This is an excerpt from an artilce I saw today. What do you think?



By M.J. STEPHEY
Tue Sep 23, 6:40 PM ET



A fellow at New York City's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S. and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics and the difference between the mind and the brain.

What sort of methods will this project use to try and verify people's claims of "near-death" experience?


When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about 10 sec., brain activity ceases - as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, 10% or 20% of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, Are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning.

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RevKathyV

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Most of us, including me, in the field of Biological Neurocognition view mind as the summation of active brain circuitry. Mind is the cognitive function of the brain. There is no difference between mind and brain, as there is no difference between vocal cords and phonation of voice.


Methods should ideally study the brain during an OBE or NDE. It is difficult to do that on someone during a cardiac arrest for obvious reasons. Fortunately, OBE's occur most often in people who are not dying but have predictable episodes of OBE or can produce by prayer/meditation voluntarily, OBE’s. We only have the subjective memory of OBE's in those who survived cardiac arrest without dying.


It is not that simple, Kathy. When a person goes into cardiac arrest, either total asystole (flat lined ECG) or Ventricular Fibrillation (disorganised heart muscle twitching ineffectively. There is a decrease in blood flow to the brain. However, this does not affect all areas of the brain equally. Some parts of the brain are affected worse than other areas.

1. Vascular supply to the brain is uneven. An arterial tree has a big trunk, larger, smaller branches, smaller-smaller branches, and mere twigs. Arteries, branch arteries, smaller branch arteries, arterioles, and capillaries. If you have a lawn sprinkler, if you turn it off, the most distant sprinkler ceases first and the closest one ceases last. You can partially turn it off and just the distant sprinkler decreases or stops. That is a good analogy of brain circulation.

2. There are major large arteries. There are two large internal carotids and one basilar artery. They form a circle that connects the Basilar to each Carotid, the Circle of Willis. There are branches of the Basilar to the brain stem. The Cortex (our thinking brain) is supplied by six branch arteries: two posterior cerebral arteries from the one Basilar Artery, two middle cerebral arteries supplying the bulk of the Cortex, and two Anterior Cerebral arteries supplying a 1 to 2 inch strip of brain (parasagittal) on each side of the midline. These two side-by-side strips supplied by the Anterior Cerebral are basically underneath the hair of a Mohawk hairdo

3. Picture these as three trees on each side of the brain. There are zones of cortex forming the border between the territories of the Middle and Anterior, and the Middle and Posterior plus some smaller arterial branches. This zone between the neighbouring trees is called the watershed zones. The watershed zones are supplied mainly by capillaries and the smallest arterioles.

4. When blood flow stops or reduces to the brain, the very first areas that are made deficient in blood flow (ischaemic) and droping Oxygen levels (Hypoxia). The combination of low blood flow and dropped Oxygen is called Hypoxaemia. The neurons in the water shed respond to hypoxaemia by shifts in ions through inactivated ion channels and electrical instability. Many neurons actually fire spontaneous pulses, which can precipitate seizures or seizure like disorganised firing.

5. The most important Watershed Zone is that between the Middle Cerebral and Posterior cerebral in the in the inner or mesial temporal lobe and hippocampus. This same region is also the most common focus in Complex Partial and Simple Partial seizures and the occasional spread of the partial seizure into a generalised (Tonic-clonic or Grand Mal) seizure.

6. Complex Partial Seizures can occur with sudden hypoxaemia to that electrically important zone. Trauma can also do irritate those finicky neurons. The electrical wave of desynchronised discharges may begin with a hallucination of smell (foul odour.) Then it spreads to the outer Temporal lobe where it can stimulate the Heschel's Gyrus and Angular Gyrus of the posterior inferior temporal gyrus. This can cause hallucinations of auditory content (voices, music, undefined sounds.) When the wave spreads to the nearby posterior inferior temporal gyrus, it produces hallucinations of visual nature (geometrical patterns, faces, people, gods, angels taken from visual memory circuits.)

7. There are two regions, Left and Right, Superior Parietal lobules that tell us our body boundaries (Right Parietal), our body location in space, (Left Parietal) and the intactness of our body (bilateral). I know it seems weird that we need brain segments to tell us where we are, i.e. inside of our bodies. Here is where it gets complicated. The electrical focus either spreads to the Frontal lobe watershed zone (Anterior and Middle Cerebral arteries) where it fires up an Inhibitory Complex. That frontal lobe inhibitory complex then suppresses activity in those body localisation and body boundary areas of the Parietal lobules. The result of this is variable. Some feel loss of body boundaries or merger with the cosmos or God (Right sided Parietal lobule). Others have the illusion of being out of their body, standing beside their body or floating over their bodies (Left Parietal). This explains the OBE.

8. The visual cortex is supplied mainly by the posterior cerebral artery and partially by the Middle Cerebral Artery. Vision is so important that the calcarine cortex region for macular sight is the most richly supplied by two arteries, but only the macular area. This is the spot at the centre of our gaze. The periphery is only posterior cerebral. In posterior cerebral strokes there is blindness with odd preservation of the small area of central vision. This region produces the tunnel effect and bright light at the centre. Evolution favoured extra protection for this vital macular visual centre.

