An interesting take on near death experiences, spirituality and science

[30A Skunkape]

Decoding The Mystery Of Near-Death Experiences : NPR

I heard this on NPR yesterday. I have always been interested in near death experiences;I was really surprised to hear how common they are among ICU patients who have been 'on the doorstep', so to speak.

[Miss Critter]

I missed that one, but caught this one: Prayer May Reshape Your Brain ... And Your Reality : NPR about how prayer/meditation may reshape the brain.

When Baime meditated in Newberg's brain scanner, his brain mirrored those feelings. As expected, his frontal lobes lit up on the screen: Meditation is sheer concentration, after all. But what fascinated Newberg was that Baime's parietal lobes went dark.

"This is an area that normally takes our sensory information, tries to create for us a sense of ourselves and orient that self in the world," he explains. "When people lose their sense of self, feel a sense of oneness, a blurring of the boundary between self and other, we have found decreases in activity in that area."
Newberg found that result not only with Baime, but also with other monks he scanned. It was the same when he imaged the brains of Franciscan nuns praying and Sikhs chanting. They all felt the same oneness with the universe. When it comes to the brain, Newberg says, spiritual experience is spiritual experience.
"There is no Christian, there is no Jewish, there is no Muslim, it's just all one," Newberg says.
A little theological dynamite there — but, remember, the research is just beginning.

Another similar study, where employees at a high-tech firm meditated a few minutes a day over a few weeks, produced more dramatic results.
"Just two months' practice among rank amateurs led to a systematic change in both the brain as well as the immune system in more positive directions," he said.
For example, they developed more antibodies to a flu virus than did their colleagues who did not meditate.

All of this reminds me of the viral video going around about a year ago of Jill Bolte Taylor describing her experience while having a stroke. While one side of brain became virtually non-functioning, she experienced a blissful feeling of complete oneness with the universe.

This is all fascinating stuff. It's no secret that I share the view that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, so none of it comes as a surprise to me. What is most exciting is how we are finally beginning to realize that science and spirituality are not only not mutually exclusive, but are instead very closely woven.

Thanks for the interesting post, skunky.

[30A Skunkape]

I missed that one, but caught this one: Prayer May Reshape Your Brain ... And Your Reality : NPR about how prayer/meditation may reshape the brain.





All of this reminds me of the viral video going around about a year ago of Jill Bolte Taylor describing her experience while having a stroke. While one side of brain became virtually non-functioning, she experienced a blissful feeling of complete oneness with the universe.

This is all fascinating stuff. It's no secret that I share the view that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, so none of it comes as a surprise to me. What is most exciting is how we are finally beginning to realize that science and spirituality are not only not mutually exclusive, but are instead very closely woven.

Thanks for the interesting post, skunky.

You are quite welcome. There is some very interesting research on childhood NDE being conducted by a pediatrician-he has a rather fascinating (or frightening depending upon your perspective) collection of illustrations done by children who have been revived. I am hesitant to post a link because it is somewhat disturbing , but his website is easy to find via the google.

[GoodWitch58]

Thanks. This is fascinating stuff. I heard some of it-- glad you all posted. I, too, believe we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. I have heard of, or read, many incidents similar to these.
There is so much we do not know...yet.

[LuciferSam]

Decoding The Mystery Of Near-Death Experiences : NPR

I heard this on NPR yesterday. I have always been interested in near death experiences;I was really surprised to hear how common they are among ICU patients who have been 'on the doorstep', so to speak.

Sounds sketchy to me. The corroboration between what she recalled and the doctor's records occurred after a full year had passed. I'm skeptical of how accurately they are time synching her moment of "cardiac standstill" with experiences she recalled.

[ItzKatzTime]

Decoding The Mystery Of Near-Death Experiences : NPR

I heard this on NPR yesterday. I have always been interested in near death experiences;I was really surprised to hear how common they are among ICU patients who have been 'on the doorstep', so to speak.

I was thinking about that 14 year old boy on the news that the parents tried to revive from falling in a pool (I think), then the paramedics .... tried for 15 minutes in the back yard...got nothing but a flat line. Took him on to the hospital and on the way there they revived him. He had to have been dead for at least 20-30minutes. Incredible! What was his experience I wonder. His parents did not even know he was alive until they got to the hospital and had already called family to tell them he had passed away.

