Lucidity before death: Extraordinary challenges to materialism (2022-12-29) ​

0:00:04 in this video I want to share with you
0:00:06 some extraordinary challenges to
0:00:09 materialism materialism is a philosophy
0:00:12 which is pretty dominant in the west and
0:00:14 it has a certain understanding of who we
0:00:16 are as human beings and I think this is
0:00:19 coming under sustained critique and
0:00:21 Challenge and nowhere more so in the
0:00:24 area of near-death experiences and
0:00:27 lucidity before death and other
0:00:29 remarkable phenomena which are now very
0:00:31 well researched and documented often in
0:00:34 peer-reviewed academic journals
0:00:37 and I want to share some of these
0:00:39 accounts with you because I found them
0:00:41 mind-blowing when I first came across
0:00:42 them and I thought wow this tells us
0:00:44 something extraordinary about who we are
0:00:47 as a species and also the universe that
0:00:49 we live in as well as well as the
0:00:52 Transcendent spiritual realm now I'm
0:00:54 going to be drawing um many of these
0:00:56 accounts from this book uh encountering
0:00:58 mystery religious experience in a
0:01:01 secular age by Professor Dale Allison
0:01:03 who's a professor at Princeton in
0:01:06 America
0:01:07 um and I had the privilege of
0:01:08 interviewing him recently on blogging
0:01:10 theology do watch that video so the
0:01:12 first thing I want to share with you is
0:01:14 the phenomena that he uh recounts in his
0:01:16 book firstly what he calls Lucidity
0:01:20 before death Lucidity before death what
0:01:23 is this phenomena well let me if you're
0:01:25 not aware of it is extraordinary and I
0:01:27 want to share it with you uh what he
0:01:29 says here and he quotes many
0:01:31 um sources and research about this so he
0:01:34 begins on page 103.
0:01:37 in the middle of the 19th century a
0:01:40 French doctor wrote
0:01:42 in certain diseases the senses acquire
0:01:45 an extraordinary delicacy on the
0:01:48 approach of death
0:01:49 when the sick person astonishes those
0:01:52 about him by the elevation of his
0:01:55 thoughts
0:01:56 and the sudden Lucidity of a mind which
0:01:59 has been obscured during many long years
0:02:03 end quote
0:02:05 similar other words from a British
0:02:07 physician of the same Century quote we
0:02:10 have all observed the Mind clear up in
0:02:13 an extraordinary manner in the last
0:02:16 hours of life
0:02:17 when the terminated even in the course
0:02:20 in even in the ordinary course of nature
0:02:23 but certainly still more remarkable when
0:02:27 is being cut short by disease when uh
0:02:31 which have effect which had affected for
0:02:34 a Time the intellectual faculties end
0:02:38 quote and Alison explains in more detail
0:02:41 what this phenomena are he continues
0:02:44 these remarks represent once common
0:02:47 knowledge so this is widely known in our
0:02:50 civilization uh before more recent times
0:02:54 Hippocrates Cicero Plutarch and Galen is
0:02:58 a figures in the ancient world as well
0:03:00 as doctors in the 18th and 19th
0:03:02 centuries reported cases of the confused
0:03:06 or cognitively inert becoming shortly
0:03:10 before death perfectly Lucid so these
0:03:13 people are about to whose lives are
0:03:15 about to end on this Earth and they may
0:03:18 have been Advanced stages of illness and
0:03:21 sickness and suddenly they become very
0:03:23 very lucid perfectly Lucid perfectly
0:03:25 clear and aware and awake
0:03:29 William monk in a book published in 1887
0:03:32 remarked that Lucidity before death
0:03:36 quote has impressed and surprised
0:03:38 Mankind from the earliest ages unquote
0:03:43 Now Alison goes on to say something very
0:03:45 interesting the phenomenon however
0:03:47 barely shows up in the medical
0:03:50 literature of the 20th centuries this
0:03:52 guy I've not noticed or ignored by the
0:03:55 doctor's profession by the medical
