General Chat

Cardiac arrest patients are a subgroup of people who come closest to death. In such a situation an individual initially develops two out of three criteria (the absence of spontaneous breathing and heartbeat) of clinical death. Shortly afterwards (within seconds) these are followed by the third, which occurs due to the loss of activity of the areas of the brain responsible for sustaining life (brainstem) and thought processes (cerebral cortex).

Brain monitoring using EEG in animals and humans has also demonstrated that the brain ceases to function at that time. During a cardiac arrest, the blood pressure drops almost immediately to unrecordable levels and at the same time, due to a lack of blood flow, the brain stops functioning as seen by flat brain waves (isoelectric line) on the monitor within around 10 seconds.

This then remains the case throughout the time when the heart is given 'electric shock' therapy or when drugs such as adrenaline are given until the heartbeat is finally restored and the patient is resuscitated. Due to the lack of brain function in these circumstances, therefore, one would not expect there to be any lucid, well-structured thought processes, with reasoning and memory formation, which are characteristic of NDEs.

Nevertheless, and contrary to what we would expect scientifically, studies have shown that 'near death experiences' do occur in such situations. This therefore raises a question of how such lucid and well-structured thought processes, together with such clear and vivid memories, occur in individuals who have little or no brain function. In other words, it would appear that the mind is seen to continue in a clinical setting in which there is little or no brain function. In particular, there have been reports of people being able to 'see' details from the events that occurred during their cardiac arrest, such as their dentures being removed.

A study by a group examining 63 cardiac arrest survivors on the coronary care and emergency units of Southampton General Hospital, which was published in the medical journal 'Resuscitation' demonstrated that approximately 6-10% of people with cardiac arrest have NDEs and out of body experiences. There was no evidence to support the role of drugs, oxygen or carbon dioxide (as measured from the blood) in causing the experiences.

In another study just completed in Holland, 344 cardiac arrest survivors from 10 hospitals were interviewed over a 2-year period, and 41 or 12% reported a core NDE. Patients with NDEs were then followed up for a further 8 years following the event and reported less fear of death and a more spiritual outlook on life. This study by a cardiologist Dr Pim van Lommel, was published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.
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The late Prof. Robert Jahn was a Doctor of Science, Dean Emeritus at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University. He was Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics.
He gathered a team of experts to study reports from elsewhere in the scientific field that the human brain could affect the operation of certain types of electronic equipment and computers. He set up a laboratory with experts from various relevant sciences “to study the interaction of human operators with low-level information processing devices and systems by combining appropriate engineering facilities and techniques with a selection of protocols and insights drawn from modern cognitive science”.
Under rigorous conditions, certain aspects of these human/machine interactions are found to yield “anomalous effects currently inexplicable on the basis of established physical concepts and statistical theory”. In plain English that implies the power of the mind can reach outside the body and is not constrained by time or distance.
The program has produced immense databases generated under highly controlled laboratory conditions, indicating the existence of small but replicable and statistical correlations between operator intention and the output of a variety of contemporary engineering devices and systems Again, in plain English that means the power of the mind can interfere with computers and otherdevices.
To sum up the Jahn & Dunne report on their Remote Perception (also known as. Distant Intentionality or telepathy) work:
“… the ability of human participants to acquire information about spatially (of or relating to space) and temporally (of or relating to time) remote geographic targets, otherwise inaccessible by any known sensory means, has been thoroughly demonstrated over several hundred carefully conducted experiments. The protocol requires one participant, the “agent” to be stationed at a randomly selected target at a given time and there to observe and record impressions of the details and ambience (the surroundings or atmosphere of a place) of the scene. A second participant, the “percipient”, located far from the scene and with no prior information about it, tries to sense its composition and character and report these in a similar format to the agent’s description. Even casual comparison of the agent and percipient narratives as produced in this body of experiments, reveals striking correspondences in both their general and specific aspects, indicative of some anomalous channel of information acquisition, well beyond any chance expectation. Incisive analytical techniques have been developed and applied to these data to establish more precisely the quantity and quality of objective and subjective information acquired, and to guide the design of more effective experiments. Beyond confirming the validity of the phenomenon, these analyses demonstrate that this capacity of human consciousness is also largely independent of the time between the specification of the target and the perception effort”
Or, in other words, telepathy and telekinesis is, as far as this world class engineering laboratory is concerned, proved. Prof. Jahn set out as a sceptic, intent on disproving the notions regarding mind over matter, but was won over by the evidence.

