New study done on DMT and it's relationship with NDE?

A recent study has been published and materialists are touting it as evidence that near death experiences are brain based phenomenon. That DMT experiences are very similar to Near Death Experiences. Let's delve into this more and we shall see that is no true.



DMT experience is no where near similar to an actual Near Death Experience. First of all, near death experiencer's don't encounter mechanical elves in hyper space. Second, no near death experience reports a high pitched whining/whirring sound during the onset of their experience. Third, people who take DMT their life is not fundamentally changed for the rest of their life. It only feels temporarily real to them where someone who has a nde it feels real to them for the rest of their life a permanent change. Fourth, their are lots of cases of people who see things they couldn't have possibly have seen while being clinically dead. Fifth, people who take dmt don't report seeing deceased loved ones. Sixth, recall is often difficult with people who have a DMT experience. People who had a NDE are very often their recall is very long and detailed and carry on with the emotions and feelings of that experience many years later. Two cases for example of out of body veridical perception were mentioned in my last post. This study does not support methodological Naturalism, but instead continues to throw old explanations that have been clearly refuted.

Here is a link to the study

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01424/full


Also here is an excellent article showing why near death experiences are not DMT trips.

https://thesurvivalindex.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/are-ndes-just-dmt-trips/

Researchers of the Immortality project say they have a Naturalistic Explanation for NDEs

At least they think they do. As they mentioned a typical materialist explanation that their maybe some undetectable brain activity in the brain that can account for these experiences without saying that consciousness can function without the brain. The problem is this is very improbable. As EEG expert Dr. John Greenfield has confirmed.

He says,

“It’s very unlikely that a hypoperfused brain [someone with no blood flow to the brain], with no evidence of electrical activity could generate NDEs. Human studies as well as animal studies have typically shown very little brain perfusion [blood flow] or glucose utilization when the EEG is flat. There are deep brain areas involved in generating memories that might still operate at some very reduced level during cardiac arrest, but of course any subcortically generated activity can’t be brought to consciousness without at least one functioning cerebral hemisphere. So even if there were some way that NDEs were generated during the hypoxic state [while the brain is shut off from oxygen], you would not experience them until reperfusion [blood flow] allowed you to dream them or wake up and talk about them”, Greenfield stated.


The philosophers of this book that is coming out about a naturalistic explanation for NDE's go on to say.

Physical explanations of NDEs are not only significantly more likely to be true than supernatural explanations, but that they are also capable of being deeply attractive and inspiring, Mitchell-Yellin says.

First of all I don't think the afterlife explanation is an supernatural explanation. It's an natural phenomenon in the sense that we can explore it.

NDE Aware Study Published!!!

Well the long awaited study done by Dr. Sam Parnia and his colleagues has finally been published. Skeptics are already over all of course. One of the skeptic websites, neurologica blog, runned by Dr. Steven Novella claims that no evidence for an afterlife was found in the study. He is wrong as one case of a man was verified by using a physical marker (audio stimuli, he was able to hear the beeps, the beeping machine made three beeps in three minute intervals. This patient's near death experience happened exactly when the patient was unconsciousness, with no brain activity and no heart beat. This case shows clearly that near death experiences are not hallucinations. Most of the patients were interviewed more than once.


The study concludes numerous points:


• The themes relating to the experience of death appear far broader than what has been understood so far, or what has been described as so called near-death experiences.

• In some cases of cardiac arrest, memories of visual awareness compatible with so called out-of-body experiences may correspond with actual events.

• A higher proportion of people may have vivid death experiences, but do not recall them due to the effects of brain injury or sedative drugs on memory circuits.

• Widely used yet scientifically imprecise terms such as near-death and out-of-body experiences may not be sufficient to describe the actual experience of death. Future studies should focus on cardiac arrest, which is biologically synonymous with death, rather than ill-defined medical states sometimes referred to as ‘near-death’.

• The recalled experience surrounding death merits a genuine investigation without prejudice.


