Posted on 03/07/2007 5:05:33 PM PST by LibWhacker
After my experience (see post #58) I have absolutely no fear in dying.
I had a triple bypass in mid 04 and was warned that I may experience the same thing due to slowing and stopping the heart. It did not occur but it was a big worry to me and my family...
Most wifes can say more in a look than they can in a book.
My wife? When I talk, she listens -- to the radio, TV set, record player.
Is she like mine and has to have the last word?
My sternum was pretty well screwed up in the ordeal. Still hasn't healed with instability problems. Have to have surgery again next moth to have sternal plating done.
Same thing happened to my nephew, He was in a coma from a car acident and in pvs state/coma for almost 3 years, Docs said he would never come out of it, He is now eating on his own and leg pressing over 110 lbs, and teaching himself how to talk again,communicates with everyone around him. Never underestimate the Power of Spiritual Healing. He says his recovery was spiritual. I believe Him. The Doctors still can't seem to explain how he is alive, and until a few months ago were not even willing to give him any rehab.
Good question. I never heard any guys who had sleep paralysis being held down by some benevolent force so a beautiful woman could get to them or someone could present them with the winning lottery ticket!
Interesting...thanks for posting your experience. I'm sure that some of the near death experience stories are sort of like UFO sightings. However, there are others that have been described by people who are fairly credible and documented by physicians. While an experience like this would clearly be impossible to investigate with a double blind trial, we do know enough to given what the amygdala does, it is not responsible for them. If I had to propose a biological explanation, it would be mediated by cortical hypoxia. Though in your case, given the lasting neurological deficits you are experiencing, it seems as if you suffered at least some degree of cortical hypoxia and did not have an near death experience.
That's my thinking. That's why I differentiated "near-death" vs "death". There is no doubt that there are hypoxic changes in my situation even though pa02 monitoring during my event never dropped below 92%.
...and therefore will seek and accept only naturalistic explanations for these phenomena. Nothing supernatural is possible.
Seeing angels would be a frightening experience, and perhaps unwelcomed. In the Bible they never appear as cute, chubby infants; they appear as adults. When people in the Bible saw an angel, their typical response was to fall on their faces in fear and awe. Not a lot is known about angels. But it is safe to explain the things that they are not.
When the Bible speaks of flying angels, we assume this means angels have wings. But many scholars suspect that isn't the case. In fact they chose an easier explanation... that angels can miraculously move about. And that isn't a far-fetched concept, given the mysteries in the Bible.
No, they're usually just standing, or sometimes walking into the room and then standing and looking over the bed.
"Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth - that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that to die and be released was better for me; therefore the oracle gave no sign. For which reason also, I am not angry with my accusers, or my condemners; thay have done me no harm, although neither of them meant to do me any good; and for this I may gently blame them.
"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better, God only knows." - Socrates, The Apology.
#4, Have a link handy on how you view this in neuroscience?
Just curious.
When I see "near death", I'm curious.
I disagree that all of these experiences must be terrible.
I have had about 4 of them over the years.
The first was when I was 11 and living in Georgia. I am in bed asleep on my back, felt like falling down cliff facing upward, ringing in my ears, my eyes were open and I saw my room, I cannot move, totally paralyzed, I am fully aware, I see at the foot of bed an outline of a small (two feet tall) evil entity like a goblin, screeching and laughing, I yell and scream, but nothing comes out, I wake up and nothing is there.
I am 15, living in New England, asleep in bedroom, happens at least once, if not twice, same falling and ringing, this time I see black shadow forms in room, they are scary, evil, however, I relax and the experience becomes, ahem, a wet dream of sorts while conscious and paralyzed.
Hypnogogic - body is paralyzed --- people mistake aliens.
In the same house, two years later, probably 16, same expereince, this time, I am sharing a room with another person who is also asleep, that person does not see any shadow figures per our talks the next day.
I moved back south, about 24 years old, asleep on back. After briefly falling asleep, I am floating above body in bed, looking at the ceiling. I become aware of this and fall quickly back into my body when I realize it.
After doing some research about the paralysis, I learn that sleep has several states every night. One state is called the hypnagogic state in which the body is totally paralyzed. Usually you are not conscious during this, but when you are you get expereinces like the above ones (not the out of body one). I am convinced that all of these UFO abductees have merely expereinced this hypnagogic state and confused it with a "real" waking life event.
Re the out of body floating, who knows.
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