nudge, i wanna read this tomoz x

The early research of the experimental unit of the Princeton group focussed on attempts to refine “remote viewing” techniques and to permit the transition of information in terms of binary (in twos or pairs) choices regardless of the details of the scene. They asked: can the recipient identify whether it is light or dark, wet or dry, cold or hot, inside or outside or basically man-made or natural. They reasoned that if questions could be found which could be answered routinely with reasonable accuracy, it would be possible to transmit telepathically quite a bit of information in this way.
Setting up the laboratory was not easy as Jahn and Dunne with Bradish an engineer, Nelson a psychologist and Dobyns, a theoretical physicist with John Bisaha of Chicago University (who with Dunne had been studying “distant intentionality” or “remote viewing” experiments – telepathy to us) met a great deal of initial skepticism and resistance from University authorities . Jahn, who had reached the top of his field in aerospace engineering, now became suspect for even daring to think about such topics as psychokinesis and remote perception, let alone setting up a lab to study these topics.
In his capacity as Dean of the School of Engineering Jahn was, however, able to remodel part of the School’s basement into a laboratory with help of private funding, furnish it and set up the sophisticated electronic equipment needed for experiments. Later he was successful in obtaining major grants from independent grant-aiding foundations.
In 1983 Prof. Jahn and others of the group published “Precognitive Remote Perception”, a technical report evaluating 227 formal precognitive remote perception trials. Results of this impressive body of data indicated that their efforts were highly significant. The PEAR (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) document concluded that “precognitive remote perception techniques can acquire significant amounts of compounded information about spatially and temporary remote target locations, by means currently inexplicable by known physical mechanisms”
Following on from experimental work carried out at Princeton University by Professor Robert Jahn and his team, and using volunteers, the scientists identified which brain activities were associated with actions such as moving limbs or opening and closing their hands. The aim of the work was to identify which electrocorticographic signals were given off by the firing neurons in the brain on making certain movements and feeding the data into a computer programme. It was realised that the volunteers could control an on-screen cursor by imagining the movements of their limbs or hands It is hoped from this to develop personalised artificial limbs and other aids controlled purely by brain power (distant intentionality) and that the study may also be used to help people with severe motor disability.

