How does this article strike you? Does it strengthen your Christian faith? If so, how? Or does it make you question things you have been taught? How? Do you think the author is writing from a Christian perspective? Why or Why not? Do you believe his story? Why or Why not?
I genuinely think this neurosurgeon is truthfully telling his experience while he was in a coma. I don't see why he would lie about his experience because he is already disproving his previous beliefs about near death spiritual experiences.
ReplyDeleteThis article brings up a question about what I was taught about heaven, but in other ways his experience supports my beliefs. First I don't understand what the clouds have to do with heaven that he was “riding” on when he first goes into this stage of the spiritual realm. He describes these clouds as white and pink clouds that stand out against the dark sky. When I read about heaven in the Bible all I see is references to streets of gold and the glory of God shining throughout heaven, but there is nothing about clouds. Clouds like that is almost too much like earth to be placed in heaven. As for the aspects of his experience that support my beliefs of heaven there are many he describes. First, I recognized the loud “booming” glorious chant he heard in the first part of his experience as angels and children of God praising and singing to God. This chant and praise matches up with what he saw after the noise which was the joy he saw on the faces of the angels floating around. Second, the fact that as he watched the angels joy radiate from their bodies he couldn't help but join in supports the verses in Revelation 5: 11-12 when everyone in heaven can't seem to stop or even desire to stop worshiping God. Third, Alexander mentions the fact that everything in heaven was perfect which lines up completely with what I was taught about heaven.
Over all I’m thankful for accounts like this that support my beliefs. However, there are a few aspects that I would question in the accounts of people’s near death experiences. These are normally minuscule problems that can be explained by people not being able to fully describe what they saw in earthly terms.
Bethany Hey
I think that while Dr. Alexander is telling what he thinks he experienced and is probably giving us the full account as best as he remembers it, that this does not in any way make his claim legitimate. I don’t at all discount that he believes what he is saying, I’m just not sure that what he has to say is necessarily true.
ReplyDeleteI realize that since he is a neurosurgeon, we should perhaps place some more credibility than a layman making numerous scientific claims, but that does not mean that his logic or knowledge is 100% infallible, either. It also meant that he says things that many of us may not fully understand, as our backgrounds in neuroscience are negligible.
The very first thing that caught my attention was his claim that his cortex was fully shut down, and I was very curious as to what the circumstances and likelihood for this to happen were. So I did some research, and found a number of interesting things.
For one, the likelihood of a neocortex shutdown is far from common, but it IS plausible. HOWEVER, the neocortex is not the only part of the brain that controls thoughts nor is
Something that was also pointed out in one of the response articles I read, I found interesting: the neocortex is far from agreed upon as the “human part of the brain.” See, while the neocortex encompasses at least most of the conscious portion of our brains, it isn’t definitively the only part that can access thoughts.
Also, if he was in a coma, this means that his brain wasn’t dead. The term “coma” is only used if someone is unconscious but still living. It can be applicable if the individual is on life support or even if parts of the brain are not functioning correctly, however, if your brain is not dead, it is still doing things. No, you may not be cognitively aware of them, but being “brain dead” ¹ is determined only if there is no perceivable activity in the brain. This means that his brain had to still be functioning in some capacity. If his brain was still functioning, whether the majority of the neocortex was working or not, it seems that there was still activity and that means it cannot be passed off as occurring outside of his brain.
Then there is Dimethyltryptamine². Also known as DMT, Dimethyltryptamine is a chemical in the brain that is released in small amounts when we dream. The majority of DMT is saved and is released prior to death. It has been speculated that after adrenaline shock occurs, this is one of the last resorts that our body uses to save us from dying.
Without getting too into the intricacies, DMT is a psychoactive. It produces hallucinogenic images and experiences. When released in small amounts, this can contribute to the explanation of why dreams can seem so strange. But if all of the reserve amounts of DMT in the body are dumped in the brain at once, it could quite easily lead to an experience that seems completely real and is this surreal-feeling. While I do not know if these experiences could occur during a full neocortical shutdown (if that is what actually happened), there is no real proving that this experience of his did not occur during the time before or after the shutdown, while he was still in or in the process of coming out of his coma.
