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WORK TITLE: Near-Death Experiences
WORK NOTES: with John Martin Fischer
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://sites.google.com/site/benjaminmitchellyellin/home * https://sites.google.com/site/benjaminmitchellyellin/cv * https://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/benjamin-mitchell-yellin-phd * https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/38204 * http://portlandbookreview.com/2016/09/near-death-experiences/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, B.A., 2002; Boston College, M.A., 2007; University of California, Riverside, Ph.D., 2012.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, assistant professor of philosophy, 2015—.
MEMBER:
American Philosophical Association, Society for Philosophy of Agency.
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Reflections on Responsibility: Essays in Honor of Peter French, Springer, 2017; and Ethics at the End of Life Ethics: New Issues and Arguments, Routledge, 2017. Contributor to periodicals, including Philosophical Studies, Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy, Philosophical Explorations, and the Journal of Ethics.
SIDELIGHTS
Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin earned his bachelor of arts degree in creative writing and literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2002. He then went on to complete his master of arts in philosophy at Boston College in 2007. Five years later, Mitchell-Yellin received his doctorate in philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. He joined the faculty at Sam Houston State University as an assistant Professor of philosophy in 2015, and his work addresses human agency, agency theory, and moral theory. Essentially, Mitchell-Yellin’s philosophical focus comments on the conceptions that are fundaments to arguments regarding morality and choice.
Mitchell-Yellin’s articles on these and other related subjects have appeared in such periodicals as Philosophical Studies, Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy, Philosophical Explorations, and the Journal of Ethics. He has also contributed chapters to several books, including Reflections on Responsibility: Essays in Honor of Peter French (published by Springer in 2017); and Ethics at the End of Life Ethics: New Issues and Arguments (published by Routledge in 2017). The latter topic (i.e. end of life) takes center stage in Mitchell-Yellin’s first full length volume, Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife.
Published in 2016 and written with fellow philosopher John Martin Fischer, Near-Death Experiences explores the frequently debated possibility of an afterlife. The authors provide an overview of these arguments while detailing the phenomenon of near-death experiences. Much of the information in the book is based on research conducted or funded by the Immortality Project at the University of California, Riverside, though Mitchell-Yellin and Fischer also provide their own research and insights. As the authors note, many people who have had near-death experiences report visiting heaven or speaking with dead loved ones. Several such people have written bestselling books about those experiences, claiming that these oft-repeated occurrences are proof that some sort of afterlife exists. Yet, the authors note that these experiences of the afterlife can be explained in less than mystical terms.
For instance, the authors explain that near-death experiences may be hallucinations caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, or by neural overload during near-death and preceding death. From there, Mitchell-Yellin and Fischer share perspectives gleaned from roughly three years’ worth of research, and they find that belief in the afterlife as a result of near-death experiences or tales thereof essentially rely on the age-old philosophical argument regarding the link between brain and mind (consciousness). Without attacking religion, religious faith, or theology, the authors state that there is no physical evidence that the mind (metaphysical) exists without the brain (physical), and they apply this same perspective to the construction and perception of near-death experiences.
As Bettye Miller reported on the UCR Today Web site, Mitchell-Yellin and Fischer explore several questions: “Do near-death experiences (NDEs) provide a glimpse of an afterlife? Are these life-altering events proof of a higher power? Do they show that consciousness is separate from our brains and bodies? Can NDEs be understood in terms of science without denigrating deeply held religious beliefs about the existence of an afterlife?” Given this approach, Skeptical Inquirer correspondent Kendrick Frazier found that Near-Death Experiences offers “a general blueprint for naturalistic explanations.” Although a Publishers Weekly critic felt that the authors’ arguments are not without flaws, “they rightly understand that humans appreciate the thrill of story as well as the truth of explanation.” Sarah Hutchins, writing in the online Portland Book Review was more positive, asserting that “the authors’ analyses and critiques are presented as methodically as a dissertation.” Thus, Hutchins concluded that, “ultimately, this is a scholarly work for those interested in more perspectives on near-death experiences.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 11, 2016, review of Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, p57.
Skeptical Inquirer, July-August, 2016, Kendrick Frazier, review of Near-Death Experiences.
ONLINE
Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin Home Page, https://sites.google.com/site/benjaminmitchellyellin (March 3, 2017).
