An interesting take on near death experiences, spirituality and science

[Matt J]

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.

YouTube - Michael Shermer Out of Body Experiment

 

[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