Afterlife Exists Says Top Brain Surgeon

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ^ | October 10, 2012 | Mark Hughes

[Biggirl]

Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon, fell into a coma for seven days in 2008 after contracting meningitis. During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion "shut down" and that he then experienced "something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death." In an essay for American magazine Newsweek, which he wrote to promote his book Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander says he was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a "place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones" and "shimmering beings".

[Mrs. Don-o]

Some great stuff on Hildegard of Bingen:

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/newest-doctor-of-the-church-her-visions-her-writings-and-her-secret-languag/

The Nat. Catholic Register is a very good news source, and Jimmy Akin is one of their most knowledgeable columnists. There's a lot of links to Hildegard stuff in the combox comments

Official trailer of VISION, a German movie about Hildegard. The trailer is kind of melodramatic/gonzo/cinematic (eh, it's a trailer, what do you expect?) --- but it does give emphasis to the mystical-prophetic aspect of her vocation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEI1QrZINeg

Hildegard's musical compositions: O dulcis Divinitas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMxBpPcoWf0&list=PL1CE0F4E87929E045&index=3&feature=plpp_video

Caritas Habundat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVd2BAgDm2o

A few images of her many visions http://historymedren.about.com/od/picturegalleries/ig/Hildegard-of-Bingen-Gallery/hild_mystical.htm

The Universe

[yoe]

A wondrous view: (God According to God; The Hidden Face of God; The Science of God).....a veritable treasure trove of Science and the Bible.

[drypowder]

it’s apparent you have your own

[A'elian' nation]

Doesn’t explain Enoch and Elijah. Doesn’t explain the transfiguration of Moses.

The problem with interpreting the Bible literally is that anyone can. Your literalism is not the same as my literalism.

You and I can argue until Judgement Day and no minds will be changed. That’s why there are hundreds of denominations.

[A'elian' nation]

I am one of the 4 billion people of the world who believes in reincarnation. That I am a soul with a body.

Jesus was an Essene, a Jewish sect that did believe in reincarnation. So did the Pharisees. The Sadduccees did not know what happened to the soul upon death.

In the fourth century A.D. Emperor Constantine appointed Pope Damascus and formed the Council of Nicea in which all teachings of reincarnation were dropped from the New Testament. Pope Vigillus protested and refused to participate.

The Catholic Church’s problem with reincarnation was that this belief takes away their control of the salvation of the masses and puts it in each individual’s hands. Remember indulgences?

Origen and St. Augustine, the most eminent of the Church’s fathers, believed in reincarnation. Pistis Sophia, a Gnostic text, quotes Jesus as saying, “Souls are poured from one into another of different bodies of the world.”

Excellent historical synopsis of reincarnation in the Catholic Church can be found here -
http://www.fromthestars.com/page48.html

Reincarnation to me has always made logical theological sense. It explains all those times we wonder, ‘How could God have allowed this or that tragedy to happen?’

[A'elian' nation]

How do you explain all the reported NDE’s in which the person is aware of and recalls all the events in the ER room.

There are many many cases ( the best documented of all ) in which those experiencing an NDE see themselves floating above their body and describing to a minute detail things they could not possibly know in the attempts to revive their body.

Amazing story here about Pam Reynolds who recalled specific -medically precise- operating procedures during her operation.

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/near_death_explained/

[fso301]

How do you explain all the reported NDE’s in which the person is aware of and recalls all the events in the ER room.

I can't but there are medical theories that explain it.

[A'elian' nation]

Actually there are no medical theories that explain it - PERIOD!

I challenge you to read Pam Reynold’s NDE and try to come up with ANY rational explanation for what she remembered or visualized during her operation and NDE.

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/near_death_explained/

[A'elian' nation]

“This case is particularly impressive given that during cardiac arrest, the flow of blood to the brain is interrupted. When this happens, the brain’s electrical activity (as measured with EEG) disappears after 10 to 20 seconds. In this state, a patient is deeply comatose. Because the brain structures mediating higher mental functions are severely impaired, such patients are expected to have no clear and lucid mental experiences that will be remembered. Nonetheless, studies conducted in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States have revealed that approximately 15 percent of cardiac arrest survivors do report some recollection from the time when they were clinically dead. These studies indicate that consciousness, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings can be experienced during a period when the brain shows no measurable activity.”

