Posted: Sep 13, 2012 12:36 pm
Panderos wrote:Dr Parsetti do you think memory still works when the brain isn't working? Or is there some kind of big memory dump that occurs when the person comes back from the dead and all the memories of dead relatives are recorded in physical brain matter?
Another related issue that I have never seen addressed by proponents of NDE's as evidence of an incorporeal "spirit" or "soul":
Invariably, the "memories" recounted are experienced as if one is still in possession of one's body. They are stll proprioceptively aware of where their body is in space, they still locate hearing thru their ears, they only see things that are in front of their eyes, etc. Why would this be the case if one was no longer experiencing the surroundings thru their body? Why would the senses of the "soul" or "spirit" still operate in exactly the same manner as those of a human being with a body?
If, OTOH, the NDE is a hallucinatory or dream-like experience or a false memory, this observation is easily explained.
Also, if we are expected to consider anecdotes to be a robust form of evidence here, I find this anecdote quite compelling. It is of a man who had a NDE after suffering smoke inhalation. He then describes a couple trips he subsequently had on ketamine, and reports they were almost identical to the NDE:
http://near-death.com/experiences/lsd03.html
