On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 3:04 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stath...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 8:18 AM, Telmo Menezes <te...@telmomenezes.com> wrote: >> Hi John, >> >> http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060410/full/news060410-2.html >> >> "Nelson doesn't rule out the possibility that other psychological or >> spiritual factors may also play a role. "I'm interested in how this >> experience is generated. That's as far as I take it," says Nelson. As >> to the ultimate meaning of these experiences, he will leave that >> question for others to answer." >> >> This succint report, by the way, describes a less rigorous experience >> than the one described in PLoS and is a bit less cautious in the final >> paragraph than the PLoS one. Who would have thunk? >> >> I don't like bets, by the way. I'd feel bed about losing money and I'd >> feel bad about taking your money. Believe it or not. >> >> Full disclosure: I had what could be considered a NDE once. Nothing >> supernatural about it, no lights, nothing flashing before my eyes. >> >> A friend of mine was giving me a ride home late at night and the car >> lost control on a tight curve. We had a frontal collision against a >> car on the opposite lane. Thankfully we wer both driving slow so the >> airbags saved everybody. I lost consciousness (maybe :) for 30 secs >> and woke to a strong smell of sulphur -- I imagine from the >> pyrotechnics that inflate the airbags. And a sore neck. >> >> The interesting part is the second before the collision. I was 100% >> sure I was going to die. I did not panik nor did I feel sadness or >> fear. I felt a calm realisation: "oh, so this is how I die". It was >> extremely peaceful and a bit psychedelic, in that everything felt like >> a big cosmic joke. Not a "haha funny" joke, but a joke nevertheless. >> >> This has no scientific value, of course. It was an interesting 1p >> experience that changed my outlook on death for the best. I now >> consider it a strongly positive experience in my life because I fear >> death less. I still fear suffering though. I hope my real death turns >> out to be something of that sort. > > Note that studying NDE's does not imply that the researchers believe > they represent glimpses of God or heaven, any more than studying > schizophrenia means the researchers believes the patient's delusions.
Of course. I don't believe in God or heaven either, at least not in the religious sense. I'm not implying that NDEs are a glimpse of haven, not would I bet on that hypothesis. I'm interested in them because they are an unusual state of consciousness. I have to remain agnostic on the reality status of the world as I observe it under any state of consciousness. I don't have to remain agnostic on the delusions of schizophrenics, but I would have to remain agnostic on my own delusions should I suffer from schizophrenia. Telmo. > > -- > Stathis Papaioannou > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
