First hint of 'life after death'

First hint of 'life after death' in biggest ever scientific study


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Read the full article from here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11144442/First-hint-of-life-after-death-in-biggest-ever-scientific-study.html

Very interesting indeed... the sceptic in me says what if such reported "awareness" is a way of the brain dealing with a total absence of stimulus after death, a kind of " filling-in " phenomenon for the lack of sensory data which is less traumatic than accepting having died.

Additionally could there be some sense in which activity continues on a physical level after they report "brain death", for a short period? Perhaps on a chemical level?

It's very difficult to explain everything that happens to the brain while it's alive, let alone when it's dead/dying.

I am also a sceptic...

I am a skeptic as well. I feel the brain may be entering a dream like state or a large dopemine rush at the moment of death.
I don't see death as "depressingly inevitable consequence of life" though. I see it as a form of transendance.

Anyone interested in the actual studies rather than the incoherent nonsense of this article that can't even decide what the study was all about, here is a link to the paper that science correspondent Sarah didn't bother to reference or (for all we know) even read.

tzb wrote: Additionally could there be some sense in which activity continues on a physical level after they report "brain death", for a short period? Perhaps on a chemical level?

I'm inclined to agree on this point. And thanks Gisteron for that link. Just skimmed it and I feel the article didn't cover it very well.

I am not sure it can be attributed to "life after death"; after all, all the patients were successfully revived. And if it was possible to revive them, they were not entirely dead.

Eihwaz wrote: I am not sure it can be attributed to "life after death"; after all, all the patients were successfully revived. And if it was possible to revive them, they were not entirely dead.

thanks to my line of work, I experience death on a regular basis. It is as the Jedi teachings describe, you can feel the shock of their life force snapping away. Even though I generally don't know the person, their family and/or friends, as I stand next to them as they pass I feel a sudden change in the room: their presence is no longer there.

I have also almost died a number of times. Once I was almost K.I.A. and was already on the ground, and yes I was aware of what was going on around me, and was able to get back up and fight my way to survival. Although, my experience was different from the article, where my body and mind were stunned instead of suffering from cardiac arrest. The same out-of-body experience was still there. Though I like to think it was mostly good training, and a 'never say die' attitude that got me through that one.

I have a feeling this sense of "awareness" people have before being revived may be the brain cells becoming active due to the high frequencies produced by the defibrilator. Or maybe they may have imagined the experience, and are more the "glass half full" type.

There's lots of "what ifs" when it comes to death, as there are when it comes to life. I think it's just as important to consider the conscious moment in life, opposed to focusing too much on death.

I know a variety of people including family and friends, both now living and deceased, who have claimed to have had out of body experiences. For the most part, none of them can report anything terribly vivid - a feeling of floating, a gentle peace, maybe a few scraps of images from around the operating room or ICU - but never a light at the end of a tunnel, never a meeting with lost loved ones, never an ushering into the gates of Heaven or the torment of Hell.

The most interesting of these cases is my mother who for all intents and purposes died of a massive septic infection for a few fleeting moments a few years ago. At the time she suffered from an intense dementia brought on by being over-medicated in a nursing home. She had very little left of her cognitive functions and could barely remember who she was or separate reality from fantasy.

However, when she died in the Intensive Care Unit of a local hospital, she said that she could remember for the first time in a very long time not feeling crazy. What's more, she felt a deep sense of calm to which she has said multiple times since "I felt like I had nothing that I needed to worry about and wasn't concerned with finding the next distraction to keep my mind off of how bad life can really be."

And though she says that she saw only darkness in this state, she says that she was vaguely aware of the room around her from a detached position above and/or around the room. All of these things not only saved her life (she is now completely recovered and living independently again) but changed her outlook, making her a happier person because she is convinced that there is no need to fear death anymore.

For these things I would like to submit for your consideration the idea of Quantum Consciousness which you can learn more about at the provided link. I sincerely believe that this hypothesis is a scientific possibility, and that it can not only help to explain out of body experiences, but other more exotic topics such as ghosts - as well as the possibility that said hypothesis may be synonymous with that we call the Force.

For another idea, I would like to suppose the idea of Many Interacting Worlds as a possibility. If the many worlds theory is correct, then it may be possible that some semblance of the Christian Heaven (or any afterlife, for that matter) actually exists - and where might our consciousness travel among an infinite number of worlds all existing in the same time and space as our own if unshackled from the crude matter of our bodies?

I'll leave you all to ponder the possibilities.

Jay-Ro