Theos-Talk Archives (September 1996 Message tl00297)

Well now, I for one have thought of this many a time, seeing that you
ask.  I have had three NDEs in my time, and conform more or less what
you write about them below as conforming to my recollections.  I dount
whether anyone has developed any equipment which could measure anything.
In any event, the thorough study this area of the brain appears to be
still in its infancy.

Alan

In message <199609220913.FAA10540@envirolink.org>, John Straughn
<JTarn@envirolink.org> writes
>One of the things which I wish scientists would try, if they have the
>equipment necessary, of course, would be to moniter the activity in the
>thalamus recently after a death, more appropriately after a heart attack.  I
>have a theory, rather, a hypothesis that the thalamus is the "relay" during a
>near-death experience.  This is why:
>
>First of all, the thalamus acts as a relay for all of the senses, excluding
>smell.  Everything that one sees, hears, touches, etc. must go through the
>thalamus before it can be interpreted and remembered by the appropriate lobes.
> Just as in the Upanishads it says that the spleen is the physical "seat" of
>the astral body, I believe that the thalamus is similar in the microcosmic
>sense.  Perhaps even the seat of the atman.
>
>When a person has a near-death experience, and I am referring to those who
>have seen the tunnel, the light, etc., they are seeing the light, the atman,
>perhaps, at the end of a tunnel.  Their senses and instincts are the first to
>go in, for they are the "nearest" to the thalamus, and also the most "basic".
>
>When the people enter the light, their whole life flashes before them so to
>speak, and it all happens at once.  They feel the emotions, as well as the
>senses, (except smell, coincidentally, (or not), that occurred during their
>life.  This experience is all of their memories retreating into the thalamus,
>probably a spiritual mechanism of sorts to prepare them for the final stage of
>physical death.  Once their entire spiritual and mental self is "enclosed"
>within the thalamus, they can decide upon whether or not it is "their time."
>
>Has anyone else thought of this?  Or does anyone know if this kind of thalamic
>testing is possible?
>
>---
>The Triaist
>
>

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