Electromagnetic Hypothesis Of Survival After Death

[forests]

Janusz Slawinski a Polish physicist has published a paper titled Electromagnetic Radiation And The Afterlife.

 

You can find it online here:

 

http://www.newdualism.org/nde-papers/Slawinski/Slawinski-Journal%20of%20Near-Death%20Studies_1987-6-79-94.pdf

 

According to the abstract:

 

The question of survival of bodily death is often considered to be

beyond contemporary scientific methods and conceptual categories. However,

recent research into spontaneous radiations from living systems suggests a

scientific foundation for the ancient association between light and life, and a

biophysical hypothesis of the conscious self that could survive death of the

body. All living organisms emit low-intensity light; at the time of death, that

radiation is ten to 1,000 times stronger than that emitted under normal

conditions. This "deathflash" is independent of the cause of death, and reflects

in intensity and duration the rate of dying. The vision of intense light reported

in near-death experiences may be related to this deathflash, which may hold

an immense amount of information. The electromagnetic field produced by

necrotic radiation, containing energy, internal structure, and information,

may permit continuation of consciousness beyond the death of the body.

 

Some scientists have commented on his hypothesis:

 

 

http://www.springerlink.com/content/h22tx717m240n0n7/

 

His hypothesis has been described as interesting at it is based on biophyical concepts and not metaphysics.

 

Ervan Warris Walker wrote:

 

"Janusz Slawinski's thesis is, briefly, that electomagnetic radiation is assocated with living beings, and that at death that radiation may in some manner carry away and embody the conscious identity of an individual, either as a code capable or regenerating that identity, or as that conscious identity self."

 

http://www.springerlink.com/content/j633645836n80486/

 

Janusz Slawkinski has responded to some of these comments:

 

http://www.springerlink.com/content/h338n863555841r4/

 

Any opinions about his hypothesis?

[Turtle]

Janusz Slawinski a Polish physicist has published a paper titled Electromagnetic Radiation And The Afterlife.

 

...

Any opinions about his hypothesis?

 

i'd like to see some bona fide study that affirms "All living organisms emit low-intensity light; at the time of death, that

radiation is ten to 1,000 times stronger than that emitted under normal conditions."

 

even assuming the statement is true, considering the low intensity of such a light, the inverse square law and then how light is absorbed, any such emission would dissipate in short order. life after death is an oxymoron. near dead is not dead; dead is dead.

[CraigD]

It’s an old paper (1987) in the Journal of Near-Death Studies, a journal I’d describe as for “true believers”, not a credible scientific journal. The organization that controls it, IANDS, appears to be led (see here) by enthusiastic armatures, not biologists, physicists, or other experts.

 

I’d class Slawinski’s and similar ideas as pseudo-science, because they appears to be scientific and technical, but to actually be asserting that a phenomena that would be easy to validate – that “All living organisms emit low-intensity light; at the time of death, that radiation is ten to 1,000 times stronger than that emitted under normal conditions” – is true, while, no experiment has actually show that this “deathflash” occurs.

 

The paper contains other common pseudo-scientific terms, such as “electromagnetic aura” and “intentionality field”.

 

Even were it possible to encode ones complete mind/soul into an electromagnetic signal, unless something is capable of receiving, decoding, and “re-incarnating” it before it has traveled too far, this signal would eventually become undetectable. Because light can’t self-interact, it’s not possible for it to “be alive” in the way a living person is.

 

We humans feel a strong need to find evidence that we will not die. This need tends to make us accept arguments that we don’t – mostly religious ones, but in some cases, pseudo-scientific ones. The strength of this need, however, doesn’t constitute scientific support of these arguments.

[LaurieAG]

The movie Source Code covers that ground.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Code

 

The Code allows its user to experience the last eight minutes of another compatible person's life within an alternate timeline.[6] Stevens's mission is to use Source Code to discover the location of a bomb aboard the train and identify the bomber who detonated it. Goodwin explains that the train explosion occurred that morning, and was a warning by the bomber as a precursor to a larger dirty bomb that will be detonated in downtown Chicago.

 

During one of Stevens's attempts, he learns that the train explosion occurred two months after an incident in Afghanistan which reportedly killed him. Once he discovers this, he demands more information from Goodwin. She explains that the remains of his body are in fact on life-support at the Source Code facility while his mind is hooked up to a computer system, the cockpit being a mental projection of his own mind to cope with the experience. Angered to discover this, Stevens requests that his life support be terminated after the mission is completed, to which Dr. Rutledge agrees.

[CraigD]

The movie Source Code covers that ground.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Code

Source Code is one of my favorite movies! :) :thumbs_up

 

An important distinction between this 2011 movie and papers published by IANDS/JNDS, however, is that the movie’s makers intended it simply to be entertaining, while writers of papers for IANDS intend to present speculation and claims about the real universe.