Dr. Michael Sabom is a cardiologist whose latest book, Light and Death, includes a detailed medical and scientific analysis of an amazing near-death experience of a woman named Pam Reynolds. She underwent a rare operation to remove a giant basilar artery aneurysm in her brain that threatened her life. The size and location of the aneurysm, however, precluded its safe removal using the standard neuro-surgical techniques.
She was referred to a doctor who had pioneered a daring surgical procedure known as hypothermic cardiac arrest. It allowed Pam's aneurysm to be excised with a reasonable chance of success. This operation, nicknamed "standstill" by the doctors who perform it, required that Pam's body temperature be lowered to 60 degrees, her heartbeat and breathing stopped, her brain waves flattened, and the blood drained from her head. In everyday terms, she was put to death.
After removing the aneurysm, she was restored to life. During the time that Pam was in standstill, she experienced a NDE. Her remarkably detailed veridical out-of-body observations during her surgery were later verified to be very accurate. This case is considered to be one of the strongest cases of veridical evidence in NDE research because of her ability to describe the unique surgical instruments and procedures used and her ability to describe in detail these events while she was clinically and brain dead.
When all of Pam's vital signs were stopped, the doctor turned on a surgical saw and began to cut through Pam's skull. While this was going on, Pam reported that she felt herself "pop" outside her body and hover above the operating table. Then she watched the doctors working on her lifeless body for awhile.
From her out-of-body position, she observed the doctor sawing into her skull with what looked to her like an electric toothbrush. Pam heard and reported later what the nurses in the operating room had said and exactly what was happening during the operation. At this time, every monitor attached to Pam's body registered "no life" whatsoever.
At some point, Pam's consciousness floated out of the operating room and traveled down a tunnel which had a light at the end of it where her deceased relatives and friends were waiting including her long-dead grandmother. Pam's NDE ended when her deceased uncle led her back to her body for her to re-entered it. Pam compared the feeling of re-entering her dead body to "plunging into a pool of ice."
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We cannot have the slightest conception of what space out there in the cosmos is about. Many, therefore, shun it. “We cannot comprehend, therefore it cannot exist”. There is, though, a deeper mystery to the void first hinted at by Minowski, Albert Einstein’s tutor.
Space and time form a continuous mathematical entity, which encompasses dimensions at present unknown to humanity, which is gradually being revealed.
Of all the bewildering elementary particles in the physicist’s inventory, the most ghost-like is the neutrino.
Its existence was predicted in 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli, on purely theoretical grounds but it was not until 1956 that the actual neutrinos, emanating from the Atomic Energy commission’s huge nuclear piles, were trapped in the laboratory by Reines and Cowan.
The reason why it took so long to detect them was that the neutrino has virtually no mass, no electric charge, no magnetic field and is not affected by gravity. It is not captured or repelled by the electric or magnetic fields of other particles whilst flying past them. Much like human thought.
A neutrino originates somewhere in our galaxy, the Milky Way, or perhaps in another galaxy and, travelling at the speed of light can go through the solid body of the earth as if it were empty space. It can only be stopped by a head-on collision with another elementary particle and the chance of that is infinitesimally small. Fortunately, there are enough around that collision do occur which enabled them to be detected. In the time it takes to read this sentence billions, coming from the sun and other stars, are streaming through your skull and brain, through your body, and the earth beneath.
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John Updike the novelist wrote a poem to celebrate the discovery, called:
Cosmic Gall
Neutrinos they are very small
They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.
The Earth is just a silly ball
To them, through which they simply pass,
Like dust maids down a drafty hall
Or photons through a sheet of glass.
They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most substantial wall,
Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,
Insult the stallion in his stall,
And scorning barriers of class,
Infiltrate you and me! Like tall
And painless guillotines, they fall
Down through our heads into the grass…….

To the unprejudiced mind, neutrinos have a certain affinity with ghosts – which does not prevent them from existing. This is not just a whimsical metaphor. The absence of ‘gross’ physical properties in the neutrino’ and its quasi-ethereal character, encourages speculation about the possible existence of other particles which would provide the link between mind and matter. Remember, 96% of the cosmos is composed of ‘dark matter’ completely unknown to science. Thus the eminent astronomer V.A Firsoff suggested that “mind was a universal entity or interaction of the same order as electromagnetism and there must exist a modulus of transformation analogous to Einstein’s E=mc² whereby ‘mind stuff’ could be equated with other entities of the physical world”. He further suggested that there may exist elementary particles of mind-stuff (consciousness) with properties somewhat similar to the neutrinos. "Mind" equates with consciousness, soul, spirit and inner being.

The universe, as seen by a neutrino's eye, if it had one, would look very unfamiliar. The earth and other planets simply would not be there or might, at best, seem as thin patches of mist. The sun and other stars may be dimly visible as they emit some neutrinos.
A neutrino brain might suspect our existence from certain secondary effects but would find us very difficult to prove as we would elude the neutrino instruments at its disposal.
Or universe is no truer than that of the neutrinos - they exist but they exist in a different kind of space and probably, almost assuredly, other entities also exist but they are governed by different laws.
In our space, no material body or energy can exceed the speed of light because at this velocity its mass and so inertia become infinite.
The neutrino, though, is subject to neither gravitational nor electromagnetic fields so that it need not be bound by this speed limit and may have its own, different time.
From earlier analyses of mental or conscious attributes, it appears that they have no definite location in the so called physical (or, better, gravi-electromagnetic) space, in which they resemble a neutrino or even a fast electron. This suggests a special kind of consciousness-space governed by different laws - which is corroborated by the parapsychological experiments and findings made at Duke, Princeton, Freiberg, Edinburgh and other Universities and respected centres of learning.
It seems that consciousness/ mind/spirit/soul, call it what you will, is subject to laws of its own, defining a different type of space-time.

Len, this is all wonderful - in the true meaning of that word!

