The idea is expressed well by Dr. Sam Parnia, M.D., Ph.D., in his recent book, What Happens When We Die: A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death (Hay House, Inc., Carlsbad, California, 2006), p. 92. After reviewing the literature, reports from fellow medical professionals, his own personal experiences with patients who had reported “near death experiences,” as well as relevant evidence from medical instrumentation, he states what he calls the “The Scientific Paradox” —
| THE PARADOX | ||
| I started thinking about the implications of this. There is something that just doesn’t fit here, I thought. Here we have a group of people who are so severely ill that they’ve reached the clinical point of death, yet somehow they report having lucid, well-structured thought processes, together with reasoning and memory formation from that time. There are also reliable anecdotes of patients who have recalled detailed events that have taken place during rescuscitation. How can this happen? How can there be such clear and lucid thought processes when the brain is at best severely disrupted, and as far as we can measure, not functioning? |