You can find the full details of the study in the journal of resuscitation

http://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572%2814%2900739-4/fulltext

Near-Death, revisited

Recently biologist Pz Myers criticize an article written by Mario Beauregard who discussed the science on out of body experiences. Biologist Pz Myers had this to say This new anecdote is more of the same. The patient is comatose and with no heart rhythm when brought into the hospital; over a week later, he claims to recognize a particular nurse as having been present during his crisis, and mentions that she put his dentures in a drawer. I am underwhelmed. I must introduce Beauregard to two very common terms that are well understood in the neuroscience community... At the Daily Grail Greg Taylor mentions the fact that it wasn't a female nurse but in fact a male nurse. That biologist Pz Myers obviously didn't bother looking at the original documents of the case. Here is the link to Dr. Mario Beauregard rebuttal to biologist Pz Myers criticism of his article that was published in salon. http://www.salon.com/2012/05/01/near_death_rehashed/singleton/

Still awaiting on Aware Nde study results

Will be rather interesting to see what the results show for the Aware NDE study which Dr. Sam Parnia is doing. I have mentioned before one big problem that is a real problem and that is if you were outside your body you wouldn't be worried about looking for a sign. Even though the signs are places in visible range from above the fact remains you wouldn't be concerned about looking at them. The main things you be looking at is your body and the nurses and doctor trying to revive you. Plus the experience itself would take up your priority not signs that are put up.

By the way, I found this interesting video on youtube a show called Beyond Belief where Dr. Sam Parnia is interviewed about his study. The embed link has been disabled so go to youtube to search for it.

So where is the afterlife?

After extensively researching this subject throughout psychical research my conclusion is that it is in other realms of existence. So it ain't up above and hell is not down below instead heaven is in another realm of existence and the lower realms of existence that you may want to call hell. I am currently reading a book called the evidence for an afterlife by Dr. Jeffery Long an Nde researcher his view is that nde's the nine lines of evidence he presents in his book proves that an afterlife exists.


I would have to disagree in science their is no such thing as proof. So the best you can get is strong evidence that points to the high probability of an afterlife. But with just those nine lines of evidence in his book it still doesn't amount to strong evidence for an afterlife. It's until you look at all the evidence for an afterlife together then you can say their is very strong evidence for an afterlife.


The nine lines of evidence he mentions such as blind people from birth that are able to see during cardiac arrest and clinical death. He also mentions accurate veridical out of body perceptions that are collaborated by doctors and nurses and staff. I would say Near death experiences and out of body experiences evidence does provide a lot of good evidence for an afterlife. However, just from that phenomenon it would be hard to come to any preliminary conclusions on rather their is an afterlife or not.

Pim Van Lommel Consciousness Beyond Life

Part 1


Part 2

Reasons why Near death experiences and out of body experiences are evidence of life after death

1.) Blind Patients who have near death experiences report accurate verdical perceptions while outside their bodies with strong colloboration from nurses and doctors.
2.) Patients with near death experiences report accurate verdical perceptions while outside their bodies with strong colloboration from nurses and doctors.
3.) The closer one is to death the more likely they are to have a near death experience.
4.) The majority of patients who have near death experiences and out of body experiences have no illusory elements.
5) No natural explanation can account for out of body experiences and near death experiences which has been shown time and time again.
6) Worldwide Consistency- Non western ndes are remarkably similiar to western ndes across many cultures and religions.
7). Aftereffects- It is common for people to experience major life changes after having near-death experiences. These aftereffects are often powerful, lasting, life-enhancing, and the changes generally follow a consistent pattern. As the NDErs themselves almost always believe- near-death experiences are, in a word, real.
8) Family Reunions- During a NDE, the people encountered are virtually always deceased, and are usually relatives of the person having the experience- sometimes they are even relatives who died before the NDEr was born. Were the NDE only a product of memory fragments, they would almost certainly include far more living people, including those with whom they had more recently interacted.

Electrical brain activity surge may explain near death experiences and out of body experiences

