Near-Death Experiences: Evidence of Afterlife

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE, CONSCIOUSNESS,
AND THE BRAIN

A NEW CONCEPT ABOUT THE CONTINUITY OF OUR
CONSCIOUSNESS BASED ON RECENT SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH ON NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE IN
SURVIVORS OF CARDIAC ARREST
PIM VAN LOMMEL
Rijnstate Hospital, Arnhem, The Netherlands


In this article first some general aspects of near-death experience will be discussed,
followed by questions about consciousness and its relation to brain function. Details
will be described from our prospective study on near-death experience in
survivors of cardiac arrest in the Netherlands, which was published in the Lancet
in 2001. In this study it could not be shown that physiological, psychological,
or pharmacological factors caused these experiences after cardiac arrest. Neurophysiology
in cardiac arrest and in a normal functioning brain will be explained.
Finally, implications for consciousness studies will be discussed, and howit could
be possible to explain the continuity of our consciousness. Scientific study ofNDE
pushes us to the limits of our medical and neurophysiologic ideas about the range
of human consciousness and mind–brain relation.

PDF File


Further reading

February 25, 2010 — What happens when a person dies?

It is a question that has been pondered since the beginning of the human race, and scientists, theologians, and everyone in between have offered their own beliefs and theories on the subject. But for Jeffrey Long, MD, a radiation oncologist in Houma, Louisiana, the answer to that question has become increasingly clear.

On the basis of his own research and that of many other investigators, he has become convinced that the phenomenon known as near-death experience (NDE) establishes the reality of an afterlife.

For more than 10 years, Dr. Long studied thousands of accounts of NDEs and created the Near Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF), which has become the largest NDE research database in the world. Dr. Long's new book, Evidence of the Afterlife, which is based on more than 1300 accounts of NDEs that were shared with the NDERF, became a New York Times bestseller almost immediately after its release.

Source

Further reading

There is every reason to consider that life after death does exist and it seems apparent that as time goes by, new evidence will lead to even more data in support of this position.


Any thoughts?

I had a NDE, nothing happened.

Which confirms (imo) there is no God, no heaven, no afterlife.

However who knows what happens with our subconscious? The answer to that is no one, it can never be proved or disproved. Not in our lifetime anyway.

I don't see how these near death experiences can be considered evidence of afterlife. They are conjured up by your own brain, if I have a dream that the centre of the Earth is filled with gummy bears is that evidence that it is? I don't think anything that happens inside your mind can be considered evidence for anything outside your mind.

Read "Life After Life" by Raymond Moody. It came out in like '75. It's quite scientifically conducted though.. at least as scientifically conducted as you can be given the subject matter. But it's just really telling, how he organizes and explains the similarities or dissimilarities between his patients NDE accounts. Seriously.. read it. It changed me. And it's pretty short

3 to 5 minutes after the heart stops there is no way on Gods green earth that a human, purely on the known biological factors, can actually have any experiences. Despite that fact and in consideration to what we know today about biology these experiences occur, people remember things they could have not possibly experienced.

You see a person gets a heart attack in there home, on average, they are in a hospital emergency room within 20 to 30 minutes at the very least. Beyond the spiritual experience are the matters of details related to events that did in fact occur and they claimed to have observed related to specifics. Like what the ambulance staff was talking about unrelated to the patients care. Or the specific problems of other patients in the emergency room.


These issues stand out like a proverbial "Gorilla in the room" in relation to what is actually happening.

Here are three people that died and came back with irrefutable proof that what they saw was very much real:

George Rodonaia's was assassinated by the KGB and spent three days in a morgue freezer:

"Dr. Rodonaia was killed by the KGB, pronounced dead, taken to the morgue for three days and returned to life during his own autopsy. Dr. Rodonaia was a psychiatric researcher who worked for the KGB and later became a dissident. He was a scientist trained in historical materialism and did not believe in God."

