Afterlife: Matt Take Notice!!! (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 02:50 (4702 days ago) @ dhw

dhw,

Not ignoring your posts, but I want to finish going through all the stories at the website before I read them.

Next is Lommel's study... and it's one that David cites in his book. A key insight is this:

"Lommel noted that only 10 seconds after the heart stops beating, the electroencephalogram goes dead. At this point, there is no activity in the brain cortex and the brain cannot manufacture visions."

The assumption here is that register-able brain activity alone is sufficient to determine "death."

This is a piece that I have a difficult time accepting as fact. The reason, is that the cells are not dead. Contrary to the wishes of some neuroscientists, the brain is NOT a computer... it doesn't only have two states, "on" and "off." I think of it more like a room with a light dimmer, as evidenced by what happens when you experience a fever. (Your body burns through calories more quickly.)

As long as cells are alive--they are still capable of some kind of function. This still doesn't give an explanation to veridical NDEs, but I feel my hands are tied by methodological materialism there. Lommel's conclusions here, ignore the fact that we don't know all that much about consciousness-->The same argument that allows many people to infer a creator also binds us from jumping headlong into accepting Lommel's thinking that consciousness survives after death.

How long does it survive? How many stories do we have of an NDE that lasts say, 3 days?

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"