Department of Psychology & Philosophy, Sam Houston State University Web site, http://philosophy.ucr.edu/(March 3, 2017).
Portland Book Review http://portlandbookreview.com/ (September 8, 2016), Sarah Hutchins, review of Near-Death Experiences.
UCR Today, https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/ (June 22, 2016), Bettye Miller, review of Near-Death Experiences.
Post-Doc with the Immortality Project
Contact Information:
ben.mitchell-yellin@ucr.edu
Education:
Ph.D., University of California, Riverside
M.A. [Philosophy], Boston College
B.A. [Creative Writing & Literature] University of Michigan
Areas of Interest:
Ethics; Philosophy of Action
Profile:
Ben is currently developing work from his dissertation focusing on identifying different conceptions of what is fundamental to human agency and how they factor into debates in moral theory about the correct account of right and wrong and debates in agency theory about the correct accounts of self-governance and moral responsibility. He is also developing an account of self-governed action as grounded in one’s evaluative commitments. He is particularly interested in showing that the account can make sense of weak-willed actions and the importance of the emotions. He has recently taught Ethics and the Meaning of Life and the Philosophy of Law. Visit Ben’s website.
Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sam Houston State University. Previously, he was the Postdoctoral Fellow for the Immortality Project, sponsored by The John Templeton Foundation. He's the co-author of Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife.
I am Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Sam Houston State University. Before that, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. Before taking up my postdoc, I received my PhD (in Philosophy) from the University of California, Riverside, my MA (in Philosophy) from Boston College and my BA (in Creative Writing & Literature) from the University of Michigan.
My main areas of research are in ethics, the philosophy of action, and death and immortality.
Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin
Areas of Specialization
Ethics, Philosophy of Action, Death and Dying
Areas of Competence
Philosophy of Law, Philosophy of Mind, Biomedical Ethics, Logic
Employment
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Sam Houston State University
July 2015 -
Postdoc in Philosophy for the Immortality Project, University of California, Riverside
August, 2012 - June 2015
Education
University of California, Riverside PhD June, 2012
Boston College MA May, 2007
Residential College BA December, 2002
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (with Honors)
(Major: Creative Writing and Literature)
Articles
7. "S5 for Aristotelian Actualists" (w/ Michael Nelson) (Philosophical Studies 173 (2016): 1537-1569)
6. "Deep Reflection: In Defense of Korsgaard's Orthodox Kantianism" (Res Philosophica 93 (2016): 1-25)
5. "Aligning with the Good" (Journal of Ethics & Social Philosophy (July 2015))
4. "The Platonic Model: Statement, Clarification and Defense" (Philosophical Explorations 18 (2015): 378-392)
3. "Immortality and Boredom" (w/ John Martin Fischer) (The Journal of Ethics 18 (2014): 353-372)
2. "The Near-Death Experience Argument Against Physicalism: A Critique" (w/ John Martin Fischer)
(Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 21, No. 7-8 (July/August 2014): 158-183)
1. "In Defense of the Platonic Model: A Reply to Buss" (Ethics, Vol. 124, No. 2 (2014): 342-357)
Book
Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife (w/ John Martin Fischer), Oxford University
Press (June 2016)
Book Chapters
2. "(Not) Riding into the Sunset: The Significance of Endings" (w/ John Martin Fischer) in Zachary J. Goldberg,
ed., Reflections on Responsibility: Essays in Honor of Peter French, Springer (2017)
1. "The Significance of an Afterlife" in John Davis, ed., Ethics at the End of Life Ethics: New Issues and Arguments,
Routledge (2017)
Edited Volume
Immortality (w/ John Martin Fischer), special issue of The Journal of Ethics (December 2015)
Book Reviews
2. "Review of Randolph Clarke, Michael McKenna, and Angela Smith, eds., The Nature of Moral Responsibility:
New Essays" (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)
1. "Review of Robert N. Johnson's Self-Improvement: An Essay in Kantian Ethics" (Journal of Moral
Philosophy 11 (June 2014): 535-538)
Writing for a Popular Audience
Life, Death, and the Self (a blog at Psychology Today)
"Science, sincerity, and transformation of near-death experiences" (at the OUP Blog)
Media Interviews
Houston Matters
Religion Dispatches
Honors and Awards
Outstanding Teaching Assistant (UCR, Spring, 2012)
