[lit-ideas] Re: Bears, oh my!

From: Andy <min.erva@xxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:00:31 -0700 (PDT)
"consciousness (another way of saying how trillions of chemical reactions turn 
into thoughts and feelings)"
   
  I misspoke.  The whole point is if that's all consciousness or mind is, just 
chemical reactions, then it would necessarily stop when the heart stops pumping 
and the breathing stops, but it seems to separate out of the dead body.  We 
couldn't see bacteria before microscopes, and we live in a sea of bacteria; we 
didn't know there was such a thing as air at one time.  Maybe someday we'll 
discover an instrument that can measure consciousness.  That would be a 
discovery.
   
  

Andy <min.erva@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
    The bears only come around once in a while.  It's funny how the bears 
always seem so purposeful; they always seem to have some place to go.  If I 
didn't know better I'd say they were worrying about something.  The deer on the 
other hand just hang around and then leave.  They seem to always be having fun, 
never a care in the world.   I'll probably come back as a bear.
   
  Speaking of coming back as a bear, Sam Parnia, a British trauma doctor, is 
researching death.  I thought it was nuts at first too, but it's bona fide.  
He's researching near death experiences, people who have been declared 
clinically dead but who for some reason come back to life.  They number about 
10 to 15% of deaths.  He finds that there's reason to think that a person's 
consciousness, what might be called "mind", leaves the body, and upon its 
return to the body is when the person comes back to life.  His evidence is that 
when people come back to life, they consistently report seeing things that 
occurred while they were medically flat-lined, or dead, from angles they 
couldn't possibly have seen them from even if they weren't dead, which they 
were.  They also consistenty report the experience as a beautiful and 
indescribable.  Some don't want to come back.  Others report coming back 
because their children needed them, or another reason.  None of them are afraid 
of death
 after that.  Of course, there's no way to know what happens to that 
consciousness (another way of saying how trillions of chemical reactions turn 
into thoughts and feelings) after a person is dead for good.
   
  At first I thought it was baloney, but it's an appealing idea.  I completely 
reject the idea of an afterlife, but I often wondered if energy can't be 
created or destroyed, what happens to it when the body dies?  I wonder if 
animal consciousness does the same thing.  I would imagine it does.  Why 
wouldn't it?  For that matter, what about insect energy, or even bacterial or 
viral energy?  Dr. Parnia is sticking to humans.  He has a book out but it's 
now outdated and he's researching another.
   
   
  

Judith Evans <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
          Photos would have been nice :) -- I imagine the only way to
  be sure of capturing something like that is to train a webcam on
  the garden; I've thought of doing that for other reasons,
  including a burglary in the house just over the lane and
  another in the next road.   
   
  and yes baby bears are sweet.  There are none around here.
  I met a very sweet one year old (its proud owners said)
  Shar Pei today (talking of sweet)
   
  Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
    
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References:
- [lit-ideas] Re: Bears, oh my!
  - From: Andy
[lit-ideas] Re: Bears, oh my!

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