"George Rodonaia underwent one of the most extended cases of a near-death experience ever recorded. Pronounced dead immediately after he was hit by a car in 1976, he was left for three days in the morgue. He did not "return to life" until a doctor began to make an incision in his abdomen as part of an autopsy procedure. Prior to his NDE he worked as a neuropathologist. He was also an avowed atheist. LINK

Four year old met his mother’s miscarried child in Heaven

"Colton, still 4 years old, told his mother “you had a baby die in your tummy didn’t you”, which completely shocked them both because they had never told him about their miscarriage. They asked him how he knew and he said that he met his sister in Heaven and she told him what happened."

"when Colton Burpo was four years he was having surgery in the hospital for a burst appendix. While he was in surgery he apparently had some sort of out of body experience...

Link 1 //// Link 2

"I had to die to learn how to live. I died for 28 minutes, and it was during this death experience that I learned how to live. There is life after death and it is not a place where spirits float around bored being nice. It is a real place."

Death is like getting on a roller coaster (Video)
Related videos

And what about all those Atheist's who keep coming back as EX atheists?

Have you ever asked yourself WHAT if your wrong?

Ian McCormack - Atheist's Life After Death


Ian McCormack - Atheist - Dead on Morgue Slab


To Hell and Back ATHEIST - Howard Storm


Three Atheists Died and Went to Hell


ATHEIST PROFESSOR IN HELL - Howard Storm


Ronald Reagan - An atheist saw Hell


Atheist Psychiatrist Killed By KGB

reply to post by Kashai


I'm all for the hope but do not subscribe most of the general views... in fact ...

There is every reason to consider that life after death does exist

Just the contrary all reasons point to death as final, only a minority reports that are normally not scientifically validated impart that there is "life" (depending on the interpretation of life) after death. Starting by the Christianity belief in resurrection...

My view based in hope and in my interpretation of facts as I see it point to a clear change of what "you" are at the point of death. We know the importance of the brain, we via neurological studies have a sufficient understanding of the brain to define some of its functions and we can extrapolate from accidents and deviation what consciousness and functions it perform, even if badly but this facts reduces some theories...

So I believe that at the moment of death time becomes meaningless as one's perception of it ceases to be "normal". One will be granted if so inclined, expectation is extremely important, a personal time of balance that will serve as for self introspection (be it hell or even). I also believe that perception of the surroundings is affected permitting some realizations that seem impossible (we still have questions in regards to our senses and capabilities so this is still a gray area but I see it as a possible explanation for some reports).

Now what happens as your brain dies (in the view of the observer, not the one experiencing it) is oblivion, consciousness and individuality of the dead is gone, one's only continued presence in this plane is via biologic closeness family and offspring and in the memory of those still living. Any idea of what happens to the experiencer is just guess work, near-death is by definition before death, not after death.

One thing that nags at me is the point of all my experiences in life, even if I do not thing that I personally am special, or that the human animal should be special in regards to all other animals I hope to be part of something greater, I see some amazing order in the chaos around myself and hope that some of that order and pattern does continue after my shell dies, I hope to be part of it, I do hope that I always have been part of it like one of a multitude of sensors experiencing this material plane, I do not require my own individuality to survive death nor I see it as feasible or needed. In this I believe in some sort of reincarnation, that the cycle is restarted but not necessarily so that I I get to atone or improve myself as an unique and special individual, but as a part of the evolution of the global All.

reply to post by Kashai


How can there be an afterlife if life hasn't ended yet?

Despite that fact and in consideration to what we know today about biology these experiences occur, people remember things they could have not possibly experienced.

We should also admit that this phenomena happens when people have dreams as well.

Maybe we should define death:

death |deTH|
noun
the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism: I don't believe in life after death | an increase in deaths from skin cancer | [ as modifier ] : a death sentence.
• the state of being dead: even in death, she was beautiful.
• the permanent ending of vital processes in a cell or tissue.
• ( Death ) [ in sing. ] the personification of the power that destroys life, often represented in art and literature as a skeleton or an old man holding a scythe.
• [ in sing. ] the destruction or permanent end of something: the death of her hopes.
• informal a damaging or destructive state of affairs: to be driven to a dance by one's father would be social death.