0:03:56 profession it seems to be largely
0:03:59 forgotten until
0:04:01 2009 he says when a German biologist
0:04:05 Michael Nam published a survey of
0:04:08 relevant cases and coined the phrase in
0:04:12 English translates as terminal lucidity
0:04:16 he offers this description quote the
0:04:19 re-emergence of normal or unusually
0:04:22 enhanced medical abilities in dull
0:04:26 unconscious or mentally ill patients
0:04:29 shortly before death
0:04:31 including considerable elevation of mood
0:04:34 and spiritual affectation or the ability
0:04:37 to speak in a previously unusual
0:04:40 spiritualized and elated manner end
0:04:44 quote to illustrate
0:04:47 Scott Hague a well-known medical
0:04:49 columnist and clinical professor of
0:04:52 orthopedic surgery at Columbia
0:04:54 University College of Physicians and
0:04:56 surgeons had a patient David
0:05:00 whose lung cancer as so often happens
0:05:03 had met as day-sized to his brain
0:05:07 David's speech as a result was slurred
0:05:10 then he became incoherent then he could
0:05:14 no longer move he eventually became holy
0:05:18 unresponsive
0:05:20 in other words there was no reaction
0:05:22 from them at all according to Professor
0:05:25 Hague he showed no expression no
0:05:28 response to anything we did to him as
0:05:30 far as I could tell he was just not
0:05:32 there end quote
0:05:34 a scan revealed that cancer had eaten
0:05:37 most of his brain and yet an hour before
0:05:42 his death and after he had already begun
0:05:45 to breathe irregularly he awakened so
0:05:48 David actually awakened
0:05:50 he smiled spoke clearly to his gathered
0:05:54 family and held their hands
0:05:56 only then did he slip away
0:06:00 the attending nurse opined that it was
0:06:03 quote like a miracle
0:06:06 this was Professor hague's verdict
0:06:08 remember this is a medical professional
0:06:10 quote it wasn't David's brain that woke
0:06:13 him up to say goodbye that Friday his
0:06:17 brain had already been destroyed
0:06:20 tumor metastasizes don't simply occupy
0:06:24 space and press on things leaving a
0:06:27 whole brain the metastases actually
0:06:30 replace tissue where that gray stuff
0:06:33 grows the brain is just not their end
0:06:38 quote it's remarkable quote from the
0:06:40 professor there the guy basically had
0:06:42 little brain left it certainly wasn't
0:06:44 able to communicate in any way that
0:06:47 medical science could possibly
0:06:48 understand and yet he became fully aware
0:06:51 alert awake and it could hold normal
0:06:53 conversations the moment before he
0:06:57 passed away just an hour or so before he
0:06:59 passed away
0:07:00 remarkable uh uh confirmed authentic
0:07:04 report from a medical profession a
0:07:06 professional
0:07:07 next uh paragraph even Alzheimer's
0:07:11 patience reports Professor Adele Ellison
0:07:14 can exhibit terminal Lucidity so we all
0:07:18 know unfortunately of Alzheimer's
0:07:19 patients in a very Advanced stage who
0:07:21 are virtually unable to communicate but
0:07:24 these people
0:07:25 can exhibit terminal acidity in other
0:07:28 words at approaching death
0:07:29 over 1 91 year old woman had been wholly
0:07:34 unresponsive for five years nothing
0:07:38 hinted that that she recognized anyone
0:07:41 including her own daughter who was her
0:07:44 caretaker
0:07:45 nevertheless a few minutes before she
0:07:48 died she began to engage in a coherent
0:07:51 conversation
0:07:52 she spoke about death her church her
0:07:55 family
0:07:56 her daughter was naturally enough
0:07:58 utterly baffled at her mother's
0:08:01 momentary return to her earlier
0:08:04 articulate self
0:08:07 in a similar case a woman with
0:08:09 Alzheimer's had not spoken with or
0:08:11 recognized anyone for years this is one
0:08:13 of the most distressing things about
0:08:14 Alzheimer not being able to recognize
0:08:16 the person without something is not
0:08:18 recognizing any of their family their
