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The implications of this research could redefine the boundary between life and death. ================================================================= About five years ago, Yale School of Medicine neuroscientist Zvonimir Vrselja, Ph.D., and his colleagues shocked the medical community with a groundbreaking experiment. They removed a slaughterhouse pig’s brain from its head and deprived it of oxygen at room temperature for four hours. Then, they hooked it up to their resuscitation machine and revived it—to an extent. A living brain’s vasculature, or network of blood vessels, carries oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood to the brain through arteries and capillaries. So, the researchers used their machine, called BrainEx, to...

Foreman won the heavyweight title at the age of 24 and then again at the age of 45, becoming the oldest title holder in history. But, he says, it was a near-death incident in between those two titles that changed his life and prompted him to become a pastor. That life-altering event occurred in 1977. He had already lost his first title (against Muhammad Ali in 1974) and was attempting to reclaim his place in another heavyweight championship bout. “I was in the dressing room … walking back and forward and saying, ‘I don’t care about this boxing match I...

Glowacki is now spearheading a remarkable new project that will use virtual reality to enable those who are suffering from life-threatening illnesses to undergo their own (albeit simulated) near-death experiences. According to previous studies, there is evidence to suggest that those who do recall such experiences typically go on to enjoy a significant reduction in anxiety and stress levels. This is perhaps because those people gain a renewed and even transcendental sense of peace and acceptance with regard to death and no longer fear what comes next when they die. While some scientists have looked into the use of drugs...

A professor of medicine has claimed that, through scientific progress, humans will soon be able to reverse the effects of death, the Telegraph reported . Sam Parnia, an associate professor of medicine at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, told the publication that what we collectively believe about death today—that it is a final end to life—is “fundamentally wrong.” According to Parnia, death is a “reversible state.” People only believe that death is irreversible because they have been conditioned to think so, and to stifle scientific progress, he claimed. “People used to think you could never go beyond the boundaries...

I have some questions for Christians of the "instant glorification" theological belief after death. Do the departed Christians retain some conscious awareness of the goings-on in creation, on Earth, and popular entertainment often depicts? Do they "look down on us," particularly their loved ones? Are they even able to? Are they able to see, and grieve over, how truly bad the ones still remaining really are? I know this opens a lot of theological questions regarding the nature and fate of the dead, but it has intrigued me for a long time. Personally, I think they are unaware of the...

I've been a fan of watching YouTube accounts of Near Death Experiences lately. There are certain common elements: Leaving your physical body and observing people operating on them. In some cases, people were able to leave that location and see other people and places. One young lady left the operating room, travelling through walls, and went to find her father in the hospital.There is, of course, the tunnel you travel through and the bright light at the end of it.There, TO A PERSON, they describe a Life Review of all your significant actions, but not from your perspective, but how...

Scientists have claimed that the consumption of the fungi psilocybin, also known as 'magic mushrooms,' influenced pre-human hominids' brains six million years ago.They analyzed dozens of studies involving psilocybin and consciousness, finding the fungi increased connectivity between networks in the frontal brain region associated with expressive language, decision-making and memory.These 'significant neurological and psychological effects' may have been the catalase ancient ancestors to interact with each other and the environment - spurring consciousness among our species.The idea that magic mushrooms sparked the pivotal point in humans has been touted by podcaster Joe Rogan, who has referenced the 'Stoned Ape Theory'...

P. maluti. (Cullen Clark) Planet Earth is home to possibly hundreds of species of magic mushroom that contain the hallucinogen, psilocybin. Systematic fieldwork surveys of the genus, Psilocybe, however, are "entirely lacking" for many regions of the world. Now, a new paper describes two species of magic mushroom in southern Africa that are wholly new to science. That brings the total number of reported Psilocybe mushrooms on the continent from just four to six. One of the species, called Psilocybe maluti, is the first scientifically documented magic mushroom with traditional, spiritual uses in Africa. P. maluti was originally photographed in...

For over three decades, John Burke has studied thousands of near-death experiences (NDEs) and discovered a striking commonality among them all: Every individual, regardless of their religious background, experiences the God of the Bible. “I interviewed 70 people on every continent, and found that they all encountered the same God; it didn't matter their culture, ethnicity or religious background. God is the God of all nations,” Burke told The Christian Post.Burke, who with his wife, Kathy, founded Gateway Church, a multisite church based in Austin, Texas, recounts some of these stories in his book,Imagine the God of Heaven: Near-Death Experiences,...

Bill Letson had an NDE (Near-Death Experience) after contracting the flu. He flew through a star-filled realm and met three beings and God in Heaven. An NDE (Near-Death Experience) occurs when someone dies, is revived, and knows there is life after death. For Bill, his NDE (Near-Death Experience) was a life-altering experience that changed him forever.

