Do they speak French in heaven?
This is a recently released French NDE documentary that I really enjoyed. It is quite long, so you might want to break it into 2 sessions, but well worth watching as it covers the subject thoroughly with some fresh thinking, various interviews with well known researchers from both sides and some intriguing new cases I had not come across before and were quite recent. (Click on the image to see the YouTube trailer)
Overall while the skeptics were given a lot of airtime, the framing was very balanced and up to date. Of note was a recent interview with Charlotte Martial who gave more details about her study and position. Key points for me:
- Some of the cases were new to me: There were a number of good examples in the video that I hadn’t come across before, which made it very interesting.
- The focus on cases of people seeing things outside the room stood out: I found these especially compelling, particularly the one about the man in Iran (I think he was an Imman). This was a good angle for the film maker to take as the usual lazy explanation skeptics provide of the patient being semi conscious when they claim to observe things in the ER cannot possibly apply. It forces the skeptic to claim that the subject is being dishonest somehow.
- The sceptical pushback felt frustrating: What annoyed me was that the sceptics were allowed to argue against each case one by one, instead of having to deal with the cumulative evidence of hundreds, if not thousands of cases saying the same thing.
- The elucidation of Charlotte Marshall’s new study methodology was valuable: This is where I first learned about the method she is now using of filming the emergency room during the study to either confirm, or otherwise, claims made by patients during periods of unconsciousness. This may overcome the issue with objects on shelves or images on screens not being observed. It reverses the evidence process from the patient needing to confirm a specific item of a scene, to the video confirming observations unpredictable observations of the room. This is much more likely to provide scientific evidence if any of the patients in the study have an OBE.
- The thorough examination of the difference in quality of recall between people who say they’ve had out-of-body experiences when they weren’t actually near death vs those who were near death provides strong support to the validity of NDEs. NDEs are unique and can’t be reproduced using other techniques.
- As always the burden of proof is backwards: It’s annoying that people act as though near-death experiences or dualism have to be proven in order to challenge the current scientific view. For millennia dualism was the established consensus, and science has not provided any evidence at all to change that, and yet the physicalist assumptions of science are now regarded as the established paradigm requiring scientific evidence to challenge it. This is methodological materialism and it is biased. I understand why, and the value of this approach, but it creates a false understanding in the minds of the wider population.
- The point about the sheer number of cases mattered: The video does make this point near the end, but I think it needed to be aimed more directly at the sceptics in the interviews.
- Interesting new study idea. The filmmaker is involved in establishing a study called the ROSETTA study that seeks to validate observation from OBEs that occur in visitor waiting rooms. The rationale is that people are drawn to their loved ones when they first separate from their bodies and often report witnessing conversations or events etc that occur in waiting rooms. I have some doubts about the protocol, but at the same time support any research that seeks to understand and characterize this phenomenon better. I wish them luck.
On balance the film provided further support to the understanding that NDEs do not have a natural explanation. Definitely worth putting some time aside (and a bit of cash) to watch this even though it is in French (if you’re French, that will be a bonus, but most who come here are English speaking). It is available with subtitles or dubbed on Apple TV and Amazon.
(Disclaimer: I was given a free advanced viewing of the documentary by the filmmaker but this did not in anyway influence my review.)
Just watched the documentary. I enjoyed it
Yeah, it’s very good.
Hi, on the part of where you expressed your frustration on the skeptics, like where they faced each case one by one, where they arguing your typical style of explanations that have been debunked, Im guessing they tried to account for veridical OBEs but all have failed to account for it. And throughout the documentary it seemed to portray ndes dont have a natural explanation like it was pushing towards that. Thanks, hopefully im not asking too much questions.
What I mean it is easy to try to pick holes in each case and suggest how people might have seen or heard things, and if there was only one case, then there would be cause to treat it with deep suspicion, but when thousands are saying the same thing, and hundreds of doctors are saying it was impossible for the patient to have seen these things, then the weight of evidence is immense, and this was not put to the skeptics. I wanted the question asked “So do you believe that hundreds of highly trained deeply ethical, intelligent healthcare professionals are either lying or stupid?”
