Walk Towards The Light

[Mighty AC]

It looks like scientists may be able to explain the "light" and visions people see during a near death experience. As it turns out brain activity surges for about 30 seconds after the heart stops and it is starved of oxygen and/or glucose. During this time patients are clinically dead, but their brains are chugging away, likely creating dream-like experiences. Research in this area is in the early stages but it does look like science is about to evict god from yet another gap.

http://news.discovery.com/human/health/brain-activity-shows-basis-of-near-death-experience-130813.htm

[sharkman]

This is not a new theory...

[BubberMiley]

The theory may not be new, but that's hardly relevant. The findings are new, and they are interesting.

Dr Jimo Borjigin, who conducted the study for the University of Michigan, said: "A lot of people thought that the brain after clinical death was inactive or hypoactive, with less activity than the waking state, and we show that is definitely not the case. If anything, it is much more active during the dying process than even the waking state."

[GostHacked]

That's a scary concept that the brain goes into overdrive just before death. I would guess that this happens in other animals as well.

[Shady]

That's a scary concept that the brain goes into overdrive just before death. I would guess that this happens in other animals as well.

As well as unborn babies.

[GostHacked]

As well as unborn babies.

?

[BC_chick]

It looks like scientists may be able to explain the "light" and visions people see during a near death experience. As it turns out brain activity surges for about 30 seconds after the heart stops and it is starved of oxygen and/or glucose. During this time patients are clinically dead, but their brains are chugging away, likely creating dream-like experiences. Research in this area is in the early stages but it does look like science is about to evict god from yet another gap.

http://news.discovery.com/human/health/brain-activity-shows-basis-of-near-death-experience-130813.htm

I have a very difficult time believing the concept of after-life. It's unfathomable when you think about the billions of human and non-human lives that come and go.

The brain seeing lights and having visions make sense. However, I'm very intrigued about near-death experiences where people see themselves from above and provide elaborate details about what was happening while they were clinically dead.

I hate to admit it, but that still spooks me out a little bit.

[The_Squid]

Death will feel just like the hundreds of thousands of years that occurred before one's birth...

[Mighty AC]

I think it's cool that everything that is me was once part of a star before becoming part of this earth. The atoms get recycled completely every 8 to 10 years, yet I am still me. Then later after I am dead what was once part of me will make up tiny portions of countless other organisms before eventually becoming part of other stars and planets again. Wow...beautiful and awesome!

Sure, the consciousness built of the neural connections I have made is temporary, but that's what makes it special. If it lived on forever, there would be no real urgency to live today.

Then like Squid said the non-existence of my consciousness after my death will be just like the eternity prior to my birth.

[sharkman]

Well, looks like you've got life, death and the afterlife all figured out. Good for you.

[Bonam]

Well, looks like you've got life, death and the afterlife all figured out. Good for you.

Science has the answers that religion has been so unsuccessfully trying to provide for millenia.

[Mighty AC]

Well, looks like you've got life, death and the afterlife all figured out. Good for you.

Well, there is no afterlife for what would be considered me. We're kind of like Lego structures. When the end has come for the robot, plane, house, space station, etc. the individual pieces are disassembled and returned to the bin. Later some of those same pieces will go on to form tiny fractions of other structures, but what was the robot is gone. Instead of being shaped in ABS moulds at factory in Denmark, our building blocks were fused in stars.

In this case I find reality far more interesting and beautiful than the mythologies, though admittedly it may be a less effective anaesthetic for the grief of loss.

Edit: Typo.

Edited September 10, 2013 by Mighty AC