> On Sep 18, 2:21 pm, John Jones aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>

>> turtoni wrote:

>>> A large study is to examine near-death experiences in cardiac arrest
>>> patients.

>

>>> Doctors at 25 UK and US hospitals will study 1,500 survivors to see if
>>> people with no heartbeat or brain activity can have "out of body"
>>> experiences.

>

>>> Some people report seeing a tunnel or bright light, others recall
>>> looking down from the ceiling at medical staff.

>

>>> The study, due to take three years and co-ordinated by Southampton
>>> University, will include placing on shelves images that could only be
>>> seen from above.

>

>>> To test this, the researchers have set up special shelving in
>>> resuscitation areas. The shelves hold pictures - but they're visible
>>> only from the ceiling.

>

>>> Dr Sam Parnia, who is heading the study, said: "If you can demonstrate
>>> that consciousness continues after the brain switches off, it allows
>>> for the possibility that the consciousness is a separate entity.

>

>>> "It is unlikely that we will find many cases where this happens, but
>>> we have to be open-minded.

>

>>> "And if no one sees the pictures, it shows these experiences are
>>> illusions or false memories.

>

>>> "This is a mystery that we can now subject to scientific study."

>

>>> Dr Parnia works as an intensive care doctor, and felt from his daily
>>> duties that science had not properly explored the issue of near-death
>>> experiences.

>

>>> He said: "Contrary to popular perception, death is not a specific
>>> moment.

>

>>> "It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs
>>> stop working and the brain ceases functioning - a medical condition
>>> termed cardiac arrest.

>

>>> "During a cardiac arrest, all three criteria of death are present.
>>> There then follows a period of time, which may last from a few seconds
>>> to an hour or more, in which emergency medical efforts may succeed in
>>> restarting the heart and reversing the dying process.

>

>>> "What people experience during this period of cardiac arrest provides
>>> a unique window of understanding into what we are all likely to
>>> experience during the dying process."

>

>>> Dr Parnia and medical colleagues will analyse the brain activity of
>>> 1,500 cardiac arrest survivors, and see whether they can recall the
>>> images in the pictures.

>

>>> Hospitals involved include Addenbrookes in Cambridge, University
>>> Hospital in Birmingham and the Morriston in Swansea, as well as nine
>>> hospitals in the US.

>

>>>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7621608.stm

>

>> Death experiences and out of body experiences were a common factor in
>> LSD therapy in the sixties. Grof has catalogued hundreds, if not
>> thousands of them.

>

>> But this evidence is ignored. Why? Because it doesn't fall into current
>> science practice. And why is that? Because Grof didn't run 'brain
>> scans'. You have to 'analyse' 'brain scans' these days to be seen as
>> doing proper science. That's how narrow-minded these new studies are.

>
> "Despite Grof's continued emphasis on the concept of "birth trauma" as
> a critical psychic experience, mainstream psychiatry has not accepted
> his concept (Grof, 1992). In fact, most professionals would argue that
> such a conceptualization of retained memory falls outside of the
> physiological potential of the newborn. "Despite the growing number of
> reports of memories of past lives, life in the womb, and the birth
> experience, there is no scientific evidence to substantiate these
> claims" (Mark L. Howe and Mary L. Courage, 2004; also see Spanos,
> 1996)."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Grof- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -