Death

[Sriram]

Scientific knowledge is tentative, yes - it reflects the best explanation of the facts as we currently know them but is always open to change with new evidence. I don't think philosophy gets us any closer to the truth i.e. reality and prefer to go with believing in things for which we have good evidence (I don't consider personal experiences as good evidence since I cannot verify the experience of the interpretation) and to accept that there are many things we don't know without the need to imagine an explanation.

The imposition I was referring to is by those of religious faith who expect preferential treatment in society and under the law. Not a reference to you in that regard.

The problem is that many people in the West tend to confuse philosophy with religious belief. They are unable to see such matters as Common consciousness, after-life, soul and such things independent of religion.

In India this is not so. Almost every Hindu will be able to distinguish religious mythology, rituals, devotion etc. from the above matters which are seen as philosophical matters that are largely secular.   

Even religious beliefs much less philosophical matters, are not imposed on anyone. 

Science is just a subset of philosophy.  It is like a spectrum with Physics at one end followed by Chemistry...biology...psychology...spirituality.  The level of precision and predictability deceases as we move along the spectrum.   

[Enki]

People have come back from the dead and given their account of their experiences. We have discussed NDE's many times before. There are critical care doctors like Sam Parnia who are very clear that the NDEs are post death experiences.

You want to define death as a final event from which people cannot return and then keep using that definition to conclude that NDE's cannot be post death experiences! That is a ridiculous circular argument.

Not quite as simple as that, is it, Sriram?

Parnia actually casts doubt upon the finality of the phrase "clinical death' by suggesting the following:

Contrary to popular belief, death is not a moment in time, such as when the heart stops beating, respiration ceases, or the brain stops functioning. Death, rather, is a process—a process that can be interrupted well after it has begun.

https://news.stonybrook.edu/facultystaff/stony-brooks-dr-sam-parnia-discusses-reversing-death-on-npr-radio-show-2/

Hence, his assumption is that NDEs occur before the process of dying has reached its conclusion, a position with which I would quite happily concur.


It is also interesting that Parnia, after the generally negative results of his Aware studies, seems to be now focused more on the phenomenon of unexpected cognitive lucidity around the time of death, and especially as it relates to dementia patients near the time of death(paradoxical lucidity or PL). Parnia's study will collaborate with NYU Langone experts to attempt to ascertain what exactly PL is. Significantly this will include EEG measurements in order to assess the importance of any surges in brain activity. As Parnia himself says:

That may be significant because if we could find some structural change, then we might be able to use that as a novel therapeutic target for people who regularly have dementia, or other disorders of consciousness, by trying to activate that circuit and maybe give them more lucidity

https://nyulangone.org/news/new-studies-explore-end-life-cognitive-thought-improved-cardiopulmonary-resuscitation-methods


The suggestion is that surges in electrocortical activity might offer biological insights into  Pl in severe dementia and possibly help to explain the NDE phenomenon.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1552526019300950