One of the most fascinating aspects of NDEs is "veridical perception," in which the near-death experiencer reports seeing or hearing events during their NDEs that, given the condition and/or position of their physical bodies, should have been impossible to perceive but are nevertheless corroborated as accurate. Because this phenomenon should be an impossibility given our current understanding of how the brain functions, it has aroused intense controversy and interest. In this presentation, Dr. Jan Holden from the University of North Texas reviews decades of research into this phenomenon. She surveys over 100 instances of possible veridical perception in the research literature. The startling result is that the vast majority of these cases were shown to be accurate. Delving deeper, Dr. Holden analyzes in great detail a few of the most interesting cases. She then reviews the hospital studies that have attempted to capture veridical perception under scientifically controlled conditions, all of which have been unsuccessful so far. She concludes by discussing the controversy that continues to swirl around this phenomenon.
