Today, I was thinking about beliefs and how they influence our thinking in such an incredible way. This thought brought me to the idea of near-death experiences and how many people believe them to be real and that they allow an individual to experience or eye-witness the afterlife, thereby ensuring to that individual that Heaven/Hell do exist. I would like to share a bit of information on a biological theory relating to this idea.
In the 90's, a scientist named Dr. Strassman came up with a theory relating near-death experiences to DMT (dimenthyltryptamine). DMT is a powerful hallucinogen and recreational drug that gives the user a 5-10 minute trip that makes the user feel as though they are in another world altogether: in short, it is the most powerful psychoactive drug currently known to man. DMT, however, is also a natural chemical that is produced by the brain in the pineal gland. Upon death, a large amount of DMT is naturally released by the brain; the individual never remembers the experience, however, because they die shortly after. When a person experiences a "near-death experience," in truth, all that is happening is the brain becomes confused, believes that the person should be dying, and prematurely releases a large amount of DMT. When the individual is resuscitated, they remember the trip and rationalize it as witnessing Heaven/Hell/or some other version of the afterlife.
Just something to consider...
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1 comment:
Jenni, I think you hit the nail on the head with respect to how belief may affect our thinking. Strange coincidence that I came across your post; I just posted something similar on my blog -- if you don't mind the shameless plug, it is at
http://jeffreyellis.org/blog/
and is the post titled "Self Righteousness and Critical Thinking."
I like your blog; hope you keep it up. More "About" detail would help.
Jeff
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