0:08:20 close family their loved ones at all
0:08:22 very distressing yet a week before she
0:08:26 died she abruptly stirred from in
0:08:28 sentience and began conversing with her
0:08:31 granddaughter asking questions about the
0:08:34 family and offering advice
0:08:37 her granddaughter was taken aback by
0:08:40 this flabbergasting flash of Vitality
0:08:42 and later remarked it was like talking
0:08:45 to Rip Van Winkle and quote
0:08:49 these last two accounts not only
0:08:51 illustrate terminal Lucidity but give a
0:08:54 sense of what is usually communicated
0:08:58 as smart has noticed of all those I
0:09:02 interviewed no one had a story in which
0:09:05 angry or spiteful words were spoken
0:09:07 during the window of lucidity most of
0:09:11 the stories included final requests for
0:09:13 favorite foods or final reconciliations
0:09:17 or pronouncements of Love end quote
0:09:21 another expert has related that the most
0:09:23 common themes are memories preparation
0:09:26 for Death final wishes bodily issues
0:09:30 such as hunger and awareness of imminent
0:09:33 departure
0:09:34 now the chapter goes on to discuss this
0:09:36 in further detail Lucidity before death
0:09:39 I'm not going to quote all of it you're
0:09:41 very welcome obviously to read it
0:09:42 yourselves and I do recommend this book
0:09:45 as an extraordinary like Encyclopedia of
0:09:48 a phenomena that are very well
0:09:50 documented and researched today in
0:09:53 medical journals in in many other ways
0:09:56 which are not really impinging on our
0:09:58 Consciousness in our materialist Society
0:10:02 I just now want to come to a second
0:10:05 category of extraordinary phenomena
0:10:08 which challenges materialism and these
0:10:11 of course are the near-death experiences
0:10:13 these are coming quite well known now I
0:10:16 just want to look at some of the
0:10:17 accounts of these near-death experiences
0:10:19 to give you a flavor of what they're
0:10:22 like because they're not kind of vague
0:10:24 senses of a light uh you know as you
0:10:27 approach death oh I saw a light and it
0:10:29 was all very uh Heavenly and nice no no
0:10:32 there's some really fascinating details
0:10:34 which corroborates but often by Third
0:10:38 parties that what this person
0:10:40 experiences objectively real and
0:10:43 reliable it's not just a vision that
0:10:45 people have
0:10:47 so um Dale Martin uh sorry Dell Allison
0:10:50 says on page 133 the most intriguing
0:10:53 evidence for the extra subjective nature
0:10:57 of ndes in other words the objective
0:10:59 nature of NDS is this
0:11:01 many people claim to have seen while
0:11:05 under anesthesia or otherwise
0:11:07 unconscious from and from a point of
0:11:10 view outside their body things that they
0:11:14 should not have been able to see things
0:11:16 sort of physically impossible
0:11:19 for the patient or the person who had
0:11:21 the ND to have seen by any understanding
0:11:23 of the laws of physics that we we
0:11:25 currently hold
0:11:27 even if
0:11:28 single such claim is true
0:11:31 standard accounts of sense perceptions
0:11:34 cannot to understate the matter be the
0:11:37 whole picture and this is a
0:11:39 characteristic of Professor Allison he
0:11:41 tends to understate matters I want to go
0:11:44 much further in my conclusion and draw
0:11:46 out the what I think are the fairly
0:11:49 reasonable conclusions that one can draw
0:11:52 from the phenomena he discusses and I
0:11:55 can be much we can be much more explicit
0:11:57 I think than him about what this tells
0:12:00 us about the universe about us as human
0:12:02 beings about the afterlife about God
0:12:05 about the Transcendent about our souls
0:12:07 our Spirits we can be much I think more
0:12:09 confident
0:12:10 uh the Dell Allison Hughes trying to be
0:12:13 more perhaps more reticent so as not
0:12:16 perhaps to put off some people but the
