A. J. Ayer never flinched - not even near death

[_Gadianton]

In 1988, only a year or so prior to his death, Sir A. J. Ayer, war veteran, and formerly the Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford’s New College, and formally before that, the Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London, and president of the Aristotelian Society, a principal figure in logical positivism, as well as a quite vocal and argumentative atheist, wrote an article about an experience that he had undergone during a severe case of pneumonia roughly three months earlier. His heart had stopped for about four minutes while he was in London University Hospital.

Ayer was a man who stood for the truth and for whom the truth was generally uncomplicated. Considering Ayer's unrelenting atheism, one might question his resolve on the grounds of, can it really be so difficult to stand up to god, a being who most certainly doesn't exist? Perhaps not, however, Ayer was fully consistent in every way -- if he wasn't so brave to stand up to god, could we say the same as he stood up to the world heavy weight boxing champion? In standing up to god, he also stood up to many of the worlds most reprehensible individuals, such as Joseph Smith, who used god as a means to facilitate the release of pressure from within his main factory supply line in the same way a title belt might be used by a boxing champion.

A good article on Ayer's NDE can be found here. Note that Ayer's experience might be discounted by some on the grounds that it doesn't match the vaguely reported portions of NDEs found summarized by certain researchers intending to paint a more or less Christian friendly account of the afterlife. Also note, that many famous NDEs, such as George Ritchie's account found in Return From Tomorrow or Julie Rowe in A Greater Tomorrow are quite lengthy and bizarre, just like Ayer's, but with complex narratives that fit their religious backgrounds as Ayer's generally fits his "materialist" background. Note the intro line in Ayer, "I was confronted by a red light, exceedingly bright, and also very painful -- " This in particular, is quite interesting to me because while I have not had an NDE, I did suffer from extreme episodes of sleep paralysis as a teenager, and by far the most dramatic episode I ever had, began exactly like what Ayer describes in his NDE. The brain is very weird, and colors and sounds and pain all run together when it isn't working properly.

I would venture a guess that anyone -- oh, I don't have anyone in particular in mind -- who doubts Ayer's detailed NDE probably also doubts detailed NDEs in general. If not, let's see some support of detailed NDEs in the form of a blog post supporting one.

Ayer makes an interesting statement in his NDE that excites the believer's imagination:

My recent experiences have slightly weakened my conviction that my genuine death, which is due fairly soon, will be the end of me

Ayer later clarified, "They have not and never did weaken that conviction. What I should have said and would have said, had I not been anxious to appear undogmatic, is that my experiences have weakened, not my belief that there is no life after death, but my inflexible attitude towards that belief"

A great deal of mileage has been extracted by Christian authors and others who cite the eye-witness testimony of an attending physician, who claims that Ayer in private admitted to having seen a "Divine being --- I will have to revise all my books."*

But this amounts to an interpretation, as one author puts it: "George's impression was that [Ayer] had come face to face with God".

And so the excitable believer demands that Ayer lied about his NDE. But may I point out a few things?

-First, the vague statement if true, is fully compatible with his actual account and a healthy sense of humor.

-He did not need to reveal his NDE in the first place if he feared his reputation.

-It would be a drastic revision, quite a lie, to totally alter a Christian narrative to be his weird space-time narrative, and that's what we must believe because he couldn't have seen "god" in addition to his other experiences and have the account be credible to the Christian mindset. Also, it would be quite weird to totally change the content of his NDE from a "Ritchie part 2" to his Lynchian narrative, and at the same time also make his "weakened my conviction" statement. If he truly felt weakened in his conviction, why not admit he really spoke with the Lord Jesus and was instructed on the resurrection? If he made up his ludicrous adventure that doesn't resonate with anyone at a spiritual level, why not be consistent with his cover-up and say he was likewise, unmoved?

Finally, The desperate believer may also note a change in Ayer just prior to his real death, where he softened. This is not evidence of a belief in god, but precisely as he stated -- he experienced something that gave him empathy for those who do believe.

At any rate, here is a man who stared death in the face and never flinched. A tribute to rationality over blind faith.

the clock is ticking, believers. Calculate what you've got left, and count back and think about what you were doing at that same unit of time in the past, and think if back then, you could see yourself now, and that length of time then, would be the same length before eternal blackness with respect to today.

As Korihor rightly said: When a man dies, that's the end thereof.

*The Oxbridge Evangelist: Motivations, Practices, and Legacy of C.S. Lewis

[_Physics Guy]

You can find Ayer's own account of this experience, and his later thoughts about it, by googling "Ayer NDE".

I was delighted to note that, with his heart stopped, Ayer thought of General Relativity. I'd say that makes him a physicist by the baptism of blood. Otherwise, though, the experience sounds just like a weird dream. It might have been unusually vivid for a dream to Ayer, but in recitation it does not stand out from any other weird dream that a family member might recount over breakfast. The only remarkable feature is the fact that Ayer's heart had been stopped at the time.

