Near Death Experience Article

[cazzz1975]

Im surprised this one hasnt been posted here, Interesting experience of an athiest, though the sceptic in me found the content of his experience a little fanciful.

http://www.dailymail....erience.html#comments

[WaldoMcFroog]

A rebuttal to the bottomwater in that article: http://freethoughtblo...to-the-deluded-again/

[LazyGun]

Hadn't seen the article cazz. Interesting article, but I remain unconvinced. Nothing written in that article is any kind of "proof" of anything at all, it seems to me, and as a self confessed religious convert, and someone with a book to sell, his testimonial could hardly be described as unbiased.

[cazzz1975]

Considering the guy is a sceptic I found his description of the event a little woolly, I would have thought as a sceptic he would be more detailed.

[LazyGun]

@Cazz yes, I would agree. Interestingly, reading Waldos link to the PZ Myers article discussing this same story, The inference I got, reading the article, was that this guy was and is a christian.

Also, much of the detail of the place he was supposedly in came back over time - weeks and months later. All sounds rubbish, frankly :)

[daffy654]

So, the 'dreams' were nothing to do with the bacteria invading his brain? or possibly the drugs they would have had him on?

[paddywak]

I had a near death experience after a pit accident back in the early '70s all I remember was the pain till they shot me full of morphia and then waking up in hospital 10 days later.

[Kiki-frog]

It's interesting how these near death experiences have these factors in common - clouds, light, being greeted by angelic beings. Maybe it's the way our brains are wired, to blot out the trauma of death. Or maybe there is a 'heaven'. Basically we've no way of knowing either way until we die. But I would never question the vailidity of the experience itself, even if it is just chemicals in the brain

[jomifl]

Why should a dream suddenly become an 'experience' just because the dreamer nearly died?

[mibn2cweus]

Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, some people to come away from such experiences with a greater respect for a functioning brains potential to provide us with a coherent grasp and intellectual understanding of our reality -

[Truthabounds]

The media often publicize accounts of “near-death experiences,” wherein patients who were near death later claim to have glimpsed the afterlife.

It has been said that hallucinations occur when people are near death because areas of the brain are triggered by high levels of carbon dioxide or low levels of oxygen in the circulation. Upon a return to consciousness, these hallucinations can give rise to the feeling of having died and returned to life.

[joko]

as an intelligent brain surgeon he should know better than anyone the effects death, drugs and other factors have on a dying brain.
Many of us 'normal' people know of this well documented phenomena so he must also know.
the fact that he has a vivid, ridiculously fluffy and childish sounding dream while in a coma should not be enough to make him suddenly forget all that.

I suspect he is not and never was an atheist ... he is just using that to add weight to his claims ... because he admits he is a christian

[naomi24]

He's selling a book.

[Le Chat]

One of my friends had a what I will call here as we are on the subject, a NDE in the 80's. During an operation, the anesthetic wore off whilst he was still having his knee operated upon. He was unable to do anything as muscle relaxants had been administered...and his eyes were taped. (He didn't know beforehand that his eyes would be taped shut.)
He left his body and floated to the corner of the room..not in a 'dream state' though. He says he rose up as conscious as you and I are now but without his body.
He ended up in the corner looking down at his body on the operating table. He could see and feel a strong light behind him and knew that if he turned to look at it he would end up leaving the room and travelling into it.
He says that he really wanted to look at it but didn't want to go, as he had just met a girl he really liked and had to stay!
The next thing that happened was that he slammed down into his body and then woke up in recovery to tell his tale.
He was very traumatised as the pain was unreal from being operated upon without numbness!
Funny thing is, he didn't actually die but believes that his 'soul' or his true self left his physical 'pain feeling' body to get away from the pain.
So in some ways, this account is more compelling than actually dying and coming back to life.

[LazyGun]

An article from Prof. Colin Blakemore on this issue.
Re-iterates the point that this guy was a self declared believer, not an atheist.

Basically, the mind plays tricks, and plays a lot of tricks on memory and recall when it is under stress....

http://www.telegraph....louds-and-angels.html

[jomifl]

LG, agreed the mind does indeed play tricks, far more so that we realise. The eye is good example, not only do we have a blind spot of which we are normally unaware but what we think we are seeing is really a construct of our brain which is why we sometimes don't see things that we should.

[joko]

yes jomilf... the blindspot is most unnerving when you first notice it.

and yes the mind, when suffering trauma will do all kinds of crazy things to help you cope - and that includes taking you off somewhere else and filling your head with thoughts and other things.