The other day I promised I’d have some more thoughts on the new much publicized life after death study that took place—the one which we are told provides evidence that we may not be dead when we think we are..
I have been doing some deep thinking about this. Actually it’s been on my mind my entire life, and probably yours too..
It is the most troubling and yet amazing question to ask: Is this it? We have debated, prayed, questioned, been hopeless, and hopeful. Sometimes all at the same time.
Here is the basic facts you need to know about the actual study:
- A team based in the UK has spent the last four years seeking out cardiac arrest patients to analyse their experiences
- 46% described having some form of “awareness” at a time when they were declared clinically dead
- The new study sort of makes garbage of the premise that the brain survives 30 seconds after the heart stops. Instead, the new conclusion we see is that it may be up to 5 minutes.
But here is the money quote from the TELEGRAPH story on the study:
One man, however, gave a “very credible” account of what was going on while doctors and nurses tried to bring him back to life – and says that he felt he was observing his resuscitation from the corner of the room
That part is where the paranormal begins to become normal, if the ‘credible’ man is to be believed.. And that would supply evidence to suggest all of the near death experiecnes that Dr. Moody and others have written about for decades are real.. accurate. And true to form..
And that could blow a lot of minds and change everything..
Some of this also is not knew. We know that people are brought back to life minutes after their heart stops—we have come a long way since the ‘feather test’ of long ago to show when someone stops breathing.. Things are most amazing now. But future science and medicine will also show how antiquated our current 2014 way of thinking is, and will be ‘was’ then. The study of the brain is in its infancy. There’s so much to learn about the computer inside all of us..
Here is another snippet from an article on the study from MEDICAL DAILY:
Among 2,060 people who experienced cardiac arrest, 330 survived and of these survivors 140 reported at least partial awareness at the time of resuscitation. Nearly half (46 percent) had memories with seven major themes: fear; animals/plants; bright light; violence/persecution; deja-vu; family; and recalling events post-cardiac arrest. Two percent described awareness with explicit recall of seeing and hearing actual events related to their resuscitation
Oh that bright white light again—the light some say is a trick and others say is a safe place to go when you die. Until we see the light, we really won’t know. And if you’re not allowed to bring your dog, like in that old TWILIGHT ZONE show, then it’s not heaven at all..
But there are skeptics on the mind blowing account of the man seeing himself dead from the side of a room. And they could have a point. After all, one man out of 2060 had this type of story.. There are also some who say the entire study was a waste of time.
I don’t think trying to find an answer to the most important question in life is ever a waste of time.. quite the opposite, actually. We should be doing more of this.. learning more, and never just deciding that something is not true without scientific study.
For most of my life, I have heard science’s response to claims of near death experiences and out of body happenings: Pure and simply hallucinations.
But this new study does something to the hallucination theory.. it strikes a dagger directly into its heart. That is why I find it to be important to read, contemplate, and study more.
Theory is never fact. It’s theory.. And what we think is a law of gravity may not exist in a parallel universe, if they even exist.
I know this: I have read accounts and heard them firsthand from people who have claimed a near death ‘something.’ And when they speak of them, the fire in their eyes is real.. they are being honest. If the hallucination is real, it was still real to them.
And face it: We will all experience of or more of the following in our lifetimes: hallucination, near death experience, or quite simply put, death.
Wouldn’t it be comforting to know that something else exists..
Or… would that be the scary part?