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Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

newscientist.com

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Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#111

Post by inglor_cz »

alpaca128 wrote: post #102
garganzol wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds funny but... I had a near-death experience and this is exactly how it feels - data recollection before departure. The weird thing is that you understand that it's not a totally new feeling - it seems that you are already got familiarized with it some time in the past but just forgot it while you was living your current instance of life.

I once read of a hypothesis that this is the brain desperately searching memories for a possible solution while its oxygen gets depleted.

I read the same hypothesis, but it does not really square with the observation that soldiers, sailors etc. in life-threatening situations report similar experiences even if they end up physically unhurt.

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#112

Post by rapnie »

meghan_rain wrote: post #93
rapnie wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the human brain is soooo fucking primed to see patterns and make sense from anything. Fully agree. I've never done psychedelics, but years ago when overworked and by lack of sleep my mind went into a severe state of hyperassociativity. Though a serious health danger (feeling as if your brain gets cooked) it was a magnificent experience. Everything I saw with my eyes triggered an explosion of associations. I felt as…

very interesting, do you know the name of this phenomenon? i have experienced something similar, when the brain is munched from overworking and undersleeping, you kind of start "daydreaming", although it might be slightly different than what you have described.

I don't know a medical term, other than that it is in the area of Mania [0]. For me it was luckily a one time adventure induced by the circumstances. In hindsight I consider it positively, as an enriching experience. When reading the wikipedia page, I avoided some of the more severe afflictions. There are risk factors to avoid. Good sleep most important among them. After such episode the brain is completely drained and needs time to 'recharge'. Having multiple episodes in a row usually leads to a bipolar disorder with true depression following the manic episodes, I was told.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mania

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#113

Post by supertofu »

The filter theory* of consciousness holds that consciousness is an element independent of the human brain. Every brain acts as a unique filter for this elemental consciousness, structuring reality in the most optimal way for that creature to survive.

This filtered consciousness forms the "default mode network", which is the construction of ego or separate self. Near death experiences (and psychedelics and Buddhist jhanas) disintegrate the default mode network, allowing us to perceive the consciousness element beyond the brain's filtering mechanism.

*vs commonly held production theory which assumes the brain produces consciousness.

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#114

Post by Moneyyyyy »

Why do we clinge on this type of ideas?

It's an EEG not a super high resolution device.

Yes our brain does stuff at the edge of breaking. EEG changes somehow when we put ourself under anesthesia . Still we don't really get it.

And weirdly enough comments here go into afterlife and other esoteric stuff.

We know enough about our brain that we know we are our brain...

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#115

Post by supertofu »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #7
throwmemoney wrote: post #3

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-pPBwFFWz_k Some children can remember exact & verifiable details of their prior life they never could have come to know in this their current child life. These details can be objectively and independently confirmed. Remarkably & quite biologically enigmatic: Some of them have birth marks and birth defects at very same locations as the lethal injury causing their often abrupt and violent…

This seems to be arbitrary and completely open to interpretation unless you can predict which child is going to result from a "previous life". e.g. if you see a birthmark, then you can just make up what injury could have "caused" it and go looking for a suitable previous life to link to and thus "explain" it. Also, I don't believe there's been any incidents of xenoglossy that have withstood any detailed examination.

A scholar monk closely investigated a Sri Lankan case of xenoglossy here: https://audiobuddha.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Rebirth-i...

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#116

Post by supertofu »

throwmemoney wrote: post #3

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-pPBwFFWz_k Some children can remember exact & verifiable details of their prior life they never could have come to know in this their current child life. These details can be objectively and independently confirmed. Remarkably & quite biologically enigmatic: Some of them have birth marks and birth defects at very same locations as the lethal injury causing their often abrupt and violent…

Clearly not many Buddhists on Hacker News.

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#117

Post by mike_d »

C-x_C-f wrote: post #108

If there's one hill I'm determined to die on (given the information that I have anyway) is that any scientific finding extrapolating information from "brain waves" or "region activation" is little more than modern day phrenology. Of course this is not an original thought, though I find it alarming that it's the minority opinion seeing as EEG/fMRI augury suffers from blatant methodological and even statistical flaws.…

What you are experiencing is being present for the development of a major leap in technology. You'll see a lot of trial and error and near misses until someone cracks the big breakthrough of how we non-invasively read information in bulk from a mind.

Have a look at all the historical cynicism that surrounded things like voice tracks in motion pictures or consumer automobiles.

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#118

Post by sammalloy »

meghan_rain wrote: post #93
rapnie wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the human brain is soooo fucking primed to see patterns and make sense from anything. Fully agree. I've never done psychedelics, but years ago when overworked and by lack of sleep my mind went into a severe state of hyperassociativity. Though a serious health danger (feeling as if your brain gets cooked) it was a magnificent experience. Everything I saw with my eyes triggered an explosion of associations. I felt as…

very interesting, do you know the name of this phenomenon? i have experienced something similar, when the brain is munched from overworking and undersleeping, you kind of start "daydreaming", although it might be slightly different than what you have described.

> very interesting, do you know the name of this phenomenon?

Not OP, but they are describing apophenia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia

Many things can trigger it, even high doses of caffeine (such as drinking too much coffee).

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#119

Post by ComplexSystems »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #65

Next up: colon activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences That's what happens when a system designed to fire impulses on a good day is dying on a bad day.

Yes, and thus it makes perfect sense that this system, firing impulses associated with consciousness, causes people to have near-death experiences.

Re: Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences

#120

Post by fnordpiglet »

garganzol wrote: post #84
ppmx20 wrote: post #14

It's a final upload to the cloud, with checksum checks...

Sounds funny but... I had a near-death experience and this is exactly how it feels - data recollection before departure. The weird thing is that you understand that it's not a totally new feeling - it seems that you are already got familiarized with it some time in the past but just forgot it while you was living your current instance of life.

Could you elucidate?
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