I went channel surfing last night -

[Joe for Clark]

I watched TBN - "Christian Right Network" - most of the time. Second time I watched them and they were reasonable.

Not bad. They really did have Dr Moody talk - without over talking him. The program was about near death experiences.

Cause Moody's premise starts with an observation that across cultures and across religions - a NDE is the same to everyone that has one. Religious, agnostic or what-have-you. Maybe just intersting to some - depending on if you read the Life After Life series he wrote.

Strange to see such a thing on TBN. Reasonably objective.

Joe

[Taverner]

1. Of course the "white light"

That every near death experiencer describes is a predictable hallucination from brain activity when there is no heartbeat.

[Joe for Clark]

2. I don't think that is predictible at all.

Anyway, it is quite a bit deeper than that.

Joe

[TheMadMonk]

5. I recall something about an experiment a few years back.

Scientific American, May 1993 by Phillip Yam ("Daisy, Daisy: Do Computers Have Near-Death Experiences?") (can't find my copy so it's all recollection.)


The researchers "killed" a neural network (a form of teachable computing device modeled on the way a real brain is structured) by breaking "synapses" at random to simulate the way a brain starved of oxygen would die.

As it was killed, the network started regurgitating bits and pieces of it's training. Much the same as HAL 9000 "died" in 2001.

Its life passed before its eyes.

[Warpy]

3. NDEs are not the same across the board

but it seems clear that nature is merciful enough for us to coast out on a tide of happy hormones, at the very least.

NDEs are generally interpreted by people according to their belief systems.

People who believe in Jesus see Jesus. People who believe in a happy hunting ground see all their dead relatives.

The only thing we know about NDEs is that people who have had them lose their dread of dying.

[Joe for Clark]

4. They are apparently pretty close.

The point TBN was making, correctly- since I read all of Moody's books - is you will come out of one believing in a "god". Whatever religion. Not necessarily Christ- but a god.

Although not in the program - there is a small percentage that comes out of it believing in a hell, too.

There was a program/study - that pilots will come out of a simulator that delivered high Gs to people and that their experiences were similiar.

My dad was a pilot - a lot of his friends were- I know that conclusion was seriously flawed.

They do see the people they loved that passed on. And they are not afraid to die anymore.

That was uniform.

Joe