Surprise - and Discovery? - in the Near-Death Experience
University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) January 1, 1997 Gibbs 25 citations
Surprise and puzzlement expressed in near-death experience (NDE) accounts may indicate genuine discovery of novel features of reality, not mere subjective invention. The article argues that surprise typically arises during the cognition-reality interplay that enables learning. If some NDE surprises represent discoveries in a nonsubjective sense, then that cognition-reality interplay can persist near death, suggesting that self and reality include a nonmaterial realm.