"People with severe dementia can regain awareness, personality, and coherent thought just before death. Some take these episodes to prove that we are more than our material bodies. But perhaps they just show how little we understand the brain. The political scientist Charles Murray, best known for The Bell Curve and other fiercely debated works on human intelligence, has taken up a more metaphysical interest: the existence of the soul."
"A woman suffering from Alzheimer's has not talked or responded to family members for several years. One day, out of the blue, she starts talking coherently: she recognizes her granddaughter, asks about her family, offers advice. Shortly afterwards, she dies. Many such cases have been reported. The spell of lucidity tends to be brief, and the patient usually dies within a week and often on the same day."
Terminal lucidity describes episodes in which people with severe dementia or brain damage suddenly regain coherent consciousness, memory, and personality shortly before death. These episodes tend to be brief and often precede death by a day or week. Many such cases have been reported, but systematic scientific research remains limited. Charles Murray cites terminal lucidity as evidence against strict materialism and in favor of a soul or dualism. Some philosophers find dualism more plausible than many suppose, but the terminal-lucidity evidence is not yet persuasive or explanatory. Neurological accounts remain the expected materialist route for explanation.
Read at Psychology Today
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