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“The most important thing is not to stop questioning.”-Albert Einstein
Is there life after death? This is the age old question that perhaps, has many more questions than there will ever be answers; at least while we are alive. Yet, researchers still try to find the truth through what has come to be known as afterlife experiments.
Author Gary E. Schwartz, explores the notion of the human consciousness surviving death in his widely popular and criticized book, “The Afterlife Experiments.” The author poses several thought provoking questions one of which is: if the possibility of human consciousness surviving death is in fact a possibility; would you choose to live your life differently?
Schwartz, received his PHD in psychology from Harvard University, taught for twenty-eight years as a professor of psychology and psychiatry, was the director of the Yale psychophysiology center, and was co-director of the Yale Behavioral Medicine Clinic. Schwartz has also published over 400 scientific papers throughout his career. His main area of study however, has been the controversy surrounding the views on afterlife. He has also done a study on mediums; working to disprove or prove their ability to contact the deceased.
His book primarily focuses on his research on renowned mediums such as, John Edward’s. Schwartz remains objective in his research; however, the validity of the research still remains up for debate among fellow researchers and the curious public. He acknowledges that there are mediums out there that are talented at deceiving hopeful participants, while there are mediums out there that may truly posses the power to speak with the dead. Through the monitoring of mediums’ brainwaves and heart rhythms as they interact with participants; Schwartz claims by analyzing these results he is able to decipher whether or not a medium is a fraud or truly a clairvoyant.
There are of course many researchers also studying the possibility of life after death, or near death experiences (NDE). Dr. Sam Parnia, is an expert on the Scientific Study of Death. He is currently working on a three year study pertaining to NDE. The study is known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation). Parnia received a grant a few years ago and began his study on several hospitals (twenty-five altogether) in Europe, Canada, and the United States. In an interview with Time Magazine online, Parnia explained the premise of his experiments. In essence, Parnia explains that once the heart stops beating it takes about 10 seconds for brain activity to stop. There is an average of about 10%-20% of people that are successfully resuscitated. After being revived, some of these individuals have reported a conscious awareness and report remembering sights and sounds. Most of these recollections are reported from the elevated perspective of looking down on a room. Critics of Parnia’s research, argue that these apparent experiences during an NDE are nothing more than hallucinations; a result of chemicals being released by the brain when the heart stops and the process of dying begins. Many of those that claim to have a NDE report a feeling of Euphoria as endorphins are released, which is the bodies own defense against trauma and pain.
Parnia does however, take in account the brain’s natural defense mechanism. He also feels he can still prove the possibility of an out of body experience by placing an image somewhere on the ceiling in an operating room; in such a location so as it can’t be seen from any other location, but above the room. “If we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead and yet they’re able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able to see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn’t functioning.”-Parnia interview with Time Magazine Online
The desire to know the truth of the possibility of transcending to another form or to possibly another dimension is felt by many, not just those in the scientific community. However, to date, there has been no substantive scientific research to support researchers’ claims. However, that is not to say that such a possibility doesn’t exist. We may just have to wait until our time comes to cross that possible threshold.
Parnia has conducted several other experiments to support his theory of consciousness surviving death during an NDE. To learn more about both Parnia and Schwartz see the links below.
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