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/near_death_explained/

I’d say that not only are there no medical theories that explain NDE’s. NDE’s defy current scientific understanding.

It is incredulous to think we have the answers to everything and there was nothing new to learn. We are just barely scratching the surface of parapsychological research.

[AnalogReigns]

Jesus was an Essene, a Jewish sect that did believe in reincarnation.So did the Pharisees.

What nonsense. There is ZERO evidence Jesus was an Essene (He was from Galilee, the Essenses were in south Judea, the other end of the country). Even so, no Jewish sect believed in pagan/Hindu style reincarnation. RESURRECTION at the Last Day is what Jews and Christians believed, not recycled lives...over and over and over again. The whole basis of individual rights in Western civilization is based on the idea of the individual, responsible for his life before God, once...not a re-used soul over and over with infinite chances to get it right.

There is also ZERO evidence that the books of the New Testament we have were changed after (or before) Nicea, or that somehow Hindu-reincarnation was edited out...that is simply utter nonsense, which no reputable New Testament scholar believes.

Origen--a very early Christian, was heretical about a number of things (universalism being one of them)--and is only given a pass since he lived so early. Augustine did not believe in reincarnation--that is so much New Age poppycock.

Judaism and Christianity do not, and have never, believed in the pagan/polytheistic concept of reincarnation.

I don't mean to be offensive, but Dan Brown' Da Vinci Code sounds conservative compared to you....you really should stop taking your theology from late night AM radio.

[ravenwolf]

During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion “shut down” and that he then experienced “something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.

---

I believe in heaven also, but that story is ridicules.

If his brain shut down, how would he know that his brain had shut down?

But since he is a big shot i guess the book will make him millions.

[ravenwolf]

I have to question those who seem to “choose” what they believe.

---

That is also the way i see it, i guess i have always believed in a higher power but don,t know for sure what it was.

I did not choose to believe in Christ, i started reading the Gospels to prove that Jesus was just a hippie of his day, boy did i prove myself wrong.

So if i hear some one say that they choose to believe, i wonder if what they believe in is them selves.

[ravenwolf]

I do believe HEAVEN is TRULY for REAL.

---

Ecclesiastes 1
8
All things are full of weariness; man cannot express it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

9
The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

10
Is there any thing of which it may be said, See, this is new? it has been already of old time, which was before us.

11
There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

---

People have been trying to figure it all out for thousands of years and it is still as much of a mystery as it was on day one.

[ravenwolf]

I am one of the 4 billion people of the world who believes in reincarnation. That I am a soul with a body.

---

I also tend to believe in reincarnation but i do not believe Jesus taught reincarnation as that is not what he came to teach.

Jesus came here to do just what he did, and we know the story.

If God is real and i am sure in my faith that he is, and Jesus being just as real there is no way that anything could have been taken out of the scriptures unless God wanted them taken out.

Some of the meanings of words have been changed to mean something which suits the professors but this they can legally do on account of words that can have more than one meaning.

I do not believe Jesus taught reincarnation because that was not what he came here to teach.

Jesus said: you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Free from what?

Not limited to religion, but free from religion for an example.

Reincarnation is in fact a religion and misses the whole point of the Gospel, which is Jesus himself.

The Gospel of Christ has been turned into a religion but is at times based on the gospel of Jesus.

When some one tells me that the Bible has been changed, my question is what did it say before it was changed?

I have never gotten an answer.

[Biggirl]

That could be why that book, “Heaven Is For Real”, a book about Heaven from a little child’s perspective became a very, very big hit on the book charts. It does also touch upon the scriptures. The children’s book is truly a work of art.

[NCLaw441]

Well said. I always have trouble with those who say things like, “I could never believe in a God who (insert claimed bad characteristic here, typically “who would led children suffer” or the like).” I know that it is common to hear people (atheists and agnostics) claim that man made God rather than God made man, but that is not my belief. If there is, as I believe, a God, He is who He is.