 

Ignoring the fiction/nonfiction distinction, Souce Code isn’t about near-death experiences, but about a complicated, explanation-only-hinted-at machine that allows main character Colter Stevens to experience and control the actions of a passenger killed in the bombing of a train, Sean Fentress, in a parallel universe, during the 8-minute period immediately preceding his sudden death. The experience ends the moment Fentress dies – with some twists that it would spoil the movie for folk who haven’t seen it were we I to say much more on the subject. (which I'd much enjoy doing, in another thread :))

 

Slawinski’s, and many other IANDS contributors’ writing, is about the possibility that our personalities, or “souls”, don’t die when our bodies do, possibly in a manner resembling those described in various religious writing. Though some of this writing ventures into some of the same areas Souce Code writer and director hint at in their movie (and discuss more deeply in its DVD extras, which I recommend), IANDS appears to me to be more interested in proving that humans are immortal than the possibility of machines that can get information from parallel universes.

[forests]

It’s an old paper (1987) in the Journal of Near-Death Studies, a journal I’d describe as for “true believers”, not a credible scientific journal.

 

Anything to do with "afterlife" "life after death" etc will never make it to a mainstream scientific journal. That does not mean however that some of the stuff in these "pseudoscience" journals is not true.

 

 

i'd like to see some bona fide study that affirms "All living organisms emit low-intensity light

 

Theres lots of stuff, look at the references in the paper, or see the work of Alexander Girwitsch. An introduction on some of this research can be read here:

 

http://www.whps.com/misaha/hypot.htm also see http://web.telia.com/~u59500234/ED03.htm and http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/1210/1/PCC.pdf

 

Also see this paper:

 

Evidence for the Existence of an Electro-Dynamic Field in Living Organisms

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1077770/

Edited July 19, 2012 by forests

[forests]

Some interesting information:

 

http://www.teslar.com/CaseStudies/Life-Electromagnetic-Energy-and-Your-Well-Being.aspx

 

‘Energy’ and Mind-Body Science

 

 

 

The body is electric. The heartbeat is an electrical impulse measured by EKG. Brain waves are electromagnetic brain signals recorded by EEG. In 1972, Yale anatomy professor, Dr. Harold Saxton Burr, published 40 years of research documenting the existence of electromagnetic energy fields around all living organisms which “reveal both physical and mental conditions [and] offer new insight into the state of both body and mind.” Dr. Burr’s work also showed that these energy fields come first, guiding the material of growing organisms into their proper place. Since his landmark publication, countless other researchers have documented and published similar research detailing energy fields that surround all living organisms and the nature of their relationship to mental and physical well-being. Dr. Robert Becker, twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine, stated “all living things are surrounded by a magnetic field extending out into space from our bodies, and [these] fields from the brain reflect what is happening in the brain.”

 

 

 

In her book, Infinite Mind, UCLA professor Dr. Valerie Hunt recounts over 30 years of research and her startling first encounter with this human energy field while measuring electrical muscle activity in professional dancer, Emilie Conrad. To her complete bewilderment, Dr. Hunt was unable to find any electrical activity in Emilie’s muscles shortly into her dance routine – there should have been substantial electrical activity during such physical exercise. Instead, the only energy Dr. Hunt could find was pouring out of the top of her head “with intensity beyond what our equipment could handle.” Emilie simply explained, “I create a field of energy and ride it.” Dr. Hunt immediately began her exploration of these energy field patterns, and years of subsequent research revealed that the mind plays a critical role in the creation and patterning of these electromagnetic energy fields, and that these fields in turn help shape the physical structure of our bodies, just as Dr. Burr discovered.

 

 

 

In fact, what researchers such as Dr. Burr, Dr. Becker, and Dr. Hunt, among many others, are proving is that this energy field surrounding the body - what Dr. Hunt calls the “Mind Field” – may be the until-now missing link in the science of Mind and Body.

 

 

Theres also the work of Rupert Sheldrake http://www.sheldrake.org/Articles&Papers/papers/morphic/morphic1_paper.html

Edited July 19, 2012 by forests

[Iam Joy]

FORESTS hi :smile:

 

It's all very fascinating and interesting! I shall have a read of all your links.

 

I used to be a nurse and have witnessed the very moment of death; even in the eyes of those passing away. It is a really strange experience to behold. Many nurses see things they can't explain when people die and they only discuss it among themselves.

 

I can well imagine that perhaps the claimed 'death flash' is simply that in some people in the final moment perhaps all the electrical and chemical energy of the body goes off all in one micro-explosion, rather than a slow fade.

 

Even when a body is dead (human or animal) the latent energy can still cause it to move; so there is a lot to get rid of at death and maybe with some people it all goes off suddenly in a 'flash'.

 

It's an interesting idea that this may transport the consciousness to an immaterial dimension - who knows yet - we won't be able to tell this until our science is far more advanced.