I ran across an article that goes into more of the science behind life after death, entitled, "Has Science Explained Life After Death?" The story begins by looking at a woman, Pam, who in 1991 underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm. During the surgery, all of the blood to her brain was drained for 45 minutes, and she was officially brain dead for that time. However, when she awoke she claimed to have had both a near death experience and an out of body experience. What she described was similar to what we have seen in two movie clips in class, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2," and "City of Angels." In Harry Potter, he is greeted by Dumbledore who has recently died. Dumbledore procedes to talk to Harry and explain to Harry the general nature of Harry's circumstances and the afterlife in general. In the second movie, "City of Angels" a little girl is taken to the hospital, and while she is on the table she passes away. She is greeted by Nicolas Cage, an angel, and is able to watch as the doctors try desperately to save her. Durring Pam's brain death, she sees and communicates with her deceased relatives but also is able to see the doctors operating on her. When she was awoken from her surgery she was able to describe her experience in detail, including precise details to the tools used during her operation.
How does science play into all of this? According to the University of Kentucky, near death experiences can theorized by a sleep disorder and are nearly rapid eye movements, commonly known as REM."In this disorder, a person's mind can wake up before his body, and hallucinations and the feeling of being physically detached from his body can occur. The Kentucky researchers believe that NDEs are actually REM intrusions triggered in the brain by traumatic events like cardiac arrest. If this is true, then this means the experiences of some people following near-death are confusion from suddenly and unexpectedly entering a dream-like state1."One now begins to question the book written by Moody "Life after Life," in which Moody gathered the experiences of 50 people who have had near death experiences. Were these near death experiences simply distress expressed by the brain? While we discover what causes a near death experience, why then do we have near death experiences? What makes the majority of the reported near death experiences so similar? The REM theory doesn't explain.
Next, the explanation of out of body experiences. It is entirely different from a near death experience in that it has been scientifically proven: it is not a theory.
" To find the cause of a 43-year-old epileptic patient's seizures Swiss neurologist Dr.Olaf Blanke conducted a brain mapping test using electrodes planted on the brain to determine which area controls what function. As one region was being stimulated, the woman had a sudden out-of-body experience. She told Blanke that she could see herself from above. Blanke determined that by electrically stimulating the woman's angular gyrus, a part of the temporal parietal junction he could induce her OBEs. What's remarkable is that the patient experience an OBE each time her angular gyrus was arbitrarily stimulated1."Out of body experiences are then just the brain being stimulated in a specific way. However, in Pam's case, she was brain dead, so higher brain functions should not have been occurring. In her condition, it would seem reasonable for her to have had a near death experience due to the brain stem firing, but unreasonable for her to have had an out of body experience at the exact same time.
If near death experiences and out of body experiences can be explained scientifically, where then is the room for religion? The room comes from the fact that the science explains the how, but not the why. The brain causes us to see these images, but why are we seeing these images? Does the culture we live in influence us that deeply that we see what we expect to see? Is that why so many people see a tunnel with white light and talk with deceased relatives when they have a near death experience? Or could there be a deeper reason, beyond us? Is there something out there that makes us not the center of our own universe, as we discovered that the Earth is not the center of our galaxy? Being a Christian, I have faith that there is a deeper meaning out there; beyond the how explained by science. It would be disappointing to discover that the near death experiences, out of body experiences, and life in general, were merely tricks of the mind; that there is nothing beyond this lifetime. As so eloquently put by Dr. Melvin Morse, "Simply because religious experiences are brain-based does not automatically lessen or demean their spiritual significance. Indeed, the findings of neurological substrates to religious experiences can be argued to provide evidence for their objective reality1."
1.Clark, Josh. "Has science explained life after death?" 23 October 2007. HowStuffWorks.com <http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/afterlife/science-life-after-death.htm> 04 March 2012.
This is a really interesting post - great find about the theoretical link between NDEs and REM sleep. REM has always been a fascination point for me (and dreams in general I guess.) The idea that a near death experience can be chalked up to a vivid hallucination is pretty crazy. But... we usually don't even realize we're dreaming until after we wake up. So I then wonder, can these dreamy hallucinations necessarily be detached from our "reality"? If our experiences define our selves, who is to say that anything is "just a dream?" The quote at the end of your Harry Potter clip comes to mind. I would also guess that anyone who experiences an NDE would attest to the sheer gravity of of their experiences - the fact that it "felt real." The Pam Reynolds case is especially interesting because it shows a scenario where the NDE has paralleled events in "reality."
ReplyDeleteThe excerpt about the "disorder" makes me think of the phenomenon known as sleep paralysis, which is supposedly caused by a person waking up during the REM cycle. Many people report strange, panicked feelings and difficulty in breathing when this happens. A good friend described one such experience of his which I doubt I'll ever forget. He described being unable to move in his bed while a little girl in a hospital gown with shark eyes and razor-like teeth kept moving around his room and screaming in his face. He said that it freaked him out mostly because of how real it felt. He had all his normal senses as if he was awake, but his mind was still playing tricks and he was unable to physically respond.
Most of the time we can use our minds to control our bodies, but it seems there are situations where the mind does its own thing. Pretty intense stuff, really just makes me think about those conditions under which the distinction between mind and body begins to blur.
There will always be room for religion as it is nearly impossible for science to prove that there is no life after death.
ReplyDeleteFrom the information provided by your sources, it seems like near death experiences are completely an invention of our mind. However, I don't believe this says anything about the existence of life after death. Science seems to be quite useless for making such a broad statement.
I am pretty sure that science can say that none of a person's physical matter drifts into the sky to take on a new form of life after this person dies. That said, there are many other potential ways to continue life after death.
Science is currently questioning the principal of locality which says an object can only be affected by its immediate surroundings. As it is either this or counterfactual definiteness which does not hold, it seems fairly likely that the principal of locality is incorrect.
Without this principal, the essence of what contains us could exist anywhere. Just because a person's body is at particular location doesn't mean the essence of that person exists at the same location. For all I know, the essence of what is me could be on mars right now while I am completely convinced that I am sitting in front of my computer on earth. I admit, when I die, the matter of what makes me will probably change and get scattered around or be kept in some jar, but I have no idea what my essence will be up to in its continued existence on mars.
I don't think it is possible for science, has we currently know it, to prove that life does not exist after death. How is it possible to prove its nonexistence? I don't think life after death would create a logical contradiction nor do I think it would be physically possible to check all relevant points in time and space for life after death.