Abstract: In "Near Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife," authors John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin (2016) argued for purely physicalist explanations of near-death experiences (NDEs) and against "supernatural" explanations involving objects and events--out-of-body experiences, heavenly realms, meeting deceased relatives--that have no physical reality. In our critique, we identify two major weaknesses to their argument: heavy reliance on ad hoc hypotheses and frequent appeal to "promissory materialism." Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin applied the term "hallucination" to NDEs because, by definition, they "do not correspond to reality." We found use of this term problematic for several reasons: that NDE perceptions are phenomenologically different from hallucinations, that NDE perceptions of the physical realm are nearly always veridical, and that labelling NDEs "hallucinations" pathologizes a normal, subjective experience, with potentially harmful psychological outcomes. Although Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin argued a theory of NDEs that invokes only one explanatory factor, we argue for a likely common proximate cause for all NDEs and that the nonphysical "mind-entity theory" in which the nonmaterial mind separates from the physical body in an NDE, is a likely candidate theory with good explanatory power. We believe that ultimately the theory explaining NDEs will be corrected through the normal process of …

Article discussing Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin's response to Robert J. and Suzanne B. Mays critique of "Near Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife" by John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin.

Article discussing Robert and Suzanne Mays' critique of "Near Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife" by Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin and John Martin Fischer. The article addresses each of Mays' points and states that they misattributed claims to Mitchell-Yellin and Fischer.