On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 3:04 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 8:18 AM, Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hi John, >> >> http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060410/full/news060410-2.html >> >> "Nelson doesn't rule out the possibility that other psychological or >> spiritual factors may also play a role. "I'm interested in how this >> experience is generated. That's as far as I take it," says Nelson. As >> to the ultimate meaning of these experiences, he will leave that >> question for others to answer." >> >> This succint report, by the way, describes a less rigorous experience >> than the one described in PLoS and is a bit less cautious in the final >> paragraph than the PLoS one. Who would have thunk? >> >> I don't like bets, by the way. I'd feel bed about losing money and I'd >> feel bad about taking your money. Believe it or not. >> >> Full disclosure: I had what could be considered a NDE once. Nothing >> supernatural about it, no lights, nothing flashing before my eyes. >> >> A friend of mine was giving me a ride home late at night and the car >> lost control on a tight curve. We had a frontal collision against a >> car on the opposite lane. Thankfully we wer both driving slow so the >> airbags saved everybody. I lost consciousness (maybe :) for 30 secs >> and woke to a strong smell of sulphur -- I imagine from the >> pyrotechnics that inflate the airbags. And a sore neck. >> >> The interesting part is the second before the collision. I was 100% >> sure I was going to die. I did not panik nor did I feel sadness or >> fear. I felt a calm realisation: "oh, so this is how I die". It was >> extremely peaceful and a bit psychedelic, in that everything felt like >> a big cosmic joke. Not a "haha funny" joke, but a joke nevertheless. >> >> This has no scientific value, of course. It was an interesting 1p >> experience that changed my outlook on death for the best. I now >> consider it a strongly positive experience in my life because I fear >> death less. I still fear suffering though. I hope my real death turns >> out to be something of that sort. > > Note that studying NDE's does not imply that the researchers believe > they represent glimpses of God or heaven, any more than studying > schizophrenia means the researchers believes the patient's delusions.
Of course. I don't believe in God or heaven either, at least not in the religious sense. I'm not implying that NDEs are a glimpse of haven, not would I bet on that hypothesis. I'm interested in them because they are an unusual state of consciousness. I have to remain agnostic on the reality status of the world as I observe it under any state of consciousness. I don't have to remain agnostic on the delusions of schizophrenics, but I would have to remain agnostic on my own delusions should I suffer from schizophrenia. Telmo. > > -- > Stathis Papaioannou > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
