Near Death Experiences And Electrical Brain Storms

Here we go again, another scientist has 'discovered' why some people experience near death experiences (NDE). It's simply an electrical storm in a dying brain they say.

Hang on though, a little while ago they were telling us it was down to carbon dioxide - see Are Near Death Experiences All Down To Carbon Dioxide?

Okay lets look at the current theory from a Doctor Lakhmir Chawla from the Washington University Medical Center. Dr. Chawla explains:

"We think that near death experiences could be caused by a surge of electrical energy caused as the brain runs out of oxygen. As blood flow slows down and oxygen levels fall, the brain cells fire one last electrical impulse.

It starts in one part of the brain and spreads in a cascade and this may give people vivid mental sensations."

It seems that the doctor monitored terminally ill people and in each case he found a tailing off of brain activity in the hour prior to death. This was, however, interrupted by a spurt of brain action lasting anything from 30 seconds to three minutes.

If the patient was to recover they would then often tell of NDEs with familiar memories of leaving their bodies, travelling down a tunnel, a feeling of peace and so on.

Research is also been carried out on NDEs by Southampton University in England. In one test they place pictures that can only be viewed from above on high shelves to see if patients can recall the images. If they can it suggests (to the researchers) a 'genuine' out of body experience. Unfortunately no data has been produced, as yet, for their findings. They are also asking 1500 patients to recall any memories following a cardiac arrest.

All the scientists are no doubt genuine and, who knows, perhaps one day they might be able to 'prove' that there is something in NDEs which shows that a continuation of life after death is possible.

Meanwhile stories such as those of Iris Lemov, see Near Death Experience Changes Woman's Life, may have to suffice.

My personal opinion is that most near death experiences are genuine. As for an electrical storm in a dying brain, I would have thought this would produce many, many varied and completely random reactions and memories - whereas NDEs often follow a similar pattern.

Thought Of The Day

"He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still."
- Lao Tzu

Photo: Lawrence of Arabia, Wareham, Dorset, UK by Mike Perry 2009-10

Find Your Birth Date In Pi

Nothing too serious today. It's about how you can find your birth date in Pi.

Why on earth would you want to do this? Because someone suggested to me that doing so proves that coincidences have no significance - which, of course, is a load of twaddle.

Anyway, back to Pi.

Pi, as you'll no doubt remember from school days, is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter. Or something like that. But, whatever, it's a big number that goes on forever. Some clever clogs have computed this to more than a trillion digits ... but still it goes on.

Back again, this time to finding your birth date within Pi. Simply go to the Pi-Search Page and fill in any birthdate that you wish.

Suppose, for example, you fill in the birthdate 01 08 76, you'll find this is in position 325,484 counting from the first digit of Pi, after the decimal point.

Or if you use 4 7 65 its in position 7,215 (counting from the first digit of Pi, after the decimal point) and so on and so on.

Is this of any value? Nope, not really and it certainly doesn't say anything about coincidences. It's purely a novelty item for those of us with nothing better to do - huh, I wish!

One 'interesting' thing I learnt was that if you search the number '169 on the Pi-Search Page, it appears at position 40. If you then search for 40, it appears at position 70. Search for 70, ... and so on. The sequence found is: 40, 70, 96, 180, 3664, 24717, 15492, 84198, 65489, 3725, 16974, 41702, 3788, 5757, 1958, 14609, 62892, 44745, 9385, 169, 40...' In other words it becomes a loop sequence within Pi.

Zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz .... sorry, I'm getting a bit sleepy now ... zzzz ...

Photo Taken Of Father Showed His Missing Daughter

Michael Dick hadn't seen his daughter, Lisa, for over 10 years. This was since he had seperated from his first wife.

Determined to make contact with her again Michael travelled to Sudbury, where she was last known to be living, together with his two other daughters.

His search in Sudbury reached a dead end so he wondered if the local newspaper could help. He contacted the Suffolk Free Press and they photographed him and published an appeal in the next edition of their paper.

As luck would have it, Lisa spotted the photo and article a few days later and contacted Michael. So a happy ending, but there is also a bizarre touch to this story.

When Lisa looked at the photo that was in the newspaper she saw herself in the picture as well! Photo top right, Lisa is circled. Photo source: Suffolk Free Press.

Lisa said of the coincidence, "I was just completely shocked. Me and my mum had been standing in that exact place where the picture was taken about a minute earlier, and you can see us in the picture walking away. It is incredible."

A further bizarre coincidence is that a few days earlier Lisa had talked to friends about finding her father. She remarked, "It is very strange, perhaps it was fate."

On seeing the photo and article Lisa phoned her father, "He didn't believe it was me at first, he thought it was a hoax. But he soon realised it was me and said he loved me and had missed me."

Michael drove straight away to Sudbury, following the phone call, to meet up with her and also his three grandchildren.

Lisa added, "He's promised to keep in touch. I don't think it will be 10 years before we see each other again."

