Dr. Eben Alexander's powerful Nde

Aware Update

I came across this new article with an update on the Nde Aware project and it looks like no one saw the picture facing the wall according to Dr.Russell Metcalfe-Smith.

Here is the article

http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/news/8798707.Croydon_hospital_studies_life_after_death/?ref=rss

On the other hand here is what Dr. Sam Parnia has to say.

Dr Parnia refused to speculate on the results of his study but said many people interviewed had similar experiences.

He said: “The evidence that is interesting to me is that, contrary to my training, the entity we call the human mind and consciousness appears to continue to exist during the early stage of death.”

Remember though this is probably just one hospital reporting that no one saw the picture. Their are over 25 hospitals that are also putting up pictures. So we don't know the final results yet. Dr. Sam Parnia says either by the end of this year or next year we should know the final results of the study.

Rebutting skeptic's arguments against Pam Reynolds NDE being evidence for life after death

I like to rebut a skeptic who said that Anesthestic awareness can explain all of the verdical perceptions Pam Reynolds had before and during her surgery. He/she says that she could hear the drill itself and that she was able to from awareness know what size it was and what it looked like. The very big problems with this explanations are these:

1) Only a tiny percentage of patients report anesthestic awareness out of thousands who are in cardiac arrest.
2) The known fact that her eyes were taped shut during this procedure so you would have to assume that somehow through her hearing alone if she could hear at all that is with the molded speakers in her ears. That she could imagine what this saw somehow looked like.

He/she says

If anesthetic awareness was operating, the sound of the saw, its sensation and vibration through bone conduction, and the movements of the surgeon’s hand, could all communicate significant information about the size, weight, and general function of the instrument. It would have to be hand held. The sound would give an indication of the size of the motor. The movements and actions would give cues as to the function of the instrument. Likewise, hearing the comment about veins.
_________________

That is assuming he wasn't given enough anesthetics, it order for this to work you have to assume that she wasn't given enough anesthetics. However, it looks like she was under heavy anesthesia making it medically impossible for her to have a consciousness memory of the experience.

Lets also not forget that

Pam Reynold's NDE while on operating table
aneurysm at base of brain (where meets spinal cord)

- body temperature lowered to 10-15'C
- blood drained from head
- brainwaves flattened
- heart stopped
- patient completely covered
- clicking modules in each ear


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anesthesia_awareness

He/she also says that

"I would estimate it to be scientifically impossible to establish that blind people can see during an NDE, unless they can see veridical information that is exclusively visually encodable".

The following additional would have to be satisfied

1) not similar to the already known visual phenomena sometimes recorded in the blind.

2) verifiable as totally without sight since birth (preferably by congenitally nonfunctional optical system).

My response- The visual phenomena that is reported in the blind sometimes is no near similar to blind people who have near death experiences/out of body experiences. Also as far as I know many patients were indeed blind from birth and had nde/obe.

Then says,

The fact is that blind people still have a functional occipital lobe, which adapts to conveying internal information in a "sight like way" without actual sight being possible. Someone truly blind from birth would be unable to distinguish this from "sight" unless they later had actual sight restored."

But here's the rub many of them didn't have a functional occipital lobe but were still able to perceive clearly during there nde/obe.

For an example of a case of a blind patient having a nde/obe go here her optic nerve was completely destroyed.

http://www.near-death.com/experiences/evidence03.html

You can read the skeptics arguments here for yourself

http://neardeath.ipbhost.com/viewtopic.php?t=8305&sid=47831cd9522e72255ca9880b423af2cf

Near Death Experiences And Out Of Body Experiences Most Likely Point To Survival Of Bodily Death Or Super ESP

This is based on the fact 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. 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. This right there along with the evidence that patients can bring back information they couldn't have possibly known as while as seeing this even miles away. This is why near death experiences and out of body experiences are most likely point toward survival of bodily death or Super Esp. I for one lean more towards survival based on the fact that a lot of the evidence come from other areas are very hard to accept through a super Esp theory.

Near Death Experiences/Out Of Body Experiences Evidence

Another piece of evidence in support that they are not brain based. Some individuals have described in amazing detail, facts about their physical surroundings that they should not have been able to know. Some have described details of medical procedures performed on them. Some have related memories of conversations that others had during their medical emergencies or even described the jewelry and clothing worn from those around them.

Some accounts have given verified details about what happened outside the immediate room, down the hallway, or even miles away. The amount of verification is sometimes staggering. People blind from birth have correctly visual details of things around them and outside their presence. Many of these near-death details were of events occurring when the individual had no heartbeat or brain wave activity, as indicated by ''flat EKG and EEG readings, sometimes over lengthy periods of time.

Atheist philosopher Antony Flew attests that NDE's certainly constitute impressive evidence of the possibility of the occurence of human consciousness independent of any occurences in the human brain. This evidence equally certainly weakens if does not completely refute my argument against doctrines of a future life''.