This blog is more than an account of Near Death Experiences. It ponders in detail the tough questions of life. Who are you, and why are you here in this physical world? What happens when you die, and is there a judgment? However, most anything could appear here. This is not a news blog, archived posts are just as relevant as new posts. Check the boxes at the top of the page for the Contents, Contact, Forum and other links.
Dr. Jeffery Long has written a best-selling book on the subject of the afterlife after his research on near death experiences.
“Evidence of the Afterlife” is so compelling that it will either validate your existing knowledge or it will heartily challenge your current belief system with nine lines of irrefutable evidence of the afterlife. There are no explanations, medical or otherwise, that one can reasonably conclude after reading this book except that there is an afterlife!
The Jury is in. After more than 35 years of research by top scientists, the studies all point to consciousness living beyond the death of the brain and body. Incredible as it may sound, we now have solid evidence of an afterlife.
A few of the scientists that have been researching near death experiences over the past thirty-five years include: Dr. Raymond Moody, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Dr. Melvin Morse, Dr. Jeffrey Long, Dr. Peter Fenwick, Dr. Bruce Greyson, Dr. Sam Parnia, Dr. Michael Sabom, Dr. Pim Van Lommel,
and many, many others have joined them in researching near death experiences over the years. All of the near-death research points in the direction of an afterlife. The research is being done at dozens of universities here in the states and abroard. The research has been published in scientific journals. Many books have been written by these researchers. They are available from Amazon.com. I highly recommend: “Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience,” by Dr. Pim van Lommel.
There are an estimated 10 million near death experiencers in the U.S. alone. So why is this not front page news in all the newspapers and magazines, and why do main stream scientists continue to teach and hold to the old theories that the brain produces consciousness when all the research shows that consciousness is non-local (a separate entity) and is not produced by the brain?
The clash between the new research, showing consciousness continues to live after the death of the brain and body, and the old theories that assume consciousness is produced by the brain and dies when the brain dies, has been going on for a long time. So it is now time to examine the facts of the debate.
The New Research.
The new research shows that a percentage of the people that die during surgery, and are brought back to life, can accurately describe what happened during the time they were clinically dead. They can accurately describe the surgeon and staff, what they said, and what they did to their clinically dead body while being out of their body in a position above their body near the ceiling. Even if the patient was blind or deaf before the surgery, they can still hear and see all the activity going on around their dead body. Some of them are able to see for the first time in their life. This is called veridical near death experiences. The accuracy of the surgery patient’s account is verified by the surgeon and staff performing the procedure. To date there are thousands of these verified NDEs published in the reseach. They are solid, clear evidence that our consciousness continues to live after the death of our bodies.
On the other side of the debate is the theory that the brain produces our consciousness which is dependent upon the brain, and therefor dies when the brain dies. This remains only a theory because no one has found evidence of memory, thoughts, beliefs, and other attributes of consciousness physically present anywhere in the brain.
I understand there are basically three ways scientists can examine the brain, and the only thing they can measure related to consciousness in the brain comes from the brain activity.
1. By stimulating part of the brain with electical or chemical probes. This will usually result in the person who owns the brain seeing, feeling, and/or hearing some kind of an event. From this the assumption is made that the brain contains that event at that location. But this is not evidence, only theory, an assumption. Probing a TV tuner at different locations will show you different channels, but no one believes the channels with pictures and sound are located in the TV. The event triggered by the probes could be just as well non-local, since brain activity has not been shown to be generated by the brain. Scientists can’t show proof brain activity is coming from the brain, it could be a non-local consciousness feeding activity to the brain instead.
2. In this method is seen a reverse of the first one. A subject is asked to do, or the think of something, and brain activity is measured to see which part of the brain “lights up” when this event or activity is performed. Again this is not proof of the event or activity residing in that part of the brain. These procedures, 1, and 2, are sometimes called brain mapping. This so-called “brain mapping” has not been very accurate.
3. Brain damage. What can we learn from brain damage. Many scientists believe the brain to be hard-wired like some machine. If this is true, which it isn’t, then a stroke that causes a leg or arm to be paralyzed due to brain damage could never be used again. But we know through physical therapy many times full use of the arm or leg can be restored. If our consciousness is non-local and uses the brain as an interface to the body, then it can be explained why brain damage can be reversed without restoring the damaged part of the brain. If the part of the brain controlling a function is damaged, then your non-local consciousness can move that function to an undamaged part of the brain. However, a relearning process is necessary for the function to be restored. The Magic Brain.
Science doctrine is full of contradictions. One is assuming everything is material, without knowing everything. Two is assuming that personal experiences are unreliable, when it is obvious that personal experiences are the only kind of experience there is, and our only interface with the physical world. Three is assuming theories are more than educated guesses or they are backed up by facts. If they were factual, they would not be theories, they would be evidence.
So why is the new research not widely accepted.
The usually reasons is that us humans are not quick to change. We like our comfort zones and giving them up is not an easy thing. Then there are vested interests. Government and university funded research that would no longer be needed. There would also be a lot of theories that would need to be upgraded or replaced by the new knowledge. But I think the biggest reason is that spirituality would have to be acknowledged. Along with spirituality comes a huge amount of questions with little or no answers. This may be upsetting to the number of atheists among the scientific community, because while an afterlife doesn’t prove the existence of a higher intelligence, it does strongly suggest one. It would be a hard thing to acknowledge spirituality after years of teaching materialism.