Ghosts: archaic English for soul or spirit.
What are they made of? Energy or particles? There are at least a dozen known particles (members of the atomic family). Some have very odd characteristics. Neutrinos travel at nearly the speed of light, have no apparent mass and pass unhindered through solid objects including the earth. Their interaction with matter is extremely slight.
Mass is far from being a simple notion. As Einstein proved, mass depends on speed although there is very little change unless speed approaches that of light. Many experiments on atomic particles demonstrate this and the mass of a body is not always constant. It appears that photons and neutrinos have no mass when not in motion.
When a light beam encounters any transparent medium the normal behaviour is for some fraction of the energy in the beam to be absorbed. Light, radio and other waves are closely related forms of radiant energy in the electromagnetic field. Ghosts, if they exist and I believe that they do, would obviously be a form of energy of this type. Certain people (about 20% of humans according to more than one study) are able to detect electro-magnetic radiation from power cables. Therefore it seems reasonable to suppose there are others who can detect ghosts or, as I prefer to think of them, free-floating consciousnesses or disembodied minds.
Energy (and mass) cannot be destroyed but only converted into another form (basic law of physics). Therefore if consciousness is not a brain function, as is becoming increasingly obvious, but an independent energy it cannot die or be destroyed along with the body and brain with which it has been associated for a brief spell in time but must be changed to another form.
If some people (mediums) are able to detect such an energy, it must be by direct perception into their own consciousness (distant intentionality ?). If they detect it visually, the independant consciousness or mind must produce photons (light particles or waves) but how? Energy cannot be produced out of nothing (I will query this later). One answer seems obvious: people who see ghosts invariably observe a drop in temperature. Could it be that radiant heat is utilised from the area and transmuted into energy in the light wave-band?
Has anyone ever seen a ghost? Was it in colour or black and white? If black and white, that would explain why apparitions are seen mostly in peripheral vision - as brighter light and colour is detected by the cones in the centre of the retinas in our eyes whilst dimmer light and grayscale is dealt with by the rod cells on the edges.

I do love your posts Len (even if I can only understand one word in three at the first reading!).

I am particularly drawn to the fact that we really are stardust - or nuclear waste - and billions of years old - amazing.

:)

Thank you, Fiona.The trick is to read it several times, then it begins to make sense. Till it began to make sense to me, I thought it was all rubbish.
I dedicate this essay to you.

Quantum Mechanics may sound like the title of a book about cars but actually is a branch of science. About 100 years ago Newtonian ideas, which seemed to explain most physical phenomena very neatly, began to show cracks and "physics" began to be faced with fundamentals for which there were no adequate theoretical explanations.
Enter Einstein and the "Theory of Relativity". That seemed hopeful but that too eventually began to creak under the weight of apparent contradictions then, about 30 years ago the concept of Quantum Mechanics began to dominate.
Quantum mechanics came in about 1926 being the brainchild of students of Nils Bohr, and was formulated to account for the physical phenomena of sub-atomic particles and the different properties of particles and waves. Einstein certainly had difficulty in coming to terms with it, probably as it may have looked like undermining his life's work. The new theory had very many fierce critics and did not gain significant adherents for another 50 years.
Whereas "Relativity" was concerned mainly with the physics of massive and fast moving objects, QM describes and seeks to understand physics from the viewpoint of the infinitely small (atoms, electrons, particles etc.). Believe it or not, it is now scientifically acceptable that a particle may be in two places at the same time! Sceptics please raise your hands. On second thoughts – don’t bother, just go and have a coffee.
Is consciousness (id, mind, soul or inner being) a form of energy? Many believe it to be so - in fact this is borne out by it being associated with a chemical/electrical activity in the brain so it follows, that when the body dies, consciousness cannot be lost but, to obey the laws of physics, must be transmuted into another form …..Spirit?
In 1983 Prof. Jahn and others of the PEAR group published “Precognitive Remote Perception”, a technical report evaluating 227 formal precognitive remote perception trials. Results of this impressive body of data indicated that their efforts were highly significant. The PEAR (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) document concluded that “precognitive remote perception techniques can acquire significant amounts of compounded information about spatially and temporally remote target locations, by means currently inexplicable by known physical mechanisms”. You may have to read that sentence several times.
The paranormal has many aspects. As well as ghosts there are poltergeists, hypnotism, mind-reading, healing, sensing the presence others sub-consciously, telekinesis (moving solid objects by mind-power), premonition and probably a few that I have forgotten.
The difficulty of science is that experiments have to be repeated at will to gain credence and, with the exception of hypnotism (which not only is at last accepted but is now a useful tool of medicine and psychology), this is impossible. However, circumstantial evidence is massing and investigation, particularly into the field of out-of-the-body experiences.
A neat little analogy I once heard was that if one was stranded on a large, apparently uninhabited, island and one day found a fresh footprint that wasn't yours what would you conclude? My immediate reaction would be to assume, notwithstanding there was no hard evidence and no witnesses, regardless of the fact that I had never seen or may never see another person in that location, that I was not alone on the island. In the face of all acquired beliefs, sometimes circumstantial evidence is too strong to be disregarded.
The mind may also contact and influence other minds instantaneously, irrespective of distance (technically called “distant intentionality” but commonly known as “telepathy”). This ability may account for other phenomena such as hypnosis, spiritual healing, clairvoyance, premonitions and so on. It may also affect inanimate things (ref.Robert Jahn above). So is this mind an independent spirit which retains intelligence and memory after departing from a body? May it still have an interest in its old possession, its living kith and kin and perhaps seek to influence or comfort them? And could it return to a different, unborn body? That would be re-incarnation.
Nor is it beyond reasoning, based on published scientific papers, that a mind separated from a body under traumatic or unexpectedly violent circumstances may be unable to adapt to the change and be left in a void or “time warp” i.e. where time did not exist. Ghosts did someone say?