0:12:17 evidence is very clear anyway some cases
0:12:20 are well known and appear in the
0:12:22 literature again and again
0:12:25 there is the story of the man who after
0:12:27 a massive heart attack was cyanotic and
0:12:31 comatose before surgery
0:12:34 immediately proceeding intubation a
0:12:37 nurse removed his dentures and put them
0:12:40 on a crash cut
0:12:42 regaining Consciousness a week later he
0:12:46 said to the nurse you know where my
0:12:48 dentures are yes you were there when
0:12:51 they brought me into the hospital and
0:12:54 you took the Dentures out of my mouth
0:12:56 and put them on that cart
0:12:58 it had all those bottles on it and there
0:13:02 was a sliding drawer underneath and you
0:13:05 can put my teeth there and you put my
0:13:07 teeth there end quote
0:13:09 how did he know how could he see
0:13:12 there's also the story of Maria who
0:13:15 suffered a heart attack while in
0:13:17 hospital
0:13:18 she told her social work about during
0:13:21 her nde she had seen a dark blue tennis
0:13:25 shoe on a Ledge on the third floor near
0:13:29 a window
0:13:30 social workers subsequently found the
0:13:32 shoot and reported that it could not be
0:13:34 seen from inside the hospital
0:13:37 so Maria here's seen something that is
0:13:39 physically impossible to see by the
0:13:41 normal understandings of what is
0:13:43 possible
0:13:44 and then there's the story of Pam
0:13:46 Reynolds in order to treat a large brain
0:13:49 aneurysm her daughter's induced
0:13:52 hypothermic Cardiac Arrest they chilled
0:13:56 her blood stopped her heart then drained
0:13:59 the blood from her brain
0:14:01 during repair of the aneurysm her EEG
0:14:04 was flat in other words in a pocket
0:14:07 Ascend she was dead basically or
0:14:10 virtually dead
0:14:11 nevertheless upon Awakening she reported
0:14:15 a detailed nde
0:14:18 included
0:14:20 describing the little saw used to cut
0:14:23 open her skull and hearing things she
0:14:26 should have been unable to hear it's
0:14:28 another way she had an outer body
0:14:30 experience observe what was going on
0:14:31 around her and heard conversations even
0:14:34 though you know EEG was flat so it
0:14:37 shouldn't be impossible for that to
0:14:40 happen
0:14:42 uh Professor Allison continues it's not
0:14:44 just that thousands of people
0:14:46 have purported that during their nde
0:14:49 they saw things they should not have
0:14:52 been able to see
0:14:54 in quite a few instances and this is a
0:14:56 really interesting point one one count
0:14:59 reckons the number in the literature to
0:15:01 be over 300 cases third party
0:15:04 confirmation has been claimed in other
0:15:06 words it wasn't just the person say oh
0:15:08 this happened to me
0:15:09 but other people usually medical
0:15:11 profession professionals have been able
0:15:14 to corroborate and confirm
0:15:16 what the person having the nde saw uh
0:15:20 witnessed recounted and heard and so on
0:15:23 so in other words these experiences have
0:15:25 been verified as authentic by any normal
0:15:27 definition of authenticity I would
0:15:29 suggest
0:15:30 this includes confirmation for medical
0:15:33 professionals on the scene consider
0:15:35 these first-hand testimonies now I'm now
0:15:38 going to mention some of these uh
0:15:40 testimonies that Alison has brought
0:15:42 together and put in his extraordinary
0:15:45 book
0:15:45 and then one I've read some of these I
0:15:48 will offer my uh own personal
0:15:50 conclusions what conclusions can we draw
0:15:53 from these testimonies what do they tell
0:15:55 us about us as human beings about the
0:15:58 world the universe about reality about
0:16:00 the dimensions we inhabit about the
0:16:03 afterlife about God and so on because
0:16:06 this information is very rich in uh
0:16:08 detail and suggests quite clear quite
0:16:11 clearly I think certain conclusions that
0:16:14 we can reasonably draw from the evidence
