Study into near-death experiences

If this flawed experiment does prove that mind and body are separate entities it would give a lot more hope for an afterlife. The biggest advantage would be less fear of death resulting in better life. If not then we're right back where we started, so I say go for it.

I technically died, if you will, for a few minutes in 2006. I could hear everything around me but I couldn't make my body move, talk, open my eyes, etc.
First my body was paralyzed, but I was totally aware of everything that happened.
Next, when my heart began racing, I was in sheer panic, but unable to express it... and eventually I suffocated when my lungs stopped. I was aware for the entire ordeal. And then black.

I missed out of the flashing life & the tunnel. Oh well.

Maybe next time will be better eh?

When you're dead, you're dead.

Consciousness is explicitly tied to our physicality. People on hallucinogenic drugs relate out-of-body experiences repeatedly. These drugs were discovered to release endorphins and other hormones that augment perception much like the brain does in times of high stress, including death. It is even technologically possible now to have an out-of-body experience. I.E. When your sense become jumbled by various chemicals you can start to see sounds, this includes reverberations from walls. You might focus in on that specific source of sound while perceiving it as vision and as this sound mingles in the enclosure you sense the other obstacles it comes in contact with; likewise these obstacles become visual stimuli. Upon returning to normal consciousness your memory attempts to categorize the experience and fills-in the memory to make it easier to understand. This is true of dreams, much of what you remember of a dream is fudged by your memory's attempts to make it understandable.

I hope they find something of significance

but personally I would hope if I had a near death experience it would be a little more profound than a tunnel of light or looking at doctors operating on my dead body

The key implication of the argument is that consciousness lies in the brain. Without this hindrance this problem becomes easy to understand. It's actually not a problem at all. The major hurdle will be for some to believe in the intangible. After a while it will be as silly as denying gravity.

My grandfather suffered 2 heart attacks, one of which he watched himself from above while he was revived.

Fascinating!

Amazing stuff!

Cool!

WOAH!!!

..Death and near-Death are two different things....you all started out microscopic and by gaining molecules grew into the beautiful animal you are now....dying is the opposite...all those molecules adjoin others to become other wonderful things.....styrofoam cups....coke bottles....junk mail.....it is a slow process...and no one has returned.....mostly because they did not go anywhere...everything you are was here before you..will be here after you.....you just borrowed them.....great thing is everything that is said ricoshets through the universe like a bullet that hits a rock....you may have something pass through your antenna that someone said a thousand years ago....and that can be quite unnerving.....Golden Ruler...Will......

What do they hope to get out of this? I mean, so they find out it is or it is not separate. So what? Who does this help and how, or is it just for interests sake?

People on the verge of death cannot be expected to give reliable accounts of what they "saw" or experienced. If you cut off oxygen to the brain then you see funny colours; there is no afterlife...

Really? Is this what people are spending money on in the science world? I feel let down! Can we please just cure stuff? Let's have a moratorium on these trivial "studies" and get back to work here people! Dang! We cured so many diseases a hundred years ago or so and what have we cured lately? Nada!

when you go into cardiac arrest, and when you see "the light'. you are drawn towards it, and in some cases you even have a choice to come back, by thinking of your loved ones. but actually entering the light is the act of entering into the astral plane, the 4th dimension, where there is pure bliss and joy and you return to the infinite universe.

Really lifts your Soul

Regardless of success, science taking itself out of the strictly material, and examining a possible separation of body and consciousness. rad.

This is a great test. Many people have had these experiences and looked down at themselves and saw the doctors and nurses and been able to describe things in the room they would not have known.

I remember a story about a little girl who drew an accurate drawing of the room from above where she knew many astounding details. She even knew which drawer one of the nurses put her medication in.

A good friend of mine can go out of his body whenever he wishes, and he has actually died and come back to life several times.

Extra Extra! existence of Soul proven, Soul makeover hottest beauty secret!

^ I believe it is people who are coming into the hospitals with heart attacks.

i wonder if the patients have to sign a waiver or something incase they dont come back to life...and how the hell could you convience people to do some crazy ish like this?! im not puttin myself at risk for science..and i can have an out of body experience without you letting me die slowly..

Well, this won't work because it only addresses if:
1. They actually separate and elevate to the top.
2. IF they go like "Hey, that is a cool picture, oh yeah, that is me".

It will only prove the cases were people separated and the ones that were least interested in looking at their own body because they noticed the Pictures!?

Well Let me know when they find out will ya?

I have experienced two out-of-body experiences, both times listening to a home made aeolian harp.

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

I had the "looking down from the ceiling" type of experience. I was fully conscious and able to logically discern that the image of myself I was looking down at was not a mirror image.

I had to actually logically rule out that it was not a mirror image by noticing and analyzing visual cues including a small scar on my left cheek.

The first time I was blown away and a little frightened. Both experiences lasted for what seemed a minute or two. I was not aware of noise or temperature. I was aware of the surroundings and that I was looking down from the ceiling or upper region of the room I was in along with other people.

I have never forgotten the experiences and they remain a mystery.

Dreaming is an out of body experience. There are people who could tell you what those images are without ever stepping foot in the room.

They say that these experiences may be illusions or false memories... But aren't dreaming and waking life illusions as well?

I'm skeptical. But it would be a pleasant surprise to be proven wrong.

Makes me wonder though, that if someone where actually dying, and their soul had just popped out of their body, would their first impulse be to notice and remember what's on the shelves above their heads?

I don't think they'll actually find anyone who sees the pictures. My non-medical, non-scientific opinion is that anything people 'see' when they're in that near-death moment isn't actual physical, conscious sight, like watching TV, but instead is something that happens in the brain. I think people are aware of their dying, and their mind creates a scene or image around the moment... sort of an amalgamation of memories, ideas, images... that some people recall if they're brought back to life. It's much like dreaming. Some people remember their dreams quite clearly. Others do not.