Evidence of life after death?

by little_Socrates 20 Replies latest jw friends

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  Apognophos

  One could say that people in a coma with low brain activity should also not be able to know what's going on around them, but some who've come out of comas relate that they had some awareness.

  Anyway, I'm not really clear how awareness of one's physical surroundings says anything about life after death. I suppose they're implying that their soul was hovering above the table watching the goings-on, I don't know, but why can't they simply be underestimating how long the brain remains functional?

  To me, evidence of life after death from NDEs would consist of, "I went into a white light, and I saw my Uncle Joe, and he told me I was going to live, and he asked me to ask Aunt Susie about my long-lost half-brother that I never knew about, and then when I woke up, my family confirmed that they were keeping this family secret from me."
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  little_Socrates

  My take... at the very least it shows we don't really understand consciousness. We may even have some fundamental misunderstandings about it. If we can find evidence showing that at least a part of our consciousness is non physical, it would at least prove that life after death would be possible. It still wouldn't prove the existance of it... just suggest that it is possible.
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  little_Socrates

  Apognophos... the point is there is memories from times when there is no evidence of heart or brain activity. By our current undrestanding of consciousness that shouldn't be possible.
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  Apognophos

  Right, which is why posters here are saying we need to learn more about the brain. The limited readouts on the hospital screens do not really tell us what is happening in the innermost parts of the brain. Doctors are just saying "We think the brain is only conscious for this long after the heart stops." They could be wrong. It's a much simpler thesis than "There is an immaterial part of our mind".

  People forget this now, but the infamous guillotine was intended to be a more humane form of execution because it immediately and cleanly separated the head from the body. It wasn't until later that doctors realized that people are still responsive after decapitation for maybe 8-20 seconds.
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  Twitch

  All of these accounts are from living people. They may have been NEAR death, but no one actually died.

  Indeed.
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  little_Socrates

  Want a head trip??

  The Sense of Being Stared At:

  http://www.sheldrake.org/files/pdfs/papers/JCSpaper1.pdf

  Supposedly we can feel if sombody is staring at us. This EVEN works if they are in different rooms looking at us through closed circut tv. Nobody can perfectly sense this but... most of research has found it happens signficantly more often than chance should allow for.

  Dogs that know when their owners are coming home...http://www.sheldrake.org/research/animal-powers/a-dog-that-seems-to-know-when-his-owner-is-coming-home-videotaped-experiments-and-observationsDo Dogs have ESP?
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  Apognophos

  The study of people being stared at is interesting. However I don't think that this is really connected to the assertion of life after death. There are various less fantastical explanations for how someone could detect a stare without asserting that it has something to do with a soul.
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  Separation of Powers

  The problem with understanding what happens AFTER one dies is that you have to die to understand it. Someone who has a "near death" experience isn't really dead. So, their recollections of what happens are not death. Is there life after death? I'm not dying to find out, but when I die I will find out.
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  The Scotsman

  A good book on the subject is Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander.

  He is a neurosurgeon and was not a believer of NDEs - until he had one.

  His experience was exceptional in that they had him hooked up to every monitoring device imaginable and zero brain activity was proven - and yet he was off somewhere else having an experience he describes as hyper reality - more real than what we currently experience.

  I for one believe them to be real experiences - their are just too many of these NDEs happening for it to be easily dismissed.
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  Apognophos

  I believe in near death experiences too. I just don't think they have anything to do with a soul that lives on after death.