Article ignores NDE evidence completely (Introduction)
by David Turell 
, Thursday, June 22, 2017, 02:12 (2493 days ago)
Michael Shermer is a famous skeptic. His article is totally biased by ignoring the subject:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-ldquo-you-rdquo-in-an-afterlife-woul...
“'Once the body dies, some part of our consciousness leaves us and travels to a new plane,” the scientist explains, evidenced by his machine that measures, as another character puts it, “brain wavelengths on a subatomic level leaving the body after death.”
"This idea is not too far afield from a real theory called quantum consciousness, proffered by a wide range of people, from physicist Roger Penrose to physician Deepak Chopra. Some versions hold that our mind is not strictly the product of our brain and that consciousness exists separately from material substance, so the death of your physical body is not the end of your conscious existence.
***
"First, there is the assumption that our identity is located in our memories, which are presumed to be permanently recorded in the brain: if they could be copied and pasted into a computer or duplicated and implanted into a resurrected body or soul, we would be restored. But that is not how memory works. Memory is not like a DVR that can play back the past on a screen in your mind. Memory is a continually edited and fluid process that utterly depends on the neurons in your brain being functional. It is true that when you go to sleep and wake up the next morning or go under anesthesia for surgery and come back hours later, your memories return, as they do even after so-called profound hypothermia and circulatory arrest. Under this procedure, a patient's brain is cooled to as low as 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which causes electrical activity in neurons to stop—suggesting that long-term memories are stored statically. But that cannot happen if your brain dies. That is why CPR has to be done so soon after a heart attack or drowning—because if the brain is starved of oxygen-rich blood, the neurons die, along with the memories stored therein.
"Second, there is the supposition that copying your brain's connectome—the diagram of its neural connections—uploading it into a computer (as some scientists suggest) or resurrecting your physical self in an afterlife (as many religions envision) will result in you waking up as if from a long sleep either in a lab or in heaven. But a copy of your memories, your mind or even your soul is not you. It is a copy of you, no different than a twin, and no twin looks at his or her sibling and thinks, “There I am.” Neither duplication nor resurrection can instantiate you in another plane of existence.
"Third, your unique identity is more than just your intact memories; it is also your personal point of view. Neuroscientist Kenneth Hayworth, a senior scientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and president of the Brain Preservation Foundation, divided this entity into the MEMself and the POVself. He believes that if a complete MEMself is transferred into a computer (or, presumably, resurrected in heaven), the POVself will awaken. I disagree. If this were done without the death of the person, there would be two memory selves, each with its own POVself looking out at the world through its unique eyes. At that moment, each would take a different path in life, thereby recording different memories based on different experiences. “You” would not suddenly have two POVs. If you died, there is no known mechanism by which your POVself would be transported from your brain into a computer (or a resurrected body). A POV depends entirely on the continuity of self from one moment to the next, even if that continuity is broken by sleep or anesthesia. Death is a permanent break in continuity, and your personal POV cannot be moved from your brain into some other medium, here or in the hereafter."
Comment: Shermer knows Susan Blackmore from the skeptic society. She has discussed NDE's and denies them. Shermer ignores them.
Article ignores NDE evidence completely
DAVID: Michael Shermer is a famous skeptic. His article is totally biased by ignoring the subject:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-ldquo-you-rdquo-in-an-afterlife-woul...
DAVID's comment: Shermer knows Susan Blackmore from the skeptic society. She has discussed NDE's and denies them. Shermer ignores them.
Having attended a lecture by Susan Blackmore, I am not in the least surprised by the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard atheists. It perfectly matches the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard theists, and is put to shame by the open-mindedness of diehard agnostics, except that diehard agnostics have got it wrong one way or the other, so they/we have nothing to be proud of either. 
Article ignores NDE evidence completely
by David Turell , Friday, June 23, 2017, 01:08 (2492 days ago) @ dhw
DAVID: Michael Shermer is a famous skeptic. His article is totally biased by ignoring the subject:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-ldquo-you-rdquo-in-an-afterlife-woul...DAVID's comment: Shermer knows Susan Blackmore from the skeptic society. She has discussed NDE's and denies them. Shermer ignores them.
dhw: Having attended a lecture by Susan Blackmore, I am not in the least surprised by the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard atheists. It perfectly matches the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard theists, and is put to shame by the open-mindedness of diehard agnostics, except that diehard agnostics have got it wrong one way or the other, so they/we have nothing to be proud of either.
