We interrupt this book for a thought about dying

Tonight on NPR's Fresh Air, I heard an interview with Dr. Sam Parnia, a critical care doctor who is the director of resuscitation research at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine. He has written a book, Erasing Death, that talks about his research into optimal cardiac arrest care and the experiences that a small number of people experience after undergoing full cardiac arrest, experiences that Dr. Parnia prefers to call after death experiences, not near death experiences because, as he points out, the people who have those experiences are clinically dead. (Which implies that he doesn't view resuscitation as snatching the patient from the jaws of death so much as an actual resurrection.)

One of the things that struck me was the following statement:

And so what our discoveries have started to do is to question the way we consider the relationship between the human mind, what is classically been called the psyche or the soul, and the brain itself. And it may be that the human mind, consciousness or soul may be able to function when there is no brain function at all.

Classical science has clung fiercely to the Aristotelian view that consciousness is a byproduct of biological functioning. One way of interpreting much of the weirdness of quantum mechanics, however, suggests that there is something about consciousness that is not confined to the material realm. It's interesting to see that  mainstream medical scientists, following completely different paths, are reaching the same conclusion.

If you're interested in hearing more from Dr. Parnia, you can find the interview and information about his book at the NPR web site.