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Re: Why does the brain die after the heart?


Message written by

Craig
December 06, 2010 at 21:23:04:

In Reply to
Why does the brain die after the heart?
posted by
Edward
December 05, 2010 at 16:55:39:

 
Hello Edward,

Yes, I've read about DMT being released at death. There's really very little about it, and the idea has led to wild-eyed speculation that this causes after-death experiences. I am amazed at how remarkably irrational and unskeptical the skeptics suddenly become when they share a speculation that might disprove anything connected to psychic abilities and the afterlife. It's quite an unscientific frame of mind, but that doesn't deter them from plunging headfirst into irrationality.

Let's start by reexamining the evidence. I hesitate to be this rational about things like this because the irrational skeptics get stirred up at what you speculate as a thought exercise and start to run off hysterically, shouting that even researchers in the field suggest there are alternative explanations for such things as near-death experiences. But we do have to be rational, and that means exploring everything open mindedly. OK, here's the hypothetical situation. IF there were some cocktail of chemicals that made a person euphoric at the moment of death, we couldn't conclude that the chemicals produced the euphoria. They're only coincidental, meaning happening at the same time. There is no clear cause and effect. From what we know to be true, it's far more likely that the euphoria causes the chemicals. In other words, the mind, being released from its obligations to the body, has a sublime experience at near death. People describe not wanting to come back. And those who do go all the way through the death process and speak from the afterlife describe the same sense of wellbeing on the next plane of life. In other words, the euphoria is from sloughing off the body, not from anything in the body. If the body experiences pleasure, that more likely results from the euphoria, not the other way around.

Let me give you another reason for suggesting that as at least as likely an explanation IF there were a euphoria cocktail served at death. Studies of remote influence show that people can influence others to feel anxious or to feel calm. That has been easy to test and has proven to be true. Now, that means the mind makes the body anxious or makes it calm. If you look at the chemicals in the body when the person is anxious, you'll see adrenaline and stress hormones. Did they cause the stress? No. The mind, remotely influenced, caused the stress. The body just reacted, and produced the chemicals.

In other studies, now done commonly, people are shown stressful and calming pictures by a computer, at random. Electrodes are places on their fingers to show skin conductance. When a person is stressed,the body produces stress hormones and the body sweats. Electricity conducts more, so by measuring the conductance ability of the skin, you can see if the body is stressed. As you would expect, when people saw distressing pictures, the body showed stress. When they showed calming pictures, the body showed no stress. But what is most amazing is that the timed results showed that people's bodies react up to six seconds BEFORE the picture is shown. That's before the computer even selects the random picture. The mind, outside of the brain, that is in the realm where there is no time or space, operates independent of the body and tells the body what to feel before the brain can even have access to the information. The body then produces chemicals that create sweat and that's measured in skin conductance. The chemicals are developed when the mind tells the body what to feel.

Regardless, if the universe is giving the body good feelings in a chemical cocktail at death, that seems to be a pretty good indication that a benevolent source wants to make the transition easier, even pleasurable. Since there's no evolutionary advantage to feeling good at death, it isn't something Darwinian evolution could have created. No organism can get an advantage over others of its species so it evolves to predominate. It's something only a benevolent source could build into humanity.

So, I wouldn't worry about whether DMT is released at death. It's such a short trip from this realm to the next that it's hardly worth sipping on that cocktail. We would just barely get a taste when it would be time to put our chairs upright and tray tables back into position for landing.

Love and peace, Craig


 



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