I believe that this neurosurgeon truly believes what he is telling people. I also believe that supernatural things can happen to someone who isn’t a Christian, because God uses experiences such as this neurosurgeon experience to show a person what they believe is wrong. What caught my eye was that he was in a coma for seven days and that struck me; just like the creation story is seven days long, seven is the perfect number in the Bible, and then on the seventh day the surgeon woke up and could tell people what he experienced while unconscious. I don’t think that someone would start believing in something that they never believed in ever after a near death experience. He could explain things in detail and heard chanting; such as “You are loved and cherished, dearly forever”, “You have nothing to fear”, and “There is nothing you can do wrong.” I don’t think that someone who didn’t believe in the afterlife would say those things because I believe that those words would be said in heaven by either God or angels. Stories like this could help change someone’s life for the better. Stories like these strengthen my faith a little because they say that heaven is real and sometimes I question whether heaven is real or not, and when I hear stories about heaven that line up with the Bible it strengthens my resolve.
ReplyDeleteThis article interested me quite a bit. (obviously not nearly as much as it did Clay) I agree with Clay a lot. I do not discount the fact that this could be God working in this doctor's life for the greater good, but we hear about so many of these stories today about how people had "God experiences" and it's very difficult for me to believe they all are truly legitimate. For instance, the book "Heaven Is For Real" tells of a four year boy that legally dies during a surgery and then is brought back to life and says he was in heaven during this period of time. Now, I have not read this book so my opinion can be very easily argued with; but how much credit can we give to a four year old boy? This child is the son of a pastor and therefore has grown up around the church, the Bible, and stories of heaven. Is it not possible his memory could have visualized this due to the DMT because of stories he had heard in Sunday school? Like I stated before, no, I do not discredit all of these accounts that are brought up throughout our world, but we need to really do some thinking before we put so much faith in these stories.
ReplyDeleteI as well agree with Ryan when he states that it becomes hard to fully trust and believe all these accounts of people claiming to have these "God experiences". But you cannot take away from them. This article had me very intrigued and asking many questions myself about all this. Not questions of doubt or disbelief but questions of my future and whats ahead. The thing that makes this even more mind-blowing of an experience is the fact that as he said that his whole entire cortex was shutdown. This I believe had to happen for a reason so he could see the power of God and not argue back with science. He grew up in a back ground of science and science only. Following in the path of his father in being a neurosurgeon. Which as we can tell, he is a very knowledgeable man who learned all he knows through science and not religion. I hear these stories quite often and being a p.k. i must bring something spiritual into this. There is something different about this mans testimony that he mentions that not many others do. He is very descriptive, as are others. But what is different is when he mentions the strong love he could feel. Many of these reports just focus on appearance and what is looked like and seeing God and so on. He jumps into spiritual things. Feelings and so on. This may not strengthen my faith but it helps to reassure it and back it up. Do I believe this mans account 100%? I cant say if I do. Because yes, this very well could have happened but is every detail spot on? I would beg to differ. He as Clay said is saying what he remembers to the best he can. God very well can make these experiences happen. And the thought of the DMT also makes this interesting. It does not sound like he grew up in a house based on God where he was always hearing about God and Heaven and so on which would not even be in his head to pull out after going into a coma. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-raj-persaud/near-death-experiences_b_3766845.html . This article talks about a few different accounts that scientists have been studying but the last two questions at the end struck me. That, coming from a worldly perspective people still may believe and think that "religion" still stands through the science "tests".