Death is the permanent end of life. The permanent ending of vital processes. Not any of the examples in this thread show someone who has permanently died describing the afterlife. All of them are very much still alive.

reply to post by Panic2k11


The human heart is not merely a pump it also acts as a battery, discharging and recharging electricity in fractions of a second. The amount of electricity produced by the heart is significant and is related to current provided by the body in relation to brain function. 10 seconds after the heart stops is ceases to provide current to the brain and effectively shuts down all electrical activity provided to the brain beyond the issue of cellular function.

Three minutes after a heart attack there is no biological definition that can account these experiences, it would be no different that turning off a light, with the respective switch.

This is the problem that exists today in relation to these experiences...

reply to post by Kashai


That is why I believe that it all resides in the perception of time, time is an illusion and it is perception is relative, we all experience time acceleration and dilation as a result of brain functions. I envision something happening in the moment of death that puts the brain in an overclock (in an abnormally pace in some aspects of its functionality) that permits to explain in part the reported experiences.

For instance trough hypnosis time perception can be altered as well as the perception of reality, we can in fact simulate near-death experiences. There are indeed interesting reports that hint to some paranormal activity but without a real scientifically process of study there is no way to escape the simpler explanation that it is all a mental response, the fact that it is hard to study and is highly personal experience (not withstanding commonalities that can be explained by sharing cultural backgrounds) I think that as we discover more in regards to the functioning of the brain we will get a better understanding of what goes on.

I refuse to think that we are special as a species (that the process should be present in most animal life to a point, especially in high order mammals). I strongly object to the notion that we as a specie are special in any way beyond our biological capabilities, at best we can hope to give a more complex meaning to the death expirience and start to use it to define a purpose for life.

The discarding of a persistent of individual existence is to me nonsensical, beginning in the need of an extremely illogic sense of self importance, especially when considering the exiting of this plane of existence. Death is the ultimate equalizer, if any, the meaning of the process of death resides on your actions when alive.

reply to post by LesMisanthrope


That does not explain the anomalous responses in relation to conscious experiences. When, such experiences are impossible given todays understanding of biology. I mean at best and given one lives near a hospital, it takes about 20 minutes to get there, from the point in time a significant other calls 911, who happened to note that something was wrong with the patient a few seconds after there heart attack. After such a time the human brain by itself could not possibly process anything like a thought, much less a set of experiences that are compatible with reality in any sense.

reply to post by bacci0909


I read that 30 odd years ago; yes, interesting read.

I remember one particular anecdote, where some bloke 'dies' on an operating table, floats up to the ceiling, then floats around the hospital, going into different rooms.

In one of these rooms, the surgical team were discussing the bloke's chances.

When this man woke up and was better, he challenged the surgeons on what they had discussed in a different part of the hospital while he (the patient) was unconscious, almost dead in the op. theatre.

Naturally, they were dumbfounded, because everything the man said was palpably true.

He also gave details of what people were wearing, and correct descriptions of what was in this one room which he had 'visited', though had never actually been there physically.

This doesn't actually 'prove' life goes on after death - but it indicates that consciousness can travel outside the body, which is fascinating in itself.

reply to post by CJCrawley


A difference being that in relation to out of body experiences the body is alive. In these cases the only reason the person could survive is because of human intervention in a timely manner.

I have also heard about this for about the same time and this particular effort at research is coming from an institution, that in reality is "nothing to sneeze at".

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your responses.

Originally posted by OpenEars123
I had a NDE, nothing happened.

By definition, an NDE requires a happening, what is your definition, here is the one most commonly used.

"A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound psychological event that may occur to a person close to death or, if not near death, in a situation of physical or emotional crisis. Because it includes transcendental and mystical elements, an NDE is a powerful event of consciousness; it is not mental illness. Whether happening “truly near death” or under benign circumstances, the near-death experience contains powerful images and emotions, usually of peace and love though sometimes terror, despair, guilt."

IANDS Link

Which confirms (imo) there is no God, no heaven, no afterlife.

It confirms you did not have a classical NDE.