What Happened When The Worlds Most Famous Atheist Had A Near Death Experience.

National Post | March 3 2001 | William Cash

[catonsville]

GladesGuru wrote:
"There may be no need to google search, let alone go to the stacks of the med school library. Merely read the article in Readers Digest about NDE's. The article describes how a reduction of blood flow to the left parietal area of the brain induces "the religious experience".

A more recent Readers Digest article had the NDE of a woman who met God during the happening. She was clinically dead WITH NO BRAINWAVES. In other words nothing was going on in her mind. No brain activity. Yet later she was able to describe exactly what was happening around her.

One hypothesis for her experience is that consciousness is everywhere in the self, not just a function of the brain.
Or did she really have a NDE away from her body?

[js1138]

I've never hesitated to talk about my experience. It was very intense -- nothing at all like being drunk -- and very memorable. I still remember it after fourty years. But it was a drug experience, under ether, during surgery. I see nothing mystical about it.

[Quix]

No doubt!

FR is a great place for intellectual dog piles!

Sigh.

Thanks for your great attitude.

[TNMountainMan]

"Nobody has returned from the dead since the resurrection of Christ."

Umm... Eutychus

and, yes he did die again unlike our Savior

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Thank you.

left parietal area brain "religious experience"

zeroes in on about 300 relevant googled articles

[js1138]

I see no difference between what I experienced and what is being described by others in this thread.

[bc2]

Sorry that this might be slightly off-topic, but if anyone can help me here, it's FReepers!

Who knows anything about Evelyn Waugh? I have read his book entitled "When The Going Was Good" which is a collection of writings from a few of his books at the time, mostly about travel in Africa and South America. I found him to be a fantastic author and every so often, in circumstances such as this, I find weird references to him. What did he do besides write books and work as a newspaper correspondant?

Anyone who has any info on the man please let me know. I'm hitting Google right now...

[Sabertooth]

Remember all those 'recovered memory' cases of a few years ago that turned out not to be so? Like that.

I'm not sure it's like that.

The difference is, recovered memories are implanted years after the fact. You're suggesting here that the memories are implanted almost immediately.

If memories can be either implanted or genuine, what makes one a simpler explanation than the other?

I do owe people an explanation, though; I meant that no present-day NDEs can be easily believed because of all the publicity NDEs have received in the last thirty years, but I do find older reports to be strikingly consistent.

Then applying simpler explanation theory, why is it simpler to believe that early, "strikingly consistent "NDE accounts have one explanation, and subsequent NDE accounts that are consistent with the earlier ones, have a different explanation?

On the surface, isn't it simpler, since early and subsequent NDE accounts have consistency with each other, to believe that their explanations, whatever they are, are also consistent?

[retrokitten]

Your story reminded me of something. My mothers uncle passed away a couple of years ago. I don't remember what was wrong with him, maybe a stroke, because he was pretty non-responsive and hardly spoke. His wife and kids were in his bedroom, because they knew it was just a matter of time before he passed on. Out of the blue he sits bolt upright, smiles, and puts his arms out towards the ceiling like you would if you were going to hug someone. Then he stops smiling and lays back down. His daughter ran over to him and asked if he was okay. He looked at her and clear as day and- very annoyed- said, "No I'm not okay! Ernie was here and he said I couldn't go because it's not time yet!" Ernie was his brother who had died several years before. He died the next day.

[pax_et_bonum]

"Ayer's article, with his vivid memory of being pulled toward a red light, 'exceedingly bright, and also very painful,'"

Hmmmmm.... doesn't sound like Heaven.

;)

[luvbach1]

No, never heard of missionary in mountains of Mexico named David Hogan. And no, I don't believe he returned from the dead. Dead is dead; not a "near-death" experience. Show me someone who had been stone cold dead, rigor mortis and all, return fom the dead and I'll be convinced.

[luvbach1]

Accounts of ressurection from the dead are not proof. Also, I don't include premature burials, often cited as "ressurections." Not familiar with the work you cited: Father Albert J. Hebert, S.M., "Raised From the Dead, True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles" (335pp.; TAN Books & Pub., 1986; Nihil Obstat, Imprimatur).I'll try to find it.

Sign me skeptical.

[catonsville]

pax_et_bonum wrote:

"Ayer's article, with his vivid memory of being pulled toward a red light, 'exceedingly bright, and also very painful,'"

Hmmmmm.... doesn't sound like Heaven

---

I remember when The National Review printed the original article by Ayers in 1988. Ayer had enough intellectual honesty that he wrote he was perplexed and could not fully understand what happened to him. Only later when the pressure began to build did he refute his doubt, claiming his NDE was some sort of psychological illusion.

Ayer wrote that during his NDE his fate was discussed by three male spirits against a flickering red background and wondered what it all meant. A letter in the next issue of the magazine gave what may have been an answer to Ayer's dilemma.
Those flickering red lights-why the fires of Hell,of course.

[oyez]

When my aunt was dying she spoke of seeing angels, and she wasn't on narcotics at the time.

[RightOnline]

Fair enough.........but at least acknowledge that you are not so small-minded as to think "if I can't see it, it doesn't exist". That would be more than a bit too 12th century, don't you think?

[eccl1212]

Actually my intent was not "correction" of any error by you, but an attempt at supplementation of your intent with regards to that particular posters assertion about there being "no resurrections since Christ".

So, I tried to provide your statement with some extra back up via two other "New Testament" resurrections, post ascension.

Dorcas and the third story guy.
Consider yourself NOT corrected, but reinforced in your intention.

[luvbach1]

...at least acknowledge that you are not so small-minded as to think "if I can't see it, it doesn't [may not]exist.

I acknowledge the foregoing as amended.