DOCTORS believe they may have found the cause of the powerful spiritual experiences reported by people “brought back from the dead”.
A study of the brainwaves of dying patients showed a surge of electrical activity in the moments before their lives ended.
The researchers suggest this surge may be the cause of near-death experiences, the mysterious medical phenomena in which patients who have been revived when close to death report sensations such as walking towards a bright light or a feeling that they are floating above their body.
Many people experience the sensation as a religious vision and treat it as confirmation of an afterlife. However, the scientists behind the new research believe that is wrong.
“We think the near-death experiences could be caused by a surge of electrical energy released as the brain runs out of oxygen,” said Lakhmir Chawla, an intensive care doctor at George Washington University medical centre in Washington.
“As blood flow slows down and oxygen levels fall, the brain cells fire one last electrical impulse. It starts in one part of the brain and spreads in a cascade and this may give people vivid mental sensations.”
Many revived patients have reported being bathed in bright light or suffused with a sense of peace as they start to walk into a light-filled tunnel. A few even say they experienced visions of religious figures such as Jesus or Muhammad or Krishna, while others describe floating above their own deathbed, observing the scene.
In one of the most famous cases, in 1991, Pam Reynolds, an American singer, reported watching the top of her own skull being removed by surgeons before she moved into a bright glowing realm, including detailed accounts of the surgery and the conversations by her surgeons.
If Chawla is right, however, such experiences have a biological explanation rather than a metaphysical one. In the research he used an electroencephalograph (EEG), a device that measures brain activity, to monitor seven terminally ill people.
The medical purpose of the devices was to make sure that the patients, suffering from conditions such as cancer and heart failure, were sufficiently sedated to be out of pain. However, Chawla noticed that moments before death the patients experienced a burst in brainwave activity lasting from 30 seconds to three minutes.
The activity was similar to that seen in people who are fully conscious, even though the patients appeared asleep and had no blood pressure. Soon after the surge abated, they were pronounced dead. ...
via That’s not the afterlife – it’s a brainstorm - Times Online.
One last lucid dream, eh? I'd kind of prefer to be instantly vaporized--so instantly that I don't have time to think--at the end of the line, how about you?
2 comments:
I experienced this personally . I'm an Agnostic so I think I'm pretty open minded without much bias . My impression was that my brain was telling me I was in danger and needed to get moving ! My sense was that I was in danger and needed to move from where I was toward the light which felt like a safer place . I felt that someone was watching me and that they might be a danger to me . And that if I got to the light I would be safer . I actually came to ,already standing and before I was conscious I lurched towards the light . The actual place I was in was in fact dim and the place I was moving to was lit by sunshine . But my eyes were closed at the time . A lot of people would read too much into this event . That it is religious in nature . I believe it is just the brains last chance way of trying to protect itself . Just a primal simplified response . Like a moth following the light ;-) I felt no God or religious significance just of threat and a way out of that threat . The moment I stood ,became conscious and moved forward I felt safe . I can see why someone would attribute this to God or some sort of religious experience , but I don't . I see it simply as a primal brain function .
Coincidentally , I also occasionally have "Visual Migraines" at least two other people in my family have them also. When a "Visual Migraine" happens I see a pulsing light coming from the above left hand side . Soon a very bright neon like lightning bolt appears that is rainbow in color . It flashes and moves towards the center of my vision until it starts to become a steady blur . At about 15 to 30 minutes afterward my vision is wiped out for about another half hour . The event is nauseating and a regular migraine headache usually arrives a short time afterwards . This is not that rare . Many people have been diagnosed with the same condition. It is at least as common as migraine headaches .
There are numerous other conditions that one sees visual anomalies . There has been indications that a strong magnetic field placed by someones head can also cause one to see bright lights or even ball lightning ( in the mind ) .
There also has been research that points to religious experiences being traceable in the brain . Every thought and feeling is naturally rooted in the brain . Eventually a clear explanation for each will be clearly mapped out by research .
The religious don't like to hear that it is all in their mind . They want to believe it is in their soul . So far the soul has never been identified . But someday it will be and it will be undoubtedly found in the mind/brain ;-)
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