Life after death

Quote: Wizard

This is getting out of my area, but I think the scientists could offer an explanation. Just before death, the brain releases a flood of dopamine. Between that and the effects of a dying brain vivid hallucinations are possible.

Usually the person will recall efforts made for his revival down to the fine detail. He is medically dead. He is not hallucinating. He usually describes his situation as out of body floating above.

I have nothing profound to say here (sorry Wizard). My own "journeys out of the body" experiences, while amazing, did not leave me with any belief system. I know what happened. I know why it was powerful but I really don't know what those experiences meant in the big scheme of things. As I said in my book "The Virgin Kiss" these were experiences in a truly "weird world." I draw no strong conclusions from them other than to write "this is what happened" --- go figure.

The near-death experience is "near" death. That can open up all sorts of beliefs as to what is really happening and what will happen when we have a "real-death." I know two emergency room doctors who absolutely believe that "near-death" experiences tell us something about what will happen to us after death. They consider this belief to be based on their experiences and they believe in an afterlife.

I also know one emergency room doctor who thinks the near-death experiences are merely hallucinations. He bases this on his experiences. My doctor thinks there is something to an afterlife idea but my former doctor was an atheist. A hospice nurse I know is a firm believer in an afterlife based on her caring for those who are dying and being at the bedside of hundreds of people as they passed away.

There are tremendous similarities in near-death experiences. You could take that as proof that something real is happening or you can take that as proof that the drugs released into the brain at the end of life tend to do the same things --- make us hallucinate a certain way.

I would love for there to be an afterlife. I'd love to be able to meet my parents again; my deceased family members; my friends who have passed away; the Captain and his Crew; I'd love an eternity with my wife the Beautiful A.P. The fact that I desire this doesn't make it real. That's a sad fact. The other fact is that the fact that I desire it doesn't make it unreal either.

I'd be happy to send a copy of "The Virgin Kiss" to anyone wishing to read it. (As long as I don't run out of copies.) Just email me at fscobe@optonline.net with your address.

I am willing to let the idea of an afterlife just sit out there. I'd love for it to be true; but it obviously won't matter to me if it isn't.

deleted

Quote: DeMango

Usually the person will recall efforts made for his revival down to the fine detail. He is medically dead. He is not hallucinating. He usually describes his situation as out of body floating above.

I don't dispute that. I was referring to hallucinations of an after life that come after efforts at revival.

Quote: FrankScoblete

I'd be happy to send a copy of "The Virgin Kiss" to anyone wishing to read it. (As long as I don't run out of copies.) Just email me at fscobe@optonline.net with your address.

Very nice of you Frank! You have to place second in my trivia contest to get a free book out of me, or be a hot girl in a skimpy outfit.



I'd ask for one, but you kindly already gave me an autographed copy. For anyone who has interest in the topic of out of body experiences, Frank describes his in great detail. I've always meant to ask you, respectfully of course, if you think there might be a connection to getting punched in the head a lot during your boxing days.

First Wizard, with those beauties hanging on you, you might have a near-death experience before you know it!

I think my boxing could have had such an effect on me. I know it was the cause of a grand mal seizure I had in 2007 --- 40 years after my last fight! The thing that made those "weird world" experiences truly weird were the correspondences with things that actually happened. Had these experiences just been "Oh, wow, what an experience" I could simply dismiss them as hallucinations or vivid (waking) dreams. The "weirdness" came in because of how many of them related to real things in the real world or in the world of others' dreams.

As Sir Arthur Eddington wrote: "Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine." I imagine that is a true statement.

As the oldest ? member on line today, I guess mathematically I will know the real answer first. At least mathematically. But remember only the good die young.

As for these so called after death experiences, I think they are as real as Alien Abductions.

Now for the real question. I think when you die, it's over. Your lights have been turned off. That's all there is.

I was raised Catholic and naturally, like most kids , was a true believer. 8 years of nuns followed by three years of Xaverian Bros.

Sometimes along the way it was suddenly OK to eat meat on Fridays. But it was never OK to watch Red Skelton instead of Bishop

Fulton Sheen on Tuesday Night TV.

Then I came home on leave from USAF in mid 1960's. My first love Patricia Davidson invited to go to Mass with her downtown at
the Cathedral. She had not yet broken my heart so I gladly went. ( she was always out of my class, and I always knew it, but it
still hurt the day she told me I was scaring other guys away and that was that) Anyway , There was a girl singing and a guy playing a guitar on the alter. I checked out the crucifixes and figured it was still a Catholic Mass. But then the priest turned around and started talking in English. WTF ? I grabbed a hymnal to see what Church I was in. I had taken a year of Latin at Saint Joe's, knew the
joke about refreshments and games ( dominoe's and biscuits ). But a mass in English? So much for a religious reason to believe in life after death.

Patsy died of cancer at age 42. I would love to believe she's in heaven. But that's hope, not faith.

Of course I tell Josie I am saved and all that stuff. I was 28 and she was 18 when we married. SWEET. Different a little at 73 and 63.
If I check out first, she's odds on for suicide or another breakdown. If she goes first I will probably moved to a state that does not have capital punishment.

LIFE AFTER DEATH. Nice idea. Just don't buy it.

PS No Bob, I am not checking out before you.

One foot in the grave, the other on a banana peel.

After death there will just be taxes. (The only sure thing is death and taxes)

Drinking a lot of beer makes think that you are dead, but you are not. Sad part, gotta go back to work tommorow.

Put down that beer. Light up a joint. Then , who says you have to go to work tomorrow ?

Just because no one has mentioned it: Pascal's Wager. Discuss (or don't).

Quote: Dicenor33

Drinking a lot of beer makes think that you are dead, but you are not. Sad part, gotta go back to work tommorow.

Quote: Buzzard

Put down that beer. Light up a joint. Then , who says you have to go to work tomorrow ?

This is probably the most interesting exchange I have missed in the past 4 months. Seriously!