We often think the mind is a creation of the brain, or that the mind and the brain are one and the same. But when the brain is offline for a number of reasons, like illness or injury, the mind can sometimes still be very active.
Today on The Broken Brain Podcast, I talk to Dr. Bruce Greyson about this phenomenon in the context of near-death experiences or NDEs. We have to remember that even just 20 years ago new scientific ideas were emerging that people thought were crazy. People are always skeptical of things they haven’t been taught. Now, the study of near-death experiences is pushing the boundaries of modern research.
Dr. Greyson’s interest in near-death experiences began just a few months after graduating from medical school, when he treated an unconscious patient in the emergency room who stunned him the next morning with an account of leaving her body. That event challenged his beliefs about the mind and the brain, and ultimately led him on a journey to study near-death experiences scientifically, leading to more than a hundred publications in medical journals.
In this episode, Dr. Greyson shares some of the most dramatic first-person accounts of near-death experiences from his book After. Dr. Greyson and I discuss how NDEs reveal a lot about dying and what might come after, but they also reveal just as much about life and living, about the value of compassion and our interconnectedness with one another, and about what makes a life meaningful and fulfilling. We also talk about how NDEs can help to transform the fear of dying that pervades our culture—into a healthy view of it as one more milestone in the course of our lives.
For more on Dr. Greyson you can follow him on Instagram @BruceGreysonMD, on Facebook @BruceGreysonMD, on Twitter @BruceGreyson, and through his website https://www.brucegreyson.com. Get his book, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond at https://www.brucegreyson.com/after-a-doctor-explores-what-near-death-experiences-reveal-about-life-and-beyond/.
Also mentioned in this episode:
- Life After Life: The Bestselling Original Investigation That Revealed “Near-Death Experiences” by Raymond Moody – https://www.amazon.com/Life-After-Bestselling-Investigation-Experiences/dp/006242890X
- International Association for Near-Death Studies – https://www.iands.org/
- Why Dying Can Bring You Back to Life – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-9275623/Psychiatrist-studies-near-death-accounts-says-make-happier.html
For more on Dhru Purohit, be sure to follow him on Instagram @dhrupurohit, on Facebook @dhruxpurohit, on Twitter @dhrupurohit, and on YouTube @dhrupurohit. You can also text Dhru at (302) 200-5643 or click here https://my.community.com/dhrupurohit.
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