Near Death Experiences Solved?

Near Death Experiences Solved?

www.time.com

The conflict in science over NDEs centers not on whether they happen but on what they are. It's accepted, based on various studies, that between 4% and 18% of people who are resuscitated after cardiac arrest have an NDE.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I think this merits a post, as it could be the beginning of understanding the human mind to an extent that we have yet to accomplish. What if consciousness really does exist outside the body? What impacts might this have on medicine?

The possibilities are truly endless.

TheBorg

www.time.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's '___' that causes the NDE experience. N,N-dimethyltryptamine is a extremely psychedelic compound that is found in nature and also our brains. It's excreted while we sleep, at birth, while we dream and our time of death.

Check it out! Dr Rick Strassman wrote a book about it!



'___': The Spirit Molecule

That's what the Pharmacratic Inquisition is all about!

Psychedelics are the key to spirituality and enlightenment. The Holy Sacrament. The Forbidden Fruit! Its the psychedelics that we have ingested for some 40k years. They are there for us to know good and evil and become like the Gods!

[edit on 023030p://upThursday by QuasiShaman]

[edit on 023030p://upThursday by QuasiShaman]

I think the thread title is misleading because they didn't "solve" anything, just confirmed the fact that people aren't crazy when they say they had one. Granted, you put a question mark there but it's still a little misleading.

Anyway, with regards to '___' being responsible for them: I think '___' allows the brain to be a receiver for any transmissions that may come in. A psychedelic seems to physiologically cause your brain to touch, taste, see, hear, or feel entities that your brain isn't already acclimated to. They cause hallucinations, and in many cases such compelling ones you think that they are as visually and audibly real as your conscious world. But psychedelic experiences do what they do because they cause your subconscious mind and your conscious mind to both operate at the same time. Some energy, in my opinion from the Akashic record, communicates with your mind freely when you are in that state.

The types of encounters people describe having in NDEs, I'm not so sure. Seems plausible though. I did lots of '___' in my teenage years so I'm quite familiar with psychedelics. Never did get my hands on '___' or want to try it, as it is supposed to be the most intensely frightening 20 minutes experience a person can have. Frightening doesn't mean it can't be enlightening though.

[edit on 9/6/2007 by pjslug]

Originally posted by pjslug
I think the thread title is misleading because they didn't "solve" anything, just confirmed the fact that people aren't crazy when they say they had one. Granted, you put a question mark there but it's still a little misleading.

Careful now. I did put this forward as a question, mind you. I was merely inquiring to the nature of the discovery that this is a far more common occurrence than we've previously believed. The question implies my not knowing for sure.

So, to return to the topic at hand...

'___' seems like an interesting chemical to do more research on. I'll have to look into it. Thanks Quasi.

TheBorg

Please, leave the '___' spin out of this thread as I don't think it really pertains to the point of the thread. There are already threads that discuss the possible link between '___' and NDEs. Lets not force this thread in that direction. Nothing new has come about to support it, so stick to those old threads. And '___' is not a definite answer on NDE's. There is none to date.

reply to post by Cloak and Dagger


Incorrect, large amounts of '___' and related chemicals are released into the dying brain. Though the mechanism and meaning is unknown, the fact that it occurs remains.
Does it have anything to do with your soul and/or afterlife? Who knows, if it does, what about those who's brains were destroyed beyond possibility of this mechanism taking effect? IE the victims of the atomic bombs, instantly vaporised, they had no chance for this mechanism to play out.

Originally posted by forsakenwayfarer
Who knows, if it does, what about those who's brains were destroyed beyond possibility of this mechanism taking effect? IE the victims of the atomic bombs, instantly vaporised, they had no chance for this mechanism to play out.

Well if they were vaporized they obviously couldn't come back to tell us what happened. And it wouldn't be a NEAR death experience, it would be a death experience.

Why would nature produce '___' just to kick-in just when we're about to kick-out? There's no point. Why would evolution create that, just to be there to release itself when we're going to die? It's a subject I know nothing about by the way, i.e. brain chemicals. Is the '___' there all the time but not getting used? If that's the case then that must be because other chemicals suppress that and they stop working at the point of near death, so the '___' release is a side effect of that???? Do mentally ill folk have '___' running around in their brain causing their hallucinations? My own opinion on NDE is this - I think the brain seems to be like some sort of receiver, like a TV set, and we're on the one channel. When we're at the point of death, taking drugs, or meeting with something from another channel (UFO, ghost, whatever) that's when we become aware that there ARE other channels in the universe/multiverse and we can view them, or in the case of NDE, dreams, or alien abduction, enter them. The brain chemicals are needed but I don't think they're the cause.Brain chemicals obviously have something to do with it because they have something to do with how we feel at all times, don't they? They're regulators aren't they? Like the horizontal hold, or the colour or brightness adjustments on a TV. But I don't think it's just the chemical that's causing a hallucination when folk have a near death experience. I think what folk are experiencing is real and the chemical stuff, if it's all correct, is a side effect, or maybe even the driving force in the case of illness, but the experience is real. I know I sound confused and I'm probably contradicting myself but I know what I mean. I had a little NDE when I fell under water at the pool aged 12 and I don't think it was a quick chemical imbalance that cause it. I was definitely outside my physical body.

reply to post by pjslug


I don't get why you didn't understand my post; here's some clarification.

I mean what if this release of chemicals would have something to do with the soul's passing? As in the chemicals somehow relate to 'releasing' the attachment to the brain? Or somehow facilitating the passing from this world? Near death experiences happen when someone DIES, and comes back. So near-death experiences are called that simply because the person returned from - what's that? DEATH.

The difference is only in your mind.

reply to post by wigit


My personal life experiance has taught me that such tryptamines and alkolids are merely the librication needed by thte brain to ease into something it is not accustomed too.

'___' has specific (though i believe, theoretical. (Please correct me if im wrong, i would really like to read the study where its proven. Im seriously interested)) links to the creation of conciousness in the womb, dreaming, OOBE's and NDE's. I dont think nature created the compound to simply just be realeased at near death.

The issue is, the ammount of '___' present in our brains at regular times is miniscule at best. Producing little to no effect on overall conciousness. '___' is produced in the penial gland or "thrid eye" of the brain.

Personally, i believe '___' is the tip of the ice berg when it comes to NDE's. It may allow us to transend the normal, but I doubt '___' is the only thing responsible for NDE's.

TheBorg, if you are interested in '___' or ethnogens in general, there is a great thread here at ATS, its long but definately worth the read: Tryptamines and God

My final thoughts, I doubt we will ever understand near death experiances completely, i just dont think we are ment too. Death is the greatest mystery in life, and it is only solved by experiancing it.

Originally posted by forsakenwayfarer
reply to post by Cloak and Dagger

 

Incorrect, large amounts of '___' and related chemicals are released into the dying brain. Though the mechanism and meaning is unknown, the fact that it occurs remains.
Does it have anything to do with your soul and/or afterlife? Who knows, if it does, what about those who's brains were destroyed beyond possibility of this mechanism taking effect? IE the victims of the atomic bombs, instantly vaporised, they had no chance for this mechanism to play out.

I know all about '___' actually. I understand the hypothetical link between '___' and NDEs. I understand the Pineal Gland secretes '___'. That wasn't my point. It seems like whenever someone creates a thread on NDEs it gets hyjacked by this completely un-new and purely hypothetical idea. That's all. And if you read the article you will see '___' was not by any stretch of the imagination a part of the original article.

The first argues that an NDE is a purely physiological phenomenon that occurs within an oxygen-starved brain. "There's nothing mysterious about NDEs," says Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center. "Many people want it to be a religious, paranormal or supernatural phenomenon. The fact that NDEs can be explained scientifically detracts from the mystique."

There is simply too much evidence to the contrary to accept this answer as the ultimate definitive answer for NDEs. There have been many, many accounts where the NDE'er was able to recall things they shouldn't have been able to see or hear. Many of them accuring during brain death. Then there are many cases where the NDE'er was hovering or floating above the operation table, later to recall the events of the operation itself. There is simply too much evidence to reduce the NDE to purely physiological happenstance. In fact, it's absurd.

Unless of course, we discover the brain really is functioning when the brain is flat-lined EEG... Then we can talk purely in physiological terms again.


[edit on 6-9-2007 by Cloak and Dagger]

reply to post by Cloak and Dagger


I was just hoping to clear up a possible misconception, as there obviously isn't one, i'll let the post stand to remind others who may somehow have such a misconception.