Life after Death?

Life after Death?

Near death experiences have a biological explanation rather than a spiritual one, research suggests

The US team said the same parts of the brain are activated when people dream as in near death experiences.

BBC Online
April 2006

The study, in Neurology, compared 55 people who had had near death experiences and 55 who had not.

Those with near death experiences were more likely to have less clearly separated boundaries between sleeping and waking, the scientists found.

People who have had near death experiences commonly report being surrounded by a bright light or gazing down on themselves in an operating theatre.

Many of these sensations are also common to experiences of being in the dream state, or rapid eye movement (REM), stage of sleep, the researchers said.

'REM intrusion'

Near death experiences were defined by the University of Kentucky researchers as a time during a life-threatening episode when a person undergoes an out-of-body experience, unusual alertness or sees an intense light or feels a great sense of peace.

They found 60% of those who reported such experiences said they had experienced the REM state of sleep during periods of wakefulness.

Only a quarter of those who had not had near death experiences said they had experienced this "REM intrusion".

Examples of this include waking up and feeling unable to move, having sudden muscle weakness in the legs and hearing sounds just before falling asleep or waking up that others do not hear, the team said.

'Biological basis'

Study author Professor Kevin Nelson of the University of Kentucky, Lexington, who led the study, said the findings suggests that REM state intrusion contributed to near death experiences.

He told the Daily Telegraph: "I see it as an activation of certain brain regions that are also active during the dream state.

"However, I hesitate to call it dreaming or dreaming while awake. This is the first testable hypothesis of a biological basis for these experiences."

"People who have near death experiences may have an arousal system that predisposes them to REM intrusion," he added.

'Incredibly real'

However, he suggested the theory did not automatically rule out a spiritual dimension to near death experiences.

"We, as neurologists. address the how of these experiences coming about but not the why," he said.

Dr Neil Stanley, director of sleep research at Surrey University, said the theory was a very plausible one.

He said: "There are plenty of rational people who say that these things happen and the one part of us that's utterly fantastical is our dreams.

"Our dreams can appear incredibly real - after all they are our reality when they are happening.

"If you get that sort of reality playing through into your consciousness - it's a very convincing reason to believe such a thing is happening."

The Houdini Factor

Harry Houdini (the famous magician) spent years trying to communicate with his mother, Cecilia Weiss, who passed over in 1913. So much time in fact that he eventually became a psychic debunker exposing the fraudulent spiritualists who preyed upon grieving families. He NEVER successfully achieved his goal of communicating with the "other side."

Prior to his untimely death in 1926, Houdini made a secret pact with Bess, his wife of thirty-two years. They made a ten word code which only each of them knew. Each would try their best to communicate with the other once they passed over. The correct code would act as proof that it was really them coming through from the other side. For ten (10) years Mrs. Houdini offered a $10,000 reward for anyone, psychic or layman, who could communicate with Harry. She visited psychics from around the world in an attempt to communicate with him. Not a single psychic could produce the secret code, although almost all of them claimed to have communicated with Houdini himself on the other side. In her last séance in 1936, she tried one final time to reach Harry. After this final failure, Bess made this little speech, "I do not think that Harry will come back to me, or anyone. I think the dead don't speak. I now regretfully turn out the light. This is the end, Harry, good night!" She then blew out the candle that she had lit after his death and that had been buring for him for ten years. In 1937, Mrs. Houdini, sent out a final letter to the media, the general public and to those psychics who participated saying, "Since the failure of the ten year test, it is my opinion that all concerned have struck a mighty worldwide blow at superstition."

By the way, Houdini's ten word secret code was: "Rosabelle - Answer - Tell - Pray, Answer - Look - Tell - Answer, Answer - Tell." It was based upon an old Vaudeville mindreading routine. "Rosabelle" was the name of the song Bess was singing when the two first met. The other words correspond to a secret spelling code used to pass information between a magician and his assistant during a mind reading act. Each word or word pairs equals a letter. The word "Answer" stood for the letter "B", for example. "Answer, Answer" stood for the letter "V". With this unique code within a code, Houdini's secret spelled out the word, "BELIEVE."

For more information regarding Readers, Mediums, cold reading techniques and other paranormal debunking, consult the James Randi Educational Foundation.

From: www.re-quest.net/entertainment/movies-and-tv/tv/john-edward/index.htm