What is clear is that the spirit body withdraws from the physical aspects of cognition while the crisis continues to some form of resolution. This experience is then recorded in physical short term memory upon resuscitation if possible.
This work clearly substantiates such an explanation.
In fact it is the most compelling argument in favor of NDE in the first instance. In many cases the mind is damaged or in the process of being physically been altered. Yet we get no evidence of that at all. Clarity alone should not be possible in almost every case.
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As clearly, this represents experimental confirmation repeated consistently of the separation of consciousness from the physical body and from physical cognition as well ( Plato's conjecture ).
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Mental Clarity During Near-Death Experiences Suggests Mind Exists Apart From Brain: Study
In Beyond Science, Epoch Times explores research and
accounts related to phenomena and theories that challenge our current
knowledge. We delve into ideas that stimulate the imagination and open
up new possibilities. Share your thoughts with us on these sometimes
controversial topics in the comments section below.
If the
mind is just a function of the brain, it stands to reason that the worse
the brain is injured, the worse the mind would function. While this is
what much of current brain research is finding, a body of evidence
exists suggesting otherwise: under extreme circumstances, such as close
to death, the mind may function well—or even better than usual—when the
brain is impaired.
This suggests the mind may function independently of the brain.
One of the researchers who has been studying such cases is Dr.
Alexander Batthyany, a professor of theoretical psychology and the
philosophy of psychology in Liechtenstein and at the cognitive science
department at the University of Vienna.
In his most recent study, published this month in the Journal of Near-Death Studies,
Batthyany and his colleagues reviewed thousands of accounts of
near-death experiences (NDEs) to determine the quality of vision and
cognition.
He reported: “The more severe the physiological crisis, the more
likely NDEers are to report having experienced clear and complex
cognitive and sensory functioning.”
Part of Batthyany’s goal was to replicate earlier studies, few as
they are, that have looked at the quality of vision and cognition during
NDEs.
In a 2007 study by researchers at the University of Virginia, titled
“Unusual Experiences: Near Death and Related Phenomena,” 52.2 percent of
NDEers reported clearer vision. Jeffrey Long, M.D., founder of the Near
Death Experiences Research Foundation (NDERF), found in a survey of
1,122 NDEers, that about 74 percent reported “more consciousness and
alertness.”
“I felt extremely aware, totally present, sharp, and focused. In
hindsight, it’s like being half asleep when I was alive, and totally
awake after I was pronounced dead,” said one experiencer, as noted in
Batthyany’s study.
It’s like being half asleep when I was alive, and totally awake after I was pronounced dead.
“My mind felt cleared and my thoughts seemed quick and decisive. I
felt a great sense of freedom and was quite content to be rid of my
body. I felt a connection with everything around me in a way that I
cannot describe. I felt as if I was thinking faster or that time had
slowed down considerably,” said another.
While Batthyany’s study confirmed, to a certain extent, the results
of the previous studies that had shown an increase in cognitive and
sensory functioning during NDEs, his methodology had some limitations.
He said these limitations may have led to lower estimates for the
percentage of NDEers who have heightened cognition.
Methodology Limitations
He compiled thousands of written accounts from online repositories of
experiences, such as the NDERF website, and ran them through a computer
program, which identified words related to vision or cognition (such as
“saw” or “thought”).
He and his colleagues then rated the quality of vision or cognition
described in this smaller sample on a scale from -2 to +2. They further
narrowed their study to experiences that included detailed explanations
of the medical conditions that accompanied the NDEs. Only patients with
cardiac and/or respiratory arrest were included in this study.
Previous studies had asked NDEers directly about the quality of their
vision and cognition. Batthyany’s study, however, could only analyze
the information given in general NDE accounts. So, for example, when he
decided that there was “no change” in cognition or vision in some
accounts, it may have been that there was indeed a change but that the
NDEer hadn’t described it specifically enough to be counted.
Of the NDEers who mentioned visual perception, about 47 percent said
they had enhanced vision. And 41 percent had unchanged vision, “which in
itself is quite remarkable, given that these patients were in a severe
medical crisis, and often unconscious,” Batthyany said in an email to
Epoch Times.
Of the NDEers who made explicit references to awareness and
mentation, about 35 percent said they had increased awareness and
mentation. And about 61 percent reported normal everyday awareness
during cardiac and respiratory arrest.
Given the implications of his study, Batthyany was careful to note
other shortcomings in his methodology, including the fact that online
NDE descriptions may include some fraudulent reports. But, he also noted
reasons that these methodological shortcomings do not likely impact his
overall finding that NDEs, by and large, include improved vision and
cognition.
For example, concerning the risk of including fraudulent accounts, he
wrote: “On NDERF, the largest contributor of NDEs studied here, less
than 1 percent of posted NDEs have been removed due to concerns about
their validity. Additionally, given the sheer number of accounts, it is
unlikely that fake reports have significantly biased our results in one
or the other direction. One would expect fake accounts … to be
prototypical of the popular NDE narrative.”
Patients who have been completely incoherent for many years seem to suddenly return to their senses shortly before death.
In addition to these NDE studies, studies on the phenomena of
terminal lucidity and mindsight also support the conclusion that the
mind may engage in complex conscious activity even as brain functioning
severely deteriorates, Batthyany said.
Terminal Lucidity, Mindsight
He has studied terminal lucidity in
Alzheimer’s patients. This is a phenomenon in which patients who have
been completely incoherent for many years seem to suddenly return to
their senses shortly before death.
When the brain is at the furthest stage of degeneration, the
expectation would be that the ability to make coherent connections
between memories and various thoughts and emotions would be so far gone
that a “whole” person could no longer emerge. Yet at this time, the
whole mind seems to flash through, with all its connections intact.
“Mindsight” refers to the phenomenon in which blind people report being able to see during
NDEs. This has been studied, for example, by Kenneth Ring at the
University of Connecticut. Ring found that 15 out of 21 blind
participants reported some kind of sight during NDEs.
Hallucinations?
Batthyany noted that some scientists consider NDEs to be hallucinations produced by neurophysiological processes.
“The findings reported in this paper and cases of terminal lucidity
and mindsight, however, appear to suggest otherwise in that they
indicate the presence of complex and structured conscious experience
during decline, breakdown, or absence of the neurobiological correlates
commonly held to be causative factors of NDEs—and of conscious
experience in general,” he said.
He concluded that consciousness—including a sense of selfhood,
complex visual imagery, and mental clarity—can sometimes outlive altered
brain functioning, including even a flatline of electrical activity in
the brain.
Terminal lucidity and mindsight are very rare phenomena, but NDEs are
more numerous and “our results suggest that the continuity of visual
imagery, mentation, and sense of selfhood is the rule rather than the
exception during NDEs.”
Batthyany wrote: “It remains for future researchers to confirm or disconfirm our informal observation through formal analysis.”
His study, “Complex Visual Imagery and Cognition During Near-Death Experiences,” can be found in Volume 34, No. 2, of the Journal of Near-Death Studies.
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