Esref Armagan, aged 51, is Turkish. He was born poor and blind so has never been able to see. He has become famous in his own country as a painter and artist. Currently he is in Boston USA undergoing tests to see if it is possible, with state of the art electronic and scanning equipment, to see how he manages to draw and paint landscapes, mountains, lakes, birds, fishes and animals all in colour with correct perspective, a feat that eludes many sighted people. Sighted people can recognise and admire his work. As an infant he never saw any of these things and his brain detects no light. How can he have knowledge of or relate to the rules of perspective? What is perspective? Try accurately drawing, from one side, a large floor tiled in alternate black and white squares – or a tree-lined avenue receding into the distance
When Esref paints, electroencephalograph machines indicate that his visual cortex lights up – which is a problem as it should do so only when processing information from the receptors, his eyes (which, in his case, he ain’t got). In fact, says one of the team investigating this phenomena “a naïve viewer of his scan might assume he could see” but in fact there is no incoming visual data whatsoever. Conventional wisdom (science) suggests that a person cannot have a “mind’s eye” (and, in fact, cannot see) unless he/she has had previous experience of what they are going to see. Put simply, a person who does not activate the senses (sight, hearing etc) in a normal environment, before the end of early childhood, will probably lose them entirely or retain only vestiges.
Dr Lauren Slater wrote "All competing interpretations of the human mind reflect the pluralistic reality one would expect when seeking to pin down the profundities of the most complex phenomenon in the universe".
It is, as she says, a most complex subject, hopeless to examine in this small space but I will throw in a few thoughts.
It is a misconception that "sight" is in the eyes. Taken as a whole, the visual system (of which the eyes are but a part) are set up by the brain/mind during early life, starting well before birth, to match the visual environment. A normal set of connections appears only if the environment is normal.
All mammals, humans included, are descended from a common source. We share many genes. It appears that we also share many capabilities although some, if not utilised in our formative years, atrophy and disappear.
Visual input via our eyes is also severely edited and condensed and only the more dramatic features are telegraphed electronically, in code, to the central office at the back of the brain. We pick up a great deal of information with our other senses and it is all merged seamlessly together by our central processing units.
Some people can see in colour whilst others can't. Some people can't see at all. Some can see light of a particulate nature which is maybe a diffraction pattern of some sort of energy. In quantum mechanics particles (e.g. electrons) can behave like waves in certain situations while what we would normally think of as waves (e.g. electromagnetic radiation, light) can behave like particles. Photo-electric effects (i.e. the absorption of light by electrons) can only be explained if the light has a visual nature.
Light we all understand. Our brains receive it in something like Morse code through the optic nerves and process it in the visual cortex at the back of the head . How do we explain light to a person born without sight? Anyone heard of subliminal vision or blind sight? It exists (page 9).
Our optic nerves (via the eyes; lens & retina) can pick up light waves of which we remain unaware at a conscious level. Advertisers know this well. Subliminal advertising on TV is illegal therefore it is acknowledged by the authorities. Some people can pick up other information and see things denied to others.
How do you tell a blind person about colour?

