What about those who "die" but see nothing?

[Fiona]

I've read the link to the article, and it was interesting. Basically, it's about studies being done to understand how to define the moment we die, and also to understand if our consciousness exists after the moment of death. It seems to me that if we know conciousness can go on (as reported in patients who "died" but came back and were able to inform medical staff of having watched everything going on outside of their body etc) that it can give us believers in life-after-death some more substance to our belief.

Maybe scientists believe that this consciousness might only exist for minutes, or hours, after clinical death..... But we don't know yet, do we? Perhaps it goes on forever- and there we enter the realm of spirits.

---

Here is some information i gathered on NDEs for anyone interested....

All brains, regardless of where in the world they come from, die in the same way, say the skeptics. And that is why all NDEs have essential core elements which are the same. It is not because the dying person is traveling toward a beautiful afterlife, but because the neurotransmitters in the brain are shutting down and creating the same lovely illusions for all who are near-death.

But why? Why should the dying brain do this, if it is just a highly sophisticated lump of tissue? That question is one of the most fundamental questions in the whole of human thinking. It boils down to asking, are we individuals with "personalities" and "souls" and "minds" that are exclusive to us? Or are we simply bodies controlled by very clever computers, or brains, each of which works a little differently from the rest, thus making each of us unique, just as an Apple computer is different from an IBM, although there are far more similarities between them than there are differences?

If there is no afterlife, and NDEs are just the last throw of a fevered and dying brain, why does it bother? If everything, including the soul and personality, is going to dust and ashes, why does the brain lay on this last wonderful floor show for people near-death, or facing actual death, who relax into peacefulness and describe their wonderful visions?

If NDEs are just a hallucination, why do a great many people report being told, "Your mission has not been completed," or, "The time for your death is not yet," during their NDE? If NDEs are just hallucinations, how can so many people be told the same thing in their hallucinations? Isn't it odd that so many people are being told the same thing? Are they all hallucinating identical responses? For many people, it is easier to believe that NDEs are a real afterlife experience and not mass hallucination

Scientists that believe NDEs are one day going to be explained by brain functions have suggested that the dying secrete endorphins, hormones which act on the central nervous system to suppress pain and which are known to create the "runner's high", which happens when long-distance runners go through a pain barrier and find themselves running with ease and without tiredness, and with a feeling of elation. But endorphins are not hallucinogens and cannot re-create a state similar to NDEs, so although they may be involved in the process as a painkiller, they are not responsible for the whole experience.

[jadewik]

IndianGirl's comment reminds me of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce. Interestingly enough, it was such an odd story there was a Twilight Zone episode based on the story... in which there were no speaking parts.

Well, it is said that life "flashes before your eyes" in the moments before death...