Near-death researcher believes the mind survives death

www.heraldsun.com...

Robert Mays has studied near-death experiences for years, and has reached some conclusions.

One is that the mind is "an energetic entity" that separates from the body as people are dying.

"We believe a strong case can be made that the mind survives death," Mays said. "If we take what the near-death experiencers are saying, the mind will go to a place which is very positive. It's what everybody would call heaven."

Mays is a board member of the International Association For Near Death Studies, a nonprofit research organization based in Durham. It has about 850 members worldwide, and its stated purpose is to promote responsible, multi-disciplinary exploration of near-death and similar experiences.

An MIT graduate and retired software engineer at IBM, Mays has been interested in accounts of near-death experiences since he and his wife read Raymond Moody's book, Life After Life, in 1976, and George Ritchie's book,Return From Tomorrow.

Well, I had to share this story even though I do not believe in so called 'heaven'. The idea that the mind could possible survive the body is a stretch to me knowing that our thoughts are electric synapses in our brain. How these synapses could continue with no power supply sounds like a good question to me.

I think there very few people that wouldn't prefer to know when we die that there is something 'better' after it, somewhere where we can watch our kids or family grow and make sure they are okay or taken car of, but, when we die our source for energy ceases to exist.

Now, we do have energy when we die that is sitting in us that needs to be used up, but our brain works for 12 minutes after we die providing us with many dreams, and trips from the enormous flow of '___' to our brain.

I am not saying for sure that '___' causes all our NDE's, I am just saying there is more scientific evidence of that being the cause versus our energy traveling to another dimension or to 'heaven'.

Does that mean '___' is the answer, no, it is just our most proven theory at this point and theories change.

I wanted to bring it here and get others opinions on the atricle, and see what others think.

Any thoughts?

Pred...

i always ponder what will happen when we die, will it be a nothingness of black? will it be a light at the end of the tunnel? could the possibility of going to hell or heaven really exist? or will we leave our bodies to start life on another plain? i don't know but the one thing i do know is that everyone will eventually find out.

My wife has spoken to her dead grandmother on many occasions, and has seen spirits.

Do I think she is lying or mad? Nope I believe in what she says.

I myself have seen many strange things and Know people who have had NDEs. They can explain everything that has happened after their death in great detail to the amazement of the doctor in hospital that was with them.

So I know this life is just a stepping stone to the next life.

It's nice that someone acknowledges the life after death part, but he seems to be ignoring the experiences of those whose experiences are not so pleasant, who report experiences of torment that tend to be described as a sort of "hell".

I believe in souls and in life/death being just part of journey of immortal soul. But mind is biological, it is based on brain and to the lesser extent - other parts of the body. It dies. I see no way for any memory - which is ,again, a purely biological--> chemical ---> physical action of our organism - to survive decay of physical body.
People loose memories after all kinds of traumas much less "serious" then death.
Again, it is my opinion only and clearly that person invested much more time and effort into his research then me itno my thoughts.

well thoughts in general, as you know cannot be attributed fully to synapses. "Thought" as it is is still a mystery to Science and some argue that what Science cannot explain is "God" or a "soul."

For example, I read an article on how German scientists weighed hundreds of patients at the EXACT moment of death (which was easy to tell with ex. Tuberculosis patients) on a scale that was accurate to a 100,000th of a gram. These scientists eventually concluded that an average of 1/3000th of a gram is lost instantaneously upon death and, in some instances the weight increased and then depleted......I believe some theory was that it was the "tunnel" or "portal" opening up and creating energetic mass. Who knows....I however am very interested in this subject and fully believe in Life after Life.

There is simply too many unknowns to say either way, but one should look at everything with an equally balanced scientific and spiritual mind and decide for yourself.


www.dapla.org...

Interesting read for those who want it

good interesting read i hope their is something after death if not life seems a bit pointless dont u think u gain all this stuff and relationships only to die hmm

what will be interested is watching what happens when we are able to keep people alive for a long very long time talking 200 plus years the way science and tech is moving this could happen so lets say we can download are brains into a computer and live as a computer in a kinda matrix which means we live forever what will people do if they believe in heaven will they let themselves die believing they will see their loved ones or will they choose to live forever never knowing what might of been

interesting times ahead still blows my mind one minute your talking to someone a day later they are gone forever never will u speak to them again its pretty mind blowing

but i do believe theirs more to all this i saw my dad 2 days before he died and i had a very sad feeling we he left my house that night i felt like crap the rest of the night perhaps we are all connected and something i couldn't control knew that was the last time i would talk to him

reply to post by predator0187

I am not saying for sure that '___' causes all our NDE's, I am just saying there is more scientific evidence of that being the cause versus our energy traveling to another dimension or to 'heaven'.

I fiercely disagree.

There is FAR MORE evidence that something else is going on.

The vast majority of NDE cases involve the person's consciousness/mind . . . going to spaces usually still within the hospital or accident site . . . and

DIRECTLY OBSERVING THINGS which the person's dead body

COULD NOT SEE--was not in a position to see even if their eyes were open . . .

e.g. police or EMT's on the other side of the car . . . talking to specific looking persons in other vehicles on the other side of the car.

. . . seeing a tennis shoe up on top of a vent duct in the operating room . . .

4 year old Colton Burpo saw and talked to a little sister that he had NEVER been told about. The parents did not know what sex their still-born child was and had NEVER TALKED TO ANYONE about it.

He noted that contrary to he and his other sister, the one in Heaven looked like his mom.

He also met his father's grandfather. Again, given that the grandfather had died long before Colton's birth, they had never talked about him to Colton. They certainly had not given them his name or what he was called. There were not even pics around that were a known feature in Colton's view.

Yet, Colton met POPS in Heaven and learned a lot of details he had no way of knowing other than that POPS told him.

