The Case of Kimberly Clark & "Maria," Critically Examined, Shown to Not Support NDE Claims.
Those who say that the Near Death Experience (NDE) has external reality, say that is does not take place only within the brain as a very realistic dream or hallucination, as skeptics and materialists say. They say it is the real spirit of a person actually rising out of his or her body, viewing from above while floating what is going on below, and returning to the body to tell others what he or she saw. The point to the case of "Maria," an anonymous Seattle heart patient interviewed by NDE researcher Kimberly Clark, as strong support for the external reality of the Near Death Experience. They say "Maria" had knowledge unobtainable by any other means than the NDE, so the NDE has valid objective support as an externally real phenomenon. Considering the importance the "Maria" case has taken on among NDE advocates, it is worth examining at length. Investigators have closely examined the claims made in the "Maria" case. They have found them to be invalid. It does not support NDE claims.
She supposedly saw several hospital procedures in her NDE, such as chart paper coming out of monitoring apparatus, and the layout of the emergency entrance and driveway. These could have been learned about elsewhere, or in a hospital visit where she had no NDE, or been guessed as and expected procedure or sensible layout, or surmised from other sensory clues. She then could have read this information into her memory of her NDE, not intending to deceive, but unconsciously filling the gaps in her memory with imagination.
There was a tennis shoe on the ledge outside a high up hospital room window that she reported seeing in her NDE, which was supposedly unobservable from ground level. It would actually have been quite visible, both from inside the room, and outside the hospital from the ground level. Investigators tested the scene and found this out. She could have unconsciously heard about the oddly placed shoe or seen it on the ledge from inside the room, and unconsciously incorporated it into her NDE memory, and then described its features.
Kimberly Clark's interviews with "Maria" about this NDE occurred seven years after it had allegedly happened. This is ample time for memory distortion to occur. If leading-on question were asked, with the interviewer subtly indicating the answers wished (ones supportive of an NDE) this would also distort the authentic memory. Extraordinary claims, such as an NDE, require extraordinary proofs. As the things "Maria" said she saw could have been known to her by ordinary, non-NDE ways, it is unnecessary to invoke the NDE as an explanation for what she "remembered." The extraordinary proof has not been given.
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