Dissertation Year Fellowship (UCR, Fall, 2011- Winter, 2012)
Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship Finalist (2011)
Travel Grant (UCR Department of Philosophy, 2011)
Travel Grant (UCR Department of Philosophy, 2010)
Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellowship (UCR, Fall, 2007-Spring, 2008)
Robertson Award (excellence in creative writing) (UM Residential College, 2003)
University Honors (UM, 2002)
Selected Presentations
Invited panelist for "When the Bell Tolls," a Bookend Event of the 2016 Brooklyn Book Festival, September 17, 2016
Author-meets-critic session on Near-Death Experiences at the 2016 Conference of the International Association
for the Philosophy of Death and Dying, Syracuse University, May 18, 2016
Invited contributor to “The History of Mortality: Interdisciplinary Perspectives,” the University of California
Humanities Research Institute, January 23, 2015
"Human Agency and Values," at the University of Redlands, October, 2014 (invited colloquium)
"Comments on Buehler's 'Attention, and Agential Control of Bodily Action,'" at the Pacific APA, April, 2014
"Comments on Davis and Rantanen," at the California Polytechnic University, Pomona, Mini-Conference on
Radical Life Extension, March, 2014
"How Not to Argue About Self-Governance" at the University of San Francisco, August, 2013
"Two Interpretations of Contractualist Moral Agency" at the Pacific APA, March, 2013
"Comments on Robinson's 'The Limits of "Limited Blockage" Frankfurt-Style Cases'" at the Pacific APA, April, 2012
“Self-Governance, Moral Responsibility and Weakness of Will: In Defense of the Platonic Model” at the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, University of Colorado, August, 2011
“Self-Governance and Moral Responsibility” at Moral Responsibility: Analytic Approaches, Substantive Accounts and Case Studies, Ghent, Belgium, October, 2010
“Comments on Eason’s ‘The Ownership Condition of Guidance Control: Responding to Empirical Challenges” at the Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress, University of Colorado, August 2010
“Might Intentions Be Reasons?” at the NYU/Columbia Graduate Student Philosophy Conference, Columbia University, April, 2010
Professional Service
Referee for European Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Explorations, Disputatio, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Res Philosophica, Philosophical Studies, Mind, Philosophia, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Law and Philosophy, Consciousness and Cognition, Southern Journal of Philosophy
Session Chair at the Pacific APA (April, 2011; April, 2010)
Graduate Representative, UCR Department of Philosophy (Fall, 2008-Spring, 2010)
Member of Boston College Graduate Student Philosophy Conference paper selection committee (Spring, 2006)
Membership in Professional Organizations
American Philosophical Association
Society for Philosophy of Agency
Editorial and Professional Activities
Author of Companion Site materials for Steven M. Cahn’s Exploring Philosophy (4th Ed.)
Research Assistant for development of Oxford Scholarship Online abstracts for Gary Watson’s Agency and Answerability
Teaching Experience
SHSU, Department of Psychology and Philosophy
Contemporary Moral Issues (Summer 2015, Spring 2016, Summer 2016)
Introduction to Philosophy (Fall 2015, Summer 2016, Fall 2016)
Death and Dying (Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Summer 2016, Fall 2016)
UCR, Department of Philosophy
Biomedical Ethics (Fall 2014)
Ethics (Fall 2013)
Philosophy of Law (Summer 2011, Summer 2010)
Introduction to Logic (Summer 2009)
Ethics Seminar: Contemporary Virtue Ethics (Summer 2009)
Dissertation
Evaluators, Explainers, Planners:
The Importance of Basic Conceptions of What We Are Like as Agents
This dissertation develops an observation about several contemporary accounts of human action and applies it to debates in agency theory and moral theory. The observation is that these accounts of action share a structure but disagree on how to fill it in. They all hold that there is some set of attitudes or commitments from which self-governing agents cannot be alienated, but due to fundamentally distinct conceptions of what we are like as agents, they each identify different inalienable attitudes or commitments. This observation illuminates debates in agency theory and moral theory by identifying the real source of disagreement at issue. And this affects how we should understand the contours of these debates. For example, some arguments against rival views fail because they depend on a conception of the agent that is not shared. It also helps to identify internal inconsistencies in views composed of elements that assume distinct fundamental conceptions of the agent.
