Harvard Neurosurgeon Confirms The Afterlife Exists

originally posted by: awareness10
a reply to: elementalgrove

Nice Story!

However .... after hearing about how Harvard is harboring and abetting snowflakes. I can't say that i believe what this guy is saying.


Harvard doesn't have a 'great' record for Human Dignity nor do they give a # about the second amendment. So that being said, i will believe it when i'm Dead and can fully confirm what this douche is saying is valid.

Woa woa!

How the hell did you make this political!

We do agree on inevitably finding out, for none of us make it out of here alive!

originally posted by: cosmickat
involving hell-like experiences are truly awful but interesting also...why is it a few people report these NDEs? Have they just convinced themselves they are going to Hell?

I read a couple of the hell ndes. not many, kinda indifferent about those to be honest because typically it ends up where they call out for jesus or the like and voila..rescued.
Now
Hell is meant to be forever..no escape. once your in, your in and that choice was made before..so, the idea of wingman J having your back means the whole concept is just bogus..self created hell for reasons unknown.

I guess its the entrance you need or something. If its optional, I might just skip that whole fire and brimstone thing.

a reply to: SaturnFX

Hell is meant to be forever..no escape. once your in, your in and that choice was made before..so, the idea of wingman J having your back means the whole concept is just bogus..self created hell for reasons unknown.

This is where I believe the religions have manipulated the idea of hell into something that can be used to force people to believe whatever it is that they wish. To me both notions of heaven and hell exist within the mind of man. You make your way to either of them based upon the actions you take with your own free will.

To me figures like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Lao-tze and the myriad of archetypal forms, represent a form of consciousness that is open to all who will do the work to cultivate. As you mentioned meditation is one of the ways there.

Many cultures have different descriptions of transforming sexual energy into the high centers and awakening the third eye, which conveniently is where that special substance is created in our brain at the pineal gland.

I believe we are far more powerful then we have been led to believe and it is our individual journey to discover this.

originally posted by: Chadwickus
I've read that in some operating rooms there is an object in the room that can only be seen when one 'floats above themselves' in a NDE, as in on top of a cabinet. Those that claim to experience NDE get asked to describe what they saw, the object never gets mentioned...

This is Dr Parnia's AWARE study you reference. They placed ornaments and images in emergency rooms and waited to see if any NDE claimants saw anything. Although there were no hits, there have been some reported in the past and that's what partially inspired the idea. Parnia sort of thought it would all be bollocks and then compromised from there to concluding that further research should happen.

So many people report shades of NDEs that it's only fair that research continues. It's tough when we're always dealing with anecdotal evidence and when we know the brain can fritz out under normal conditions. Personally, I've 'enjoyed' exploding head syndrome, sleep paralysis and known the (ahem) psychedelic path and can testify that the brain can be a convincing trickster.

a reply to: Chadwickus

there are a few accounts where patients who have "died" on the operating table have "come back" citing a NDE and have been able to give detailed descriptions of surgical tools and which surgical staff entered and left the room while they were clinically dead.
I remember reading an account some years ago, when the patient gave accurate serial numbers off of a piece of surgical equipment that would not have been in their line of sight while they were conscious.

Although it still is all anecdotal. ..I mean no one comes back right ?

The thing that makes me less skeptical of the whole NDE question is the ( again anecdotal reports ) from hospital staff involved in palliative care. There is a fair amount of accounts to be found coming from nurses of terminal patients who are also experiencing unusual events at the time of their patient's death.

It's a very interesting subject...but I guess we won't really know, until we know

a reply to: awareness10

who pee-ed in your cheerios ? pretty hostile responses to the OP and in no way relevant.

just an observation

a reply to: elementalgrove

There's a decent interview with Lommel over here with a transcript too.

His early paper is interesting too and it's worth paying attention to the peer review chatter - Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands (pdf)

Another paper (pdf)goes a little further than I'm prepared to go, but it's good read and the references can lead to authors most of us haven't read before.

originally posted by: cosmickat
a reply to: Chadwickus

there are a few accounts where patients who have "died" on the operating table have "come back" citing a NDE and have been able to give detailed descriptions of surgical tools and which surgical staff entered and left the room while they were clinically dead.
I remember reading an account some years ago, when the patient gave accurate serial numbers off of a piece of surgical equipment that would not have been in their line of sight while they were conscious.

Although it still is all anecdotal. ..I mean no one comes back right ?

The thing that makes me less skeptical of the whole NDE question is the ( again anecdotal reports ) from hospital staff involved in palliative care. There is a fair amount of accounts to be found coming from nurses of terminal patients who are also experiencing unusual events at the time of their patient's death.

It's a very interesting subject...but I guess we won't really know, until we know

Precisely!

There are far too many instances that are unexplained, that simply get relegated to the "simple hallucination" bin even when there is no way for this to be the case.

Other examples of this can be found in the reincarnation stories of young children vividly remembering a past life from an area where they have never been and being able to tell about their time there and even give information about events in the past that the current culture do not understand.