As Ayer himself noted, however, his brain had not stopped. His Near Death Experience, like all others, was just that: an experience of a living brain near death, not an experience of anything after death. I'd say that it simply was a weird dream, just in unusual circumstances. It might well have been affected by the onset of hypoxia but otherwise it sounds no more mysterious—and no less—than any dream.

I'm surprised that Ayer was as affected by the experience as he was. He didn't flinch in his atheism, but this was mainly because he noted that life after death does not imply theism. He does seem, by his own considered words, to have become less certain about death being the end of awareness. I don't see why he drew even that conclusion.

Evidently there was something in Ayer's experience that weighed more heavily with him, as the one who lived through it, than strict logic would have it weigh. Le coeur arrêté a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point.

(For context, I currently believe in the possibility of life after death through God re-creating the patterns of our minds in some entirely new universe, like an author writing a sequel to continue the adventurers of popular characters. I don't see that NDEs can tell us anything about that.)

[_Gadianton]

life after death through God re-creating the patterns of our minds in some entirely new universe, like an author writing a sequel to continue the adventurers of popular characters.

Would this be *us* or duplications of us? What would prevent him from creating multiple such patterns?

[_Tom]

A good article on Ayer's NDE can be found here. Note that Ayer's experience might be discounted by some on the grounds that it doesn't match the vaguely reported portions of NDEs found summarized by certain researchers intending to paint a more or less Christian friendly account of the afterlife. Also note, that many famous NDEs, such as George Ritchie's account found in Return From Tomorrow or Julie Rowe in A Greater Tomorrow are quite lengthy and bizarre, just like Ayer's, but with complex narratives that fit their religious backgrounds as Ayer's generally fits his "materialist" background. Note the intro line in Ayer, "I was confronted by a red light, exceedingly bright, and also very painful -- " This in particular, is quite interesting to me because while I have not had an NDE, I did suffer from extreme episodes of sleep paralysis as a teenager, and by far the most dramatic episode I ever had, began exactly like what Ayer describes in his NDE. The brain is very weird, and colors and sounds and pain all run together when it isn't working properly.

I would venture a guess that anyone -- oh, I don't have anyone in particular in mind -- who doubts Ayer's detailed NDE probably also doubts detailed NDEs in general. If not, let's see some support of detailed NDEs in the form of a blog post supporting one.

From my vantage point, it is more than a trifle distressing to witness believers in so-called Christian-friendly NDEs, including some highly vocal and argumentative believers, brush away the possible veridicality of Ayer's experience and account without a serious hearing (though perhaps with a few nervous and dismissive jokes). Some have even gone so far as suggest that Ayer's experience was the product of a feverish or even frenzied mind (à la Korihor?) and that his account is incongruent with scores of other compelling NDE accounts. This will not do.

In response, I would point out that the invaluable William Cash offered a careful, calm, lucid, and serious analysis of Ayer's NDE account in an article published in the National Post in 2001. This is the same William Cash who has cited the eyewitness testimony of Ayer's physician. Speaking of Ayer's account, Cash wrote:

Ayer’s article, with his vivid memory of being pulled toward a red light, “exceedingly bright, and also very painful,” his encounters with the “ministers” of the universe, and his frustration as he tried to “cross the river” — which he presumed was the Styx — bears a very curious resemblance to similar reports of near-death experiences recalled by 63 survivors of cardiac arrest at Southampton General Hospital, and published last week in the science journal Resuscitation.

Interestingly enough, the lead author of the Resuscitation article is Sam Parnia, whose writings, including the book titled Erasing Death: The Science That is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death, are often cited by NDE proponents and enthusiasts.

The article published in Resuscitation by Dr. Parnia et al., titled "A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors," examines the results of interviews of 63 survivors of cardiac arrests on the medical, emergency, and coronary care units of Southampton General Hospital during a one-year period. To quote from the article's abstract:

Method: All survivors of cardiac arrests during a 1 year period were interviewed within a week of their arrest, regarding memories of their unconscious period. Reported memories were assessed by the Greyson NDE Scale. The postulated role of physiological, psychological and transcendental factors were studied. Physiological parameters such as oxygen status were extracted from the medical notes. Patients’ religious convictions were documented in the interviews and hidden targets were used to test the transcendental theories on potential out of body claims. Those with memories were compared to those without memories. Results: 11.1% of 63 survivors reported memories. The majority had NDE features. There appeared to be no differences on all physiological measured parameters apart from partial pressure of oxygen during the arrest which was higher in the NDE group. Conclusions: Memories are rare after resuscitation from cardiac arrest. The majority of those that are reported have features of NDE and are pleasant. The occurrence of NDE during cardiac arrest raises questions about the possible relationship between the mind and the brain. Further large-scale studies are needed to understand the aetiology and true significance of NDE.

