Re: Life after death?
From: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)
Sun Jul 8 08:54:40 2001
Joe -
the resurrection of Marv Albert's career gives credence to life after
death.
art
At Sun, 8 Jul 2001, DoctorJoe@aol.com wrote:
>
>I guess you not only have to watch what you say around anesthetized patients,
>but also around DEAD patients... At least in the UK...
>
>Joe P.
>
>--
>
>Scientist Says Mind Continues After Brain Dies
>
>By Sarah Tippit
>Reuters
>
>LOS ANGELES - A British scientist studying heart attack patients says he is
>finding evidence that suggests that consciousness may continue after the
>brain has stopped functioning and a patient is clinically dead.
>
>The research, presented to scientists last week at the California Institute
>of Technology (Caltech), resurrects the debate over whether there is life
>after death and whether there is such a thing as the human soul.
>
>"The studies are very significant in that we have a group of people with no
>brain function ... who have well-structured, lucid thought processes with
>reasoning and memory formation at a time when their brains are shown not to
>function," Sam Parnia, one of two doctors from Southampton General Hospital
>in England who have been studying so-called near-death experiences (NDEs),
>told Reuters in an interview.
>
>"We need to do much larger-scale studies, but the possibility is certainly
>there" to suggest that consciousness, or the soul, keeps thinking and
>reasoning even if a person's heart has stopped, he is not breathing and his
>brain activity is nil, Parnia said.
>
>He said he and colleagues conducted an initial yearlong study, the results of
>which appeared in the February issue of the journal Resuscitation. The study
>was so promising the doctors formed a foundation to fund further research and
>continue collecting data.
>
>During the initial study, Parnia said, 63 heart attack patients who were
>deemed clinically dead but were later revived were interviewed within a week
>of their experiences.
>
>Of those, 56 said they had no recollection of the time they were unconscious
>and seven reported having memories. Of those, four were labeled NDEs in that
>they reported lucid memories of thinking, reasoning, moving about and
>communicating with others after doctors determined their brains were not
>functioning.
>
>FEELINGS OF PEACE
>
>Among other things, the patients reported remembering feelings of peace, joy
>and harmony. For some, time sped up, senses heightened and they lost
>awareness of their bodies.
>
>The patients also reported seeing a bright light, entering another realm and
>communicating with dead relatives. One, who called himself a lapsed Catholic
>and Pagan, reported a close encounter with a mystical being.
>
>Near-death experiences have been reported for centuries but in Parnia's
>study none of the patients were found to have received low oxygen levels,
>which some skeptics believe may contribute to the phenomenon.
>
>When the brain is deprived of oxygen people become totally confused, thrash
>around and usually have no memories at all, Parnia said. "Here you have a
>severe insult to the brain but perfect memory."
>
>Skeptics have also suggested that patients' memories occurred in the moments
>they were leaving or returning to consciousness. But Parnia said when a brain
>is traumatized by a seizure or car wreck a patient generally does not
>remember moments just before or after losing consciousness.
>
>Rather, there is usually a memory lapse of hours or days. "Talk to them.
>They'll tell you something like: 'I just remember seeing the car and the next
>thing I knew I was in the hospital,"' he said.
>
>"With cardiac arrest, the insult to the brain is so severe it stops the brain
>completely. Therefore, I would expect profound memory loss before and after
>the incident," he added.
>
>Since the initial experiment, Parnia and his colleagues have found more than
>3,500 people with lucid memories that apparently occurred at times they were
>thought to be clinically dead. Many of the patients, he said, were reluctant
>to share their experiences fearing they would be thought crazy.
>
>A TODDLER'S TALE
>
>One patient was 2-1/2 years old when he had a seizure and his heart stopped.
>His parents contacted Parnia after the boy "drew a picture of himself as if
>out of his body looking down at himself. It was drawn like there was a
>balloon stuck to him. When they asked what the balloon was he said, 'When you
>die you see a bright light and you are connected to a cord.' He wasn't even 3
>when had the experience," Parnia said.
>
>"What his parents noticed was that after he had been discharged from
>hospital, six months after the incident, he kept drawing the same scene."
>
>The brain function these patients were found to have while unconscious is
>commonly believed to be incapable of sustaining lucid thought processes or
>allowing lasting memories to form, Parnia said -- pointing to the fact that
>nobody fully grasps how the brain generates thoughts.
>
>The brain itself is made up of cells, like all the body's organs, and is not
>really capable of producing the subjective phenomenon of thought that people
>have, he said.
>
>He speculated that human consciousness may work independently of the brain,
>using the gray matter as a mechanism to manifest the thoughts, just as a
>television set translates waves in the air into picture and sound.
>
>"When you damage the brain or lose some of the aspects of mind or
>personality, that doesn't necessarily mean the mind is being produced by the
>brain. All it shows is that the apparatus is damaged," Parnia said, adding
>that further research might reveal the existence of a soul.
>
>"When these people are having experiences they say, 'I had this intense pain
>in my chest and suddenly I was drifting in the corner of my room and I was so
>happy, so comfortable. I looked down and realized I was seeing my body and
>doctors all around me trying to save me and I didn't want to go back.
>
>"The point is they are describing seeing this thing in the room, which is
>their body. Nobody ever says, 'I had this pain and the next thing I knew my
>soul left me."'
>
>09:45 06-28-01
>
--
art fougner, md
A series of 1000 cases begins with but a single anecdote.
