Peter Fenwick on "Experiences surrounding near-death and dying"
The problem with current research is that often there is no clear distinction between consciousness, mind and brain. We know that the functions of mind are supported by the brain and constructed by it. There is a widespread acceptance that mind and consciousness are the same. Consciousness is intimately entwined with the brain, and that is why the usual fMRI experiments cannot distinguish consciousness from mind and the proposition that these two functions are the same persists. In order to distinguish mind from consciousness, situations (outliers) in which brain function and the associated mind are absent or degraded and yet consciousness appears to persist must be examined. At present the only circumstances in which the brain is not working, mind is absent and yet consciousness appears to persist, are in approximately 10 - 25% of people who have a cardiac arrest. In these circumstances higher brain function and mind are absent, and yet after recovery the subjects report consciousness experience very similar to the near death experience; these are called Actual Death Experiences (ADE). A recent PhD thesis by David Rousseau, who has interpreted the nature of the world, assuming the phenomenology of the veridical nature of the out of body experience in the ADE is correct, postulates a five-dimensional consciousness and the presence of ‘psychic stuff’ in the universe. The other outlier is the death process itself. Brain function becomes increasingly compromised as death approaches. About 50% of people who have clear consciousness until nearly the moment of death may have experiences similar to those who have ADEs. This suggests that these experiences may originate in consciousness rather than in a mind which is degrading. Certain end of life experiences (ELEs), such as deathbed visions, transiting to a new reality, aspects of terminal lucidity are similar to the ADE and also raise the question of consciousness beyond the brain. At the moment of death, a number of phenomena, for example deathbed coincidences, mechanical malfunctions and odd animal behaviour suggest a non-local effect and add an additional argument for consciousness beyond the brain. Further, work by David Luke on DMT and psychotropic drugs suggests that the best explanation for transcendent conscious experiences is the filter theory with the brain restricting the input of wider cosmic experiences If that is so, then the ADE, the NDE and the ELE all point towards the universal nature of consciousness.
Peter Fenwick is Consultant Neuropsychiatrist Emeritus to the Epilepsy Unit at the Maudsley Hospital, which he ran for twenty years. He is presently appointed as Emeritus Senior Lecturer, at the Institute of Psychiatry Kings College and Southampton University, and Emeritus Consultant Clinical Neurophysiologist at Broadmoor Hospital. From 2000 to 2009 he spent several months a year working in the field of magnetoencephalography in a neuroscience research laboratory in Japan. He has a long standing interest in brain function and the problem of consciousness and has published a large number of research papers related to altered states of consciousness, and abnormalities of consciousness and behaviour, NDEs and end of life experiences. He has researched into meditation and continues to be interested in the relationship between meditative states, cognition and brain function. One of his main interests for some years has been near death experiences and the dying process, and he is at present carrying out a research project in hospices in the UK, Holland and Japan into the experiences reported by the dying and their carers around the time of death, the results of which are included in The Art of Dying, co-authored with his wife, with whom he has also published a study of near death experiences, “The Truth in the Light”.
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My husband died last year, of liver cancer at home just a month after diagnosis. There was no treatment but palliative care....he had all these experiences.......he saw his brother visit him on his motor bike ( he'd died in the70s ) in the last few days he talked about having flying lessons which I take to be his "journeying language" that Dr Fenwick talks of. He could see another dimension...he described a field of incredibly bright flowers where I could see just a blank wall. It gives me strength for when my time comes.
Dr. Fenwick's anecdotes were of people who had lived life well. They had no fear of death and saw only a beautiful realm on the other side. A couple of people I knew experienced terrible horror in their dying moments. There was a lot of fear and resistance to go. How we live correlates with how we'll die. It is very important for us to cultivate compassion, love and loving kindness while we're here in this world.
Dr Fenwick is a lovely man..so enjoyed this..thank you
An excellent lecture on EDE and ELE from a serious academic, just enough anecdotes to give context but plenty of statistics to lend force and credibility.
I feel any member making a request on behalf of any organization worth note would never use kid slang like 'U', so you should ignore that person's game, whatever it is. I'm currently reading Dr. Fenwick's 'The Truth in the Light', and thank you for posting this video. He's very clear and articulate when he speaks, this is a fantastic presentation with wonderful detailed information.
A fascinating presentation by a great man.
Loved it Dr.Fenwick. thank you for your work
I very much appreciate a discussion and analysis of NDEs and the possible difference between brain and mind from a perspective with a scientific bent. It keeps flights of personal fancy to a minimum. Thank you.
