Quote from Lucrum:
[ *"Near death" experiences. I've taken the time to watch quite a few interviews. I'm intrigued. And can't help but note the strong similarities from one to another.
The closest I would say that I ever came to having an NDE was back in the day. As kids we used play a game called "Elevator", in which we'd make ourselves pass out by holding our breath as hard as we could for as long as we could.
As I understood it, the lack of oxygen to the brain would cause it to begin shutting down.
If this lack of oxygen were prolonged, then our brain would lose control over more and more of our functions, right up until the brain itself "dies" and cannot be revived.
One of the first apparent effects of this phenomenon, was that it caused us to lose is our conscious thought, along with our voluntary ability to control our muscles, including the ones holding our diaphragm in place.
As a result our bodies would collapse, and our breathing would resume through our involuntary mechanisms.
An interesting thing seemed to happen surrounding the black-out episodes.
I, and others would report that while remembering the moments before losing consciousness, and remembering the moments after regaining consciousness- we could not remember one single thing that happened in the moments of our black-out.
Some of the kids, who were all too often capable and willing to be cruel, would sometimes severely punch the arms or legs of the poor dumb individual who was passed out.
Evidence showed us there was no physical re-action to the punches coming from the person who was self-subdued. They would just lay there as limp as a wash cloth- seemingly completely unaware that they were being pummeled.
Spoken testimony revealed there seemed to be no memory of immediately feeling any pain from the punches during the black-out.
After witnessing these acts of cruelty, I quickly decided to stop participating in this stupid game, and I recalled having soreness and bruises later in the day after partaking, and once even pissed my pants.
The game continued amongst others, for a while, until one day a fellow class-mate remained unconscious for about a minute or two longer than he should have, and began turning greenish blue in skin tone.
When he started to move again, his body writhed like a snake that had been cut in half, meanwhile convulsing and foaming from the mouth.
In the days that followed- after the ambulance came and ushered him away- I remember hearing that he recovered from the episode, but I don't recall that he ever returned to our class room.
As far as I could tell, that event ended the came for the rest of the students, too.
For me to conclude that my experiences with lack-of-oxygen induced black-outs could be compared with true NDE's that others have had, would be pure speculation.
However, if the brain's first immediate re-action in the shut down process is to cut-off memory making capabilities, then it's difficult to imagine at which point memory functions would be re-implemented.
Of course, the lack of conscious memory may only apply to myself, and the relatively few others who shared their similar experiences as I did. Or, perhaps the memories are still sitting in there for all of us participants, and we just haven't tapped into them.
Anyhow, you said you were intrigued by the subject, so I thought I would share with you the only insight I have into the matter, and I agree that the concept is intriguing.
I suppose I don't have the same certainty, or even the hope that others seems to have, in regards to whether or not we carry over our conscious memories of who we are or what we did, into an afterlife.
