Pim van Lommel

Pim van Lommel

Pim van Lommel (born 15 March 1943) is a Dutch cardiologist and scientist.

Biography

Van Lommel is best known for his scientific work on the subjects of near-death experiences and consciousness, including a prospective study published in the medical journal The Lancet. He gained public attention as the author of the 2007 Dutch bestseller titled: Eindeloos Bewustzijn: een wetenschappelijke visie op de Bijna-Dood Ervaring (English: Endless Consciousness: A scientific approach to the near-death experience), which has been translated to German, English, French, Polish and Spanish. The English translation is titled: Consciousness Beyond Life, The Science of the Near-Death Experience (Harper Collins, 2010).

In his book Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, he postulates a model where consciousness is beyond neurological activities of the brain. He suggests that the brain is merely a terminal for accessing consciousness which is nonlocal (i.e. situated outside the physical body). In this model the brain is analogous to a computer terminal accessing a mainframe or the internet. He further hypothesizes that noncoding DNA and quantum mechanics could make such nonlocal access possible and this model could supposedly explain how near-death experiences could be experienced and remembered by people whose brain showed no activity on EEG.

Van Lommel studied medicine at Utrecht University, specializing in cardiology. He worked as a cardiologist at the Rijnstate Hospital, Arnhem, for 26 years (1977-2003).

Reception

In a subchapter titled "Pseudoscientific Explanations of Near-Death Experiences" of the Dutch bestseller titled We zijn ons brein (We are our brain), neurobiologist Dick Swaab praises Van Lommel's research for mapping patients experiences and opening up the subject of near-death experiences (NDE's) to the medical world. But he also indicates that Van Lommel's book ignores (Nobel Prize–winning) scientific knowledge including some conclusions from his own research. He does not refute neurobiological explanations, gives no scientific basis for his statements and borrows concepts from quantum physics without ground. According to Swaab Van Lommel deviates from the scientific approach and his book can only be categorized as pseudoscientific.

Lommel is the author of Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (2010). In the book Lommel argued that consciousness continues to function after the death of the brain and is possibly eternal. Lommel also supported alleged psychic abilities of NDErs. Skeptic Donna Harris in a review for the book wrote the research was unreliable as it was taken from self-reported surveys and interviews and "since any type of paranormal or intuitive power remains unproven, it is troubling that the author doesn’t question these abilities, and just includes them as accepted facts."

Dutch physician and anesthesiologist G. M. Woerlee wrote a chapter by chapter examination of Lommel's Consciousness Beyond Life. According to Woerlee the book is full of "tendentious and suggestive pseudoscientific nonsense", and the picture of the functioning of the body as proposed by Lommel is not consistent with medical knowledge. Woerlee concluded the book is a "masterly example of how tendentious and suggestive interpretation of international scientific literature, vague presentation of basic medical facts, together with ignorance of some basic statistical principles leads to incorrect conclusions."

Publications

• Van Lommel, P., van Wees, R., Meyers, V. and Elfferich, I. (2001) Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands. Lancet 358: 2039-2045.
• Van Lommel, P. (2006). Near-Death Experience, Consciousness and the Brain. A new concept about the continuity of our consciousness based on recent scientific research on near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest. In World Futures, The Journal of General Evolution 62: 134-152.
• Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (2010, 2011)
• Van Lommel, P. (2011). Near-death experiences: the experience of the self as real and not as an illusion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1234: 19-28.
• Van Lommel, P. (2013). Nonlocal Consciousness. A concept based on scientific research on near-death experiences during cardiac arrest. Journal of Consciousness Studies 20: 7-48.

External links

• Personal website
• Consciousness and near-death experiences – Pim van Lommel, M.D. Article and video interview on e-ostadelahi.com
• Dutch homepage