ABSTRACT
According to our current understanding of the brain, it is impossible for a person with flatlined brainwaves to have perceptual experiences of any kind. However, in about 3% of near-death experience (NDE) cases, patients report out-of-body (OB) experiences claiming to have observed the external events surrounding their resuscitation. These reports are potentially verifiable and give researchers the opportunity to determine the time at which the OB-NDE occurred. This chapter argues that if (a) patients have substantiated perceptual experiences during a time when the brain is in an isoelectric state and (b) the number of patients with verified perceptual experiences are much greater than chance would predict, then this would be a strong indicator of the truth of substance dualism along with a non-natural interpretation of OB-NDEs.
