Read the book Xeno and then I would love to have a discussion with you.....it was written by a neuroscientist after all. And he addresses exactly what you discuss below in the context of medical science.
>________________________________ > From: Xenophaneros Anartaxius <[email protected]> >To: [email protected] >Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 8:22 PM >Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Michael Shermer rebuts Eben Alexander > > > > > >--- In [email protected], Emily Reyn <emilymae.reyn@...> wrote: >> >> This is a beautiful picture. Â Can you believe I just finished this book? Â >> Eben Alexander refutes all this in the later Chapters of this book - he >> addresses this supposition of hallucination specifically by making the very >> real point that his neocortex was not functioning, amongst other things. Â >> >How would he, in that state, know whether he even had a neocortex? Someone had >to feed him this information. Neurologists point out that even in states where >the patient seems to be in cardiac arrest, there is some slight activity that >keeps a small amount of blood flow to the brain. In these emergency >situations, there is no electroencephalographic monitoring of the brain, >though that might be introduced as additional controls someday. No one has >figured out just when a patient has the NDE in these situations as they cannot >point out they are having an experience, so currently there are a lot of >unknowns about these experiences. Those that believe in NDEs assume the brain >is not functioning, but this is unknown except in the case where the patient >does not revive, and then of course they do not report an NDE. These kinds of >experiences often occur under very specific circumstances where a patient or a >subject is not in a life threatening situation such as cardiac arrest, which is why scientists very substantially question whether they have any 'supernatural' component at all. >> >> >________________________________ >> > From: Yifu <yifuxero@...> >> >To: [email protected] >> >Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 7:04 PM >> >Subject: [FairfieldLife] Michael Shermer rebuts Eben Alexander >> > >> > >> >Â >> >"Allegory of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ" by Pat Devonas: >> >http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/10741.jpg >> > >> >Dr. Michael Shermer attempts to rebut Dr. Eben Alexander's NDE as being >> >genuinely "out of body" and supernatural. (Alexander is a neurosurgeon who >> >had an NDE. Claims he traveled out of the body into supernatural dimensions >> >in which he met deceased relatives, and listened to the OM.) >> >... >> >Shermer in Scientific American, Apr 2013, 86, essentially uses a >> >"similarity" argument coupled with Occam's Razor. Shermer states: "Migraine >> >headaches also produce halluncinations, which Sacks [neurologist Oliver >> >Sacks] himself has experienced as a longtime sufferer, including a >> >'shimmering light' that was 'dazzlingly bring'" etc, etc, clouds, blah, >> >blah. >> >Then Shermer goes on to make the comparison: "Compare Sack's experience >> >with that of Alexander's trip to heaven, where he was "in a place of >> >clouds. Big, puffy, pink-white ones that showed up sharply against the deep >> >blue-black sky. Higher than the clouds - immeasurably higher - flocks of >> >transparent, shimmering beings arced across the sky, leaving long, >> >streamerlike lines behind them.". >> >... >> >Then Shermer says "In any case, there is a reason they are called >> >'near'-death experiences: the people who have then are not actually dead". >> >Also he inquires how Alexander could have a memory of the experiences. >> >. >> >Finally, Dr. Shermer states "To me, this evidence is proof of >> >hallucination, not heaven." >> >. >> >[his arguments on the whole are similar to those of Sam Harris]. >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > >
