hypocaffeinemia

Near Death experiences.

Misleading “studies”.

The drama! The suspense! The Woo Woo Train is back, people!

A lot of hype has recently surrounded a story about a British ICU nurse named Penny Sartori who wrote a book claimed by woowooists as well as the author to be an academic study of near death experiences. How do we know it’s an academic study? Why, because that’s the title of the book: Near Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients, a Five Year Clinical Study.

The title sounds plausible enough, however the first red flag for you astute readers should be the fact that she elected to publish a book– a book currently retailing for $160.00, mind you– instead of publishing to an actual peer-reviewed journal. Bypassing normal mechanisms of science in order to rake in the cash is exactly the sort of thing that qualifies her for a first-class ticket on the Woo Woo Train, but let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and let her work stand or fall on its own merits.