RE: "Oh, give me a break. I have had lucid dreams while half awake. People trip balls while fully awake. It is entirely possible to hallucinate while losing consciousness."
--It's not simply an issue of losing consciousness, but rather also an issue of losing electrical activity within the brain, and then subsequently completely losing brain function.
Let me start with the brain function part.
With regards to brain function, the Horizon Research Foundation states that "brain oxygen levels are then depleted within approximately 2 minutes" (though About.com says that it "is thought to be over by about 3-4 minutes from the moment the heart stops"). "The brain stop working as it runs out of oxygen and sugar (brought to the brain by blood flow supplied by the heart), blood gets trapped in the brain until it starts flowing again. That stale blood is accumulating acids, free radical oxygen molecules and other toxins while it sits there"--this is the trigger for brain damage.
So this essentially states that brain function (and control over your other bodily organs) completely stops at 2 minutes (or 3-4 minutes if you believe About.com to be a superior source).
Nevertheless, as I stated, the Horizon Research Foundation explained: "studies have shown that due to a lack of heart beat and blood flow there is a cessation of brain electrical activity within approximately 10 seconds." Electrical activity is the result of voltage fluctuations resulting from the ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain. The cessation of this electrical activity means that the neurons are no longer communicating.
Thus, the scenario of cardiac arrest patients is distinct from that of persons experiencing dreams/hallucinations.
When have dreams/hallucinations, there is measurable electronic activity in the brain. (It is not hard to find research on dreams and hallucinations by scientists who even graph this electronic activity--for instances, search "EEG Hallucinations" or "EEG Dreams").
During the physiological death that I described, however, there is electrical activity whatsoever. The person cannot be classified as dreaming or hallucinating if he is devoid of any electrical activity in the brain. If he were hallucinating or dreaming, the consequent electrical activity in the brain would be detectable as scientists have demonstrated numerous times before.
At best, you would have to assert that the "hallucination" or "dream" occurs within the first ten seconds of cardiac arrest, before the person's brain's electrical activities completely halt. Otherwise, a person cannot hallucinate or dream while in cardiac arrest.
And aside from this, communication between neurons and synapses are required to even form memories anyway (search: "memory and neurons", if you doubt me). This is to say: without electrical activity in the brain, the person incapable of forming the vivid memories of their near-death experience.
It's easy, at first, to say that cardiac-arrest-NDEs must be a dream or hallucination, but upon closer inspection, you see that dreams and hallucinations are inadequate explanations due the the lack of electrical activity within the brain.
--It's not simply an issue of losing consciousness, but rather also an issue of losing electrical activity within the brain, and then subsequently completely losing brain function.
Let me start with the brain function part.
With regards to brain function, the Horizon Research Foundation states that "brain oxygen levels are then depleted within approximately 2 minutes" (though About.com says that it "is thought to be over by about 3-4 minutes from the moment the heart stops"). "The brain stop working as it runs out of oxygen and sugar (brought to the brain by blood flow supplied by the heart), blood gets trapped in the brain until it starts flowing again. That stale blood is accumulating acids, free radical oxygen molecules and other toxins while it sits there"--this is the trigger for brain damage.
So this essentially states that brain function (and control over your other bodily organs) completely stops at 2 minutes (or 3-4 minutes if you believe About.com to be a superior source).
Nevertheless, as I stated, the Horizon Research Foundation explained: "studies have shown that due to a lack of heart beat and blood flow there is a cessation of brain electrical activity within approximately 10 seconds." Electrical activity is the result of voltage fluctuations resulting from the ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain. The cessation of this electrical activity means that the neurons are no longer communicating.
Thus, the scenario of cardiac arrest patients is distinct from that of persons experiencing dreams/hallucinations.
When have dreams/hallucinations, there is measurable electronic activity in the brain. (It is not hard to find research on dreams and hallucinations by scientists who even graph this electronic activity--for instances, search "EEG Hallucinations" or "EEG Dreams").
During the physiological death that I described, however, there is electrical activity whatsoever. The person cannot be classified as dreaming or hallucinating if he is devoid of any electrical activity in the brain. If he were hallucinating or dreaming, the consequent electrical activity in the brain would be detectable as scientists have demonstrated numerous times before.
At best, you would have to assert that the "hallucination" or "dream" occurs within the first ten seconds of cardiac arrest, before the person's brain's electrical activities completely halt. Otherwise, a person cannot hallucinate or dream while in cardiac arrest.
And aside from this, communication between neurons and synapses are required to even form memories anyway (search: "memory and neurons", if you doubt me). This is to say: without electrical activity in the brain, the person incapable of forming the vivid memories of their near-death experience.
It's easy, at first, to say that cardiac-arrest-NDEs must be a dream or hallucination, but upon closer inspection, you see that dreams and hallucinations are inadequate explanations due the the lack of electrical activity within the brain.
"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." (1 Peter 3:15)
The "Test of Life" is not whether you can blindly "worship and praise God”. The test in life is whether or not you can live your life according to virtue, and live a life that reverberates waves of positive energy, building people up, as Jesus His son perfectly exemplified. We can choose lives of virtue as is God's will, or to choose lives of selfishness, arrogance, and other vices which have led to the plague of humanity we have found on earth. If people choose vice, that is their choice. Do not judge them (1 Corinthians 5:12 ). But He sent Jesus as a prime example of virtue so that we could see the light and choose it, instead of poisoning the earth with lives of darkness. Many, including even "Christians," have failed in this regard. But Christianity is supposed to be the message of love, hope, faith, unity, and virtue, that creates heaven on Earth.
The "Test of Life" is not whether you can blindly "worship and praise God”. The test in life is whether or not you can live your life according to virtue, and live a life that reverberates waves of positive energy, building people up, as Jesus His son perfectly exemplified. We can choose lives of virtue as is God's will, or to choose lives of selfishness, arrogance, and other vices which have led to the plague of humanity we have found on earth. If people choose vice, that is their choice. Do not judge them (1 Corinthians 5:12 ). But He sent Jesus as a prime example of virtue so that we could see the light and choose it, instead of poisoning the earth with lives of darkness. Many, including even "Christians," have failed in this regard. But Christianity is supposed to be the message of love, hope, faith, unity, and virtue, that creates heaven on Earth.
