Huh. So that’s what the crappy ending to Lost, one of my favorite shows up until the last episode, was about.
Doctors believe that a burst of brain activity occurs just before death and this could account for vivid “spiritual” experiences reported by those who come back from the brink. The researchers suggest this surge could be why some patients who have been revived when close to death report sensations such as walking towards a bright light or a feeling that they are floating above their body.
“We think the near-death experiences could be caused by a surge of electrical energy released as the brain runs out of oxygen,” said Dr Lakhmir Chawla, an intensive care doctor at George Washington University medical centre in Washington.
“As blood flow slows down and oxygen levels fall, the brain cells fire one last electrical impulse. It starts in one part of the brain and spreads in a cascade and this may give people vivid mental sensations.”
[...]
In the research he used an electroencephalograph (EEG), a device that measures brain activity, to monitor seven terminally ill people. The medical purpose of the devices was to make sure that the patients, suffering from conditions such as cancer and heart failure, were sufficiently sedated to be out of pain. However, Dr Chawla noticed that moments before death the patients experienced a burst in brainwave activity lasting from 30 seconds to three minutes.The activity was similar to that seen in people who are fully conscious, even though the patients appeared asleep and had no blood pressure. Soon after the surge abated, they were pronounced dead.
It could also be a defense mechanism built in to the brain that reacts to trauma. In the case of most deaths, a lack of blood and oxygen causing brain cells to start dying in mass. By giving the brain a huge shot of activity, it hopes that it will be enough to allow the body to get out of harms way and recover.
I’ve always suspects that LSD is simply a poison that targets brain cells. And that the “trip” it gives is simply the brain’s reaction to this trauma. Sort of like “Death Light”. Same for mushrooms and other hallucinogenics.
What if, there is a spiritual dimension to the universe. What if when you die, your spirit goes to that dimension with the spiritual values it was capable of acquiring while here. Since no one that’s ever been undeniably and verifiably dead for a reasonable amount of time has ever come back… The rational mind will accept nothing less than proof, and anytime you try to rationalize something spiritual it comes out sounding like superstition or philosophy.
What if the spiritual dimension is as antagonistic to the rational as the rational is to the spiritual. Maybe it’d be a good idea to work both aspects, not in preparation for some theoretical afterlife, but just to be a more rounded and complete individual.
This sensation also often occurs to people who have near death experiences, which means not everyone who experiences this dies afterwards. You have to question why an all knowing god would have someone experience this if he knew they weren’t going to die. Also, the scientific explanation has evidence to back it up, whereas your explanation has no proof. Why must we accept a theory that doesn’t have any proof of any kind to support it?
# 20 Grey said, “…it could be argued that “God” built this into human beings…”
As I’ve said before, you cannot have a logical discussion when one side’s answer to the tough questions is: Then a miracle happens.
OK maybe it’s just me, but “researchers suggest”, doesn’t sound like hard science to me. “researchers suggest”, sounds like they are asking me to believe them, because; it seems plausible.
Where is the experimental validation?? That’s what science is about, experiential validation; so where is it?
Wow, so somebody actually spent money to duplicate research that came to the exact same conclusion in the early 1970′s… Way to go. In the mean-time, real people are out of work. Maybe it will make them feel better to be told again that there is no God.
Sure, this is perhaps unknowable, but the existence of an afterlife is one of the “biggest of the big” questions and you begrudge a scientist trying to take a crack at it? Through time, many things have been considered unknowable. I hate to think that scientists should avoid everything that the consensus believes to be unknowable, because it makes the consensus uncomfortable.
Are those of you who take the near-death experiences at face value so thin-skinned and insecure that you think funding should be pulled on such research? If your beliefs are so fragile that they are threatened by a small study- perhaps you need more robust beliefs.
This guy, based on what little I could find, did not seem Hell-bent (pardon the pun) on disproving the existence of God.
A lot of people firmly, firmly believed that the Earth was the center of Universe at one time. I suppose we shouldn’t have shaken their faith and even have tried to explain an alternative.
And, oh yes, many Christians believe that God only created Man here. On Earth. We must be kind and respect their faith and not entertain any of this Alien nonsense.
