near to death episodes: latest study (Endings)

by David Turell , Tuesday, October 31, 2017, 14:16 (2578 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: You said that: “In the 4-6 minute period after blood and oxygen delivery is stopped, before neuron death, you are correct. Consciousness could be received there, but how would a non-functioning network of neurons handle it?” If blood and oxygen delivery is restarted by resuscitation, wouldn’t the same state continue throughout the 20-40 minutes?

It is a minimal blood supply which keeps the cortex from dying, but does not bring back evidence of function. The EEG's are flat. How a resuscitation ends has two parts: the heart won't start and the pupils which remain normal and small are now found to be enlarged and unresponsive to light, signaling cortical death in the optical cortex, thus the whole cortex. No point in continuing.

dhw: There are two basic assumptions in your comments, both of which can be challenged. 1) That the cortex is only a receiver of consciousness, whereas the materialist will claim that it is the generator. (I’m not taking sides. I’m simply considering both viewpoints.) 2) that an inability to communicate and to perform physical functions denotes unconsciousness. My poor late wife had the same symptoms after her second stroke, but I was told by her doctors that we could not know if she was conscious or not. There are also documented cases of coma patients who were deemed to be unconscious but were fully aware of what was going on around them.

dhw: It is clear, then, that all those NDEs that recount events going on around the patient mean that he/she is conscious. But as you say, nobody knows how. Maybe a dualistic “soul” is the answer. But if the cortex is not dead, and is active enough to be the “receiver”, it could also be the generator, and that would be the materialist view. However, in many cases of NDEs, the patient “returns” with information from outside the operating theatre, and I suggest that those are the experiences which cannot be explained by materialism. The article itself provides no evidence for dualism,

I'll skip point one which is just a side comment to our discussion. Point 2 regards your wife and cases of coma; there is EEG activity from the cortex which is generally not normal in appearance. The cortex is alive to some degree. The 'locked in' state does describe a very special group of patients who are aware but do not or cannot communicate after the event that damaged their brain. This may persist for years, not the 20-40 minutes in prolonged resuscitations. For me NDE's prove dualism. The article refers to them.