ReplyDeleteI personally think that this story was very interesting. I like these kinds of stories. Its cool to see how different people view heaven. I also think that people believe too many stories without really knowing what it is about. Some people believe anything they see or hear. I think that it is good to believe some things but it is also okay to be skeptical of some things too. The neurosurgeons journey seemed very cool and believable. It really changed how he viewed God and heaven dramatically. In the book heaven is for real a little boy dies and experiences some things in heaven and then returns back to earth. It is a great book but some things could have been made up by his father or he could've made it up himself. The little boy described some people in heaven that he had never seen before on earth. The father said that his description was very accurate. Yes I think that these stories are awesome and can really impact their lives, but I also think that we need to really know the story before we really believe it. Its amazing how the neurosurgeons life changed so much from one incident. God has his own ways of showing us that he is real and I think it would be cool to see the descriptions of heaven that are talked about in these stories.
ReplyDeleteI think your on to a good point about parts of these stories being false or made up Kristen. As you think about this aspect remember that the person telling of thier supernatural experience may not be giving a false description on purpose. This goes with what we learned in a previous chapter where our memories are only snap shots and our brain fills in the rest. This is just how our human minds our made. With this in mind I do think we need to be very carful and test any story like this with our knowledge of heaven given from the Bible.
DeleteDimethyltryptamine(http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Dimethyltryptamine.html) also known as DMT a hallucinogenic hormone that occurs during sleep and can occur before death. I don’t believe he was experienced haven but instead he was hallucinating or dreaming and he saw what he believed was heaven. As far as my faith goes with this article it hasn’t changed, i don’t believe he saw heaven and i don’t believe any story of anyone who has experienced the same thing either experiencing heaven or hell. Your body would know if your body is shutting down it will relies DMT subconsciously you might know that you're dying and try to imagine if there's a heaven or hell and what they are like. Im not saying i don’t believe in heaven or hell just don’t believe anyone can die go to heaven or hell and come back, i mean when you die you’re dead.But if people truly believe they went to heaven and strengthens their belief in christ or brings them to christ then they can believe what they want.
ReplyDeleteI believe this author is writing from a Christian perceptive because he tells us he is a Christian and he explains his faith and how he felt when he went to church after the coma. I believe his story because I have no reason not to. I grew up in church learning about what Heaven might look like and the author proved that it looks like what he was taught. He explains his journey with vivid detail that would be hard to make up if you hadn't actually traveled to that dimension. I also believe him because he is proving to us why his former beliefs are wrong. Why would someone write an article about a made up story to disprove something they used to believe in? I find this story interesting because he is a neurosurgeon, a person who deals with the brain, and part of his stopped working for seven days. This story is ironic. He didn't believe in such things happening after a person dies and then he journeys to the dimension he describes while in a coma. This article doesn't strengthen or weaken my faith. I believe what he is saying is true so I am not going to question it as it relates to my faith. I have heard accounts like this before and they don't strengthen my faith; they just prove that what I believe in (Heaven) is actually real.
ReplyDeleteKris, I like that you added another story to help back up your opinion, but I think you need more of the article in your response, you have all opinions.
ReplyDeleteMakenzi, this man's view of consciousness changed because before his coma he believed that after we die, nothing of our being is left. After his coma, he now believes that after we die there is a spiritual part of us that continues to live on.
The article was well written, as one would expect from a neurosurgeon, but the article's content did not persuade me to believe his story was real, as I assume he was expecting to do. When having read the article about his experience, although a wee bit skeptical, I was at least giving him the benefit of the doubt that his experience was real. However when I found out that the neocortex is not the only area of our brain that makes us "human" per se i.e. the internet (an example would be the hippocampus which is involved in memory and fear processing), I was dissuaded from my benefit-of-the-doubt stand point. If he had listened to sermons of heaven, which he most likely would have since he claimed he was a relatively dedicated Christian, the details of the heavens we all want to go to would have been inscribed into his neurons, so considering the trauma his brain went through, couldn't be very possible that his brain made a vivid picture of the heaven experience with a little help of an extreme adrenaline rush instead of it being reality? I am not saying it was not real but I don't know if it was or not. The article did not strengthen or make make me question my faith, but it made me question whether I was too much of a "doubting Thomas". Maybe I should take these experiences a signs from God.
ReplyDeleteHis view of consciousness was changed because while he seemed to be a materialist before, after his experience he acknowledged there was a spiritual entity to our consciousness.