One of the obvious reasons that human beings’ destiny after they shuffle off this mortal coil is such an enduring mystery is that nobody ever comes back to tell us what really happens. Or do they? This is a question that has been the subject of intense speculation, particularly among people who focus on paranormal phenomena. Referred to frequently as “near-death experiences,” (NDEs) people do sometimes undergo what most doctors would refer to as “death,” including a complete cessation of brainwave activity, but are then “brought back to life.” And some of them claim to have memories of that period...

Born 300 years ago, the legendary libertine had a utilitarian relationship to faithAccording to Margarethe Weissenstein, the Vienna-born Jewish author of The Power of the Charlatan, Casanova — who was born 300 years ago in 1725 — was an itinerant charlatan who manipulated credulous nobles and other moneyed clients through 18th century Europe with promises about numerology, supposedly derived from the Kabbalah. Historian Pawel Maciejko notes that Casanova studied some Hebrew, encountered European Jews although sometimes unhappily, and at age 16 defended a doctoral dissertation on the subject Whether the Hebrews can build new synagogues. He was also an aspiring...

Is there anything after death? What is the meaning of life? Are we just a bag of atoms? The scientist Sabine Hossenfelder, born in Frankfurt (Germany) 48 years ago, is convinced that if there is a branch of science capable of finding answers to humanity’s existential questions, it is physics. Specialized in theoretical physics and quantum gravity, Hossenfelder combines her research work with science communication (she is the creator of the YouTube channel Science without the gobbledygook). Her latest book, Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions (published in English in 2022, and out in Spanish this year)...

More than any other equation in physics, E = mc² is recognizable and profound. But what do we actually learn about reality from it? ===================================================================== This 1934 photograph shows Einstein in front of a blackboard, deriving special relativity for a group of students and onlookers. Although special relativity is now taken for granted, it was revolutionary when Einstein first put it forth, and doesn't even describe his most famous equation, which is E = mc². - Public Domain ====================================================================== Key Takeaways: * First introduced way back in 1905, Einstein’s most famous equation, E = mc², put forth the mathematical formula...

A Mexican woman believed to be a witch with cartel ties, was killed after she tried to snatch an 18-month-old out his parents' arms with the stated intent of killing the child as sacrifice to the patron saint of cartels. Before Maria Guadalupe R.M., 33, tried to kidnap the child, she had made it known to her nephew, also the father of the child, that she believed a dead family member had been reincarnated as his son, reported local newspaper Norte Digital. Sunday, she broke into her relatives' Ciudad Juarez home as her nephew slept with his wife and son...

The first time I reached past the sheer horror of the concept of death and wondered what the experience of dying may be like, I was about 15. I had just discovered gruesome aspects of the French revolution and how heads were neatly cut off the body by a Guillotine. Words I remember to this day were the last of Georges Danton on April 5, 1794, who allegedly said to his executioner: “Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing.” Years later, having become a cognitive neuroscientist, I started wondering to what extent a brain suddenly separated from...

Jane Seymour saw a "white light" during a near-death experience. The actress, 72, famed for playing Bond girl Solitaire in 1973's Live and Let Die alongside Roger Moore as 007, said she could have been killed when she contracted bronchitis while filming a movie and went into anaphylactic shock due to wrongly administered antibiotics. She told The Times about her vision during her brush with death, when she was asked if she believes in an afterlife: "I have no idea. I do know that I left my body [after the near-lethal antibiotics]". "I did see the white light and I...

A study on monkeys found that stimulating a certain part of the forebrain wakes monkeys from anesthesia. Research suggests a tiny part of the brain plays a key role in enabling consciousness. The findings might someday be used to bring people out of comas, treat consciousness disorders or ensure patients stay anesthetized during intensive procedures. Past research has suggested that certain brain areas, like the parietal cortex and thalamus, are critical to consciousness. In the study, published in Neuron, a team of scientists used electrodes to stimulate various parts of the brains of two macaque monkeys. Macaque brains closely mirror...

Folks, I want to keep commenting on the article published in this month's Discover magazine by Jane Bosveld, titled Soul Search, which I began reviewing in One monk goes up over the rainbow. The article goes on to narrate a 1921 experiment perform by Duncan MacDougall, a physician, who claimed he was able to weigh a human soul. He accomplished this by measuring how much a person weighs before and immediately after death. After monitoring six deaths, he reported that people lost between 11 and 43 grams at death, which he attributed to the material weight of the soul. Others...

Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon doctor who claims to have experienced the afterlife during a seven-day coma, says the experience was like Plato’s world of ideals. In 2008, Dr. Eben Alexander went into a coma after catching an acute bacterial infection that had a severe neurological impact on his brain. For seven days, he lay unconscious. When he awoke, he described seeing a beautiful spiritual guide on a butterfly wing that took him through a wormhole. Sharing his story with the U.S. Sun, Dr. Alexander described a land of “beautiful very lush forests and meadow waterfalls into crystal blue pools, absolutely...