Lets us consider diverse other fellow mammals, bats, dolphins, whales, moles and others who also have cerebral cortices giving them vision but whose environments preclude the use of sight as we know it (who said anything about sharks? - they are not mammals but have senses we never dreamed of). Through electrical, sound, magnetic and other impulses they have very clear pictures of their surroundings and can "see" without light or the use of eyes. It is thought that dolphins may scan and see into the interiors of living bodies including ours.
I know owls should not be brought up in this context but it is interesting that they hunt in very low light and actually close their eyes for the lethal stoop (proved with high-speed photography). My point? Perception is in the brain/mind. In our case we find eyes very handy although by no means essential. We do believe we depend upon them though and that what they convey to the brain is factual.

In Para-psychology, perception or knowledge of something achieved, without using our usual physical sense organs, is usually criticised as trickery or over-active imagination. This applies to seeing or sensing non-physical phenomena, having premonitions, thought-reading and the ability of knowing when one is being gazed at by a hidden observer, or anticipating the 'phone and knowing who is calling before the ring tone.
I used to be a sceptic, my favourite word being "rubbish", known amongst my contemporaries as a fairly pragmatic person, given to accepting nothing at face-value but testing to destruction. If a hypothesis is susceptible to having holes poked in it, it is worthless and deserves all it gets.
I studied western religions and found them all man-made (usually with power to the clerics in mind) and unable to stand up to historical fact. So now I owe allegiance to none, having been brought up in the C.of.E faith. Anyone researched how the Bible was put together, by whom - and what was left out as being too uncomfortable for the church authorities?
Having said all that, I have had several experiences which may only be described as "spiritual" so naturally wondered if my head needed looking into as I doubt even my own perception (read “The Psychology of Perception"). I have had myself analyzed, hypnotised, done a Mensa test and have done a five-year stint in a psychic development class with mind-opening effect and now feel quite confident in myself. However, I realise that one can never convince those who have had no experience of non-physical forces so why try? I do sometimes wonder about the IQ’s of those who decry, without having done any research, and who lean on their own lack of experience and knowledge. “There’s none so blind as those who will not see”.
The BBC commissioned its own survey into the paranormal and found that some 36% of the population have had an experience for which there is no explanation. So why do these things happen and what causes them when all conventional knowledge in the world would say this is not possible? Can science ever provide an explanation?
It takes only one of these paranormal events to be proved for the whole scientific applecart to be upturned. When is science going to take account of these extra-ordinary phenomena?
In a recent edition of New Scientist, a magazine devoted to the latest in science, in a theme considering research into the likes of drugs and ESP: I quote: "In no other area of scientific endeavour would it be deemed acceptable to consistently reject data that finds in favour of a certain hypothesis and instead look for flaws in that data. If a series of experiments were somehow to conclusively establish the existence of ESP this would entail the revision of so many laws of physics as to undermine our ability to use concepts like verification and falsification consistently so it is not surprising that scientists offer more resistance to para-psychological findings than findings in other areas"
There is a long history of ESP (extra-sensory perception) but it is impossible to collect and study all the anecdotal evidence as ESP is not robustly reproducible under conditions of scientific experiment. However, perhaps 4 out of 5 people have had the experience of absent-mindedly gazing at a stranger, even over a considerable distance, maybe at the back of his/her head, when that person has suddenly become aware of the scrutiny and turned with no hesitation whatsoever to make immediate eye-contact.
From long before birth the human brain has developed a vast network of interacting components capable of developing only when stimulated by sensory perception of its environment. It has sorted male from female at about 6 to 7 weeks and hard-wired them accordingly.
No stimulation and the neurons atrophy and, eventually, disappear forever. Sight, speech, hearing and smell to name a few of our senses will never develop to a useful degree if not used in early childhood (i.e. by about 7). If none of the brain areas involved in the senses is activated by sensory input, the brain will remain permanently dysfunctional. Apart from this, the brain also needs food as it's consumption of energy, when working, can be greater than that of the muscles. Undernourished childrem may never attin their full potential.
There are some areas of the developing brain that, according to many neurologists, are superfluous and seem to serve no purpose (which means they don't know the purpose). To me, it seems highly unlikely that such a marvellous engine as the human brain could be so wasteful and install programmes without a use. My humble PC has capabilities beyond my dreams but, being a thinker rather than a scientist, I look forward to one day understanding, rather than being dismissive, of what it may be able to do.

