NDEs and afterlife

[Percivale]

Here's a cool NDE I just read: Dr. George Ritchie's Near-Death Experience

I have a theory (or idea) about how afterlife might work. That consciousness is produced by the brain, rather than an immaterial soul, has some evidence in favor of it from mental illness and such, but life after death also has good evidence from NDEs. It's possible they are both true. Maybe there is a system somewhat analogous to The Matrix in another dimension that automatically copies a person's personality when they die and saves it in a way that maintains consciousness, analogous to a program playing on a computer. People in that 'matrix' can communicate with one another and access information about the universe, as well as perhaps create zones within it which they program to resemble places on earth or their concepts of heaven or hell. Just speculation, but seems to have some explanatory power.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Certainty is for idiots like Descartes. I was thinking just the same, maybe the "hut" fvom which my conscious peers into the world is some form of interdimensional memory stick.

 

[Davian]

Here's a cool NDE I just read: Dr. George Ritchie's Near-Death Experience

From a link on that page:

"Our research question was: can we verify any of the facts that Ritchie recounted in his story, in particular about the details of his description of the all-night cafe in Vicksburg, the town with several blinking caution lights, and the Camp Barkeley station hospital ward building. We spoke briefly with Dr. Ritchie in November 2006 about whether he could recall other features of the night sky during his OBE, such as the position of the moon that night (which was visible, having risen around 1:50 am) or the orientation of the Big Dipper constellation. He did not recall any such details as he was looking down at the ground during his "flight" (Ritchie, 2006). We did not ask about the all-night cafe or the ward buildings, and unfortunately Dr. Ritchie subsequently died in October 2007.

What we have found is that there was indeed a restaurant or cafe, located at 1501 Levee St in Vicksburg, called "Mike's Place", that very likely was an all-night cafe in December 1943. However, its construction was different from the description Ritchie gave in 1978. The other possibilities for cafes at that time (1943-44) do not fit Ritchie's story: all of the other possibilities are located on east-west streets (wrong direction), or on the wrong corner, or are the wrong construction or color (e.g. brick)."

I have a theory (or idea) about how afterlife might work. That consciousness is produced by the brain, rather than an immaterial soul, has some evidence in favor of it from mental illness and such, but life after death also has good evidence from NDEs.

What is this "good evidence"?

It's possible they are both true.

How did you establish this possibility?

Maybe there is a system somewhat analogous to The Matrix in another dimension that automatically copies a person's personality when they die and saves it in a way that maintains consciousness, analogous to a program playing on a computer. People in that 'matrix' can communicate with one another and access information about the universe, as well as perhaps create zones within it which they program to resemble places on earth or their concepts of heaven or hell. Just speculation, but seems to have some explanatory power.

How so?

 

[Percivale]

Davian, I don't believe NDEers are infallible. If you visited a bar in an unfamiliar town and got drunk there or had an accident on the way back, I doubt you'd remember all the details correctly either 20 years later. On the other hand, if there is no afterlife, every NDEr who says those kinds of things is a liar. Since I believe in God for other reasons, I find it not that improbable that there could be NDEs, and so it seems more likely that experiencers are in general telling the truth. I know there are sure to be a few that just make it up for the attention, and some that mistake dreams and such for it, but there's many that those explanations don't adequately explain.
I believe an idea that harmonizes two phenomena that both have evidence but seem not to fit has explanatory power for that reason.

This thread is not really for atheists anyway, I'm more looking for comments from those who agree with or are open to the idea of an afterlife.