"The soul of the flesh is in the blood..."

by Earnest 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Earnest

  The Reader's Digest of September 2003 has an article on Near-Death Experiences (pp.94-100). These involve people who have been clinically dead but have revived and reported a sense of consciousness during the period they were "dead". This has often been cited as evidence of life after death. Others believe it is similar to drug-induced hallucinations and is caused by opiate-like substances, namely endorphins, that are released by a dying brain.

  In recent years some medical researchers have speculated that these experiences may be evidence that consciousness does not reside solely in the brain. A study by researchers at Southampton General Hospital found that 11 per cent of those who had suffered cardiac arrest and survived had memory recall of the unconscious period. Six per cent of those resuscitated after cardiac arrest reported NDEs.

  "These findings suggest that consciousness could exist in the absence of a functioning brain - that is, separate from the brain" - Dr Sam Parnia, registrar in respiratory medicine, who headed the research.

  In a 2001 study, published in The Lancet, Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel tried to gauge the frequency of NDEs by interviewing 343 people who had suffered cardiac arrest and survived. He found that "eighteen per cent have a story of a very clear consciousness". So where is consciousness?

  "I think [it is in every cell of the body]", says van Lommel. "We know that each day, 50 billion cells die." He points out that this intensive cell turnover means that, eventually, almost all the cells that make up "me" or "you" are new. And yet, we don't perceive ourselves as being any different from what we always were.

  To van Lommel, it follows that "there must be a kind of communication between all our cells". In other words, all our cells - not just brain cells - "talk" to one another in a kind of network that keeps our experience of consciousness going seamlessly even as billions of cells die and billions of others are produced.

  Could it be that the blood which flows through every part of the body maintains this "experience of consciousness" and comprises what we are as a soul/person?

  Earnest
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  gumby

  Others believe it is similar to drug-induced hallucinations and is caused by opiate-like substances, namely endorphins, that are released by a dying brain.

  Medical researchers can duplicate the NDE with a drug. Experiments have proven it is a state of the mind and no evidence has proved otherwise.

  Gumby
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  AlanF

  : Could it be that the blood which flows through every part of the body maintains this "experience of consciousness" and comprises what we are as a soul/person?

  I don't think so. The experiences you cited can easily be explained by the simple fact that every part of a dying body dies at different rates. The fact that the brain is 'clinically dead' does not mean that some parts of it -- and certainly not the various mechanical sense organs that give it input -- no longer function to some extent. For example, the hearing system consisting of eardrum, several bones connecting it to the spiraled horn of the inner ear, and the many sensing cells that respond to various sound frequencies, certainly dies much slower than the overall brain. Without a full supply of oxygen, the brain goes unconscious in about 15 seconds. Many bodily systems function far longer than that even when the heart no longer pumps blood. There is precious little evidence about just what the brain does in the time between major consciousness shutdown (at 15 seconds) and actual physical death, i.e., the point beyond which the brain will not function properly no matter what normal things are done to it. So, if various sense organs continue to give input to an unconscious brain, and that brain continues plopping those sensory experiences into its usual memory cubbyholes (remember that dreaming is essentially the brain organizing its recent experiences into long term memory and such), it's no wonder that people who are declared 'clinically dead' can actually remember experiences from the short time that they were 'dead'. Truth is, they weren't dead, but just almost dead.

  The fact that people often come so close to permanent cessation of bodily functions that they can be declared clinically dead, but not actually experience various "near death" experiences, seems to me to be shown by what has happened to a few people, mostly children, who fell into freezing water and virtually drowned for upwards of 10 minutes (sometimes close to an hour), and were revived. The cold water temperature quickly shut down all brain functions (which is what caused them to survive) and so, with no brain activity at all, there was nothing to experience and nothing to remember, except for the brief moments between falling into the water and complete blankout. So such people never have "near death" experiences because their brains are physically not functioning. Conversely, anyone who has "near death" experiences was not really dead. Their body had just ceased to function fully for awhile, and was running on less than a full complement of cylinders.