Add to all of this the fact that we produce the same substance in our brains that is used in Ayahuasca ceremonies and the vivid life changing experiences that so many have had and it implies that there is far more going on than we could possibly quantify!

originally posted by: awareness10
a reply to: elementalgrove

So i bashed harvard and you got offened by it, i'm not surprised.

If i'd have know this was a Snowflake Thread i'd probably have avoided it.

Not offended, simply trying to understand your aggression.

Harvard has its own issues of this there is no doubt, however this is not the place to discuss it. You are simply trying to cause threadrift for reasons unknown. I have not commented about my critical views about Harvard to avoid this.

As far as you persistent snowflakery, I suggest you look in the mirror. Your lashing out leads to the presumption that deep down you have your own issues at play.

I think with my medical condition, I'm desperate to believe in an afterlife, which makes me wary of what to believe. I feel my views are probably clouded by my willingness to want to believe. I'm not religious and question religious traditions and dogma I have heard of stories about people taking certain powerful hallucinagens that trigger similar stories, about being led into another world by a guide. The hallucinagens is also released in high doses when the brain dies. So I guess that makes me consider this as away of the brain closing down and making the death experience less frightening to the dying. I'm just not sure how you prove an actual trip to heaven. Remember Ben Carson is also a neuro surgeon who has come out with some pretty wacky stuff. So just because it comes from the mouth of a neurosurgeon doesn't really give the story any more weight IMO

a reply to: woodwardjnr

I wonder about that explanation. Some experts insist reported NDEs are the brain shutting down and it's a way to ease us into death. That last part troubles me as I don't see how we'd evolve such a process. The terms of natural selection overwhelmingly rely on genes being passed on and the dying aren't passing anything on.

Then again, it's also troubling that some proponents want to sort of unify the NDE as a universal experience that's the same in all cultures. Christian-focused researchers have tried to show Jesus as a common theme and Eastern NDE reports are often lacking the cultural iconography of Christian,Western cultures.

It looks like there's a definite experience there and it's being given layers of meaning by people who talk about them - us. I'm just scratching my head over all of it and feel confused regardless.

originally posted by: woodwardjnr
I think with my medical condition, I'm desperate to believe in an afterlife, which makes me wary of what to believe. I feel my views are probably clouded by my willingness to want to believe. I'm not religious and question religious traditions and dogma I have heard of stories about people taking certain powerful hallucinagens that trigger similar stories, about being led into another world by a guide. The hallucinagens is also released in high doses when the brain dies. So I guess that makes me consider this as away of the brain closing down and making the death experience less frightening to the dying. I'm just not sure how you prove an actual trip to heaven. Remember Ben Carson is also a neuro surgeon who has come out with some pretty wacky stuff. So just because it comes from the mouth of a neurosurgeon doesn't really give the story any more weight IMO

I am sorry to hear that you have a medical condition that causes you to face your mortality. It is wise to question religions and their dogma. Your body and your consciousness are meant to be your own church. No one else can give you the answers that you seek.

I suggest researching the substance that your brain produces I will u2u a video on it. As well as research the cultures who have rituals around the sacred use of psychedelics. I believe the core purpose to psychedelic ceremonies is what is called ego-death. In facing the death of the ego, the spirit is reminded that it is much more than this identity we take on. They called them rites of passages, they understood that without them man is dangerous because he can fall for the trap of the negative human qualities.

They also understood that it helps transcend the fear of death. We have nothing to be afraid of my friend. This is the realm we come to learn from and grow. Without death life would not be as precious as it is. I would like to share a couple of videos of my favorite philosopher who has so greatly shaped my worldview and faith, his name is Alan Watts.







There is an expression that gets thrown a lot that many do not understand and it is Namaste. To me it means the divine in me acknowledges the divine in you and woodwardjnr, you are not alone in what you are experiencing. Do not doubt that you are connected with an energy that permeates all of life and never stops although I may never have met you in person I still know you in spirit. Namaste my friend. U2U me anytime!

a reply to: woodwardjnr

There is still so much to learn about how our brain works and it leads me to agree that the whole NDE could be attributed to a massive release of hormones and endorphins at the time of our death. Even taking this approach to an explanation of why and how NDEs occurred is also a "shot in the dark " much as the second way of attributing an NDE to proof of an afterlife.
Most of us ( if not all ) who are spiritual in any way have a belief that our consciousness will continue after the physical self dies. That is where I am.
Life's lessons can be used to help us live better lives and enrich the physical plane where we exist in this life...but couldn't there be more ?
It all boils down to the old " meaning of life " and " why are we here " ...Questions that we can never truly know the answers to, because, of course, we have to Be it to know it.
Also ..imho ... If science was to provide the answers to us now and prove beyond doubt that we survived death ..then how would we live our lives now? Knowing for sure that we " could have another crack at it " might just lead us to live a wasted life in total disregard for any consequences and therefore result in no lessons learnt and no development of our souls/consciousness/true self.