There is just one thing that I have a hard time accepting when it comes to Nuerology and all of this just happens in our "brains", near death experiences that happen in operating rooms. This is one aspect of the puzzle that a lot of Christian believers actually believe in. Maybe just because a lot of people experience seeing feeling Jesus's presence (which concretes their beliefs and validates their religious perceptions) but I might add, starts out the same as the death experience in past life regressions. Past life regression in this instance go a lot farther than near death experiences and shows that the beginning experiences are physical perceptions that the Soul hasn't rid itself of yet. Like I said, Past life regression mirrors near death experiences to the "T" with the exception that the person doesn't come back into the body but goes on to different phases of the experience.
Anyway, I have had surgery before and when they inject the medicine in the IV tube you are out. There are many instances that a patient that has died during surgery and can remember, without hypnosis, and recount whole conversations that happened when their temporary death had occured. They can also 'see' what the medical staff did to try to ressucitate the dead body. If you are knocked out for surgery, how can this be? Is this actually a part of ourselves that survive the physical death? I know during my surgery, I didn't know anything until the anesthesiologist brought me back. It was 45 minutes of nothing. To me it was felling really good, then I was asked if I was ready and then the medicine was injected. The next thing I know the lady was asking me if I felt OK when she brought me out of the anesthesia. No memory of actually slipping into unconsciousness with no dreams or anything. This is the main reason why I can't accept that near death experiences are wholly neurological in that the brain is creating the whole experience. Or for that matter the whole aspect of death being nothing but a brain event.
Kind of like the chicken and the egg paradox, what came first? The mind or the brain? What is the mind? It's not physical. The brain is of course but where do our personalities and perceptions really come from? Is this something that is brought about by nuerons firing in the brain or is it something that is a holdover or something that we are born with? I do believe in science and find it quite intriguing for the most part but I think a lot of time scientists leave out a certain Spiritual aspect to their research. I am not talking about a religious aspect but rather an aspect of intellegent design instead of any specific perception. The old saying "mind over matter" interests me. Is this a hint of evolution? Are we mentally evolving higher and higher mental capabilities? Look at us now compared to a thousand or five thousand years ago. A lot of people look to the bible and see a differnce between the God of the Old Testement and the God of the New Testement. What I see when looking with an open mind is not so much a differnce in God or the Creator but a difference in human peceptions of a Devine power. Our understanding has changed and is constantly changing, not the Creator. We used to think that when you sailed far enough in a ship, you would fall off the edge of the earth. We now know the plant is a sphere and not flat and that no matter how hard you try, you will never sail off the edge of the planet. Our perceptions changed and we see the our world different than the ancients saw it. I believe our Spiritual perceptions change too according to what we can or are willing to percieve. Look at how much our perceptions of the Universe has changed over time. We used to believe that we were at the center of the universe and the sun and the solar system revolved around the earth. We now know that we are not at the center of the Universe and we and the other planets revolved around the sun and the sun revolves around a point in the galaxy. WHat changed? Nothing but our perceptions. Everything else is pretty much a constant and has been doing its thing for mellenia.
I believe that religions should be used as pieces of a puzzle instead of being fought over or disagreed upon or used as a means of control. Once perceptions change enough, it's only a matter of time until another religion takes over and holds the symbolism of the age in which spawns it's birth. Corruption by governments or established religions can herald this. Also out of a deperation and hunger for knowledge by the people, or just a staleness by the common accepted Spiritual beliefs of the time. A lot of Christians believe that the Book of Revelation is an end time event. I see it as the death of the old and worn out and the rebirth of a new perception of the Devine Entity. The Mayan Calender sparked the end of one age and a lot of folks believed that something spectacular would happen. What if it did and we don't even percieve it? It started over with the 2nd baktun and the prophecy in that is that it will be the end of "the word of God". What is the word of God? It could be the Bible, meaning that perceptions for the last roughly two thousand years will be changed or forced to change to another higher form of perception. For example we might even see that God or The Creator gave us all the tools to control our own destiny instead of percieving that that particular Entity intervenes in every little detail of our lives or anyone elses. We may even begin to percieve corruption in governments and religious entities instead of just blindly following without question. We may even percieve death as an extension of an eternal existance than just the end of life period. The possiblities are endless when it comes to perceptions and how we see the world and universe as compared to how our world and universe truly are.
Anyway, I am usually and by nature and experience the world's most pessimistic person but when it comes to Spirituality, for some reason I seem to be the world's most optimistic person. Go figure that one out. If anyone can tell me why I am such a paradox in a matter such as this, please enlighten me. I warn you though, I have been called crazy, insane, ignorant and the list goes on for my beliefs. I am about ready to start believing them.
