The Scientific Case Against Immortality

Modern science demonstrates the dependence of consciousness on the brain,
verifying that the mind must die with the body. This conclusion is emotionally
difficult to accept. Dylan Thomas forcefully expresses the animosity that many
of us feel toward the prospect of our inevitable extinction: "Do not go gentle
into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (Lamont 211).
Miguel de Unamuno expresses similar feelings: "If it is nothingness that awaits
us, let us make an injustice of it; let us fight against destiny, even though
without hope of victory" (Lamont 211). Bertrand Russell comes to a different
conclusion: "I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of
annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an
end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting"
I must admit that, when confronted by the death of
someone close to me, or contemplating my own inevitable death, I am not
comforted by such words of wisdom. Nevertheless, we cannot base our beliefs on
what we want to be true; the truth can only be found by weighing the evidence
for a given idea. In the case of immortality, the extinction hypothesis is
supported by strong and incontrovertible evidence from the hard experimental
data of physiological psychology, whereas the survival hypothesis is supported
at best by weak and questionable anecdotal evidence from parapsychology.
The rallying cry of many parapsychologists is that they have discovered indisputable
evidence for paranormal or "psi" phenomena inexplicable by modern science which
has either been ignored or denied by the scientific community at large on the
purely dogmatic grounds that psi does not fit into the preconceived notions and
prejudices of modern scientists. These parapsychologists often speak of a
forthcoming scientific revolution comparable to Copernicus' discovery that the
sun is the center of the solar system. Antony Flew argues that the charges of a
priori dogmatism are unjustified:
It is simply grotesque to complain, in the
absence of any such decisive falsifying evidence, that these appeals to... the
named laws of established physics are exercises in a priori dogmatism. For what
"a priori" means is: prior to and independent of experience. But in... these
kinds of cases we have an enormous mass of experience supporting our present
beliefs and our present incredulities
There is no basis for the conclusion that parapsychology is going to lead some kind of
scientific revolution. The revolutionary theories of Copernicus and Darwin
required support from several different types of solid evidence before gaining
acceptance in the scientific community; Einstein's predictions from relativity
were based on a scientific theory and subsequently verified by experiment. Yet,
when we analyze parapsychology we find no such hints of a forthcoming
revolution. First, to quote Flew, "the long sought repeatable demonstration of
any psi phenomena seems to be as far away as ever"
A study by the National Research Council in 1988, published as Enhancing Human
Performance, surveyed many areas of research to determine how to improve
individual and group performance .The NRC report's section on
"Paranormal Phenomena" concluded: "The committee finds no scientific
justification from research conducted over a period of 130 years for the
existence of parapsychological phenomena" .Second, "no one has
been able to think up any halfway plausible theory accounting for the occurrence
of any psi phenomena".Finally, parapsychologists
offer no positive criteria for what kind of event should be categorized as an
instance of paranormal phenomena. As Flew puts it, "all psi terms refer rather
to the absence of any means or mechanism, or at any rate to the absence of any
normal and understood means" .
Clearly parapsychological evidence in general is wanting. However, we must evaluate parapsychological evidence directly cited to be most consistent with survival. Reports of apparitions can be explained in terms of hoaxes or hallucinations. Photographic evidence for
apparitions is dubiousbecause ghosts tend to look remarkably like double exposures .
Furthermore, apparitions can be explained in terms of hallucinations because:
There is a tendency to 'see' faces and human forms even in quite random
shapes... It is possible that perceptual creations of this kind are occasionally
elicited in states of fear, and there do seem to be social factors determining
to some degree the forms that ghosts take... The lack of consistent evidence
prevents general acceptance of ghosts .
The theory that apparitions are hallucinations rather than external manifestations of the deceased gains further support from many sightings where other people who are in a position to see the reported apparition do not see it . Finally, the fact that apparitions "rarely
communicate any important information" suggests that apparition experiences are
hallucinatory.
Other phenomena often cited as evidence for survival are near-death experiences or NDEs. Survival proponents argue that because the core features of NDEs are almost invariably reported by experients, NDEs constitute evidence for an objective afterlife reality. However, these core features can be explained by physiological models because the same brain processes occur at the onset of dying (e.g. oxygen deprivation, endorphin release, and random neural firing) in those who undergo NDEs, thus their subjective experiences should be similar .Another argument is that NDEs are real because they feel real, but this does not constitute evidence that NDEs reflect an external reality anymore than the fact that hallucinations feel real constitutes evidence that they are real. Some researchers claim that information has been obtained in NDEs by means other than sensory perception, but there is no experimental evidence to support these claims. Madelaine Lawrence designed an information retrieval experiment where an electronic screen placed in the cardiac rehabilitation ward in Hartford Hospital, Connecticut, displayed a sentence that was changed randomly and could not be seen from the vantage of a patient or the staff .When someone had an NDE, all they had to do is repeat what the sentence said; then the staff could report what the NDEr said and determine if there was a match. The results produced no evidence that anyone could retrieve information from a remote location during an NDE. The accuracy of descriptions of the environment in NDEs may be based on semiconscious perceptions of the environment prior to the breakdown of perception which are incorporated into hallucinatory imagery during NDEs. There is no corroboration for claims of perception outside of the immediate environment of the patient or accurate perception in NDEs in the blind, thus the paranormal argument does not constitute evidence for survival . Finally, the fact that people undergo positive personality transformations after NDEs does not indicate a mystical experience of an afterlife. A study conducted by Kenneth Ring found that personality transformations occurred in people who come medically close to death regardless of whether or not they experienced an NDE, suggesting that the transformation resulted from facing death rather than an NDE .
Some findings of NDE research are more consistent with physiological and psychological models. None of the patients who report NDEs are brain dead because brain death is irreversible .First, NDEs only occur in one-third of all cases where there is a near-death crisis .Second, the details of NDEs depend on the individual's personal and cultural background . Third, physiological and psychological factors affect the content of the NDE. Noises, tunnels, bright lights, and other beings are more common in physiological conditions directly affecting the brain state, such as cardiac arrest and anesthesia, whereas euphoria, mystical feelings, life review, and positive transformation can occur when people simply believe they are going to die .Fourth, the core features of NDEs are found in drug-induced and naturally occurring hallucinations .The OBE can be induced by the anesthetic ketamine . A tunnel experience is a common form of psychedelic hallucination .All NDE stages have occurred in sequence under the influence of hashish .Fifth, a build-up of carbon dioxide in the brain will induce NDEs .Sixth, the panoramic life review closely resembles a form of temporal lobe epilepsy .There are even cases where epileptics have had OBEs or seen apparitions of dead friends and relatives during their seizures . Seventh, computer simulations of random neural firing based on eye-brain mapping of the visual cortex have produced the tunnel and light characteristic of NDEs . Eighth, the fact that naloxone--an opiate antagonist that inhibits the effects of endorphins on the brain--terminates near-death experiences provides some confirmation for the endorphin theory of NDEs: