Posted on 10/26/2010 8:40:18 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
At 18 hospitals in the U.S. and U.K., researchers have suspended pictures, face up, from the ceilings in emergency-care areas. The reason: to test whether patients brought back to life after cardiac arrest can recall seeing the images during an out-of-body experience.
People who have these near-death experiences often describe leaving their bodies and watching themselves being resuscitated from above, but verifying such accounts is difficult. The images would be visible only to people who had done that.
"We've added these images as objective markers," says Sam Parnia, a critical-care physician and lead investigator of the study, which hopes to include 1,500 resuscitated patients. Dr. Parnia declined to say whether any have accurately described the images so far, but says he hopes to report preliminary results next year.
The study, coordinated by Southampton University's School of Medicine in England, is one of the latest and largest scientific efforts to understand the mystery of near-death experiences.
At least 15 million American adults say they have had a near-death experience, according to a 1997 surveyand the number is thought to be rising with increasingly sophisticated resuscitation techniques.
In addition to floating above their bodies, people often describe moving down a dark tunnel toward a bright light, feeling intense peace and joy, reviewing life events and seeing long-deceased relativesonly to be told that it's not time yet and land abruptly back in an ailing body.
The once-taboo topic is getting a lot of talk these days. In the new movie "Hereafter," directed by Clint Eastwood, a French journalist is haunted by what she experienced while nearly drowning in a tsunami.
Yet the fundamental debate rages on: Are these glimpses of an afterlife, are they hallucinations or are they the random firings of an oxygen-starved brain?
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I’m only marking this with your post because I’m tired and I think you are silly. You have neither smelled burning flesh nor have you smelled rotting flesh. Either way, it’s not pretty. I have smelled both and neither are pleasant.
Very interested in their findings. How can we track it?
My mom said it happened to her when she was on the operating table. And she doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories!
BUMP
Thanks much.
Should be interesting.
RE: Matthews, Olbermann and Maddow have been brain dead for years, only they dont know it or refuse to acknowledge it.
Here’s a classic one minute scene with Bob Hope almost 70 years ago. He must have been thinking of these guys when he made his classic remark.
One of the best and most truthful lines in movie history.
CLICK HERE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srrw_UnlRII
And they all wanted to know when I was going to pay them the money I owed.
Have read all the earlier classics of the genre.
I think Moody broke new ground—I think he was the one to first research the suicide etc. side of things.
Some of the books are far too NEW AGEY for me.
1) The Thermos reference was what we call "allegory". Google it.
2) Even though my point went over your head at Mach 17 and you tangetilized at an amazing 362.7 degrees from my intent, I'll never the less inform you that you are mistaken on both of your assertions.
Now get some sleep, and a colon cleanse.
Awesome!
If everyone could come to realize and internalize this *fact* the way you have, everyone would adopt immensely different priorities, and the fear of death that is almost universal, would completely lose its sting.
Thanks for sharing!
DITTO!
Interesting that you say, "I rose out of myself".
One thing that became strikingly clear to me during my OOBE was that I am not my body. I came away from the experience understanding that I own the meat body, the same way that I own my truck. It's just a temporary vehicle, and I'm the driver.
There's a book by author Albert Taylor called "Soul Traveler" that's a best-seller on the subject of OOBEs. I haven't read it, but I hear it's one of the best out there.
You're right about that. I have no fear whatsoever of the hereafter. I know for a fact that there is no such thing as death for the individual. Only for the body. We go on. And on.
That's not to say that I value my human life any less than I ever did. I very much like my current identity, and enjoy this worldly existence a great deal. I just don't fear losing it, any more than I fear losing my truck when it finally wears out. I'll get another one.
"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."
I had a friend who experienced the same thing.
Right on, right on, right on.
Seemed to have an awareness of things from a much more mature perspective than a 1 year old(?)should.
Saw a lot of weird things, like nuns without faces.
Would come back and leave at will, happened at night while sleeping.
Odd.
That clip, if gone viral, would be the end of them.
Having any memories at all prior to the age of three or so is odd. Remembering out-of-body experiences as an infant is beyond odd.
Are you sure you didn’t imagine it as a child? I’ve had one waking experience that might qualify, the result of emotional trauma. My dog died in my arms and I saw myself trying to revive him. Yes, from the ceiling. This was three years ago.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.