Life after Death and Clinical Research

Does Consciousness Continue after Death?

Scientists in the US have started a huge 3-year project to explore the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. They want to find out exactly what happens in the brain and the consciousness after the body dies (so-called ‘clinical death’). The Human Consciousness Project will examine around 1,500 people all over the world who survived after their hearts stopped functioning.

When the heart stops beating no blood gets to your brain, and after about 10 seconds brain activity ceases. That is normally the official death point. Yet around 10% or 20% of people who are brought back to life from that point, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, report having consciousness. They all report being able to see what is happening after that point, as if they were floating on the ceiling. The scientists want to confirm whether these are real experiences or hallucinations, by cross-checking what the patients’ report that they saw happening from above, with the doctors and nurses who were present. So far, hundreds of cases have been confirmed as accurate, to the amazement of the medical staff.

Life after Death

Essentially here is the situation...A person , for the sake of example, lets say a male in his 60's, is home
watching his favorite American Football Team.

Two minutes before the game is about to end, he suffers a heart attack. Ten seconds later his brain stops functioning in a manner that would allow for conscious thought.

Despite this, he knows the outcome of the game, sees his wife (again for the sake of example) call 911.

He perceives an argument between ambulance staff over politics and knows the opinion of each individual. He remembers entering the emergency room and knows the the medical problems of other people in that department. As well as specifics about conversations staff are having not actually related to there jobs in general.

One full hour after entering the hospital, doctors are able to revive him and after having been admitted. He describes in detail the events, despite the fact that in consideration to the purely biological factors such things are impossible.

Any thoughts?

Thoughts?

Well all I can say is that I am a believer in life after death. This can't at all be everything in our life, hense there has to be something more to life as we know it. There's a reason for religion, spirtual purposes because all these things are real. Only problem is, with some people they will often turn something like religion into the worst possible things imagined, greed, selfishness and so on and forth.

reply to post by Kashai


Dear Kashai,

As your statistics show there are many of us that have NDEs. There is a moderator on this site that wrote about his and I am sure you can search for and find it. Personally, I do not and will not discuss mine in any detail in public or with anyone researching them. That is sort of the thing, I find there are two types of people who have NDEs, the ones who will and will not discuss it with others. I think it may depend on what we discovered during our time; but, I don't really know. Whatever the reason, you won't get an honest representative group of all of us. My opinion and good catch.

What a brilliant study!!
I hope for many more of its kind.

If more people start to recognise that there is in fact life after death and we do have souls then maybe we can expect a bit more morality.

reply to post by TechUnique


Dear TechUnique,

And now you are stalking me.

reply to post by Kashai


If you die clinically, your sensory organs may still receive information about the outside world. It may be kind of like a cache where it stores information temporarily for later use. I think the best way to show NDEs as hallucinations would be to collect this information from dead bodies that have long been dead in the same way a computer scientist can withdraw information from a destroyed hard drive.

I think we are decades away from being able to scientifically measure this type of occurrence. There are too many variables to measure.

reply to post by BottledWater


Dear BottledWater,

I think the best way to show NDEs as hallucinations would be to collect this information from dead bodies that have long been dead in the same way a computer scientist can withdraw information from a destroyed hard drive.

Yes science is at it's best when it sets out to prove a particular result in advance. I have a problem with that. You state that NDEs can be proven to be hallucinations. Do you not understand that some of us have even seen things go on in rooms adjacent to where they were (I am not one of them)? If you have not personally had one then you have no idea what senses are awake and aware. Why then do you presuppose that they are hallucinations? You should also understand that you cannot ever withdraw any thoughts from a dead brain, it is not dynamic and thoughts are. A hard drive keeps it's history, files never really go away, people's brains are not like that, they are in motion.

Originally posted by AQuestion
reply to post by Kashai

 

Dear Kashai,

As your statistics show there are many of us that have NDEs. There is a moderator on this site that wrote about his and I am sure you can search for and find it. Personally, I do not and will not discuss mine in any detail in public or with anyone researching them. That is sort of the thing, I find there are two types of people who have NDEs, the ones who will and will not discuss it with others. I think it may depend on what we discovered during our time; but, I don't really know. Whatever the reason, you won't get an honest representative group of all of us. My opinion and good catch.

Speaking strictly from a conservative point of view it is inherently impossible for humans to have any perceptual experiences 10 seconds after a heart attack. Clinically the possibility makes apparent that life after death could in fact exist. research into the matter has gone beyond one particular institution, designed to present conclusions upon what is defined, under the context of serious clinical research.

Any thoughts?

I think it takes alot longer than they think for the other half of your brain to completely shut down. When i was pronounced dead 3 times i remember alot of it, even while they where reviving me, so who knows.

reply to post by Kashai


Dear Kashai,

Speaking strictly from a conservative point of view it is inherently impossible for humans to have any perceptual experiences 10 seconds after a heart attack. Clinically the possibility makes apparent that life after death could in fact exist. research into the matter has gone beyond one particular institution, designed to present conclusions upon what is defined, under the context of serious clinical research.

I am not sure how I wish to respond to this. Too many instances where people have done just that and for longer periods of time. People can deny that these things happen all they want; but, they do and if you have had one, there is no point in trying to convince anyone. The specifics of the NDE are mostly irrelevant to anyone else. It is simple, NDEs are outliers, you can ignore them or change the hypothesis. They are unwilling to change the hypothesis because it would mean that they are responsible for what do on earth and they don't want to believe that. They might have to actually care about other people and stop being selfish and self centered. Sorry, this is why I don't talk about mine. Peace.