I’m not sure if I am putting a comment in the right section, but I just wanted to thank you for making me aware (ha, ha — actually, no pun was originally intended) of this interesting new documentary. I would very much like to see it, but my husband and I don’t have Apple TV, and we try not to give Amazon any business, if at all possible. (Jeff Bezos, the evil Lex Luthor look—alike, certainly doesn’t need any more money.) I will have to see if we can get hold of the film at some point. An even-handed, scientific, open-minded approach would be most welcome. The problem is that, while I would like to see some convincing evidence, I have a strong aversion to money-grubbing charlatans who seek to pull the wool over my eyes. Even Alexander comes to mind, particularly as I was just rereading last night some of the expose done on him years ago by Esquire magazine. Phony claims like his (I’m almost 100% sure that his NDE was a total fake) certainly tarnish things for me and fill the skeptical side of me with doubts.
I know what you mean about Even Eben 🙂
You can watch this through apple if you don’t subscribe but you have to pay a fee. I get nothing from it financially, and had nothing to do with the making of it. I watched it for free on request from the maker, but after seeing it I do think it is worth paying for as it is very well made, and very balanced and made by someone who has a genuine passion for understanding on this topic. The film maker has apparently been coming to this blog for a number of years.
Ultimately this would have cost tens of thousands, maybe more to make, and she’ll be lucky to get it back! I know from my own experience of writing where I have paid thousands on editors and cover designers and never ever recouped the cost from book sales. I make a loss on this blog too as I don’t do advertising.
Truth is everything, and the sacrifice is worth it.
Yes, I bought it on the strength of your recommendation, and enjoyed watching it; I agree it was fairly even-handed.
The experiencers’ narratives were open-minded; virtually all were non-English-speaking cases that had never made it to the English-speaking world – until now. But the same polarised views came from the “experts” who were interviewed: all in your perfectly isolated brain, or something leaves the body.
I enjoyed the filmmakers’ concentration on the many reports by experiencers of knowing third parties private thoughts, like Julie from Toulouse, who knew her brother’s unspoken thoughts at her bedside:
“I’ll drag you by the scruff of your neck if I have to – but you’re coming home.”
Or Amira from Tunisia, who knew that a woman in the room opposite was in pain. Or Catherine, who mentally asked her comatose partner to marry her, which she suggests he seemed to know about. Or Karinne (sp?), who knew the cold/stoic thoughts, feelings, and actions of her attacker.
Other interesting titbits were: Steven Laureys mentioning a Russian database of near-death experiences he has access to, where 50% of cases were distressing. A French hypothermic study which recorded zero experiences – suggesting brain function, but not normal function, *is* required. Julie, who saw her still-living great-grandmother in her otherworldly NDE – not just the dead. And Anna Siboni’s puzzling testimony of a congenitally blind patient under her care seeing colours during the veridical OBE, which doesn’t fit the evidence we already have… so I was a little stumped at that one…
I thought the pseudo-skeptic’s suggestion that they would change their mind with the right data was disingenuous. They all had access to ‘Jaytee’ the dog whilst he was alive, whose behaviour altered when his owner, Pam, was on her way home.
And as one would imagine for secular France… obvious religious interpretations really didn’t appear.
The Iranian TV program discussing, and investigating these issues was… quite a shock to me… I’d like to find out more about that, and when they started broadcasting such investigations.
Yes, I was surprised at Iranian TV being like that.
On the hypothermic issue, my thinking is different. I believe that what is happening in modern hypothermic techniques is that the way the body is bought into a state of medical death does not trigger the disinhibition pathway that Parnia describes…or “the brain packing its bags and leaving”. Just my thoughts on this.
ah… I see every episode of this TV program is on Youtube…
https://www.youtube.com/@Life_After_Life/videos
and they seem to be going back to the location of the OBE, with the experient blindfolded, and totally verifying the information… OMG!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym41GJd1e2o
You can grab the transcript for each video, and then translate it into English.
