Mind and Soul at the Threshold of Death
Does the brain explain the mind completely? And what can phenomena like terminal lucidity and near-death experiences reveal about the relationship between mind and brain? On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his two-part conversation exploring those questions with neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor, co-author with Denyse O’Leary of the recent book The Immortal Mind: A Neurosurgeon’s Case for the Existence of the Soul, and Alexander Batthyany, a leading researcher on terminal lucidity and author of Threshold: Terminal Lucidity and the Border Between Life and Death.
In the first half of the conversation, we defined terminal lucidity and explored why it’s so puzzling. Today, we look at how it relates to near-death experiences, and we ask a deeper question: what does this phenomenon suggest about the nature of the human mind?
In this segment, Dr. Egnor first refutes the idea that episodes of terminal lucidity can be explained by things like low oxygen or high carbon dioxide levels. These things happen, he says, and they cause panic, confusion, and somnolence, but they don’t make a patient think or speak more clearly or more coherently. He agrees with the idea that aspects of our souls can be expressed more easily and more readily under certain circumstances, and he thinks terminal lucidity and its cousin phenomenon are two examples of such circumstances. Egnor argues that the brain does not generate the mind: it focuses it. Mind, he says, is much larger than brain function, which explains why it may function well even when brain function is terminated or severely impaired.
Dr. Batthyány also believes that phenomena like terminal lucidity point to an immaterial aspect of mind that goes beyond the physical brain. “When we come to boundary conditions, suddenly what was set in stone no longer is valid,” says Batthyány, adding that we need new rules, new ways to understand phenomena of the mind that occur in these unique conditions during life. The strong dependency of mind on brain that gets us through everyday life no longer seems to apply when we come to death and dying.
The conversation rounds out with both men discussing the metaphysical implications of these observed phenomena. Egnor, for his part, has no problem allowing his theological beliefs or insights into his understanding of the natural world. He points to science originally starting out as a branch of philosophy, the organized study of nature according to its causes. “And if the causes in nature are divine, if the causes in nature are from a different realm than the earthly realm we live in, then to do good science you have to pay attention to those causes.” Batthyány agrees with much that Egnor argues but exercises some additional caution, which he explains in detail in conversation.
This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Listen to or watch Part 1.
Dig Deeper
- Ready to learn more? Read Dr. Egnor’s book The Immortal Mind and Batthyany’s book Threshold.
- Watch Part 1 of this conversation below: