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Melvin, if it means nothing to you than I'd humbly suggest you have not done enough research. Creating memories of any kind is contraindicated by hypoxia. I'd suggest you read this: A Reply to Shermer Medical Evidence for NDEs, Pim van Lommel
"Energy can not be created or destroyed, it can only change from one form to another." ~Albert Einstein
We are particular patterns of energy and matter. When we die, our body disintegrates and is no longer recognizable as a body (not as our body, after a short time, or any body, after a longer time). Similarly, the particular configuration of energy on a biochemical substrate that is recognizably "me" or "you" disintegrates and is no longer recognizable as such.
All of this observably happens without violating the laws of conservation of energy and matter -- it in fact validates it, it is energy being changed from one form to another. The fact that it changes from one form to another is exactly why we WOULDN'T continue to exist after death.
William Buhlman Adventures Out of Body. I didn't believe it until I experimented myself after an incident of dream paralysis and migrating to my parents home 20 miles away & confirming what everyone spoke, wore and did one night without me being there physically. People will believe what they want to believe. No harm no foul. No one can take away my personal experiences and convince me it's fake. Perhaps an incident like this or near death experience can open ones mind as it did mind. If not, we will all find out anyway after death.
We are particular patterns of energy and matter. When we die, our body disintegrates and is no longer recognizable as a body (not as our body, after a short time, or any body, after a longer time). Similarly, the particular configuration of energy on a biochemical substrate that is recognizably "me" or "you" disintegrates and is no longer recognizable as such.
All of this observably happens without violating the laws of conservation of energy and matter -- it in fact validates it, it is energy being changed from one form to another. The fact that it changes from one form to another is exactly why we WOULDN'T continue to exist after death.
Exactly. Using the conservation of energy as proof of an afterlife shows a gross misunderstanding of the law.
William Buhlman Adventures Out of Body. I didn't believe it until I experimented myself after an incident of dream paralysis and migrating to my parents home 20 miles away & confirming what everyone spoke, wore and did one night without me being there physically. People will believe what they want to believe. No harm no foul. No one can take away my personal experiences and convince me it's fake. Perhaps an incident like this or near death experience can open ones mind as it did mind. If not, we will all find out anyway after death.
I am aware of the transformative nature of some NDEs and OBEs. The problem with such personal subjective experiences is that they can never serve as evidence for anyone but the experiencer, and someone with a healthy skeptic's stance probably cannot be satisfied that, e.g., your particular story is not somehow consciously or unconsciously hiding a more prosaic explanation.
In general, however, I would rather err on the side of skepticism. The way I regard it is that I am open to evidence and experiences, should they present themselves. I have in fact even dabbled a bit. When I lived in the Chicago area I went and saw the guy who practices there as a therapist who modified eye movement techniques that are an accepted modality for treating Post Traumatic Stress, when it was accidentally discovered that it was possible to trigger after-death experiences by modifying the technique a bit -- supposedly in 80% of the people who go through the process. I apparently am not part of the 80%, nor is my wife, because neither of us had the slightest inkling of such an experience, though he labored mightily toward that end. It struck me as mostly suggestion. Perhaps we were healed up enough from the deaths of our previous spouses, and didn't want or need to "talk" to them badly enough. Tellingly, he said the he has better success with people whose loss is "fresher" and more emotional -- when you are in that state you are kind of vulnerable and busted open and longing for one last contact. This suggests to me that ADEs are probably just the subconscious working symbolically to get closure. They might actually be therapeutic, but I doubt they are real in the sense that you are actually talking to the actual dead person. Still, I recognize that some people have those experiences, and just like with your OBE, they feel it's absolutely authentic. Therapeutically it only matters that it's cathartic, not authentic, and so the practitioners who use this modality are careful to avoid drawing any conclusions from it. As they should be, if they want any scientific credibility.
My guess is that OBEs and NDEs are the same sort of thing, but your mileage, obviously, may vary.
Exactly. Using the conservation of energy as proof of an afterlife shows a gross misunderstanding of the law.
Yep, and it's also ignoring the fact that energy and matter have to be organized in particular ways to sustain particular phenomena. The fact that energy is conserved is only a gross fact, and says nothing about the subtleties of what constitutes sentience, much less a particular sentience. It's like saying that a block of ice with an exact shape still exists even though it has been melted and then boiled. Sure its molecules or at least atoms exist, but not as that block of ice, ever again.
There is always the remote possibility that there is some way in which consciousness is separate from its expression in a physical body, that the brain is some sort of transceiver for consciousness in some unknown realm, but 100% of the current quantifiable evidence points away from that. Besides, it's quite a stretch to imagine that even if our consciousness survived, we'd feel or be recognizably ourselves. Most concepts of an afterlife imagine that we can somehow see and hear and feel, at least, without physical sense organs. In reality it's more likely that the experience would be like being in a sensory deprivation tank -- it would induce madness in short order. So much of the mythology around afterlives and the spirit realm presuppose a "spirit body" exists, not just a mind -- for this very reason. This stuff has "wishful thinking" written all over it, I'm afraid.
And then there's the whole issue of "be careful what you wish for". Do we really want this to go on and on? Personally I'm looking forward to / hoping for oblivion. I really don't want all the drama and hue and cry of life forever. If you think about an afterlife magically being an understandable, coherent,, pleasant, peaceful version of this life, just think about it rationally for 5 minutes, you'll realize it's just another illusory concept and far too convenient to be true. Any afterlife is far more apt to be "same s__t, different dimension". No thanks.
Can science objectively explain how consciousness arose from matter? (Not attacking any views here) but understanding where consciousness came from is just as mysterious. I don't have a one sided view and am still learning both sides of this debate. Interesting, really.
All of this observably happens without violating the laws of conservation of energy and matter -- it in fact validates it, it is energy being changed from one form to another. The fact that it changes from one form to another is exactly why we WOULDN'T continue to exist after death.
The Law of Physics once held that light could not be bent, so it got bent.
So if the Law of Physics holds that energy can neither be created or destroyed says the mortal man in the finite universe, who can see but not perceive, the stages of transformation that leads a pile of dust, once was massless energy but was consumed, expended in time and no longer exists because it existence has ended.
Can science objectively explain how consciousness arose from matter? (Not attacking any views here) but understanding where consciousness came from is just as mysterious. I don't have a one sided view and am still learning both sides of this debate. Interesting, really.
Great point, it nothing comes from nothing then the universe itself must have conscience, and if GOD is that great eternal form of energy, the this universe must be his only begotten Creation. Maybe that is why son of man knows all things, except but for when the time of his end.
But I know you know I know and I will never tell you when it ends.
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