Prof, Richard Wiseman PhD of the Psychology Dept. of Hertfordshire University postulates that “with random, unpredictable events such as scratch cards and lotteries, the expectation of consistently being a winner is meaningless; what psychologists call a positive delusion”. But is he appropriately named?

Luck so often seems to play a part in all aspects of living – living, loving, competitions, and gambling – there always seem to be those who are born winners and their counterparts the born losers. Some people seem to have a knack of making businesses work whilst others, equally intelligent, go from one failed venture to another

Wiseman says that his research shows differences in the psychology and behaviour of lucky and unlucky people. “Lucky people have positive expectations and things tend to go their way”. Is this a chicken and egg syndrome? Could he be not quite up to date with scientific findings? Refer to the paragraphs above, the bit about Prof.Robert Jahn and his experiments, also Dr Stephan Schmidt of Freiberg University. Prof. J.B. Rhine also adds much about the reach of the mind, even used that phrase for a book title.
All these names are googleable. Anyone else used that adjective?

Is it not more probable that “lucky” people are that way because of (I quote again from Jahn) “certain aspects of these human/machine interactions are found to yield anomalous effects currently inexplicable on the basis of established physical concepts and statistical theory”. In other words, the mind/consciousness of humans can influence the operation of low-level random operating systems. Most of us seem to know someone who always wins the raffle or comes up with a winning premium bond.

Own up - who's nobbled ERNIE ?.
‘ERNIE’ means Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment, but he is central to the whole concept of Premium Bonds by producing all the winning numbers.

Recent Scientific Studies of NDE during Cardiac Arrest byDr S. Parnia.
The answer about the significance of NDE is beginning to come from studies carried out with patients who have had a cardiac arrest.

Cardiac arrest patients are a sub-group of people who come closest to death. In such a situation an individual initially develops two out of three criteria (the absence of spontaneous breathing and heartbeat) of clinical death. Shortly afterwards (within seconds) these are followed by the third, which occurs due to the loss of activity of the areas of the brain responsible for sustaining life (brainstem) and thought processes (cerebral cortex).

Brain monitoring using EEG in animals and humans has also demonstrated that the brain ceases to function at that time. During a cardiac arrest, the blood pressure drops almost immediately to unrecordable levels and at the same time, due to a lack of blood flow, the brain stops functioning as seen by flat brain waves (isoelectric line) on the monitor within around 10 seconds. This then remains the case throughout the time when the heart is given 'electric shock' therapy or when drugs such as adrenaline are given until the heartbeat is finally restored and the patient is resuscitated.

Due to the lack of brain function in these circumstances, therefore, one would not expect there to be any lucid, well-structured thought processes, with reasoning and memory formation, which are characteristic of NDEs. Nevertheless, and contrary to what we would expect scientifically, studies have shown that 'near death experiences' do occur in such situations. This therefore raises a question of how such lucid and well-structured thought processes, together with such clear and vivid memories, occur in individuals who have little or no brain function.

In other words, it would appear that the mind is seen to continue in a clinical setting in which there is little or no brain function. In particular, there have been reports of people being able to 'see' details from the events that occurred during their cardiac arrest, such as their dentures being removed.

A study by our group examining 63 cardiac arrest survivors on the coronary care and emergency units of Southampton General Hospital, which was published in the medical journal 'Resuscitation' demonstrated that approximately 6-10% of people with cardiac arrest have NDEs and out of body experiences. There was no evidence to support the role of drugs, oxygen or carbon dioxide (as measured from the blood) in causing the experiences. In another study just completed in Holland, 344 cardiac arrest survivors from 10 hospitals were interviewed over a 2-year period, and 41 or 12% reported a core NDE. Patients with NDEs were then followed up for a further 8 years following the event and reported less fear of death and a more spiritual outlook on life. This study by a cardiologist Dr Pim van Lommel, is published in the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet".

