[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[aruanan]

As more and more people come forward with accounts of near-death experiences, new research is about to examine the out of body experience to see whether mind and body really do separate at the point of death.

Note the unexamined assumptions in the last part of that sentence.

[CaptRon]

Unfortunately, neither of them was in the right place to spot the symbols.

What exactly does that mean. If the point of the experiment was to see if the experience is real, not spotting the symbols means there were no spirit beings (for want of a better word) to see them, not that the spirits were slightly misaligned!

[smith288]

The life review can be caused by the brain firing in unusual ways as a result of a lack of oxygen or too much carbon dioxide in the blood stream. Endorphins released during times of stress can create a sense of peace and the tunnel of light could reflect abnormal patterns of firing in the visual cortex.

In other words, "You religious people have no idea what you are talking about." [gag]

[Consort]

Maybe heaven can be experienced but I doubt if it can be described; language has limitations.

[JenB]

Connie Willis's (great author) last novel, "Passage", was about a research in near-death experiences. I'd never really thought about them before, but she had a very good take on them (from a skeptical viewpoint). I think the subject is fascinating, if one could get past the partisans on all sides.

[Cultural Jihad]

Hence the limitations of science, which cannot even begin to explain something so basic to human nature as why a child loves its mother, much less something as complex as the Beatific Vision.

In truth, there is nothing easier and simpler than seeing God. One can go get all the proof one wants to, but in no way would a meter ever move, or a graph chart advance.

[MaryFromMichigan]

There was an elderly man at home, upstairs, dying in bed. He smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies baking. He wanted one last cookie before he died. led down the stairs and crawled into the kitchen where his wife was busily baking cookies.

With his last remaining strength he crawled to the table and was just barely able to lift his withered arm to the cookie sheet. As he grasped a warm, moist chocolate chip cookie, his favorite kind, his wife suddenly whacked his hand with a spatula.

Gasping for breath, he asked her, "Why did you do that?"

"Those are for the funeral."
That is so BAD! ;)

[man of Yosemite]

I knew a man who had a heart attack and left his body, rose through the ceiling and into the air. He looked down and noticed a small street near his home that he had never known was there. He then appeared to be in some kind of waiting room with other people, but all the while could hear his wife praying for him. He soon found himself back in his body. When he was well enough, he went out and found the street that he had seen while out of his body.

Another thing to consider is why the visions would be of heaven, or relatives departed. Since the event is usually a surprise to the person, there is little to suggest what one should see. If it is just the mind reacting to physical conditions, why not a vision of a beach, or your last job? How could one control his vision during an unexpected event?