No one has proof, but I have an opinion based on evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
Article ignores NDE evidence completely
DAVID: Michael Shermer is a famous skeptic. His article is totally biased by ignoring the subject:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-ldquo-you-rdquo-in-an-afterlife-woul...
DAVID's comment: Shermer knows Susan Blackmore from the skeptic society. She has discussed NDE's and denies them. Shermer ignores them.
dhw: Having attended a lecture by Susan Blackmore, I am not in the least surprised by the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard atheists. It perfectly matches the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard theists, and is put to shame by the open-mindedness of diehard agnostics, except that diehard agnostics have got it wrong one way or the other, so they/we have nothing to be proud of either.
DAVID: No one has proof, but I have an opinion based on evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
That is tantamount to saying that anyone else’s opinion is unreasonable, and if this were a court of law (“beyond a reasonable doubt” being the legal criterion for proof of guilt) you would send all atheists and agnostics to jail. Ts, ts.
Article ignores NDE evidence completely
by David Turell , Friday, June 23, 2017, 14:43 (2491 days ago) @ dhw
DAVID: Michael Shermer is a famous skeptic. His article is totally biased by ignoring the subject:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-ldquo-you-rdquo-in-an-afterlife-woul...DAVID's comment: Shermer knows Susan Blackmore from the skeptic society. She has discussed NDE's and denies them. Shermer ignores them.
dhw: Having attended a lecture by Susan Blackmore, I am not in the least surprised by the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard atheists. It perfectly matches the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard theists, and is put to shame by the open-mindedness of diehard agnostics, except that diehard agnostics have got it wrong one way or the other, so they/we have nothing to be proud of either.
DAVID: No one has proof, but I have an opinion based on evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
dhw: That is tantamount to saying that anyone else’s opinion is unreasonable, and if this were a court of law (“beyond a reasonable doubt” being the legal criterion for proof of guilt) you would send all atheists and agnostics to jail. Ts, ts.
We are not in court. Stop feeling guilty about your lack of faith.
Article ignores NDE evidence completely
DAVID: Michael Shermer is a famous skeptic. His article is totally biased by ignoring the subject:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-ldquo-you-rdquo-in-an-afterlife-woul...
DAVID's comment: Shermer knows Susan Blackmore from the skeptic society. She has discussed NDE's and denies them. Shermer ignores them.
dhw: Having attended a lecture by Susan Blackmore, I am not in the least surprised by the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard atheists. It perfectly matches the head-in-the-sand approach of diehard theists, and is put to shame by the open-mindedness of diehard agnostics, except that diehard agnostics have got it wrong one way or the other, so they/we have nothing to be proud of either.
DAVID: No one has proof, but I have an opinion based on evidence beyond a reasonable doubt.
dhw: That is tantamount to saying that anyone else’s opinion is unreasonable, and if this were a court of law (“beyond a reasonable doubt” being the legal criterion for proof of guilt) you would send all atheists and agnostics to jail. Ts, ts.
DAVID: We are not in court. Stop feeling guilty about your lack of faith.
If you have proved your case “beyond a reasonable doubt”, it means your adversary has lost. Lucky for us agnostics that you are only the lawyer and not the judge and jury!
Article ignores deep NDE evidence completely
by David Turell , Saturday, August 25, 2018, 20:56 (2063 days ago) @ dhw
Psychedelic drugs can mimic part of NDE's but a full understanding of the phenomena must include a state of flat EEG with no brain activity. this article ignores that but demonstrates that some of the NDE experience can be stimulated by a drug effect on the brain:
https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/dmt-makes-your-brain-think-its-dying-and...
"Back in the mid-nineties, I read a first-person article about the near-death experience (NDE) one curious traveler braved under the influence of ayahuasca while visiting the jungles of Brazil. The potent brew, which requires plants featuring the psychoactive compound, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), as well as plants that provide alkaloids to elongate the hallucinogenic effects, has been ritualistically used for, well, "a long time" is the best guess anyone can muster.
"While memory is notoriously spotty, I specifically recall the writer lying down on the jungle dirt and watching his body from the forest canopy. Though disassociated, there was no fear. There might have been something about astral traveling; the fact that he had an NDE and returned, refreshed and reinvigorated, stayed with me.
"During my three experiences with ayahuasca (and numerous encounters with the isolated DMT; the effects only last a few minutes), I’ve had a similar experience on one occasion. The boundaries of my body felt porous; the distance between myself and my environment dissolved.