But the advantages are many. There would now be meaning, purpose, and hope in all our lives. The fear of death would be diminished or gone entirely, along with the fear of life. Kindness would be taught again in all schools, including love one another. The world would improve if all knew physical life was not the end. Stress, anxiety, and anger would be reduced. Everyone would understand the law of attraction, and know that however they treat others would be returned to them. They would understand they are responsible for the deeds they do and the thoughts, beliefs they hold would determine the quality of their life in both the physical and spiritual. The world would not be perfect, but certainly improved. I hope it will happen sooner than you think.
We are individual spiritual consciousnesses enjoying a physical life created for the purpose of self learning. Picture yourself standing on the edge of two dimensions. One spiritual and the other physical. If you look outward from your physical body (which is only a communication tool) you will focus into the physical dimension. If you look inward through the physical body you will focus into the spiritual dimension. Christians will remember reading when Jesus was asked where the Kingdom of God was, He replied: “The Kingdom of God is within you”.
Unfortunately, many are focused so intensely in the outward physical dimension that they can no longer feel or believe in the inward spiritual dimension. However, when the physical body dies, the individual consciousness returns to the spiritual dimension which is home.
If you direct your point of consciousness inward and hold it there. After a time, the physical world will begin to fade, dimmer and dimmer. Eventually you will see the light and feel the love that NDEers do. You may also meet deceased friends and experience other NDE-like events. You will have entered the fringe of the spiritual dimension. This process, I have described, is called meditation. Meditation is the safest, most reliable way to visit the spiritual dimension, and there are many, many varieties of it. If you read the literature on meditation you will find an abundance of NDE-like events mentioned. In fact, some Yogi masters warn their students to ignore the lights, and things they may see because they believe it is a distraction from the purity of the meditation.
However, meditation has one very large drawback. It may take many months, even years of daily practice to learn how to lower the physical senses (focus) to the degree necessary to experience the spiritual dimension. And, for one reason or another, some practitioners are never able to reach the spiritual. So, over the centuries, man has devised, and discovered shortcut methods.
These methods included anything that could diminish, or fade the physical senses. Sweatlodges, dancing in circles for hours, staring into crystal balls, watching pendulums swing, and of course a wide assortment of drugs. Peyote, loco weed, hash, opium, and now Ketamine. The drug Ketamine, along with numerous others, diminishes, lowers the physical senses (focus) of man and allows the spiritual dimension to be experienced. The real NDE is caused by the death of the body which temporarily cancels ALL physical focus, thereby producing the intense spiritual experience that it is. A severe warning about drugs is needed here. The use of drugs to enter the world of spirit can be very dangerous for those who are unprepared emotionally for the trip. The results can be disasterous to the personality of the individual.
In summary: the world of spirit is alive and well. The drug Ketamine, and any others that may be developed in the future, only allows the spiritual experience, and does not cause it. The Near Death Experience is very real, and is, exactly what it appears to be: man encountering his Creator at the time of his physical death. The NDE is a wake-up call. It is time to return to our roots of Love, and Compassion for ourselves and others.
I decided to post a list of things that skeptics claim cause near death experiences, or can duplicate a near death experience. These “causes” were taken directly from skeptical articles and writings. In truth, skeptics know very little about near death experiences, I have never met one that did. The one important fact that they ignore is that NDEs are really caused by clinical death. We have good, solid research on this, showing that consciousness continues after the death of the brain and body. Nothing physical can cause a classical near death experience. But on the list below are only physical causes because skeptics still falsely believe that the spiritual world is nonsense. That is their loss.
Hallucinations caused by trauma
Ketamine, a general anaesthetic and tranquilizer
Anecdotal nonsense
Fizzing neurons in my oxygen-starved brain
Anesthesia awareness, in which a person is conscious but can’t move
Fighter pilots experiencing rapid acceleration in a centrifuge
Psychosis, due to severe neurochemical imbalance
Sluggish brain activity
Sound transmission through the operating table itself (love this one)
Dimethyltryptamine, (DMT) a naturally-occurring tryptamine and psychedelic drug
Electrical stimulation of the temporal lobe
High levels of carbon dioxide (hypercarbia)
REM intrusion
Cascade of electrical activity in a dying brain
LSD, psilocarpine, and/or mescaline
Altered blood levels of carbon dioxide and potassium
Pineal gland, home to this “spirit molecule.”
Recollections, consisting of fragmented and random memories
Delusions while using drugs or alcohol
Tricks of the mind
False memories
Brain states that occur due to a dying
Neural noise, the effect would be a light at the center
Cerebral anoxia, the lack of oxygen to the brain
Dissociation, a typical reaction to stress
Rapid firing of neuronal mechanisms
NDE accounts may have been contaminated
NDEs are the work of Satan
Telepathic communications from doctors, nurses
Overheard while in a groggy state
Use of Ouija board while stoned on marijuana
Septic shock, from myocardial ischemia (Cardiogenic shock)
Temporolimbic epilepsy
Dreams, just dreams
Near-Death Experiences are in the Mind
Nothing more than neuronal events
(Now which one is it, or it is all of them, or part of them, that a rational person is supposed to believe. Skeptics speak nonsense.)
After looking through this list if you see anything I have missed, please add it as a comment to this post. I will thank you for it.