Edit: I should be more specific, the problem was not your question it is my answer. I get upset that people don't understand that we all matter. Death is a cop out, it is used to justify being a jerk while your alive to get what you want when you want it. Death is the justification for selfishness. The world is so busy telling you that you don't matter so that you wont act as if we all do.

Let me be clear, there is no biological reason known to conservative science, that can account for such an issue. The idea that somehow, someone can fill in the blanks, is inconsistent with biology, taking into consideration conservative conclusions.

There is no real way a person can have experiences 10 seconds after a Heart Attack of any kind. Despite that conclusion it does occur in 20% of people tested suggesting that there is life beyond classical definitions of what is regarded as clinical death.

See if the soul did not exists such experiences would altogether be impossible.

Any thoughts?

This is a great interview with an even greater example of an NDE. Eben Alexander who was overcome with bacterial meningitis, experienced consciousness after death. He is an academic neurosurgeon and This is the most in depth interview he's given. You can also catch his appearance on "Through the Wormhole" (I believe that's the show's name) on the Science channel.



I'll just go ahead and post the portion of Through the Wormhole, also...




Enjoy.

Exactly, in the context of the conclusions of Materialism there is no factual way anything like this can happen. Given they are correct there can be no experience's 10 seconds after a heart attack. the heart is more than just a pump, it discharges and recharges electricity. Given a heart stops the process also stops and the brain, as a result is limited by this source of electricity.

If humans functions solely upon what conservative scientist claim is possible, there is no way they could experience anything 10 seconds after the heart stops.

Any thoughts?

I have experienced such a thing myself years ago now, heart slowed and eventually stopped from too much drug.(hospital administered before surgery)
I woke up slightly dazed, I remember the nurses panicking, calling for the doctor,
The room began to swirl, the beeping of the machine began to fade. It began to freeze. Cold. I floated out of my body through a hazy grey dimension type event and into where the ceiling would be, where I woke up the next day in a different part of the hospital. Essentially a ghost for like 10 seconds, but a day passed. it's real.

I welcome responses related to personal experiences.

My son had an nde while in grade 11 during the swine outbreak several years ago. He got sick alot. And I always suspected a weak heart, as I had have one, and my youngest son a heart murmur and this son was very gentle, very thin, low energy young man. He often says his legs were weak when he stood for too long, and he had physical apraxia, and an occupational therapist for a number of years, as my youngest as well.

When that flu was going around, they said no one in our area had it, but all of us were sick with a very unusual flu. It always resulted in a bad sore throat and bronchitis even, and instead of 1/10 needing antibiotics, most people needed them to recover well. When my son got sick, he slept on the couch nonstop, and that night, he went upstairs to bed at around midnight.

Then he collapsed and was out of body before his body hit the bed. He couldn't move his feet or look down, was rooted to the spot. He said it was like noon day, was light everywhere and daylight, and he had super senses, he said if a pin had dropped miles away, he would hear it. There was a light shape on his wall, and he knew his heat had stopped and he had a choice whether to come or go. He thought he would be very happy returning home but wanted to stay and help us out.

At that point, he tried to move to his body but couldn't and then he was assisted, he said by an angel or Higher Self. Then he could look down and he saw a 5 foot vortex, half on the bed and half off, and when he entered he awoke in his body.

When this happened he was deathly ill, and had spent the day dozing on the couch. When he opened his eyes he was 100% restored And has only been sick a few times of short duration since.

The AWARE study by Dr. Parnia has already been going on for a few years. The results are expected in late 2012 or early 2013.

I'm not sure if your article is quoting an old source or if this is a new study.

www.horizonresearch.org...

Research

Contributions to the research on near-death experiences have come from several academic disciplines, among these the disciplines of medicine, psychology and psychiatry. Interest in this field of study was originally spurred by the research of such pioneers as Jess Weiss, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, George Ritchie, and Raymond Moody Jr. Moody's book Life After Life, which was released in 1975, brought public attention to the topic of NDEs.[20] This was soon to be followed by the establishment of the International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS) in 1981. IANDS is an international organization that encourages scientific research and education on the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual nature and ramifications of near-death experiences. Among its publications are the peer-reviewed Journal of Near-Death Studies and the quarterly newsletter Vital Signs.[11]

Later researchers, such as Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring, and Michael Sabom, helped to launch the field of Near-Death Studies and introduced the study of near-death experiences to the academic setting. The medical community has been reluctant to address the phenomenon of NDEs, and grant money for research has been scarce.[11] Nevertheless, both Greyson and Ring developed tools usable in a clinical setting. Major contributions to the field include Ring's construction of a "Weighted Core Experience Index"[32] to measure the depth of the near-death experience, and Greyson's construction of the "Near-death experience scale"[33] to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced an NDE. The latter scale is also, according to its author, clinically useful in differentiating NDEs from organic brain syndromes and nonspecific stress responses.[33] The NDE-scale was later found to fit the Rasch rating scale model.[14] Greyson[34] has also brought attention to the near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention, while Melvin Morse and colleagues[24][35] have investigated near-death experiences in a pediatric population.

Near Death

reply to post by Kashai


...while at the same time quantum physicists are declaring "everything is consciousness"... I think it is more than obvious, post-death or NDE will result in emergence of "super-consciousness", which by itself is already inherently present (in more subtle forms) in our everyday consciousness. So, all NDE is, is just a visit to the source and back.

But as such, for atleast to me, discussion about "if there is life after death" is long past. There is nothing but consciousness, and what we call our "life" is just one experience of it. A drop in the ocean.

Perhaps death as we understand it is non-existent and life after "death"? Is an experience that could as an analogy, be related to the other side of a coin. Not observed by the "living", due to the current development of our sense's. To suggest, we are evolving and will do so in such a way. As to make the experiences beyond what we call life observable while we are "alive".


Any thoughts?