BBC documentary about NDE - anyone see it?

[boomyboomy]

"God on the Brain" program postponed until 17 April.

Got to try and remember that!

[goingslow]

quote:Originally posted by boomyboomy

On a related note - something to look out for -

Just to let you know there in a Horizon program on BBC2 on 20th March at 9.00 called God on the Brain.

It's about this bloke who says he can induce spiritual experiences by applying magnetic fields to someone's brain. Transcdendence at the touch of a button! Should be worth a watch.

AJ

hmmm that sounds a little like the guy who wrote "the god part of the brain" im wonddering if its the same guy.

If it is i'd be very careful to watch what slant he puts on this.  If its the guy im thinking of he says because there is action in a certain part of the brain when someone has a mystical experience it is fake and caused by the brain.  Therefore he can induce "mystical or godlike experiences" by stimulating this part of the brain.

In other words he is using this theory to try to disprove there is any God out there or anything at all metaphysical or mystical.  
There is one huge flaw in his theory though.  There is a part of our brain that shows activity for everything.  Every emotion will show an activity in the brain. When a person is feeling agression, love, anger or hurt.  Does that make these emotions not real?  Another thing is sometimes our brain might be triggers due to how we're trying to process an experience.  It doesn't mean our brain created the experience but this guy makes it seem as though activity in the brain=a brain created event.

Im not sure this is the same guy, but if it is he'll make it clear right away he's trying to prove "God" only exists in the brain.  
Its important to pay attention to the message some of these people who claim they can create an experience are really trying to convey.

[MJ-12]

vv

[stephen~]

I think Goingslow is right, I've got a feeling it is about the DNA-man himself Francis Crick's theories on the brain and the nature of consciousness being explained as nothing more than neural activity. I read a book of his about 5 or 6 years ago in which he was beginning to shape these theories and recently I saw some article in a paper that he believed god is hard-wired into the brain. I could be putting two and two together and coming up with seven, but I think this is what that TV documentary will be about.

The documentary is another 'Horizon' documentary - the same program that made the documentary The Day I Died which put the case for OBE being real. They are usually very balanced documentries,so it will be interesting to see what they say. But they can't both be right, either the neuroscientists in the first program are wrong and Pam Reynolds is lying or deluded somehow, or Crick is wrong. I think most of us here know it's real and can't be arsed to wait for science to catch up and find out.

[LJ57]

I also remember reading Crick's book: The Astonishing Hypothesis : The Scientific Search For The Soul. I really don't buy into the idea that God is hard-wired into our brain and mystical experiences are nothing more than neural activity. As far as biology goes, God does nothing to help ensure survival. There seems to be no reason to think that it would benefit a species in any way. It would most likely eradicate fear of death and be counterproductive to survival. And the idea that evolution would be concerned about how peaceful our final moments are is just difficult to believe. I'm no expert on evolution but I've read Crick, Dawkins, Dennett, and others, and I can't say I'm very convinced by their arguments.

[boomyboomy]

OK - the BBC Horizon program that was meant to be on last month is on tonight at 9:00 on BBC2 - God on the Brain. Let's hope it's a balanced program!

Boomy

[Nick]

Hi everyone,

Hopefully, we'll get to see that BBC program at some point here in the States.

There was a made for tv movie here not too long ago based on the experiences of Dannion Brinkley who was struck by lightning and was dead for about a half hour. He was pronounced dead and taken to the morgue. By chance at the morgue, someone saw a little movement under the sheet they had thrown over him, and discovered he had come back to life. The movie had the same title as his book: Saved By the Light.

This link has some information if you're interested:
http://www.lightstreamers.com/dannion_brinkley.htm

[LJGVANVEEN]

Hi, I noticed the discussion on NDE and the research done by van Lommel here in the Netherlands. You can download the whole report with findings etc at :
http://profezie3m.altervista.org/archivio/TheLancet_NDE.htm#results
Kind regards,
Laurent

[Gandalf]

This was on at 9:00PM on Wednesday night (in the UK) I thought it was interesting as the program showcased the latest research to tell us what we already knew - that there does in fact appear to be some kind of separation between mind and body.

the sceptic Dr Susan Blackmore was on the show postulating her thesis about near death experiences being illusions caused by the dying brain but her theory couldnt account for the findings of more recent research of brain-dead heart attack patients (who had absolutly *no* brain activity at all) but who nevertheless described events during the recusitation procedure.
The program took the view that if someone could experience while the brain was totally non-functional then it led to the conclusion that there was something apart from the brain itself at work.

An analogy to a tv set was made where it may be the case that science has the wrong view of what the brain is. Up until now it was considered the origin of conciousness but perhaps it is actually the receiver of conciousness - a fundamental difference.

Its like a tv set, if you had know idea of the concept of how a tv worked you would assume that the tv signals/picture originated from the components of the tv itself - you would not understand that the tv actually is a device for receiving and displaying the signal, not the origin.

Regards,
Douglas