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What Happens When We Die
DaltheJigsaw
Mountain View Veteran
A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain.
What sort of methods will this project use to try and verify people's claims of "near-death" experience?
When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about 10 sec., brain activity ceases —as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, 10% or 20% of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, Are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842627,00.html#ixzz1dBoiQQfM
What sort of methods will this project use to try and verify people's claims of "near-death" experience?
When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about 10 sec., brain activity ceases —as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, 10% or 20% of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, Are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842627,00.html#ixzz1dBoiQQfM
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Comments
FINALLY someone is trying to study this scientifically!
(P.S. Don't forget your Buddhism and Christianity thread. We're having fun over there.)
Welcome!
Middle Path!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7621608.stm
I'll take a look at that post, thanks, Tosh.
Think how much we'd miss out on if we limited ourselves to just the accepted, orthodox avenues of learning.
I have heard of people who have died with no vital signs at all, one woman in particular who's heart stopped for a total of 57 minutes. They all seem to carry certain traits such as having a new view on life once being revived, they take nothing for granted and no longer fear death. One guy stated that before his death he was obsessed with his mustang and material things, but when he came back he realized what was actually important in life. Other traits include that when they have actually died they ofte are viewing their own body and feeling a sense of complete detachment from pain, suffering, worry, basically every afflictive emotion.
Now, the questions remains until maybe these results hold any weight that if they have died and have been brought back, is the actual process of death fully completed. We do not know consciousness enough to understand where it goes, how long does it take or if it goes anywhere for that matter. When people die, the brain releases a lot of chemicals, some smiliar to DMT which is a drug that induces intense halucinations. This could suggest that it is merely a chemical phenomena, but we just have to wait for these results or wait until that day comes for all of us, death.
Anyone with a different or better idea is welcome to create it.
That being granted, that is only one part of death IMO. Who is to say that is the only stage of death, maybe in the grand scheme of things, that is not properly dying as she came back, maybe there are many sequences one must go through, who knows. It is a very curious mystery and it makes death something to look forward to IMO.
Feel free to settle for whatever tosh you like though.
Wow that is really interesting!
:wow:
I've read that NDE experiencers come back with the message, "Don't sweat the small stuff." and, "It's ALL small stuff!"
If consciousness is a field permeating the universe, as scientists say, then maybe what happens at death, and near death, is that individual consciousness begins to reconnect with the field. But that doesn't explain the Light. Did you see a Light, Gui? Were you greeted by deceased loved ones?
between quietness and silence
between emptiness and nothingness
between darkness and void
between stillness and stone
Peace abounds