The Power Of The Pendulum Catches Out Cheating Husband

This story may well seem to be too far fetched to be true but I am assured that it is the real McCoy. See what you think.

It's about the power of the pendulum and how nobody is safe from what it can reveal.

The star of the story is a young married woman I will call Ann. She had often used a pendulum for dowsing but decided to try and use it for something that was worrying her greatly.

She thought her husband may be having an affair and wanted to know if this was true or just a figment of her imagination. Something about his supposed business trips to London had unsettled Ann so she got out her pendulum to try and discover if her husband was misbehaving.

Ann got a series of London maps and started off with one that covered the whole of the area. While holding her pendulum in her right hand she started to work her left forefinger across the map in a methodical fashion. As she did so she pictured her husband clearly in her mind.

For a while nothing happened but, as she moved her left finger over Holland Park, the pendulum reacted and changed from a steady swing to a gyrating motion.

Ann now got out a map that covered Holland Park in greater detail. She followed the same routine until once more the pendulum stopped swinging and started a circular movement.

She then moved to and A to Z street map and was able to pinpoint an exact street with the aid of her pendulum.

Absolutely confident of what she had found out (i.e. a street in London) she caught the next train to London and made her way to that particular street in Holland Park.

Once she had located the street out came her pendulum again and, ignoring strange looks, she walked slowly along the street until it oscillated again in a clockwise circle. She found herself outside of an hotel. Ann made her way to reception, where she sat and waited.

About an hour later, out of the lift, walked her husband and his girlfriend. Needless to say a confrontation followed. To put it mildly Ann said she was 'bloody angry'.

Later, once the air had cooled a little, Ann told her husband how she had found him. Ann said, "When I explained how I had tracked him down he refused to believe me. He was certain I must have used a detective. But when you know how to use a pendulum you don't need a private detective."

You have been warned!

Becoming Aware Of Synchronicity And Whispers

Reading one of Trish and Rob's posts they write, "When you're aware of synchronicity, those meaningful coincidences seem to materialize more often."

This is one of the themes of their book The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity and is something that I absolutely agree with.

By coincidence (well it would be, wouldn't it!) someone had given me Gill Edwards' book Stepping into the Magic. I opened it up and on page 105 she writes about 'Listening to the whispers':

"The world is not filled with random, meaningless events. Every aspect of our physical reality is rich with meaning and significance - even the national and international news that we 'happen' to hear, or snatches of overheard conversation. What is more, if we learn to 'listen to the whispers', then our Higher Self does not have to shout at us. It won't need to send the same messages in louder, more obvious (and more distressing) forms such as illness, accidents and traumas."

Gill goes on to give examples about interpreting life when we see happenings as 'symbols', such as:

A flood on the kitchen floor might be a whisper about unresolved grief or sadness.

A speeding fine might be a reminder to 'slow down' our pace of life.

A parking ticket might be a warning about clinging to the past ...

... and so on and so on.

I sometimes say that I think we can analyse life too much, but coincidence and synchronicity can be valuable tools if we notice them - as are Gill's whispers (as long as we don't get too obsessed and spend all our time analysing every minutia).

I learnt a long time ago: There is no reality, there's only our realisation of how things are.

Ball Lightning: It's Not All In The Mind

Yesterday someone was telling me about experiencing ball lightning and today I read that Austrian physicists have virually said that there is no such thing - it's all in the mind!

According to these guys, from the University of Innsbruck, there is a simple explanaation for ball lightning: "Powerful magnetic fields, created by ordinary lightning, affect the brains of humans nearby so that they see things which aren't there."

Yea, right!

Ball lightning sightings have been on record for hundreds of years. One of the earliest dates back to 1638 at a church in Widecombe-in-the Moor, which is in Devon, England.

A great storm blew up on October 21st, 1638 when an eight foot ball of fire struck and entered the church killing four people and injuring another 60. (Woodcut of the event top right, circa 1638)

A perhaps more reliable story is that of the Eastern Airlines Flight 539 flying from New York to Washington in 1963.

Passengers saw a bright crack of lighning followed by an 8 inch luminous orb which emerged from the pilot's cabin and made it's way down the aisle, finally disappearing at the back of the plane.

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of examples with many experiences recorded by ordinary people on the Weird Science Page.

A well reported and documented case is of an English woman who had a close encounter with a luminous ball in her kitchen. It was actually too close for comfort as the ball hit her legs.

Afterwards she was examined by a doctor. Her clothing was damaged but her legs weren't burnt as such. They had become red and numb though. Prior to this happening the woman had never heard of ball lighning.

Sir Brian Pippard reported Ball lightning at his Cavendish Laboratories in England. He said, of the ball, "It went through a window as a secretary was closing it and passed by without singing her hair."

And so it goes on - those Austrian physicists have got it wrong. Ball lightning, however, has never been fully explained by scientists or even the psychic world.



Photo source