The occurrence of NDEs in cardiac arrest further highlights the fact that we currently know very little about the relationship between the mind and the brain. It also raises the possibility that some of the current theories regarding mind/consciousness, spirituality and the brain may need to be re-examined.

Dr Parnia is a graduate of Guys and St. Thomas' medical schools in London. He is currently a registrar in internal and respiratory medicine as well as a clinical research fellow working towards a PhD in the molecular biology of asthma. He was a member of the Southampton University Trust Hospitals resuscitation committee between 1998 and 1999. He is also chairman of Horizon Research Foundation. While working on the medical and coronary care units of Southampton General Hospitals and together with Dr Peter Fenwick he set up the first ever study of near death experiences in the UK. The results of this study have received widespread coverage in the national and international press and have recently been published in the medical journal "Resuscitation”

Dialogue seems to have dried up. Monologues are boring - and I hate talking to myself anyway.
Len

Len - this is the most interesting thread I have seen on here in years! Some of us appreciate it!

Mick

But if no one replies, queries anything or adds comments, it's like being in a padded cell talking to oneself.

I don't even know if anyone's there. One needs questions to stimulate fresh thought.

Socrates observed that dialogue is a human requirement. Otherwise "circling thoughts" set in.
len

Len,

Love your posts. They are certainly thought provoking.

Question:-

How do we know anyone is there!, even when it seems there is?. Could the answers we get, be from an automated source. Is it not just our perception/belief that there is some-one there?

Is belief needed to exist, whether it be in good or evil. What would be/or is the outcome if there was no belief.

If you believed you were not alone in a padded cell does this make it true?

Are we alone in the moments we are so engrossed in a task that when a person speaks to us we do not hear them, or do we just perceive it?, therefore making it true.




When I was 13/14 my Father was helping a friend decorate and took me with him to his house. We were there for quite a while and I was tired and needed to lay down. While laying on the bed with my eyes closed I felt myself rise up to the ceiling then back down again. For some reason I was not afraid but got up and went downstairs. As I entered the living room My Father was still painting but I noticed his friend's eyes were rolling, then he stopped breathing. Fortunately my father was able to resuscitate him, there had been no pulse or heartbeat Afterwards His friend told us he had seen his deceased sister and had spoken to her.
( lots more that I can't remember )
What the connection between my experience and then going downstairs just in time, was, I have pondered on for many years. I might add that I was not asleep but could not open my eyes until decended.

Was this all in my mind? ........Was it all in his?.....What explanation is there?.....None that we could fathom at the time.

Susan

Susan

How do we know ?

The trick is to believe in one's own experiences. I have lived a long time and have had several paranormal experiences (maybe only three or four in a lifetime) which are real to me but just anecdotal to others so I do not bother to recount them except in conversation with like-minded friends.

What I do though is to try and rationalise what has happened, if I can. Once it was well-nigh impossible to do so but there is so much research going on in the world, and so many new findings being verified, almost on a regular basis, that it is now increasingly difficult to dispute the paranormal.

The most interesting, I feel, is the research being conducted in Holland and elsewhere into near-death and out-of-the-body experiences, which I have mentioned before in this thread. These indicate that the mind can operate independently of a physical brain/body system.

The published findings (in The British Journal of Psychology) of Freiburg University also conclude that the human mind has a "sixth sense", the ability to interact with other minds at any distance, instantaneously. They call it "distant intentionality" . If the mind does transcend bodily death. it is logical to assume that a disembodied mind may interact with one such as you or I possess.

Again, The J.B.Rhine Foundation, also Prof. Robert Jahn of Princeton University, both in America, have done conclusive work on the reach of the mind. Its all accessible stuff.

It is not generally known but there is Chair of Parapsychology at Edinburgh University and I hope that someone there is also collating all this new material and bringing it together as researchers play their cards very close to their chests and give nothing away until they actually publish their findings, (lest someone steals their thunder).

With regard to your levitational experience, perhaps you were being alerted to an emergency. What are your feelings?