Advanced forms of cardiac- and neuro-surgery, made possible only in recent decades, require the patient to be put into a state of reversible clinical death. Upon resuscitation, a significant number of patients began to describe (in verifiable ways) having been conscious during surgery, despite having no detectable brain waves or heart beat. What are Christians to make of these observations? What are the critiques that a reductive physicalist might raise, especially in light of the prevailing view in neuroscience that without a functioning brain you cannot be conscious? This session will examine and discuss the phenomenon of near-death experiences.
