Yes, the book is old, but the data are compelling. The only real criticism comes from organizations (e.g., CSICOP) and persons (e.g., Ray Hyman) who are known for their overly negative bias against paranormal claims.
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Originally Posted by RedShoe
That's a year old.
I saw a show recently where they explain the "afterlife" visions people have. It's their brain dying. As you die, and as your heart stops and the oxygen and blood flow stop, your brain suffocates and dies. What happens is you experience a dream, what's happening is your brain is beginning to black out.
Have you ever blacked out from lack of oxygen or blood flow to your brain? Ever stand up too fast and the room starts to darken from edges and you get tunnel vision, and all the while you just stare at the ground and your brain starts to 'breathe' again and suddenly you are aware of what almost happened and you feel a tad dizzy.
The same sort of thing happens when you die... or almost die. You experience a dream and your mind starts to 'flash your life.' In the dream you see people from the past, you see bright tunnels, and if you were to stay like that for too long you'd eventually die and the brain activity would cease and that's it.
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First, not everyone has these experiences. Second, among those who have had them, there is no correlation between those who have the dream and those who believed in an afterlife prior to the experience. There are many people who had no belief in an afterlife and were convinced otherwise after undergoing the experience. What explains this?
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Originally Posted by RedShoe
What happens to near death people is that they experience this dream and are conviced they've been to 'the other side.' The fact is, they haven't been anywhere, they just experienced the death process. If they were to experience it any longer, the brain would fail to recover and they'd live in a permenant vegatative state.
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One thing I find quite interesting is the fact that many people who have gone through this type of event experience feelings of peace. Scientists tell us that the brain seems to KNOW when it's dying and releases chemicals which cause these peaceful feelings to occur. But why would the brain do this? And what is it attempting to calm?
If we are the product of evolution and consciousness is merely a function of the brain, I would expect the opposite type of feelings to occur. The brain should be triggering terror and fear, not calmness and acceptance of inevitable death.
On the other hand, if, as many philosophers have reasoned, there is a distinction between the MIND (i.e., consciousness) and the BRAIN, and the MIND is able to survive the body, it would make perfect sense that the brain is simply calming the mind, preparing it to leave the body once physical death occurs.
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Originally Posted by RedShoe
So to answer your question... no, there is no afterlife. It's just something that people believe in to help them deal with death. "Oh it's ok we don't really die, we continue.. in an afterlife." Those people are sad and are just fooling themselves. Get over it, when you die... you die. Nothing more.
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This is your opinion and you are certainly entitled to it. The truth, however, is that I do not conclusively know the answer to that question, and neither do you.