You liked Lost UNTIL the final episode? You don’t like resolution of your stories? I suppose you just hated the end of Murder She Wrote or any other mysteries. And when Keyser Soze is revealed at the end, that just made you hate the movie.
#27 MikeN
Tell me you didn’t just throw one of my favorite movies in with those crappy TV series!
This research doesn’t explain why so many millions of people around the world have spiritual experiences every day including telepathy, pre-cognitive dreams and seeing visions of those who are apparently dead. The people who are seeing these things are in good health and nowhere near death. How do these scientific atheists explain this.
I believe this research is conducted by those who have an active agenda of promoting their atheistic beliefs and so they will filter all evidence through that prism. There seems to be an underlying attempt here to destroy humanity’s belief in their spiritual experiences and in G-d and religion.
I take their findings with a large grain of salt.
There are always going to be things that are unknown to us. However, god is not the default explanation to everything that we don’t know. If we just decided that god is the explanation for everything and didn’t question it, we would still believe that the earth is at the center of the universe. Religion raises many more questions than it solves, which is something you should look into.
# 29 shoolaroon said, “…spiritual experiences every day including telepathy, pre-cognitive dreams and seeing visions of those who are apparently dead.”
You left out female orgasm.
#28, both are deserving of being on par, particularly Murder She Wrote. It was written by the same guy who did Babylon 5, and he made a point of making the mysteries solvable by an observant watcher.
isnt this just the DMT chemical in your brain being released right before you die? my understanding is that it’s the same chemical that is released when you dream and right before you die(and when you are born) it is intensified.
#31 MikeN
Yeah but ‘The Usual Suspects’ was a masterpiece and the end was the best part. I’m no fan of Singer’s or Baldwin’s, still I loved it. It’s like in Fight Club when you work out that it’s really just one guy and Tyler Durden doesn’t exsist.
Lets face it if you really want to enjoy a mystery get a book. Movie scripts are usually written by talentless hacks.
LOST…it really was just a TV show. As for energy not “dying” just morphing into another form. Well don’t let that science get in the way of religious atheism. Save it for another day.
MikeN: What the hell are you talking about? First, I never saw Murder She Wrote. I loved that Verbal Turned out to be Soze. Babylon 5 was excellent for it’s time. Having written a couple of movie scripts, I am in awe of how Straczynski wrote an entire season of the show on his own, PLUS being the showrunner and all that entails while creating interesting characters doing interesting things.
What does that have to do with Lost having an ending that sucked? Maybe it’s because I’m an atheist that I don’t like this religious endings that seem tacked on like BSG’s that don’t answer anything other than it’s God pulling the strings in mystical, unknowing ways. If you’re going to set up a complex, interwoven puzzle that Lost was, don’t leave a million strands that all get tied up with a religious non-answer. Do the hard work and come up with something unique.
Nobody knows what the truth is and the only way you are going to find out is to die.
So, sitting here and speculating is not getting you any closer to a definite answer. You are just wasting your time and your energy. If you really want to find out what happens then go jump off a bridge..
Brain activity may explain the white light, but it cannot explain the out of body experiences where folks later told family members what they were doing at completely different locations. -1 scientists.
Hi, when using photos under creative commons, please make sure you follow the rules applied. In this case, putting a reference linking to my original image or my name. Thank you, looking forward seeing the changes…
I’m not trying to stir up anything, but I think all people who believe in this science explanation is sadly mistaken. When the rapture happens you’re not going to know what hit you and you will be begging for someone to take your life b/c that’s how bad it will. Maybe some of you people who don’t believe in God should have some faith and read the Bible. There are certain things our human brains can’t rap around and never will until we die or get raptured. The devil is tempting all of us in so many ways trying to make us believe other explanations of this world. Anything he can do to get you to turn away or reject God he will do. Remember this earth is the devil’s play ground.
Just another theory out there but no proof of anything.
Truth is they will never prove there is or is not a God. Even if the white light is one day proven to be bio, it might only be a transition effect to ready a person for the spiritual life. After all, most people think the bio and spiritual life are connected.
An Atheist will make something out of nothing in his or her favor just as a religious fanatic will do and it means nothing either way.
If someone were to tell you that they saw bigfoot, is it up to them to prove that they saw bigfoot or is it up to you to prove that they didn’t. The burden of proof rests with the believer not the skeptic.