It was very compelling for me.
OK WordPress is blocking everything I’m trying to post…
But if you go to youtube, and enter:
‘ zendegi pas az zendegi ‘
You can view all these Iranian OBE TV episodes – 6 years worth! It’s apparently a hit TV show in Iran.
Youtube won’t allow Auto Translate. But you can grab the transcript in Iranian, then translate it into English with the timestamps, so you can read what they are saying at any point in the video.
The video I’m just randomly watching – broadcast 3 weeks ago (can’t link directly to it… ( but the ? v = Ym41GJd1e2o ) they have blindfolded the experient, and taken him back to the location of his out of body experience in the morgue, and they are verifying everything… OMG! That’s quite bizarre to watch…
This was something I was curious to hear about from you Mr. Wedgewood. In your personal opinion, what OBE or NDE do you find to the most challenging or hardest to explain for the materialist position up to this point in time?
There are a lot. The dusty 1985 quarter on top of the cabinet. The two serial number cases. Dr Rudy’s. Maria’s shoe. The list goes on. For me the most compelling were two people I actually knew…my father and a girlfriend I once. I had no reason at all to disbelieve them.
Those certainly are compelling examples, Dr. Wedgwood.
By the way, I find this WordPress quite confusing. If you can illuminate me on how to edit my posts and explain why I can reply to some posts, but not to others, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
You and me both. I hate it, but haven’t got the time or money to figure out how to fix it.
Dr. Wedgwood, my memory is failing me. I’m sure that you stated in a post at some point what kind of doctor you are, but I just can’t recall. Could you please tell me? Also, are you in Britain or in the States? For some reason, I have the impression that it is the former, rather than the latter.
Did you first become interested in NDEs because your father and your girlfriend had had this experience? Thank you.
Ph.D. organic chemistry, making and designing drugs. Now I work in medical science with preclinical science and clinical trials. I’ve lived in the UK, Canada, the US and now in New Zealand…British by descent. I first became interested because my father had one. I later dated a girl who’d had one. Both were very private about their experiences due to people’s scepticism…even family members.
Thanks so much for this information on your training and career. It sounds like you have done quite a bit in the field. You’re better off being in New Zealand now than in the U.S. with our very unfortunate political situation — sad to say. As for NDE experiences, it happens that I spoke briefly to a musician recently who said that he is sure that he had such an experience as an infant. That certainly struck me as unusual, since people usually can’t recall memories of events from such an early age.
https://youtu.be/Dm8GAwX7SrA?is=1Hlk9cQUl_HdVQ9O. Here’s à recent interview with Pim Van Lommel from the international association of near death studies or IANDS for short. Their website is http://www.iands.org
To what video are you referring? This link just gets me to a message about “paying members” getting access to more services, and after that I see a video advertised about Richard Feynman commenting on God as he was dying — and that looks to be AI quackery.
I think I had a similar idea about recording a video of the operating room as well. One draw back I see is that it may create some complications with patient confidentiality but I don’t know enough about that to say that definitively. The Rosetta study also sounds interesting. I think there were quite a few cases where patients were able to observe events happening to their loved ones.
Im looking forward to more from Sam Parnia. Haven’t heard anything from him in a while
Good afternoon, Orson! I hope all is well with you.
It’s been a while since I last posted on the blog (looks like I missed a lot of news!). Thank God, I graduated from law school! Now, I’m studying hard for the Bar exam.
I just dropped by to wish you and the entire community a great start to the week. Everything will work out!
Regarding the June 4th post: don’t apologize for anything, Orson! In fact, I’m the one who should be apologizing. Unfortunately, I inappropriately brought up discussions about traditional Christianity, defending viewpoints that don’t apply to other cultures and beliefs, instead of focusing on the blog’s central topic, NDEs.
I hope I’m still welcome here.
Wishing you a great week over there in New Zealand!
