Life after Death?

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I don’t have any trouble with the concept of life after death, as my father appeared in my room the night he died. He disappeared with one almighty scream at the end, but it was definitely him.

However I can hardly prove it scientifically. I’ve had other spiritual experiences as well, so I know God’s there, and that there’s an afterlife. But there’s also a judgment as my father found out - too late in his case. The final scream was sheer terror - it was so frightening that I started to scream. Then he just disappeared.

That’s not something we hear about much with most NDE’s.

I remember my old pastor commenting that when people die, “clocks stop”. There’s an article here about a woman who claimed that clocks stopped 3 times when relatives died, right at the very time of death in each case.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2634427/Each-time-one-relatives-died-clock-stopped-Just-one-haunting-stories-Mail-readers-tell-experiences-ghostly-events-surrounding-deaths-families.html

There’s a watchmaker in the main shopping centre nearby, who has one of those stands that sell watches, fix them, sell and code car remotes etc. However he’s also a qualified watch maker and clock repairer.

One day I managed to get hold of him just as he was about to leave for the day, and asked him if he’d ever had people come to him with timepieces that had stopped precisely when somebody died.

He replied, “often!” In most cases, they just needed a service to get going again, but it happened far too frequently to be mere coincidence.
 
Bob_Crowley said:
One day I managed to get hold of him just as he was about to leave for the day, and asked him if he’d ever had people come to him with timepieces that had stopped precisely when somebody died.

He replied, “often!” In most cases, they just needed a service to get going again, but it happened far too frequently to be mere coincidence.
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This happened also to me. The clock on my fireplace mantle stopped the afternoon my mother died.

I tried to wind it, but it was broken. I took it to a clock repairman and told him it stopped the afternoon my mother died, and he replied that many clocks had been brought to him for that reason.
 
Charlemagne_III said:
Here is new scientific evidence that life after death is possible.

independent.co.uk/news/science/life-after-death-largestever-study-provides-evidence-that-out-of-body-and-neardeath-experiences-may-actually-be-real-9780195.html

Any comments?
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I don’t agree with their “experts.” They cite 20-30 seconds, but I have personally seen patients brought back after three or four minutes of pulselessness who recover full cognitive ability, so the brain obviously did not “die.”

I do, however, believe the accounts of many patients who relate “near death” experiences, and I firmly believe there is some sort of life after death.
 
captainrick said:
I do, however, believe the accounts of many patients who relate “near death” experiences, and I firmly believe there is some sort of life after death.
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You are Catholic, right? There is a life after death. 😛

On a more serious note, several of my aunts and one of my great uncles (Who is a priest.) have had unusual experiences. I think the clock thing has happened to us too.
 
captainrick said:
I don’t agree with their “experts.” They cite 20-30 seconds, but I have personally seen patients brought back after three or four minutes of pulselessness who recover full cognitive ability, so the brain obviously did not “die.”

I do, however, believe the accounts of many patients who relate “near death” experiences, and I firmly believe there is some sort of life after death.
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When I read the article, I thought that was bizarre as well. People are often resuscitated after a few minutes, and clearly their brain hasn’t “died” that quickly.

Also, the stories I saw cited were of OBE, where the patient was somehow conscious of what was going on in the room they were in. Nothing really about an afterlife, just that plain old regular consciousness remains for 3 minutes after the heart stops.

I felt the term “afterlife” was not being used correctly, basically to get people to read the article.
 
I think the brain can survive for about five minutes without blood flow, longer if the body is cooled down.
The brain may not be dead but it isn’t functioning well - encoding memories etc.
So, these would be near-death experiences that support the existence of a spiritual soul.
The existence of a spiritual soul implies that existence is not limited to the body.
 
Once again people fall for the sensationalistic headline and fail to understand the true findings of the study.

The study in no way suggests that there is evidence for life after death. None whatsoever. In fact the study suggests just the opposite, that NDE’s and OBE’s are simply a natural part of the dying process, and not evidence for the supernatural at all.

What the study indicates is that the process of death is not as clear-cut as we have long believed it to be, and that the brain continues to function beyond the point at which a clinical diagnosis of brain death has been made. The headline, as attention grabbing as it is, is quite misleading. NDE advocates have long argued that memories of events that occurred after brain death are evidence for life after death. But this study, and others, show that brain activity continues even after brain death has occurred. Brain death is not an event, but a process, and the brain continues to function for a prolonged period after brain activity has apparently stopped.

It’s this post “death” brain activity that leads to NDE’s and OBE’s. Rather than provide evidence for life after death, this study refutes the evidence for life after death. NDE’s and OBE’s are simply a natural side effect of the dying brain. If one wishes to find evidence for an afterlife, NDE’s and OBE’s won’t provide it. They simply provide solace for those who refuse to accept the fact that there is no evidence for life after death.

If you choose to believe in life after death, that’s fine, but when you proclaim evidence where there is none, then your credibility must be called into question. Your belief in God is of little value to others if you can be so easily misled.
 
Partinobodycula said:
Once again people fall for the sensationalistic headline and fail to understand the true findings of the study. . . the brain continues to function beyond the point at which a clinical diagnosis of brain death has been made. . . . Your belief in God is of little value to others if you can be so easily misled.
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Hmm, I am hypothesizing that a certain attitude is found paradoxically in solipsists, who unable to connect with others, project their ignorance outward.
I suppose the solipsistic view would be that if others do exist, they are an illogical, lower level of oneself.
I imagine a solipsist conference like that scene in the Matrix movie where some old geeze, resembling myself except for his hair, good looks and whimsical personality, is in a room with Neo and there are all these monitors showing numerous Neos in their particular time and space, or at least as it would exist in a world of illusion. They’re all yakking away and it gets quite chaotic, and the movie gets weird about choice and determinism, but the special effects are cool.

I see that I’ve gotten off track.

Oh yes, the study.
  • nowhere does it talk about brain death
  • people were clinically dead, aka no vital signs
  • this was for a prolonged period of time, enough to cause a loss of consciousness and potentially some lasting damage
  • there was nothing studied regarding the brain. I know I am reading about the brain when I come across a lot of capital letters: EEG, PET, fMRI (for the pretentious - MNRI), SPECT; in the old days we would see Xray and CAT (CT where authors were frugal with their letters). I also know it’s talking about the brain when my lips start to stutter as I read stuff like hippocampus, cerebral cortex, nucleus accumbens, and my favorite, nucleus coeruleous.
  • the study focusses on the mind from which we can infer, as you have, what is happening neurologically, and yes, spiritually.
My belief in God emerges from my relationship with Him and is of supreme importance to me. There exists nothing else. Unlike a solipsist, my relations with others is through that love.

That said, your post had the positive effect of getting the epinephrine going this morning and I’m ready to take on the world, as misguided as it may be.
 
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