What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond with Dr. Bruce Greyson
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,
Dhru talks 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 is a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the UVA School of Medicine. He served on the medical school faculty at the Universities of Michigan, Connecticut, and Virginia. He was a co-founder and President of the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and Editor of the
Journal of Near-Death Studies. His award-winning research led him to become a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and to be invited by the Dalai Lama to participate in a dialogue between Western scientists and Buddhist monks in India. His book,
AFTER, is the culmination of almost half a century of scientific 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.
Throughout his decades of research, he’s collected so many intriguing and sometimes unbelievable NDE stories like the one above. In looking at them as a whole, he’s found consistent patterns—like, for example, that people report having no sense of time. He’s also seen that those who have an NDE are forever changed in beneficial ways, such as becoming more caring of others, less attached to possessions, and less afraid of death.
There are other modalities Dr. Greyson and Dhru talk about that can provide similar long-lasting outcomes, like psychedelics or even just in-depth learning about NDEs. Dr. Greyson hopes that his new book will give people that same life-changing perspective in an accessible way.
Whatever your beliefs, this episode is sure to interest you. I hope you’ll tune in.
Wishing you health and happiness,
Mark Hyman, MD
Click here to listen on the web