NDEs, OOBEs and GBYDK.
Jan. 26th, 2004 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zotzhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3429619.stm
Compare and contrast: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743422007/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/202-9191386-1293446
In the former, a study is to be performed on the nature of Near-Death Experiences, by placing symbols at places in hospitals where only those loitering near the ceiling can see them. However, a similar but small scale study at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, last year was inconclusive. Over a five-year period eight out of 39 cardiac arrest patients had a NDE and of those only two had an OBE. Unfortunately, neither of them was in the right place to spot the symbols. .
How inconvenient.
However, Professor Christopher French, who looks into paranormal experiences at Goldsmith College, London, is more sceptical. "Virtually all the aspects of the NDE have been reported in other contexts," he says.
The life review can be caused by the brain firing in unusual ways as a result of a lack of oxygen or too much carbon dioxide in the blood stream. Endorphins released during times of stress can create a sense of peace and the tunnel of light could reflect abnormal patterns of firing in the visual cortex.
In Vonnegut's book, he takes a rather different line.
My first near-death experience was an accident, a botched anaesthesia during a triple bypass. I had listened to several people on TV talk shows who had gone down the blue tunnel to the pearly gates, and even beyond the Pearly Gates, so they said, and then come back to life again. But I certainly wouldn't have set out on such a risky expedition on purpose, without first having survived one, and then planned another in cooperation with Dr. Jack Kevorkian and the staff at the state-of-the-art lethal injection facility at Hunstville, Texas.
During each part-execution, he travels to the Pearly Gates and interviews someone who is already dead. The series of discussions - all, unavoidably, very brief - includes Isaac Newton, John Brown, Mary Shelley and Adolf Hitler. Each, of course, is just another opportunity for Vonnegut to put his words into someone else's mouth, but when it's him talking this can only be a good thing.
It's a terribly thin book - less than 80 pages long - and probably wouldn't take most of you more than 40 minutes. IT'd be a very good use of 40 minutes, though.
Compare and contrast: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743422007/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/202-9191386-1293446
In the former, a study is to be performed on the nature of Near-Death Experiences, by placing symbols at places in hospitals where only those loitering near the ceiling can see them. However, a similar but small scale study at Morriston Hospital, Swansea, last year was inconclusive. Over a five-year period eight out of 39 cardiac arrest patients had a NDE and of those only two had an OBE. Unfortunately, neither of them was in the right place to spot the symbols. .
How inconvenient.
However, Professor Christopher French, who looks into paranormal experiences at Goldsmith College, London, is more sceptical. "Virtually all the aspects of the NDE have been reported in other contexts," he says.
The life review can be caused by the brain firing in unusual ways as a result of a lack of oxygen or too much carbon dioxide in the blood stream. Endorphins released during times of stress can create a sense of peace and the tunnel of light could reflect abnormal patterns of firing in the visual cortex.
In Vonnegut's book, he takes a rather different line.
My first near-death experience was an accident, a botched anaesthesia during a triple bypass. I had listened to several people on TV talk shows who had gone down the blue tunnel to the pearly gates, and even beyond the Pearly Gates, so they said, and then come back to life again. But I certainly wouldn't have set out on such a risky expedition on purpose, without first having survived one, and then planned another in cooperation with Dr. Jack Kevorkian and the staff at the state-of-the-art lethal injection facility at Hunstville, Texas.
During each part-execution, he travels to the Pearly Gates and interviews someone who is already dead. The series of discussions - all, unavoidably, very brief - includes Isaac Newton, John Brown, Mary Shelley and Adolf Hitler. Each, of course, is just another opportunity for Vonnegut to put his words into someone else's mouth, but when it's him talking this can only be a good thing.
It's a terribly thin book - less than 80 pages long - and probably wouldn't take most of you more than 40 minutes. IT'd be a very good use of 40 minutes, though.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-26 09:02 am (UTC)Or, presumably, by any enterprising medical student with a stepladder and a burning desire to pevert the survey :) Admittedly I can't think of a better mechanism to check whether someone was "really" of our their body, but this seems dreadfully prone to abuse.
a better mechanism
Date: 2004-01-26 09:17 am (UTC)get 'em to tell you what you called them :)
anonymouseth
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-26 09:41 am (UTC)This was tried about 10 years ago, on a fairly large scale as I recall, but I never got to find out what the results were (negative I should think, otherwise it would have made national news).
no subject
Date: 2004-01-27 12:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-27 02:43 am (UTC)Hmmm. If someone has body-dysmorphia, do they go to heaven with or without the bits they don't feel are really them? Why isn't the Pope pronouncing on these big important issues? I'm not going to sleep at night now.
But yes. If someone with organic blindness saw it, it would be impressive.