When Colton was shown pics of Pops just before he died, Colton insisted that was not him.

When Colton was shown pics of POPS at POPS age of late 20's to 30--the age everyone appears in Heaven, Colton recognized him immediately.

Further, Colton's parents relentlessly asked him about every pic of Jesus they could find . . . did any of them resemble Jesus in Heaven. NOPE.

UNtil they came across Akiane's painting of the PRINCE OF PEACE. Akiane also went to Heaven as a young child. When Colton saw her painting on the net, he got real still and quiet and said: THAT ONE'S RIGHT.

There's more to Colton's story that is totally unexplainable by '___' stuff.

=============================

There is no way that '___' could account for any such.

It's a disingenuous farce for folks to claim otherwise in such cases. They are groping and grasping for any excuse to hold onto their

cosmology

which insists that

man is nothing more than a rat, a pigeon, a radish or a rock.

All is a function of mere chance plus time in that cosmology.

They are desperate to hold onto that cosmology because of rebellion.

IF THERE REALLY IS A GOD, then they are answerable to Him and

THAT they want nothing to do with.

They have no significant experience with TRUE JOY AND PLEASURE

and are intolerant of giving up the counterfeit joys and pleasures they know.

Here's Colton's story:

www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328137418&sr=1-1

Why does it even matter? Why would it matter? If you don't "die" entirely, then you still lose all your memories, feelings, sense of self etc as they are in you physical brain. Either way you wouldn't exist anymore.

Originally posted by josephamccoy
i always ponder what will happen when we die, will it be a nothingness of black? will it be a light at the end of the tunnel? could the possibility of going to hell or heaven really exist? or will we leave our bodies to start life on another plain? i don't know but the one thing i do know is that everyone will eventually find out.

Not black but nothingness.... When you are dead it is like before you were born....

My stand point is the need to believe in more after death is just the fear of death itself. This is of course natural as not many actually truely want to die...

I too would like to live for as long as possible, indefinately if science so permits... But I also accept that when I die I will cease to be.

The only thing left of me will be my legacy, and in the memories of people that knew me. Eventually these too will pass and then there will only be the atoms that were once a part of me.

One day those atoms will be out there in space from whence they came after the sun goes nova, only to condence into a new star....

And this is as it should be as part of tje great cosmic cycle.

Korg.

I have always been fascinated with this subject since I can remember, as I had a fear of death growing up, and reading about others experiences with it used to soothe me. As I got older I became very interested in Science and this posed a problem for me as it seemed that science, logic, and reasoning was not very supportive of life after death.

After putting it away for a while and focusing more on science I started hearing more that there were some Near Death Experiences that went beyond what science could explain - '___' may be able to explain away the intense visuals and feelings of peace and acceptance, the lost relatives that come to greet them as they pass - but what about the experiences like what BO XIAN posted? How do they explain that some people are giving detailed accounts of things they would have no way of knowing, i.e. a shoe seen on a hospital roof that was later confirmed, or a woman knowing that her husband was at home with her kids, that they were up much past their bedtime and what they were doing.

Science can account for much but there are some things that can't easily be explained away. I do believe our consciousness exists after we leave this earth and it's because there is the odd one here or there that really has us scratching our heads to explain.

I saw a great quote that really struck a cord with me a long time ago:

"What if the light we see at the end of the tunnel when we die is really our next body exiting our mother's womb?"

I really liked that thought for some reason.

Originally posted by sempul
I saw a great quote that really struck a cord with me a long time ago:

"What if the light we see at the end of the tunnel when we die is really our next body exiting our mother's womb?"

I really liked that thought for some reason.

The you might like this thread as well...

I Know What The Tunnel Of Light Is

reply to post by Deebz


interesting. thanks for the link!

I died, and left my body for what felt like a minute or two. but in reality it was more like a day and a half.

I know i've spammed this experience like 4-5 times now in all the NDE threads but having survived it, I feel it's a necessity to put out there that yes, NDE's are possible, in mine I was what I relate to as a ghost, a greyish floating misty haze in a freezing black/white/grey environment. like I said, it only lasted just under 2 minutes.
no light in a tunnel, because it felt like I wasn't in anything. like I entered into oblivion. proceeded to float into the ceiling and into my body, which by then had been transferred to another hospital the next day.

I am agnostic, can't fully be athiest if there's a supposed life after death, even if it's nothing like the christian beliefs of heaven or hell, it seriously slapped me in the face to the fact there is SOMETHING.

If the mind or mind's energy or soul does go on in one form or another after death, this could explain things at some level about the concepts of heaven and hell, which may just be metaphorical ways to express the state of a person's mind, which may be or may not be intermingled with the soul, either at the point of the corporeal death or during its corporeal life in general. At ease in your mind? Heaven. In turmoil? Hell. Are we biomachines where a sort of wireless energy lands for a while and then moves on? It's a lot to ponder...that's for sure.

I found this lecture of his pretty interesting. Mays explains his theory on a possible way the mind/spirit interacts with the brain. He gets into the science of it in part 3.

The OP says that he "knows" the mind is just electrical impulses in the brain, but we don't know that. It could equally be that the mind causes electric impulses in the brain, that the brain is the interface between our non physical mind and our physical body.

People are assuming that thoughts and emotions are a part of the physical brain. This is just a theory not proven. All we know is that when a person thinks a thought, it shows in the brain scan and that electric connections work through neurons to store memories. That is it.

The thoughts and emotions are soul what happens to the physical brain / body is an effect.

reply to post by arpgme


The brain is important in the construction and operation of a human organism. I would not deny such a thing since we can see the effect of brain injuries on cognition. It should be pointed out that the mind surviving death of the human is not a human mind; a human mind is an integration of at least two aspects.