Committee: Andrews Reath (chair), John Martin Fischer, Agnieszka Jaworska, Michael Nelson, Gary Watson
LC control no.: n 2015059003
Descriptive conventions:
rda
Personal name heading:
Mitchell-Yellin, Benjamin
Variant(s): Yellin, Benjamin Mitchell-
Found in: Near-death experiences, 2016: t.p. (Benjamin
Mitchell-Yellin)
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Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife
Kendrick Frazier
Skeptical Inquirer. 40.4 (July-August 2016): p60.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
Full Text:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife. John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin. A new appraisal by two philosophers offers a deeper understanding of near-death experiences. They neither dismiss them as "unreal" nor leap to a supernatural interpretation. Instead, they acknowledge their deep importance. They discuss and critique prominent cases such as those of Pam Reynolds, Eben Alexander, and Colton Burpo. They provide a general blueprint for naturalistic explanations of these profound-seeming experiences. Oxford University Press, 2016, 200 pp., $24.95.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Frazier, Kendrick. "Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife." Skeptical Inquirer, July-Aug. 2016, p. 60. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA455989017&it=r&asid=6fa05b958707040e2306e77ac4c3d2b9. Accessed 26 Jan. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A455989017
Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife
Publishers Weekly. 263.15 (Apr. 11, 2016): p57.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife
John Martin Fischer and Benjamin MitchellYellin. Oxford Univ., $24.95 (200p) ISBN 978-0-19-046660-2
Taking on recent bestselling claims of visits to heaven as well as a few other storied examples of proof of afterlife, Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin systematically challenge the desire to reach for supernatural explanations for near-death experiences (NDEs). In dry and analytic fashion, they show how unusual phenomena associated with NDEs can have natural, physical explanations, making it unnecessary to reach for unproven additional interpretations. The authors, both philosophy professors, are nicely positioned to comment on the subject of NDEs: both participated in a three-year research project on immortality (Fischer was the project leader). Repeatedly protesting that they do not intend to debunk a religious understanding of reality, Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin nonetheless spend a lot of time arguing for the superiority of the physical explanation for NDEs. The book only veers from a lecture-hall tone at the end, when the authors reflect on awe: "Dull explanations are unsatisfying because they leave us without a sense of the significance of what is being understood." They rightly understand that humans appreciate the thrill of story as well as the truth of explanation. Unfortunately, their explanation of NDEs is written in a most dull manner. June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife." Publishers Weekly, 11 Apr. 2016, p. 57. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA449663030&it=r&asid=df01e7552f6fbae922efbd98e52228f8. Accessed 26 Jan. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A449663030
Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife by John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin
by Sarah Hutchins on September 8, 2016
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Publisher: Oxford University Press
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Kindle
Purchase: Amazon | iBooks
Don’t judge this book by its cover or title. Based on the depiction of the winged creatures shepherding naked humans toward the light at the end of the tunnel and the title Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife, a reader might be prepared for an explanation for what people see during a close brush with death. Instead, professors John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, through examination and rebuttal, methodically debunk the current reigning theories and arguments that support a supernatural explanation. While the professors are careful to emphasize that they’re not definitively denouncing anyone’s experience, they insist on scientific, physical proof that can be studied and tested. They don’t want to rule out supernatural explanations but ensure that all of the physical ones are explored.
“The bottom line, as we see it, is that we should exhaust all possible avenues for explaining a given phenomenon by means of factors that fit into our usual, scientific worldview before we begin to take seriously factors, such as an immaterial consciousness or reincarnation, that do not fit into this paradigm.”
As one might expect from a book published by Oxford University Press, the authors’ analyses and critiques are presented as methodically as a dissertation. Each chapter undermines the root arguments that make some people believe accounts such as Eben Alexander’s Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife or Lynn Vincent and Todd Burpo’s Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. For those who readily believe the credibility established by such books, the professors may have something to teach. However, for those who have already studied near-death experiences with a healthy amount of skepticism, their arguments will sound familiar.
While it’s clear that the professors have made valiant efforts to be comprehensive, they could have gone deeper into their research. The references section is only five pages long. One of the professors’ arguments is that LSD trips are often described much like near-death experiences but that these should not be interpreted as anything but illusions. However, since this is one of the most compelling arguments for a plane of existence beyond our awareness, it would have been interesting to see the professors discuss books such as Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception: Heaven and Hell, which they never mention.
