Showtime television in the states as a show called,
"Penn and Teller: Bullshit!"
http://www.sho.com/site/ptbs/home.do

While a very informative and insightful show, there are often times I feel their arguments are lacking or trail off, such as the episode regarding "hair" where they argue people are stupidly concerned about the style of haircuts on themselves and others and feel people could be missing out on a girl with a hot body if they cared only about her hair.  While it is true it may be vain, Penn and Teller fail to explore the possible psychological or evolutionary sexual cues of hair, or even examine how hair can dictate "attractiveness" in other animal species so why not humans?

One particular episode though irritated me a bit.  It was about NDE's.  They claimed NDE's were baseless because fighter pilots experience similar sensations when they are in the centrifuge.  That's it??  They claim based on the centrifuge experiences, it means NDEs are no more then just the brain's way of easing the pain of death.  How could they come to such a conclusion merely on this?  This is a show the skeptics hold up as the definition of rational thinking, yet they accept anecdotal evidence as validation of their position when they won't accept  anecdotal material that invalidates their position?  They never bothered to mention any scientific studies regarding measured brain activity in NDE's, nor did they bother to consult the thousands of doctors in ER's (in the front line of life and death) who believe in NDEs.

If anyone else caught this episode, please discuss your thoughts.

Well, Penn & Teller are stage magicians, and
stage magicians tend to be a skeptical lot.
The "Amazing Randi" comes to mind as
well...
Also makes you wonder how many of those doctor's
reports, case studies "verifying" NDE's and so on
were fudged. The will to believe is a powerful thing
indeed, as is the tendency of authority figures (such as doctors) to believe in the value of "noble lies" (especially as doctors might want something comforting to say to a terminally ill patient... it's good bedside manner.)
Just my $0.02 worth,

B-man