Can We Unravel the World of Death?
By Maria Anna van Driel, www.nexttruth.com
Can we say that death is just an accidental suspension of the biological process known as life? Or do we have to seek the answers in a more spiritual realm?
The question of whether life continues after death has been at the forefront of many researchers, still, a conclusive answer is not forthcoming. It seems that we just cannot wrap our minds around this timeless area what lies between the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death and the hereafter.
Creepy as it might sound but many thoughts go out to the idea that, if we want to find out what a NDE is and what it means, our psychological knowledge has to “die”. Meaning, we have to let go of the density objects seem to posses and thus the material version of what we have become to understand as “life” or “reality”. This makes us experiencing the world around as a two point-projection perspective creating for us to “see” an, compared to classical reality, odd, almost holographic, behavior in time and space.
Seeing this “holographic matrix” for what it might really be, seem to speak of you entering a state in where you are opening the doors to you inner self and log into the inherited and stored information bundles what is being thought of being stored in particular cells of your body (cellular memory) and vibrating in a light spectrum what lie just outside the region of our visible spectrum.
Now taking away even more of these mysteries by looking at NDE’s from a neuro-scientific point of view, the question if it is possible for the brain experiencing an extreme moment of stress during death whereby an odd behavior of the synapses is creating a disfunction in information transfer, is rising with me. If so, it is almost a logical line of thought that this behavior is triggering the Claustrum in releasing a high amount of electricity what in turn is activating the Pineal gland in releasing a strange mixture of chemicals in the midbrain and creating a holographic image based on one’s personal and inherited information stored in your cells.
It is also a realistic thought that, in the moment someone is entering the state of crossing over, the pupils are dilating beyond their own normal capability whereby the optic nerves are trying to absorb and processing an avalanche of UV-light. Not being able to do so, the excess energy is being released in the fluids of the human eye which then could cause certain vibrations within the fluids having an abnormal pattern which, in turn, can create a standing wave in the moment these vibrations bounce off on the back of the lens and reflect on themselves.
Think of bats for instance. As soon as two bats are flying towards each other while sending/transmitting this high pitched sound for navigating and their sound waves are meeting, they will miss their target due to the equalization of these sounds waves what is creating a blind spot. So, can we state that, in this process, we are looking through a narrow tunnel once the frequencies meet and thus equalize?
Now, I am not skeptical when it comes down to the reality of Near-Death-Experiences and Out of Body Experiences. But pouring the above thoughts into one bowl, it could explain both the intense bright light at the end of the tunnel and the variety of images, or surroundings, people are witnessing while walking the foggy realms, which is being thought of existing in a timeless reality, in the breakdown of a biological process known as life…a last but natural attempt by the brain to supply the body with a high amount of energy in order to survive.
Can we unravel the world of death? Can we switch our lives, or biological existence, on and off without losing our awareness of what is happening around us?
In order to gain a deeper insight to these highly interesting life questions The Next Truth and her readers reached out to Professor of Philosophy John Martin Fischer who is teaching at the University of California and who’s main research interests lie in free will, moral responsibility, and both metaphysical and ethical issues pertaining to life and death.
To become more familiar with Prof. J. M. Fischer’s books, articles, lectures and research, https://philosophy.ucr.edu/john-m-fischer/
Q: NDE’s, how does one research what is this entangled?
Prof. Fischer: As Project Leader of the Immortality Project, a 5.1 million dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation, I supervised a large number of research projects, including four on NDE research. One project (in Europe) employed IVR (Immersive Virtual Reality) to simulate NDEs and then did follow-ups with the (human!) participants. One project was the famous AWARE study led by Sam Parnia, M.D., at New York University. In this study computer monitors are placed in locations in intensive care wards that are not visible to the patient, and they randomly flash numbers. When the patients regain wakeful consciousness, they are asked whether they saw the numbers in question. If so, this would be at least prima facie evidence for genuine OBEs (out-of-body experiences).
Q: Which research method(s) do you use for finding a plausible answer to what NDE’s are?
Prof. Fischer: I read the empirical scientific analysis and the more popular reports of NDEs. My primary methodology however is philosophical. The data itself need to be interpreted, and the claims made about the data (the reports of NDErs) involve philosophical questions (the relationship between the mind and body, and so forth).
Q: Why do near death experiences vary from person to person if there is, according to the bible, only one heaven and hell?
Prof. Fischer: Good question. The experiences are typically “spiritual” and even “religious,” but specific to the doctrines and practices of a particular religion (or sect within a religion). But I certainly do not know why the particular details of NDE reports differ so much; it goes against the idea that the NDEr is in contact with a heavenly realm. Why so many heavenly realms?
Q: It is being said the universe we are swirling in is created in our mind only. Do you think that this can be true for the afterlife as well?
Prof. Fischer: I honestly have no idea what the afterlife is or could be like, if indeed there is an afterlife. Shakespeare wrote of death that it is “the land from which no man returns.” Maybe we can return from the land of dying, but not of death, and so no one can know about the afterlife.
Q: Do you think that “The Akashic records” can be considered as the hereafter?
Prof. Fischer: The Akashic records are thought by some believers in esoteric doctrines to represent everything in the past, present, and future. They would thus be a representation of the afterlife, but not the afterlife itself. And these esoteric doctrines (promulgated by Theosophy, among other belief-systems), are not scientifically well-founded or philosophically plausible at all. Sorry.
Q: How mu ch reality do movies like “Flat-lines” or “The Discovery” contain from a scientifically point of view?
Prof. Fischer: Very little. They are more philosophical than scientific.
Q: Can the moment of someone receiving the images and emotions of a past life be thought of as an Out of Body Experience?
Prof. Fischer: I’m not sure that OBE is the best name for this sort of apparent reception of information and affective states. I also don’t believe that anyone does in fact receive such information (from a past life).
Q: Is it still possible for people to be guided by a spiritual energy and, regardless the topic, to communicate with their spiritual guides after experiencing a NDE?
Prof. Fischer: Having spiritual experiences and being guided by them does not require having an NDE, and can certainly be present after an NDE, if one has an NDE. Typically people do indeed become more spiritually-oriented after an NDE. You can have a spiritual guide, but perhaps not the one that “presents themselves” or is “represented” in the NDE.
Q: What causes the soul returning to the body?
Prof. Fischer: In my view the soul never actually returns to the body; it only appears so to the OBEr.
The Next Truth: From a neuron-scientific point of view: Is it possible that a NDE can be explained by means of the brain experiencing an extreme moment of stress whereby an odd behavior of the synapses is creating a disfunction in information transfer. A stressed moment what is triggering the Claustrum in releasing a high amount of electricity what in turn is activating the Pineal gland in releasing chemicals and thus is creating a holographic image in the midbrain?
Prof. Fischer: You are absolutely correct that many neuroscientists seek to explain the phenomenology (the subjective experiential contents) of NDEs via neurological changes caused by stress. I do not however think that your specific suggestion is the most plausible, and most scientists do not think we have a fully adequate explanation yet.
