Does consciousness survive death?

The closest thing there is to evidence of life after death are the testimonies of people who have had Near-Death-Experiences (NDE). There are many books on that subject, including Raymond Moody “Life After Life” and Lionel Bascom “Near Death Experiences”.

I don’t see how consciousness could continue after the brain has broken down.

Is consciousness the same as ‘soul’? Some religions think that the soul exists outside of the body even after the body no longer exists or is alive.

But it’s a stretch to call that consciousness because it seems like there ought to be living body that the consciousness is communicating with.

Nobody living knows. There is nothing more to say about this.

@ARE_you_kidding_me there’s always more to say about things like this. Why cut off conversation?

The conundrum then becomes…“IS the brain really dead yet ” and do we in the present have that technology to know that for sure?
It may be that we don’t as yet understand the complexities of life and death enough in the present time.
Our technology is limited to our time frame.
There is much to learn yet that is far more advanced than one can imagine.
So it is possible that awareness continues after one has been deemed passed.

My dad seemed to think so.
He had two near death experiences.One when he was a boy and was drowning.
The other in Korea when he got blown out of a ditch.
He wasn’t a religious person at all but I believe those two experiences made him rethink the idea of God.
He didn’t talk about these experiences but one time.
He said that it was the most peaceful feeling ever and that he did not want to come back.
He definitely was not afraid of death.

“Near death experiences” almost always conform to the beliefs of the individual experiencing them which suggests they are generated in the brain through oxygen starvation. This suggests that consciousness does not survive bodily death.

@elbanditoroso

What more is there to say about it? Nobody knows. Anything beyond that is just speculation.

The big and eternal question on the afterlife. How many times in the average day does the topic surface?

No. Absolutely, positively, no.

Of course not.

I love how the skeptics think they’re all scientific and shit, and know absolutely about death and consciousness and the soul and everything, and who’s full of crap… certainly not them.

Non-skeptics might be interested in this book: https://www.brianweiss.com/about-the-books/many-lives-many-masters/

Who knows? Maybe. Consciousness is the one mystery that’s hard to explain by purely physical means. Can’t say for sure that there’s nothing metaphysical or supernatural involved. Now I’ve never found NDE’s to be particularly convincing since they seem to be so culturally and individually framed (i.e they seem to be dependent on a person’s cultural framework). NDEs may have more to do with DMT in the brain than the survival of consciousness after death. And I mean, if you can become “unconscious” from a blow to the head, why would we think consciousness could survive death? Also, if there is such a thing as a soul, the soul’s existence after death may not be the same thing as “consciousness”.

I think the brain is a lot more complex than any of us can ever really imagine. (I wonder what people who’ve taken powerful hallucinogens think about all this since those drugs can mess with consciousness in a way similar to an NDE or OOBE). But then where’s the line between the brain’s natural functions and some supernatural intervention?

Just some random thoughts of mine.

@Zaku

Yes I viewed Dr Weiss on the Dr Phil show as he talked about these occurrences.

All it is saying is when these people were diagnosed as dead that they recovered and told of there vivid experiences which in turn changed there view on life.

There experience of this event helps by giving hope that there is an afterlife.

Which is far better than declaring it nonsense thereby denouncing their very personal feelings.

Why would anyone do that to a victim who had survived a tragedy?

I don’t believe so, personally.

I have died several times before, and woke up in the past. I have limited no memories of the between state. I also had dental surgery and was put out. I had no memories of the surgery or anything in between.
The best that I can explain is this YouTube 11 minute video on Ten Dimensions Explained

Doubtful because consciousness is mediated thru the brain. When the brain dies, consciousness has nothing to transmit thru…it gets switched off. There is nothing to receive the signal.

Well, it came from nothing so why not?
You are conscious now and 100 years ago you didn’t exist.

With the destruction of the brain stem by illness, accident or shot in the neck, the consciousness is switched off for ever. So-called near-death experiences are only possible if the brain stem is still intact, i.e. if the person is alive. Near death – nothing more as dreams with part-perceptions. After death the body will rotten and the function of consciousness is not nessessary.

There’s a remarkable amount of life-after-death research and documented stories of people who have wakened after being declared dead. People who have died and come back to life tell of being aware- of going to heaven or to hell, etc.

The Bible tells me it’s called a soul. It is eternal.

@snowberry

It is your believe and hope, but not the reality.
“documented stories of people who have wakened after being declared dead” – the essential part of its representation is nothing more then wrong. Nobody stands up as dead one. Is the brainstem destroyed one is dead. And no reanimation could help here!

The Bible is a Fairy Tale book.

Let me know how that works out for you after you die. :)