Relevant article in USA today
Near death experiences are real, some experts say. What survivors saw
I just read it and yeah i mean its alright sheds nothing new, just same o’l, i found it very frustrating to read what Kevin says like its the same o’l stuff that years ago has been debunked. Like poking a dead corps at this point, and his famous claim seeing and hearing things, even though the cases occur when a person’s eyes is shut ears plugged and subject deep anaesthesia, so its impossible for what ever Kevin says to happen. OR his claim of “we have good understanding” should be changed to “no clue yet” since all current explanations are Moot, and it proves that our current understanding is limited and need more research into the topic, hence we actually “don’t have a clue yet but we need more objective research”. RDE field of research i feel has taken to a new playing field, where it now relies on the newest research and data collected, like those from Parnia etc. Sorry if i’m talking harshly or rude, i dont mean you or anyone, hope everyone has a great day or evening.
Yeah I don’t think the article covers anything that many of the readers here wouldn’t already know. I posted it mainly because USA today is a pretty big outlet here so I thought it was worth mentioning.
For now we are at a stalemate. There is a mountain of evidence to support that OBEs a real if you believe the hundreds of reports verified by HCPs. There is some empirical evidence in the form of 2 OBEs confirmed in the context of prospective studies looking for them…AWARE I especially, although the evidence is not scientific since they didn’t see the targets.
This is enough for me to believe, but it will not convince the skeptics.
I want to see what the Martial group produce. The paper is not far from being published I understand.
Can you post a link to the article that you have mentioned? Thanks.
I try to avoid posting links because for some reason the website won’t let me sometimes but let me try. I did post the title of the article above though.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2026/08/30/near-death-experiences-real/91339410007/
I enjoyed the documentary and I would rank it as one of the best documentaries that I have seen in the past 5 years regarding this subject matter. Yes, some things did get missed, but I’m not letting those imperfections eclipse the quality and objectivity that this film brings to Near Death Experience research, from which the audience benefits tremendously. I’m wondering why the director, Sonia Barkallah, didn’t reach out to Sam Parnia for an interview. Then again, he has been a bit of a social media recluse for a while now.
Thank you very much for your comment and for your kind words about the film.
Regarding Sam Parnia, I did reach out to him to participate in From Up Above, but he declined my invitation. I had known him for many years: he took part in my first international conference on near-death experiences, and I also interviewed him for my first documentary in 2010, Untimely Departure.
I would therefore have been very happy to include his perspective once again in From Up Above, given the importance of his work in this field. Of course, I cannot speak on his behalf as to the reasons why he chose not to participate.
Thanks for clarifying Sonia, also want to publicly thank you and commend you for the excellent film and other work you have done.
My personal view is that Parnia is needing to balance his career with his public persona in the NDE field. He is an associate professor at the moment, and to get a chair he may be required to dial back on his support of the cause of dualism in the absence of scientific evidence supporting that position. Having said that, his work continues and his publications have not changed position, but as a scientist he cannot say much more without scientific evidence. He has empirical evidence from AWARE I…evidence gathered in a prospective study that supports the hypothesis that consciousness eaves the body at death, but it failed to meet the standard of scientific evidence as it was not an observation of the target.
I could be wrong of course, there could be other reasons. I also suspect he is fed up being a punch bag for physicalists, and in the past people like me who have been displeased with certain aspects of the consensus statement (if he even reads my blog any more…I think he once may have).
Despite my criticism of these aspects of the consensus statement, and of his methods in the past, I have enormous respect for him.
are we at a stalemate because the skeptics refuse to account for the fact you just mentioned and are arrogant enough to not accept that reality wise there is no current explanation(i mean all have been debunked), they just use the same ol excuses which fall flat short. I think like the latest new research needed and is the only thing going on for this subject. Which is honestly pretty exciting.
I think we are at a stalemate in so much as that in the absence of a scientifically proven OBE, while the balance of evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of OBEs being real, they are not proven to be from a scientific perspective…until then the skeptics will bring that axe.
kinda ironic only a few cases away from being one of the greatest break throughs in scientific history. essentially they only have one stool to stand on which having a case in a very rigid environment.
If they keep using hidden and secret visual targets there is no chance.
