Journal of Scientific Exploration 25: 3 Fall 2011

The Journal of Scientific Exploration is devoted to the open-minded examination of scientific anomalies and other topics on the scientific frontier. Its articles and reviews, written by authorities in their respective fields, cover both data and theory in areas of science that are too often ignored or treated superficially by other scientific publications. This issue of the journal features papers on a variety of subjects. The lead article concerns near-death experiences (NDEs) and surveys several relatively unfamiliar experiences reported from near-death states that appear to form an interconnected continuum with NDEs. The topics discussed include cases of unexplained body changes during near-death states, reciprocally confirmed out-of-body experiences and crisis apparitions, deathbed visions, the re-emergence of mental clarity shortly before death in persons with mental disorders, and unusual memories of little children. The second paper discusses an interesting parapsychological case from the first half of the twentieth century: Jeanne Laplace, who was studied extensively by Eugène Osty and his assistants at the Institut Métapsychique International (IMI) in Paris during the years 1927?1934. The third paper, on the general topic of cryptozoology, presents reasons for challenging the received interpretation of a large, long-bodied marine vertebrate in the northeast Pacific. The authors contend, contrary to the received view, that there are good reasons for thinking that the alleged ?Cadborosaurus? is a fish and not a reptile. The fourth paper concerns an avian-shaped feature on the surface of Mars, exhibiting a unique set of proportional features. The three authors who are veterinarians provide a critical analysis of the avian features, and the geologist and geoscientist authors examine natural mechanisms that could contribute to the formation of this feature. The final paper is a guest editorial, criticizing the attitudes and dialectical strategies of many of those who proclaim themselves to be skeptics of the paranormal. This issue of the JSE is then filled out, as usual, with a large selection of substantive book reviews.