According to the article, 56 survivors could not recall their period of unconsciousness. The other seven did. Four of these seven had had NDEs according to the Greyson NDE scale:

1. Came to point/border of no return
2. Feelings of peace and pleasantness
3. Feelings of joy
4. Saw a bright light
5. Lost awareness of body
6. Awareness as if by extra sensory means
7. Entered another domain
8. Saw deceased relatives
9. Felt harmony
10. Felt that time speeded up
11. Feelings of heightened senses
12. Heightened sense of understanding
13. Encountered a mystical being

(Parnia et al., A qualitative and quantitative study of the incidence, features, and aetiology of near death experiences in cardiac arrest survivors, p. 153 table 2.)

What did the four patients who had memories of their time of unconsciousness recall?

All four patients in the NDE group sensed a point of no return. Three of the four also experienced seeing a bright light, and feelings of peace, pleasantness and joy. Two of the four saw deceased relatives, entered a new domain, felt that time had speeded up, lost awareness of their bodies, experienced harmony and had heightened senses. Two features of the Greyson Scale, having heightened understanding and encountering a mystical being, were only experienced by one of the four patients.

To repeat the quotation from Cash's article, "Ayer’s article, with his vivid memory of being pulled toward a red light, 'exceedingly bright, and also very painful,' his encounters with the 'ministers' of the universe, and his frustration as he tried to 'cross the river' — which he presumed was the Styx — bears a very curious resemblance to similar reports of near-death experiences recalled by 63 survivors of cardiac arrest at Southampton General Hospital." Very curious resemblance, indeed. Skeptics would do well not to dismiss the possible veridicality of Ayer's experience and account so quickly.

[_Physics Guy]

I don't know.

Essentially similar questions come up about AI and the possibility of achieving immortality by transferring one's consciousness into a machine. If personality is digital then it's hard to see why one couldn't exist in multiple copies. We could come in six packs like Zaphod Beeblebrox. Each of those copies would presumably be themselves, but not be any of the others. And hence it would seem that there could be exact copies of my pattern which would nonetheless not be me. In that case it's not clear that a resurrected copy would be me or just someone else who was just like me.

What recently struck me about this is that for all I know the same thing could be occurring every night. Perhaps I am extinguished every time I go to sleep, and every morning a new consciousness is kindled in my waking brain. The standing wave of consciousness, or whatever it is, could be like the Buddhists' new flame lit from a previous flame.

For all we know about what consciousness is as a neural phenomenon, this could well be true. As long as each new consciousness is enjoying its flickering day, it has all my brain's memories, including many memories of waking up on previous days. Nevertheless each new day might well be a new me.

I find this thought surprisingly undistressing. If that's how it is, I can live with it (for a day). When I'm tired, the thought that someone else will carry on my story the next day even if I won't seems to be enough to let me go to sleep peacefully.

I don't really take the sleep-is-death theory seriously but it's interesting to entertain it for a while.

[_Gadianton]

Tom,

Again you hit a home run:

bears a very curious resemblance to similar reports of near-death experiences recalled by 63 survivors of cardiac arrest at Southampton General Hospital,

Given this is the source of the "divine being" story, I'd say those claiming Ayer's details aren't legitimate seem to be saying the majority of accounts aren't legitimate.

[_toon]

(For context, I currently believe in the possibility of life after death through God re-creating the patterns of our minds in some entirely new universe, like an author writing a sequel to continue the adventurers of popular characters. I don't see that NDEs can tell us anything about that.)

Is that kind of like the idea that Star Trek transporter violently kills each person it teleports by breaking them apart and then reconstituting them into an exact copy, with all the same memories and no awareness of having been dead, somewhere else?

[_Gadianton]

I don't know.

Essentially similar questions come up about AI and the possibility of achieving immortality by transferring one's consciousness into a machine.

Any time I've encountered this suggestion I've dismissed it. I'd make a really bad transhumanist. I emphatically do not believe we will ever "transfer our consciousness to a computer".

What recently struck me about this is that for all I know the same thing could be occurring every night.

sure, and there's certainly a question about one's continuity from a child through adulthood. The long life span of neurons might be worth considering. But suppose that a Star Trek type atomizer were invented and it's been tested with 100% success on both animals and people -- the people that come out the other end by every test are the same people who went in. Certainly it's controversial, and the manufacturers argue as you've noted, that we can't know whether we are the same people that went to bed the night before, after anesthesia, or technically, from one second to another, even. Would you, personally, dare to use the machine? I can tell you where I stand -- No, I wouldn't dare use it.

[_Gadianton]

Is that kind of like the idea that Star Trek transporter violently kills each person it teleports by breaking them apart and then reconstituting them into an exact copy, with all the same memories and no awareness of having been dead, somewhere else?

ha -- sorry dude. didn't mean to step on your ansewr.

[_Lemmie]

(For context, I currently believe in the possibility of life after death through God re-creating the patterns of our minds in some entirely new universe, like an author writing a sequel to continue the adventurers of popular characters. I don't see that NDEs can tell us anything about that.)

Is that kind of like the idea that Star Trek transporter violently kills each person it teleports by breaking them apart and then reconstituting them into an exact copy, with all the same memories and no awareness of having been dead, somewhere else?

Or like this:

Think Like a Dinosaur, a short story by James Patrick Kelly
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/dinosaur.htm