They need to make a different division, where a scattering of visual targets are hidden from the patient, but not hidden from medical staff.
Almost 30 years ago, other people were already suggesting placing the visual target on the patient’s forehead in these hospital studies.
As Borjigin iEEG study showed *bizarre*, temporary, and spontaneous alpha-gamma coupling emerging as the rodents were dying (measurements previously associated with wakeful human/ape visual task studies). I suggested the Faraday cage she used might be replaced with a Mu-Metal box (like Frank Prato used to obtain unexpected results), to also block slowly varying, static fields and magnetic fields as a control. But she indicated that was preposterous, as there was no such mechanism.
Yet today, we have solid superconductive-like measurements (not hard superconductivity) from hydrated brain microtubules – showing they expel magnetic fields (Mikheenko), and super-low temperature and length independent electrical resistance of 1ohm DC at 4000mhz !!! (Bandyopadhyay, Sahu)
Taken together, the Meissner effect and the super-low electrical resistance are the accepted signature of superconductivity. We’re not talking hard superconductivity here, but a biological version. Researchers in both groups suggest the mechanism is occurring on the boundary *between* the Microtubule, and the ordered water confined inside the Microtubule channel.
Then in 2019 Geoff Penington showed mathematically, that matching replica’s/copies in a quantum computer with sufficient isolation (superconductive), literally connect different spacetimes via euclidean wormholes. Something he described as “..totally crazy..”.
It’s literally a done deal IMO… but it can’t come out in the public sphere.
National funding in the USA for dying/NDE studies has been stopped. Borjigin has had to leave the USA to pursue her work in China.
@Max_B
What is a done deal in your opinion?
It depends. For me it already is, but for the scientific community it would require a number (2 or more) of hits from prospective studies where predefined parameters using objective tests were drawn up to validate EVA (OBE). Ideally from 2 different studies. Obviously this could be images on screens or cards only visible to someone viewing from above, but it could also include the kind of set up that Martial describes in her soon to be published study which is much more likely to get a hit, but at the same time is open to criticism that people could have heard or seen things naturally. By videoing what is going on inside resuscitation sweet, capturing all events, people present, instruments used, while at the same time measuring vital signs, any EVA reports of what happened could be time matched to the video and vitals.
@Max “What is a done deal in your opinion?”
I thought I had summarized this in that post.
It’s probably easier for me to ask what you felt I had missed from my post?
Thank you again, Orson. I would also like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you for devoting an article to my film.
I have been deeply touched by your response to it and by the many discussions it has generated here. After all these years working on this subject, it is especially meaningful to me to read such thoughtful reactions, whether they are positive, critical, or raise new questions.
I am genuinely very interested in all this feedback and in the discussions developing around the film. That is exactly what I hoped for: that it could encourage reflection and debate around NDEs and the research, without imposing a conclusion on the viewer.
Thank you again for providing this space for discussion, and for your very generous words about my work.
I love that the subject of NDEs is getting explored more and love your film! I do have a question for you and I don’t mean to step over Mr Wedewood by any means if this message comes off that way. My question is if you plan to do a sequel to this film or another film entirely separate? To clarify if this documentary is intended more as a series or stand alone. Wish you all the best on future works!
Thank you Clayton very much for your message and for your kind words about the film. It truly means a lot to me.
Yes, there will definitely be other films. I am already working on several new projects exploring human experiences and phenomena that are still not fully understood.
As for a true sequel to From Up Above, that will probably depend on the future results of the Rosetta Project. If the research produces sufficiently significant new findings, then yes, I could absolutely see that leading to another film specifically devoted to NDEs.
Thank you again for your interest and encouragement.
Newly reported oob(s)?
https://www.uvahealth.com/news/trial-testing-out-of-body-experiences-yields-unexpected-twist
Good find Pablo. They’ll never get a hit on hidden secret targets.
Interesting article from DOPS. Check out DOPS book series,Irreducible Mind Beyond Physicalism and Consciousness Unbound. Book 4 is scheduled to be released next year