's et al's response below)

2011 – Sean Carroll ‘Physics and the Immortality of the Soul’ Scientific America (blogs)

The Question is open: There  is a
'possibility' of afterlife.

1975: R A Moody, Life After Life (Bantam Books)

2002: S Parnia & P Fenwick, 'Near death experiences in cardiac arrest: visions of a dying brain or visions of a new science of consciousness.'
Resuscitation. 2002 Jan;52(1):5-11.

2007: S Parnia, 'Do reports of consciousness during cardiac arrest hold the key to discovering the nature of consciousness?' Med Hypotheses.
2007;69(4):933-7. Epub 2007 Apr 24

2001: Pim Van Lommel, Ruud van Wees, Vincent Meyers, Ingrid Elfferich, 'Near-Death experience in Survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective in the
Netherlands' The Lancet, 358

2012: B Greyson, J M Holden & Pim van Lommel' "There is nothing paranormal about near-death
experiences' revisited: comment on Mobbs and Watt' Trends Cogn. Sci.16 445.

2012: Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Near-Death Experience and Journey into the Afterlife (Piatkus)

2013: S Parnia) Erasing Death: The Science That is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death(Harper Collins, 2013)

2013: R Lanza, Biocentrism  (Ben  Bella, 2010)

2014 – Sam Parnia et al, ‘AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation—A prospective study’ Resuscitation December 2014 Volume 85, Issue 12, Pages 1799–1805 



News/Links
CBS News: What happens when we die? Va. researchers investigate near-death experiences  (July 2013)

Tim Adams (The Observer) - Sam Parnia – the man who could bring you back from the dead

Ben Brumfield (CNN): 'Afterlife' feels 'even more real than real,' researcher says'

Fay Weldon - 'My glimpses of the afterlife mean I no longer fear death' (Daily Mail, May 2013)

John Blake - (CNN)' Proof of heaven popular, except with the church (May 2013)

Simon Edge - 'Why science is taking near-death experiences seriously' (Daily Express, May 2013)