I think that this explains why during hypoxaemia (cardiac arrest) the first to occur is the Out of Body from suppression of the Parietal lobule, and then by positive stimulation of visual and auditory association and memory areas that cause hallucinations of dead relatives, God or Jesus, Mary, or Angels. Then as hypoxaemia continues the visual perception contracts from the peripheral areas of the calcarine cortex leaving only the macular spot of light, (the mystical tunnel that the person seems to approach after seeing loved ones.

I will answer the rest of your post next. I realise this is complex but it makes sense if one has the prerequisite knowledge of cerebral function.

Amergin

__________________
Militant Agnostic: I don't know, and neither do you. There is no evidence of God so belief is optional.

The important question is this; were they brought back to life (i.e. from real death) or merely recovered from an altered state of consciousness? Is it more like waking up from a drug overdose?


I view it as a complex illusion or hallucination that is brain based because I too have interviewed a smaller sample of 43 patients who described their Near Death Experiences and an uncounted hundreds of epileptic patients who have had Complex Partial Seizures in our Epilepsy Unit. They had all of the components but were never in danger of death. Those who had arrested or came out of transient hypotensive shock, about a fourth had OBE's of viewing the room from the ceiling (many others were standing beside their body.) What I found (and one was my mother) that they described the rooms in detail. The problem was that they made many mistakes. Mum knew all of the doctors and nurses by name. However she named two doctors in the code team incorrectly (they were not on duty at that time), and she identified me among the group (I was not there but outside the room.) Mum also described the defibrillation procedure. She said one electrode paddle was placed on her right shoulder and the other on her left hip. "Mi bloody **** 'ip still burrrns whin I tooch it." My conclusion is that the OBE visual phenomena are fascinating and convincing when first heard. However, a few more questions in cross-examination show errors.


The problem is the term clinically dead. Many non-medical folks consider cardiac arrest to be clinical death. It is not...unless brain hypoxaemia proceeds far enough to kill all of the neurons. Clinical Death is dead neurons. Awaking from clinical death is a misdiagnosis of clinical death. Even when a code is "called" and the patient pronounced dead, they may not yet be dead. They obviously will die in seconds or minutes if the heart is not pumping.

Clinical Death requires:


1. Loss of pupillary reflexes,
2. Loss of reflexive eye movements (Doll's eyes and caloric responses,)
3. Loss of corneal responses,
4. Absence of any spontaneous breathing trigger with measured hypoxia/hypercarbia,
5. Loss of patterned motor responses (flaccid paralysis).

In various series of over 500 cases, none of those who met the five criteria never awoke. Cardiac asystole is not strictly brain death or real death. If reversed in quick order, the person awakes and never did die. That is why the term NEAR Death Experience is more correct. Those cardiac arrest patients who awoke never died. Death is not reversible.

We already know that similarly episodes can occur in people who are not near death, such as Complex Partial Seizures, or Newberg's series of meditating Buddhist monks or praying Nuns who had similar and often identical components of the experiences. They can also be produced by drugs that lower the seizure threshold (and there are many used for psychosis, nausea, asthma, bronchitis, antibiotics, and alcohol/drug withdrawal.)

I have a personal involvement in this because I am on a team that makes brain death (true death) determinations for the organ donation surgeons. Since time is of the essence, I quickly determine the clinical criteria. If possible, I do a quick fMRI that is absolute confirmation of a dead brain (no metabolism in cells.) We now have an even quicker method using magnetic brain stimulator over the convexity of the head with pick up electrodes in muscles. There is a known latency (time) for brain impulses to reach muscle synapses.) This is extremely reliable and quick to do if you have the set-up ready. I do not have to wait for printed images. I can read the latency off the computer. If there is no response after repeated stimuli at increasing power, that confirms dead brain cortex. One can quickly counter-test that with reversed somatosensory latencies. The Tibial nerve is stimulated while the receptor is over the sensory brain cortex (Post-Central gyrus). When that produces no response, we sadly tell the transplant surgeons.

It is important not to misuse our results to disprove the existence of a soul. It just shows that the OBE's and NDE's are NOT evidence for the soul. We visit the dead loved ones in dreams also, but that does not prove or disprove the soul. Is that fair enough?

We sometimes sample the brain at either post-mortem exam or biopsy, so that we can determine unquestionable brain death (neuronal death apoptosis.) Then the Neuropathologist can determine the approximate hours or minutes since death occurred by the degree of change from cell swelling to rupture, nuclear breakdown, and spilled neurofibrils. If desired we can also measure the spinal fluid levels of Potassium which rises in concentration at a consistent rate following death.

This is why I use the gospels to show that even if they are true, it does not prove that Jesus really died on the cross, and therefore his resurrection may have simply been awakening from hypotensive (shock) coma that stopped short of brain death by being placed in the supine position immediately.

Aye, I am one of those pesky sceptics (or skeptics in Americanese)

Amergin

__________________
Militant Agnostic: I don't know, and neither do you. There is no evidence of God so belief is optional.

