The program in question could provide 1 (one) instance where there scientific evidence that a person had remembered things that happened when she was brain dead on the operating table.
She was having a tumour cut out from the base of her brain, and was cooled down to a point where there was no neural actvitity, and was being extensively monitored through out.
All the other cases had other possible explainations.
She heard various aspects of dialogue during the operation, as well (I think) as the classic 'bright light' thing.
Now, all the anecdotal stuff can go blow in my personal opinion. People obviously believe it happens, but belief and reality are two different things.
This one scientifically decent instance is a little harder to get by.
The program went into some pretty heavy speculation about the nature of consciousness in an attempt to provide a scientific rationale, but didn't really get anywhere with it as it was speculation.
As are all the theories about what the 'bright light' stories mean. Speculation.
So, the facts are, a person CAN pick up things that happen in a state normally thought of as brain dead.
This means three things;
- We have a seperable non-physical component to our personality.
- Someone is lying.
- We don't understand how the brain works under those conditions, or that much at all, and there's a perfectly decent material scientific explaination waiting to be discovered.
Anything beyond that is conjecture. Believe if you like, but you have to use faith rather than facts to validate your belief.
I'd like to see a nice broad-based study accross beliefs and unbeliefs to see if there is any pattern in NDE's according to expectations. Never heard of a virtuous pagan haveing an NDE of limbo...
Mary;
Actually yes. Approximately 15% of people that have Near Death experiences do not see a bright light and/or God, but rather they experience what one of them describes as "a classical example of Hell." I recall seeing an interview with one guy who had this experience a few years ago: he didn't believe in God, used drugs, screwed around on his wife, was a lousy father, etc. After he experienced this NDE of Hell, he realized that he had a chance to make a better person of himself. He stopped taking drugs, stopped committing adultery, was a much better father and became a Christian. He feels that he is a much better person now, and actually counsels young people about the dangers of living an immoral lifestyle.
So if this was simply the brain shutting down because of lack of oxygen, I would think that everyone would have the same experience: bright light, euphoric feeling, seeing God or Jesus........but apparently, that's not the case
Please could I have links, URL's, sources? I've often wondered about this aspect and haven't come across any such stories. You obviously have access to this data and I'd like to review it.
