

 What Happens When We Die? (Bullshit?) - csomar
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842627,00.html

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cydonian_monk
Unfortunately, the only way anyone can know for sure is to die. The scientist
and engineer in me says "nothing" happens, that you won't know you're dead
because consciousness stops and is never recovered. That these "paranormal"
cases are creations of a machine that can't accept the nothingness of its
demise. That a belief in life after death is also a construction to allow us
to die with dignity and without fear. That "Near-Death" experiences are the
result of the memory-recording portion of our brain continuing while the brain
stem and other parts have failed.

Still, a part of me says no. No way. That something continues. This other part
of me wants to believe. It reminds me that I've experienced things that can't
be explained by the above science. As have countless others.

If there really is a part of "us" separate from the brain, as suggested by
this article, then our "soul," if you will, must live in the "cloud" with our
brain operating as some sort of radio. I've not seen hard physical evidence of
anything of the sort. (But if it's true, God help us if we learn the API.)

Near-Death Experiences are a curious subject, and one that deserves real
examination. Ages ago (in high school), I attempted to base a research paper
on NDEs. Finding sources from medical research was impossible, as there
weren't any. The subject was strictly reserved to "New Age Mysticism," and
ignored by practitioners for reasons of career self preservation. Not much
seems to have changed.

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smoyer
I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the expletive in the title. This
seems to be a doctor that is intent on finding the answer using the scientific
method. Why provide a commentary until he reports his results? What happens he
he proves part of us lives in a spirit realm? What happens if science somehow
proves there's a God? I think this is very much like the current brouhaha over
the faster-than-light particles at the LHC ... Either there's an error in the
experiment or we don't understand physics the way we thought we did ... And
either there's a scientific explanation for NDE or there's a facet to our
consciousness we don't understand. But either way, let's continue the studies!

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vstm
I think we shouldn't interpret things into this article which simply aren't
there. His main point is obviously "death is not a moment" that means the
chemical processes in your body don't stop the moment the doctor says "He's
dead Jim". I haven't thought about this so this is an interesting point. So
the question is what processes are still up&running in our brain during that
time? I had hoped for a little bit more enlightenment from the article in that
matter.