A very thoughtful presentation. Thanks a lot.
Nice talk, I enjoyed very much.
Dr Fenwick..THANK YOU
Close your eyes and try to imagine what it would be like to fall asleep and never wake up again.. This is a yoga, and this is a way of life.. Close your eyes and try to imagine what it would be like as you drift off to sleep at tonight what it would be like to fall asleep and never wake up again.. And when you do that you'll experience something... And then to pose the next thing to you.. Try to imagine what it would be like to wake up, after having never gone to sleep ( that's when you were born ) So see one almost can't possibly imagine what it will be like to close their eyes and fall asleep to never wake up again, anymore than they can imagine what it would be like to wake up having never gone to sleep, when we were born... We will always have an experience of something no matter what! When brain function is gone you are clinically gone.. And there have been people who've been announced clinically dead ( brain function gone ) who have come back and told what they've experienced, with such clarity in the state they were in that they say they felt more alive and exhilarated then, than they ever did being alive... Now obviously no one has ever been dead long enough to come back and tell anything l, say a week or month lol.. But really, what does that mean? At least that up to the brink, and even having been declared clinically dead with no brain function is compelling enough and at least some folks are experiencing it I always here some skeptics say things like well what about the other 60% who don't experience it? Well what about them? They don't experience it! The more compelling piece of evidence are those that do! Some people dream some people don't. Some people dream some days and they don't on others, so what.. I believe though that 100% of everyone will experience it at some point though
@AdventEntertainmentIowa
9 жыл бұрын
Adam Burling Regarding the skeptics that argue about those that don't have the experiences. I say to them, so many skeptics claim that NDEs are all tricks of a dying brain as it is. So with that, why don't 100% of the people who nearly die come back with these stories? Typically you hear many people that just claim it was complete darkness so they assume when they die, that's it, the light goes out and many skeptics agree with that. So again, if NDEs are just products of a dying brain, are skeptics who believe this telling us that there is only a select percentage of people that get this experience? Just another indication of how many skeptics will put the pieces of the puzzle together the way they want it to look, even if the pieces don't fit quite correctly as they like the way it looks to them. Great insight by the way, thanks for sharing.
@garychapman7776
8 жыл бұрын
LOL. I dunno - I've met a few creationists that are darned close : ) Doubt they'll ever manage to find one as rabid and vitriolic as Hitchens though. That guy has some serious problems! Hitchens occasionally makes me almost ashamed to be a sceptic : ) Kraus and Dawkins also have their intensely stupid moments of rabid gnosticism too. Personally, I'm not emotionally invested either way - but I do hold that both sides lack healthy self-critique and are both highly prone to confirmation bias. Whoever I listen to, from either side... my bullshit meter eventually goes right off the scale.
@garychapman7776
8 жыл бұрын
I think you'll find that most skeptics 'believe' its probably just black - due to lack of compelling evidence to the contrary. You'll find no (rational) skeptic defending the claim that it IS just black. After all, there IS no (nor can there be any) evidence for the position. But I suppose there are always a few irrational zealots on both sides of any argument : ) (aaand... we're back to Mr. Hitchens - LOL) Most proponents of some afterlife tend not to notice the glaring holes in their more evidential arguments. For example, Peter Fenwick claims: 1. That the cardiac arrest victim could have had no meaningful brain function between the original event and his recovery (due to heart difibrilation disabling the cortex) 2. The cardiac victim received a full round of CPR prior to recovery, and (according to his timeline graph) for the major duration of his fibrilation episode. What Peter ignores is that statement (2) negates his reasons in (1) for assuming no brain activity. CPR provides for both circulation and oxygenation... thus his reasons for dismissing brain function are clearly insufficient. In other words... he missed the screamingly obvious objection to his claim. This type of myopia is common, to both believers and skeptics alike... it's a very human failing. We readily see that which supports our position. I'm so glad I'm autistic : )
Really enjoyed... Thank you :-)
Hi Max, can you upload all of the other presentations please? Love them all
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; Charles Darwin
playing devils advocate, if there is three minutes before the cells in the brain die how can he say that as the stem has no supply there can be no thoughts? Maybe i don't have enough physiological knowledge
Hello, I'm a member of CSICOP, can U remove this video from KZread ?
@DrCash7
9 жыл бұрын
James Randi Zététicien No. Put your link in the comments.