Not so fast there are a lot of big problems with this explanation. The study found identifical electrical surges in all 7 teminally ill patients moments before their lives ended. The doctors however do admit that complex mental experiences are happening in near death experiences/out of body experiences unlike other scientists who pretend that those experiences don't happen. But like the rest of mainsteam science they see nde/obe as a threat so there comes here speculation that this could be caused by a last surge of electrical brain activity. You can read the article here

http://news.discovery.com/human/near-death-brain.html?campaign=w01-101-ae-0002



The big problem is

1] Doesn't explain accurate verdical accounts of obe that patients report from the hospital room and even well outside the hospital room.
2.] Doesn't explain how blind people from birth can accurately report there out of body experience
3] It appears this surge lasts for three minutes many out of body experiences happen for a longer period of time
4.] Also there is serious evidence for verdical experiences during a flat EEG,dilated pupils and absence of the gag.
5.] No report of any mental experiences whatsoevr by the patients, only the scientist doing the study assumed they had these experiences when this last brain surge happened.
6.] The last electrical surge is also probably a low level surge, because remember patients with near death experiences have full blown and even heightened conscious
mental activity.
7] Finally this has been known for a long time now that there is a this last electrical surge which is low level.

Steven Novella Once Again on Skeptiko Discussing Why in his opinion Nde/Obe is Neurophysiology and Psychological

I like to respond to some of Novella's Remarks on NDE's

He seems to ignore the fact that at least 92 percent of people who have ndes report seeing deceased love ones, where only a small percentage see living people this set of evidence weighs against a view that ndes are hallucinatory [Psychological, Neurophysiology].

Also he mentions how newer studies on magnetic stimulation on the brain show that nde's, are just a part of the brain [temporal lobe] that creates the out of body experience etc]. I think he is referring to this study here.

Out of body experience recreated

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6960612.stm

This study doesn't explain how people with flat lined EEG's lying on an operating table with no pulse can have this same experience without video cameras or virtual reality goggles while at the same time seeing and hearing things that could only have been percieved from a different location. Even miles away!!!. Neither doesn't it explain the complex lucidity either.

Also doesn't explain how blind people at birth can see perfectly unconsciousness.

http://atwaterndenews.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-i...

Here is the link to the recent Skeptiko podcast where Dr. Steven Novella discussed why in his opinion nde/obe don't point to an afterlife.

http://www.skeptiko.com/near-death-experience-research-debate-with-steven-novella/

Here are the compelling empirical reasons why Nde/Obe get lots of support to the
Survival Hypothesis

1.) Over 90 percent of nde see deceased loved ones but only a small percentage see living people.

2.) A Very large database of ndes show that patients who have obe can see things and hear conversations inside and outside and even well outside the emergency room well having a flat EEG. This as well as interviewing patients immediately after being flat lined shows that these out of body experiences are probably having when the brain goes completely flat-lined. These experiences have also been verified that they actually occurred they are well documented.

3.] EEG expert and Neurologist Dr. John Greenfield points out clearly that human studies as well as animal studies have typically shown very little brain perfusion [blood flow] or glucose utilization when the EEG is flat. Their are deep brain areas involved in generating memories that might still operate at some very reduced level during cardiac arrest, but of course any subcortically generated activity can’t be brought to consciousness without at least one functioning cerebral hemisphere. So even if there were some way that NDEs were generated during the hypoxic state [while the brain is shut off from oxygen], you would not experience them until reperfusion [blood flow] allowed you to dream them or wake up and talk about them”,

4.) All neurophysiological and psychological models fail to explain any of the evidence above. As much as it hurts materialist's like "Dr. Steven Novella" to admit it the evidence is very straightforward and precise to ignore and avoid the evidence above, for nde/obe is only avoiding the facts that are clearly there.

New Study on Near Death Experiences

This study says that CO2 maybe the cause of the near death experience where they report a reunion with loved ones, a bright light etc. The problem is that other researchers have previously looked at blood carbon dioxide levels in relation to near-death experiences. In contrast to the Slovenian group's findings, Dr.Bruce Greyson says "what few data we have point in the opposite direction."

One earlier study found an association between these experiences and below-average carbon dioxide levels, whereas another failed to detect a significant difference in patients with versus without near-death experiences.


You can read the article here

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Psychiatry/GeneralPsychiatry/19450

Dr. Jeffery Long Takes On Critic Of NDE's Being An Afterlife Phenomenon Dr. George Woerlee

Dr. Jeffery Long shows skeptic Dr. George Woerlee arguments are not valid when closely examined.

http://www.skeptiko.com/

Near-Death Experience Skeptic, Dr. G.M. Woerlee Takes Aim at Dr. Jeffrey Long’s, Evidence of the Afterlife

Another excellent skeptiko podcast host Alex Tskaris gets into a discussion with skeptic anesthesiologist G.M. Woerlee. In this 90 minute interview Woerlee attempts too refute nine lines of evidence that Dr. Jeffery Long believes support the survival hypothesis and are not a naturalistic/biological phenomenon. After watching this recent podcast i will say that anesthesiologist G.M. Woerlee has some good points, one of those good points is how can a immaterial soul hear and see things around them when they have a flat EEG?. My answer would be that the immaterial soul uses the senses as the the physical body used but those senses are now greatly enhanced.