  AlanF
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  elamona

  The blood may possibly be the medium which communicates with the body as a whole. It may also be the "courrier" which transports messages thruout the body. Many hormones and enzymes are produced in response to various stresses we are exposed to- like heart enzymes that are elevated when the heart is injured. These enzymes "tell" other parts of the body that the heart is in deep doo-doo and other enzymes and hormones are produced which tell the body to increase blood pressure, feel pain, sweat like crazy, etc ;and sometimes a person gets a feeling that they are dying (they are)- and an all encompassing envelope of dread and doom washes over these people. I just don't think we know enough about the human body to answer that question, yet. We may never know. This is knowledge that GOD may reserve to HIMSELF. Seems like every time we think we know everything anyone could possibly know about a particular thing we get zapped with some new knowledge that shows us how little we REALLY know. A good example of this is cholesterol and eggs. For @ 10 years all you heard was they were BAD,BAD,BAD. But when the researchers studied and tested more extensively the determined that this was not true. They're still testing and still finding out new things every day.
• 

  peacefulpete

  no
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  A Paduan

  forgiveness
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  Nathan Natas

  If this was the case, couldn't you expect that people who have had massive transfusions might become confused about their personal history?
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  gumby

  To say that personality of a person is in the blood is cherry-picking with Organs. A screwed up pituitary gland will make a jeckle and hyde person, a stroke causing damage to the brain will cause personality changes and obvious outward changes, a persons hypothalamis(pleesure center) can also get screwed up and cause changes in people.

  Why are we to think blood has anymore relevence?

  Gumby
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  Earnest

  gumby,

  Medical researchers can duplicate the NDE with a drug. Experiments have proven it is a state of the mind and no evidence has proved otherwise.

  It is true that many of the Near-Death Experiences, such as travelling down tunnels and encounters with angels or deceased relatives, have also been experienced under the influence of LSD, opium, hashish and anaesthetic drugs. And quite likely a dying brain can produce extraordinary effects. But such hallucinations could only occur if the brain maintained some function. Such experiments do not explain consciousness in the absence of a functioning brain, one that is "flatlined".

  Alan, I was interested in your comment about those who have survived "near-death" when freezing water shut down all brain functions (which is what caused them to survive).

  "...and so, with no brain activity at all, there was nothing to experience and nothing to remember,... So such people never have "near death" experiences because their brains are physically not functioning."

  This extraordinary ability of the brain to shut down and enable the body to survive prompted surgeons to emulate that for brain surgery. This was particularly developed for treatment of cerebral aneurysm, when a vein or artery in the brain bulges and threatens to burst. In order to operate on it without the danger of bursting it, a procedure was developed called "hypothermic circulatory arrest" which involves cooling the patient's body temperature and stopping the blood flow for up to 60 minutes. Without the flow of blood the aneurysm is no longer under pressure and can be operated on safely.

  In the Reader's Digest article it gave the case of Pam Reynolds who had such an operation at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix in 1991. Her body was cooled to 58 degrees F, her heart stopped and most of the blood drained from the body. Yet while she was in this state, with no brain activity and no vital signs at all, she perceived what was happening including conversations held and surgical tools used. One swallow does not a summer make and I would expect a wider experience of such "consciousness" to be entirely convinced. But it does raise questions.

  When you consider that the way we understand the brain works involves electrical impulses and the release of "messenger" chemicals, and that is what makes up our memories, desires, impulses...it is but a short step to conclude that the electro-chemical messengers throughout the body hold the essence of what we are.

  Earnest
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  peacefulpete

  Consciousness is not simply a cocktail of chemicals floating in the blood steam. It emerges from a complex system of machinery located in the brain that respond to chemicals present in the blood stream among other places. No one part of the system contains the memory or personality. The theory your proposing is 19th century biology.

  The arresting of brain activity by fast cooling does not bear on the topic.