Stardate 20010629.0804 (On Screen): A scientists claims to have found evidence for the existence of the mind independent of the brain. But his evidence is deeply flawed and useless. He bases it entirely on interviews with patients who had been declared "legally dead" but who had later been revived. Of course, part of the problem here is that "legal death" can be based on heart disfunction, especially in the case of traumatic death. There isn't time at an accident scene to administer an EEG to prove brain disfunction. So "legal death" doesn't prove that the brains of these patients actually stopped functioning during the intervals he claims.
But that's not the real problem with this study. He interviews these patients after the fact and find that some of them claim to have memories of the times in question. His basic mistake is to assume that if someone remembers something then it must have happened, which is provably false. This flaw is universal among people who study this phenomenon, also demonstrated by people claiming "out of body" experiences; it is far easier to explain as hallucination. (discuss)