Where do we go when the heart stops beating? There are so many stories....many life changing!

[LuciferSam]

I was thinking about that 14 year old boy on the news that the parents tried to revive from falling in a pool (I think), then the paramedics .... tried for 15 minutes in the back yard...got nothing but a flat line. Took him on to the hospital and on the way there they revived him. He had to have been dead for at least 20-30minutes. Incredible! What was his experience I wonder. His parents did not even know he was alive until they got to the hospital and had already called family to tell them he had passed away.

Where do we go when the heart stops beating? There are so many stories....many life changing!

I'll give my non-expert opinion. The brain needs blood to survive, but it runs on neurotransmitters. Even if the heart stops, the neurons can still pump these "thought chemicals" around for a short period of time. Furthermore, I think sense of time could be severely altered so maybe a second might seem like an hour or something like that. I think the average adult has enough thoughts and memories to go off on pretty long strange trip under those circumstances. As long as the brain is not deprived of blood so long that too many brain cells die completely, I believe the person could come back with fairly normal function and remember some of the experience.

[CSully]

Always find it interesting how (generally, of course) folks who are involved in the sciences so emphatically rebuff things that cannot be proven by what we know as "science". Nice to see some considering that the possibility exists that we just cannot explain everything....good article, thanks for posting!

[LuciferSam]

Always find it interesting how (generally, of course) folks who are involved in the sciences so emphatically rebuff things that cannot be proven by what we know as "science". Nice to see some considering that the possibility exists that we just cannot explain everything....good article, thanks for posting!

Indeed, for instance, it's inexplicable how people so readily accept extraordinary claims as fact and at face value without posing simple obvious questions. Science will never be able to answer that one.

[30A Skunkape]

Sounds sketchy to me. The corroboration between what she recalled and the doctor's records occurred after a full year had passed. I'm skeptical of how accurately they are time synching her moment of "cardiac standstill" with experiences she recalled.

I am not sure what the truth is. What is fascinating is that the NDE seems to be universal, yet occurs within cultural context. That would seem to argue that it is nothing more than haywire brain activity. However, there are some rather stunning accounts of pediatric patients being revived who can recount events that occurred during their resuscitation, and the children do not have a lifetime of experience to put such events into context.

[SWGB]

Always find it interesting how (generally, of course) folks who are involved in the sciences so emphatically rebuff things that cannot be proven by what we know as "science". Nice to see some considering that the possibility exists that we just cannot explain everything....good article, thanks for posting!

I don't think this was meant to devolve into a science vs. religion argument. Just remember that 200 years ago the idea of people communicating with devices over vast distances was considered witchcraft.

[LuciferSam]

I am not sure what the truth is. What is fascinating is that the NDE seems to be universal, yet occurs within cultural context. That would seem to argue that it is nothing more than haywire brain activity. However, there are some rather stunning accounts of pediatric patients being revived who can recount events that occurred during their resuscitation, and the children do not have a lifetime of experience to put such events into context.

The NDE and the out-of-body-experience (oobe) are both fascinating and universal. To me the question is are they evidence of the spiritual world, or did belief in the spiritual originate from these universal experiences which are nothing more than products of brain activity? Dr. Michael Persinger can produce these experiences in the lab by stimulating temporal lobes through magnetic induction. If he stimulates the left temporal lobe it's blissful, but if he stimulates the right temporal lobe it's terrifying. In fact, the subject will sense an evil presence. Isn't the devil supposed to be on the left shoulder? The left would be controlled by the right temporal lobe so that makes sense. Some people have natural brain activity that leads to these experiences under certain circumstances, usually at the onset of sleep. It looks like the doctor recordsthe brain patterns of such subjects, and then he's able to play them back (a representation of the recorded patterns) into other people through magnetic induction. This causes experiences similar to a naturally occurring oobe.

[jensieblue]

For those interested..Jill Taylor has written a book on her experience. I believe the tirle is Stroke of Insight. Fascinating and informative book