Kathy,

You might have some sort virus that replicates on your first citation in your post... MAybe be careful about that.. It replicates screens like crazy..had to shut my computer down and restart it.

Anyway yeh.. Out of Body experiences are interesting and should be documented if at all possible.. I think there may well be something to it.

The brain could be more a tool of consciousness rather than the other way around perhaps.

- Art

__________________
"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler

Art, the brain is the seat of consciousness. Consciousness is a major brain function among many brain functions. There is strong evidence for that.

Drugs can alter consciousness from confusion, to somnolence, to coma.

Blunt head trauma with concussion of Frontal, temporal, and deep brain structures causes unconscious.

Diseases such as brain tumours can alter consciousness, change basic personality, alter language, alter reasoning, altering emotion, and with increased intracranial pressure cause physiological changes that lead to unconsciousness and/or death.

Encephalitis can cause mental chages and coma or death.

Deep General Anaesthesia causes a complete unconsciousness. I had surgery on a chest injury, surgery was over three hours. I remember the anaesthetist telling me to count back from 10. I reached 6 or 5 then suddenly felt a cricket bat down my throat. I struggled but could not say, "Don't start yet, I am not under yet." The nurse told me to relax, ******, the surgery went very well, and you are in recovery. Those 3 hours never happened in my mind. There was less than a second between counting 5 and awaking with a trachael tube into my lungs.

If there is a hypothetical entity called the Soul which merely works the brain, where was it during those 3 hours. Are you saying the soul is altered by chemicals? If so then it is not spirit but matter. I have heard the same from those who underwent anaesthesis (full anaesthesia). If the anaesthesiologist is sloppy or inattentive and lightens up on the drug admiistration, the person may awaken or partially awaken. That happens occasionally.

In Deep General Anaesthesia, the brain is electrically flat lined temporarily. The Neurons are totally shut down. There are no electrical transmissions. fMRI on them shows no active metabolic uptake as seen in a working neuron. No neuronal activity means no electrical transmissions, no fluctuations in transmembrane neuronal voltage gradient. It is as close to brain death we can get, but it is not permanent but only drug suppressed. Where is the soul? Does the soul leave the body during surgery and anaesthesis as Stone Age men thought when we dreamed?

I can't disprove the soul. Every observation of consciousness, in trauma, disease, ischaemia, hypoxia, seizures, tumours, strokes, etc, all show that conscious is brain based. The Mind is a product of Brain circuit transmissions and altered if those neurons and axons are altered in some way. Mind is a product of the Brain as is reason, emotion, religious belief, scepticism, anger, love, hate, walking, hand grasp, perception of senses, swallowing, eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing.

Everything suggest that the most plausible explanation of mind (soul) is that it dies when the brain dies.

Amergin.

__________________
Militant Agnostic: I don't know, and neither do you. There is no evidence of God so belief is optional.

Thanks for your post..

My consciousness has been around awhile as near as I can tell about ohh sixty eight years maybe so it's more apart of me I guess than some cells.. but you're free to draw your own conclusions, also, if I ever need a course in brain functioning I'll certainly keep you in mind er ah brain!

- Art

__________________
"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler

That is a conviincing piece of evidence. Your consciousness has been around for 68 years yet you are age 38. What do you remember about your first 30 years of consciousness? My problem is that I am 65 but my consciousness has been around for only 62 of those years. My earliest clear memory is at age when Mum took me to Dundee on the train. I only remember getting off the train at the terminal in a crowd of people. It was very scary. I recall minor trivial details but scared because people were all talking in a gutteral foreign language, English. At that time my only words were Gaelic. So my first fright when I became conscious was the scary English language.

Today, I still have an unusual feeling of comfort and safety when I am in a Gaelic speaking town in a restaurant where I don't hear English.

Could it be that English causes stress?

Amergin

__________________
Militant Agnostic: I don't know, and neither do you. There is no evidence of God so belief is optional.

Amergin:

That is a conviincing piece of evidence. Your consciousness has been around for 68 years yet you are age 38. What do you remember about your first 30 years of consciousness? My problem is that I am 65 but my consciousness has been around for only 62 of those years.

I still outrank you then by a few years!

Nope I'm not age 38?!

What do I remember about my first 30 years of consciousness?

Uh well I recall being in a crib and eaten by mosquitos as a toddler and trying to plug in some Christmas tree lights into each other that caused a flash.

Going for walks at night with my Springer Spaniel ...Crawling out the bedroom window when my Grandfather baby sat and riding home in a patrol car eating chokolate cookies.

Consciousness likely I believe is in the womb and some psychologists claim the birth trauma is an important event..

Check it out:

Pre- and perinatal psychology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Is there life after birth? I think so.

- Art

__________________
"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler

Amergin,

I vaguely remember reading about astronaughts in their training reporting classic near-death experiences when they pass out on a centrifuge machine. (That's the machine that twirls them in a circle subjecting them to increased centrifigal force.) They reported going down a tunnel toward a light, seeing beings on the way and so on.

Are you aware of this? What do you think?