Ultimately, this is a scholarly work for those interested in more perspectives on near-death experiences.
Philosophers Examine Near-death Experiences
Researchers with The Immortality Project publish book that offers naturalistic explanation of NDEs
By Bettye Miller on June 22, 2016
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jacket cover
“Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife,” by John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Near-death experiences have been reported throughout human history, around the world and across cultures. The transformative impact of these experiences on individuals who report them – diminished fear of death, greater spirituality, more compassion – is well-documented.
What these experiences mean remains the subject of debate, however. Do near-death experiences (NDEs) provide a glimpse of an afterlife? Are these life-altering events proof of a higher power? Do they show that consciousness is separate from our brains and bodies? Can NDEs be understood in terms of science without denigrating deeply held religious beliefs about the existence of an afterlife?
Drawing from research supported by The Immortality Project at the University of California, Riverside and their own investigation, philosophers John Martin Fischer and Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin examine the phenomenon of near-death experiences in “Near-Death Experiences: Understanding Visions of the Afterlife,” published this month by Oxford University Press.
“Near-death experiences offer a glimpse, not only into the nature of death, but also into the meaning of life,” the philosophers write. “… This book is about how we should go about comprehending near-death experiences. They speak to something dear to us – the nature and significance of life and death – and yet we have a hard time figuring out why exactly people have them and what precisely they mean.”
NDEs are very real in that many people have them, explained Fischer, distinguished professor of philosophy at UC Riverside and principal investigator on The Immortality Project. The three-year research project was established in 2012 with grants totaling $5.1 million from the John Templeton Foundation. Thirty-four teams of researchers from universities around the world explored a diverse set of topics in the sciences, theology and philosophy related to immortality – including near-death experiences.
John Martin Fischer
John Martin Fischer
Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin – the postdoctoral fellow on The Immortality Project and now an assistant professor of philosophy at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas – said they take seriously accounts of near-death experiences, which have been reported for millennia.
They review well-known reports of NDEs – including popular accounts by neurosurgeon Eben Alexander (author of “Proof of Heaven”) and Colton Burpo, whose memories of an NDE at age 3 were recounted in the 2014 film “Heaven is for Real” – as well as scientific research on NDEs and the brain to offer a naturalistic explanation of these experiences.
The philosophers note that proponents of a supernaturalist explanation of the phenomenon contend that the mind is not just the brain, that we can have conscious experiences, even after our brains have stopped functioning. Supporters of the supernaturalist view also contend that our minds give us access to a nonphysical or heavenly domain, and that the best way to explain the transformative power of these experiences is direct contact with a benevolent higher power.
Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin disagree. They argue, for example, that “there is room to doubt that the subjects of near-death experiences really had these experiences at the time it seemed to them that they had them. … It is possible, and seems quite likely, that we will come to find out that our current methods for measuring brain activity are shallow, capturing only activity above a certain threshold. This raises the possibility that we may come to find out that our current methods are unable to capture all brain activity, or even all brain activity relevant to conscious experience. We may come to find out that some of those patients whom we thought had lost all brain function in fact had brains functioning at a level undetectable by our current methods.”
Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin
Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin
Physical explanations of NDEs are not only significantly more likely to be true than supernatural explanations, but that they are also capable of being deeply attractive and inspiring, Mitchell-Yellin says.
“No part of our view in any way denigrates religious belief or a belief in the afterlife,” the philosophers conclude. “We fully recognize and respect religious beliefs, and we are deeply cognizant of the hope that religion, and the doctrine of the afterlife, in particular, offers to many. … Our aim has been to call into question a particular route to religious beliefs and beliefs about the afterlife, namely, one that appears to NDErs as evidence for, or even proof of, the reality of the afterlife. … (O)ur view is compatible with fully embracing the hope that religion can offer in the face of death. We are convinced that what people really want is genuine hope – hope based in true explanations, not wishful thinking.”
Fischer and Mitchell-Yellin will discuss their book at Barnes and Noble in Santa Monica (1201 3rd St.) on Saturday, Aug. 6, at 7 p.m., and at Cellar Door Books in Riverside (5225 Canyon Crest Drive #30A), on Sunday, Aug. 7, at 3 p.m.