You can watch the interview here.

Another argument he used is that heart massage brings back patients who are on the brink of death.

The problem with this is that their are a lot of cases where the patient has a out of body experience and doesn't feel any pain from the cardiac massage. This strongly suggests that they are different from the cases that are also well known where patients don't have out of body experiences but feel pain after receiving cardiac massage.

He also says that drugs, anoxia etc account for all near death and out of body experiences.

I disagree, their possible explanations but they all come up short explaining the entire phenomena. A good theory accounts for all of the phenomena not just some of it.

http://www.skeptiko.com/

A commenter who goes under the name Fedde said the perceiving part could be a form of ESP, yes it could be that certainly is another possible explanation. Even though i don't give much attention to the Super ESP hypothesis it nevertheless is a possible alternative explanation. Their is another possible explanation however too and this explanation would be that both hypotheses are true that survival and Super ESP but occur. That the soul uses ESP to hear and see things around it.

Life after death, a Reality? Near death experiences, NDE - Fact or Fiction? Fact or Delusion?

Near Death Experiences: Dr. Melvin Morse's Response To Skeptics

Rebuttal To Skeptic's Magazine Jason Braithwaite View That Pim Lommel's NDE Study Doesn't Support The Survival Hypothesis

So what is the problem with his view?. I will explain, first he mentions that quite recently doctors have found some deep level brain activity in persistent vegetative patients and in deep coma's. This is no surprise and it's likely their probably is high level brain activity in the non cortical processes of the brain. However those non cortical processes with high brain activity don't bring about thoughts, memories etc. It usually is assumed to be the cortical regions of the brain which have been shown by a flat EEG to have very little activity there. There no doubt there is a little bit of activity in the cortex but that would no where near account for high complex thought processes, and memories that occur in near death experiences. So for Jason's Braithwaite view to work, their would have to be evidence showing that stimulating deep level non cortical processes of the brain take over high level functions of the brain,and explain high level thought processes. But here is the catch, according to neuropsychology that is very improbable. This is why Pim Van Lommel concluded that his study supports the survival hypothesis because of the observations that it didn't fit into a brain based model.

Jason Braithwaite says and i quote

"He cites evidence that inter-ictal discharges in the hippocampus or amygdala alone are more than sufficient to produce complex meaningful hallucinations - no involvement from the cortex is necessary.

My Response: But here is the catch, those patients report distortion in their bodies legs becoming shorter, not seeing their body down below etc. This is the opposite of what patients with out of body experiences report.

I challenge all skeptics that are skeptical that near death experiences and out of body experiences provide supporting evidence for life after death. For them to show any problems with my reasoning above.

Life After Death- Near Death Experiences In Children

This is an interesting video discussing near death experiences of children who have had them. The doctor in the video is Dr. Melvin Morse.

Dr. Peter Fenwick Discusses Near Death Experiences And Out Of Body Experiences On A Radio Show

There are 12 parts to it, he discusses the data from his work on near death experiences.

18 Month Near Death/Out of Body Pilot Study Successful

Here is an interesting conference discussing the Aware study and Brain 1 study. According Sam Parnia the pilot phase has been successful, we managed to get the methodology refined and we're getting the sort of data that we'd expect to be getting." How many out of the 60, we don't know yet, according to Sam Parnia that is all he can say right now. Also the data he says will be used for the final study.

Watch all four parts of the conference here

Very Interesting Recent Skeptiko Podcast

It features an expert in near death experiences who is an neuropsychiatrist. It is an hour long and well worth listening too.

Dr. Peter Fenwick, neuropsychiatrist, world renown expert on end of life phenomena, including near-death experiences and deathbed visions. His most recent book is, The Art of Dying.

You can watch this excellent one hour interview here.

http://skeptiko.com/index.php?id=75