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What Happens When We Die?
Time via Yahoo News ^ | Sep 23, 2008 | M, J, Stephy

Posted on 09/24/2008 6:14:06 AM PDT by edpc

A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain.

What sort of methods will this project use to try and verify people's claims of "near-death" experience?

When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about 10 sec., brain activity ceases - as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, 10% or 20% of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, Are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: afterlife; death; lifeafterlife; nde; neardeathexperience
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1 posted on 09/24/2008 6:14:07 AM PDT by edpc
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To: edpc

“What Happens When We Die?”

Your kids and grandkids get to pay off your share of the bailout.


2 posted on 09/24/2008 6:16:00 AM PDT by Iron Munro (US Marines: First to fight our country's battles in the air, on land, on sea and in orbit!)
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To: edpc

“What Happens When We Die?”

You get either very cold or very hot, depending.......


3 posted on 09/24/2008 6:17:08 AM PDT by Red Badger (I'm gonna use "Sarah!" from NOW ON since Hillary uses "Hillary!"......)
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To: edpc

The judgment.


4 posted on 09/24/2008 6:20:01 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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To: edpc
What Happens When We Die?

You become a Democrat and continue voting.

5 posted on 09/24/2008 6:20:12 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Obama without a teleprompter speaks in tongues.)
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To: Red Badger; edpc; Iron Munro
What Happens When We Die?

We register to vote as Democrats.

6 posted on 09/24/2008 6:20:13 AM PDT by impeachedrapist (On Free Republic PBD [political bipolar disorder] rules!)
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To: Red Badger

Your actions, choices, and behaviors in this life depend on what you believe will happen when it’s over.

If you’re an eternal being made in God’s image, and recognize that everyone else is also, you’re going to behave, choose, and treat others in a certain manner.

If you believe you cease to exist, you’ll behave, act, choose, and treat others in another way.


7 posted on 09/24/2008 6:20:28 AM PDT by MrB (0bama supporters: What's the attraction? The Marxism or the Infanticide?)
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To: edpc

We sleep a lot more soundly.


8 posted on 09/24/2008 6:20:41 AM PDT by Puddleglum
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To: impeachedrapist
Wow!

1 second.

9 posted on 09/24/2008 6:20:46 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Obama without a teleprompter speaks in tongues.)
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To: N. Theknow

One lousy second. I curse you, Red Baron!!


10 posted on 09/24/2008 6:21:03 AM PDT by impeachedrapist (On Free Republic PBD [political bipolar disorder] rules!)
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To: edpc
I happen to believe there's an afterlife. If this life is all there is, then by definition God should not exist. But I don't believe we're just a bunch of random molecules thrown together to exist for a brief period of time. God does not play dice with the universe and He is very much involved in the affairs of the world and is concerned with what happens to us.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

11 posted on 09/24/2008 6:21:39 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: edpc

And your voter registration card automatically changes from GOP to Democrat.


12 posted on 09/24/2008 6:22:11 AM PDT by Portcall24
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To: edpc

Excerpt:

What was your first interview like with someone who had reported an out-of-body experience?

Eye-opening and very humbling. Because what you see is that, first of all, they are completely genuine people who are not looking for any kind of fame or attention. In many cases they haven’t even told anybody else about it because they’re afraid of what people will think of them. I have about 500 or so cases of people that I’ve interviewed since I first started out more than 10 years ago. It’s the consistency of the experiences, the reality of what they were describing. I managed to speak to doctors and nurses who had been present who said these patients had told them exactly what had happened, and they couldn’t explain it. I actually documented a few of those in my book What Happens When We Die because I wanted people to get both angles - not just the patients’ side but also the doctors’ side - and see how it feels for the doctors to have a patient come back and tell them what was going on. There was a cardiologist that I spoke with who said he hasn’t told anyone else about it because he has no explanation for how this patient could have been able to describe in detail what he had said and done. He was so freaked out by it that he just decided not to think about it anymore.

Ah, a teaser ... .


13 posted on 09/24/2008 6:23:02 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: edpc
IBT...unnngh
14 posted on 09/24/2008 6:24:12 AM PDT by evets (beer)
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To: impeachedrapist
We register to vote as Democrats.

And vote forever and ever, amen.............

15 posted on 09/24/2008 6:24:39 AM PDT by Red Badger (I'm gonna use "Sarah!" from NOW ON since Hillary uses "Hillary!"......)
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To: impeachedrapist; N. Theknow
I'm suprised it took four minutes for that response.

:-D

16 posted on 09/24/2008 6:25:25 AM PDT by edpc
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To: goldstategop

I’m not sure I’d like to live life believing there was no afterlife and I sure don’t like living with a plurality of those who do.


17 posted on 09/24/2008 6:27:58 AM PDT by umgud
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To: umgud

You go to Spanish Channel Land.


18 posted on 09/24/2008 6:31:47 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: Iron Munro

Rim Shot.


19 posted on 09/24/2008 6:32:09 AM PDT by gathersnomoss (General George Patton had it right.)
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To: umgud
Our Japanese maid, Masako, believed she had been some variety of insect in an earlier life.
20 posted on 09/24/2008 6:32:44 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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