God COULD BE a hateful, cruel God. If He were, and that is what I believed, I would do whatever I could to ensure that He didn’t take it out on ME or my family. But I believe God is a good and loving God, and a just God. I don’t claim to know all, or even a lot, about Him, but I am trying to learn.

I could be wrong, that is part of the nature of faith. However, my life experience, the (limited) intelligence He has given me, history all come together to assist me in developing my faith. (One of the anchors of my faith is the historic existence of Christ, coupled with the willingness of his early disciples to die horrible deaths that they certainly would have (and could have) avoided if they had not seen what they saw and believed what they believed.

[fso301]

Actually there are no medical theories that explain it - PERIOD!

I would disagree with that.

The brain and how it functions is poorly understood. Many discoveries about the brain lay ahead of us. I don't know that medical theories explain every NDE case but one must first look for medical exlanations.

I challenge you to read Pam Reynold’s NDE and try to come up with ANY rational explanation for what she remembered or visualized during her operation and NDE.

Ok. From the article:

Spetzler would bring Pam’s body down to a temperature so low that she was essentially dead.

In cases of hypothermia, the person near the end stage suddenly gets a feeling of warmth and well being. Death for such person is near. This ties in with my earlier speculation that NDE's may have something to do with the brain in it's final acts of shutting down easing the departure by creating a sense of peace.

Her brain would not function, but it would be able to survive longer without oxygen at this temperature.

One might say death only occurs at a point which the person can no longer be revived and all bodily function ceases. The body is an enormously complex electro-chemical system. As is well known with drowning victims, cardio-pulmonary function may cease for some time yet the victim can still be resuscitated. Just because normal brain activity cannot be detected doesn't mean some failsafe mechanism exists that is responsible for NDE reports.

Recall from your middle school biology class when you dissected frogs. After removing the beating heart, the heart would continue beating for quite some time in a petri dish of water. Similarly, the brain has a poorly understood ability to maintain some level of functionality after cardio-pulminary function ceases.

When a person is placed under general anaesthesia, my understanding is they are only given "just enough" to put them under. The amount "just enough" varies. Some patients may experience a partial revival, or be so near the threshold as to be like a dimly flickering incandescent lightbulb.

Even though eyes are taped shut, The surgical light above them may appear through taped eyelids as a tunnel leading to a bright light. Even with headphones playing music or other noises, a patient may still hear via bone conduction. The patient will be on a ventilator, a breathing tube inserted into their mouth and throat. Teeth will be in contact with the tube. This is one path for bone conduction. Other surgical instruments may be in contact with bone thereby providing conduits for operating room sounds to be transmitted to the patient.

Once the patient was under, the earphones may have been turned off, disconnected or maladjusted thereby permitting normal hearing.

The brain in it's suppressed state struggles to make sense of the scattered stimuli it receives. Still struggling to understand what is happening, it switches to a "third person" mode whereby it tries to take a different perspective of what is happening. This "third person" view may account for the out of body experiences commonly reported by those having near death experiences.

[ravenwolf]

“who would led children suffer” or the like).”

---

Right, it seems to be the people who claim they don,t believe in God that blame him for the suffering of little children and any thing else that goes wrong, what a contradiction.

[ravenwolf]

That could be why that book, “Heaven Is For Real”, a book about Heaven from a little child’s perspective became a very, very big hit on the book charts. It does also touch upon the scriptures. The children’s book is truly a work of art.

---

I have not read the book but i have to say that i can not take any thing some one writes very serious.

I got into church one morning early, so i listened to the young woman who was teaching sunday school to the children, it was about David and Goliath, it sounded just like alice in wonderland or jack and the bean stalk.

She made it sound just like a fairy tale, so i wonder how many kids thought that it was a fairy tale, so i am very Leary of what some one may write or teach concerning the Bible.

So i think it is alright for some one to give their views, but as views only and not as facts.

[Biggirl]

Well whatever floats your boat.