***
"A new study, published in the journal, Frontiers in Psychology, confirms that the NDE is a universal trait of DMT. A team of researchers from Imperial College London, supervised by one of the world’s leading researchers in psychedelic studies, Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, injected thirteen healthy volunteers with either a compound of DMT or a placebo. They then asked sixteen questions, comparing their responses to those preferred by 67 medical patients who had experienced NDEs during a heart attack.
"A universal experience not limited to psychedelics, the NDE is defined, in part, by “feelings of inner-peace, out-of-body experiences, traveling through a dark region or ‘void’ (commonly associated with a tunnel), visions of a bright light, entering into an unearthly ‘other realm’ and communicating with sentient ‘beings.’”
***
"Chris Timmerman, a PhD candidate in Carhart-Harris’s Psychedelic Research Group and lead author of the study, summates the results:
Our findings show a striking similarity between the types of experiences people are having when they take DMT and people who have reported a near-death experience.
***
"Before analogies drawn from sensations after ingesting an entheogen and those from a heart attack are entwined, the authors offer caution. DMT, they write, is like entering an "unearthly realm," while actually nearly dying makes you feel like you’re approaching "a point of no return." Context matters.
"That said, Carhart-Harris, who was featured prominently in Michael Pollan’s recent book about psychedelics (discussing how they can help terminally ill patients confront death) notes DMT's therapeutic utility:
"These findings are important as they remind us that NDE occur because of significant changes in the way the brain is working, not because of something beyond the brain. DMT is a remarkable tool that can enable us to study and thus better understand the psychology and biology of dying.
***
"DMT is naturally produced in the human body (as well as in other mammals). It has been found in our lungs and eyes and, Luke mentions, and appear to play a role in our immune system. The popular citation of DMT being produced in our pineal gland, which has led thousands of cosmonauts to speculate that our “third eye” produces the mystical DMT, is currently unfounded. It could be produced there, Luke says—trace amounts have been found in the pineal glands of rats—but research has not confirmed this. As Luke says,
"There is possibility but we have yet to discover what the pineal glands’ actually function is. It seems to be important as a neurological transmitter on certain, little understood, neurotransmitter sites in the brain…But the question remains why we have an extremely potent psychedelic chemical floating around in the human body. Can this account for spontaneous mythical and spiritual experiences?"
Comment: This article is interesting in that DMT is produced throughout the body, but the key to our discussion is the NDE's that appear without brain activity that observe new things and learn new facts. What is presented here are those NDE's that occur while the brain is active, which I consider a partial NDE as it relates to soul/consciousness discussions.
Article ignores deep NDE evidence completely
DAVID: Psychedelic drugs can mimic part of NDE's but a full understanding of the phenomena must include a state of flat EEG with no brain activity. this article ignores that but demonstrates that some of the NDE experience can be stimulated by a drug effect on the brain:
https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/dmt-makes-your-brain-think-its-dying-and...
DAVID’s comment: This article is interesting in that DMT is produced throughout the body, but the key to our discussion is the NDE's that appear without brain activity that observe new things and learn new facts. What is presented here are those NDE's that occur while the brain is active, which I consider a partial NDE as it relates to soul/consciousness discussions.
Thank you, as always, for this interesting article. For me – and I think for you too – the crucial factor, not just in NDEs but in certain other psychic experiences, is the acquisition of information which could not otherwise be accessible to the person concerned. BBella gave us some instances, and I wonder if anyone has ever compiled a collection of authenticated experiences of this kind.
Article ignores deep NDE evidence completely
by David Turell , Sunday, August 26, 2018, 15:47 (2062 days ago) @ dhw
DAVID: Psychedelic drugs can mimic part of NDE's but a full understanding of the phenomena must include a state of flat EEG with no brain activity. this article ignores that but demonstrates that some of the NDE experience can be stimulated by a drug effect on the brain:
https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/dmt-makes-your-brain-think-its-dying-and...DAVID’s comment: This article is interesting in that DMT is produced throughout the body, but the key to our discussion is the NDE's that appear without brain activity that observe new things and learn new facts. What is presented here are those NDE's that occur while the brain is active, which I consider a partial NDE as it relates to soul/consciousness discussions.
dhw: Thank you, as always, for this interesting article. For me – and I think for you too – the crucial factor, not just in NDEs but in certain other psychic experiences, is the acquisition of information which could not otherwise be accessible to the person concerned. BBella gave us some instances, and I wonder if anyone has ever compiled a collection of authenticated experiences of this kind.
I've been into books and websites that do exactly that. And supreme evidence in Eben Alexander's book.