0:16:17 and I'll come to that at the end and a
0:16:19 couple of quotes also for macron I think
0:16:21 which confirm that these experiences are
0:16:24 certainly authentic in principle anyway
0:16:27 so here's a one testimony
0:16:30 these are the words of an ICU doctor so
0:16:34 there's a doctor's testimony
0:16:36 I operated on a woman under general
0:16:38 anesthetic and when she woke up she
0:16:41 described her operation as if she had
0:16:44 been on the ceiling
0:16:46 not only that she also described the
0:16:48 operation that took place in the next
0:16:51 theater the amputation of a leg
0:16:54 she saw the leg she saw them put the leg
0:16:58 in a yellow bag
0:17:00 she shouldn't possibly she couldn't
0:17:02 possibly have invented that says the
0:17:04 doctor and she described it as soon as
0:17:07 she woke up
0:17:08 I checked afterwards and the operation
0:17:11 had indeed taken place in the next
0:17:14 theater
0:17:15 a leg had been amputated at the very
0:17:17 same time that she was under anesthetic
0:17:20 and thus totally disconnected from the
0:17:24 world unquote wow what does that tell
0:17:27 you so the person claimed to have been a
0:17:30 spirit her whatever you call her soul
0:17:33 left the body was in a position above
0:17:36 her body
0:17:37 observing what was going on to her body
0:17:39 and also in other rooms in other
0:17:42 theaters in the hospital and what she
0:17:44 saw and what she recounted were verified
0:17:47 by a medical profession as soon as she
0:17:50 was conscious she recounted this and
0:17:51 said yes that's exactly and he said the
0:17:53 doctor said yes that indeed happened
0:17:58 another these are the words of a
0:18:00 cardiothoriac surgeon
0:18:02 he so this is a medical a surgeon this
0:18:05 time
0:18:06 corroborating giving testimony
0:18:09 corroborating third-party confirmation
0:18:11 these are the words of a cardiothorac
0:18:14 surgeon he the patient talked about the
0:18:18 bright light at the end of the tunnel as
0:18:20 I recall and so on this is fairly
0:18:22 standard in ndes but the thing that
0:18:24 astounded me was that he described that
0:18:28 operating room
0:18:30 floating around and saying I saw you and
0:18:33 Dr canio standing in the doorway with
0:18:36 your arms folded talking I saw the I
0:18:41 didn't know where the anesthesiologist
0:18:44 was but he came running back and I saw
0:18:48 all of these Post-it notes these are
0:18:50 Post-it notes if you write messages on
0:18:53 Sitting on This TV screen
0:18:57 and what those were were any call I got
0:19:00 the nurse would write down and called
0:19:03 and the phone number and stick it on the
0:19:05 Monitor and then the next Post-It note
0:19:07 would be would stick to that Post-It
0:19:10 note and then I'd have a string of
0:19:13 posted phone calls I'd have to make
0:19:15 he described that I mean there was no
0:19:18 way he could have described that before
0:19:20 the operation because I didn't have any
0:19:22 calls right he described the scene
0:19:25 things that were things that there is no
0:19:30 way he knew I mean he didn't wake up in
0:19:33 the operating room and see all this
0:19:34 stuff end quote
0:19:36 so the surgeon here is is talking about
0:19:39 the Post-it notes and the phone calls
0:19:41 and the messages and how they were left
0:19:43 for the cardiologist the whole procedure
0:19:45 there's no way that the patient could
0:19:47 have known about this in advance because
0:19:49 there were no calls
0:19:50 so clearly uh this is third party
0:19:52 confirmation of the uh the truth of this
0:19:56 account another one
0:19:59 these are the words of another
0:20:00 cardiologist quoting him here he told me
0:20:04 everything I had said and done such as
0:20:06 checking the pulse deciding to stop
0:20:08 resuscitation going out of the room
0:20:11 coming back later looking across at him
0:20:13 going over and rechecking his pulse and
0:20:16 then restarting the resuscitation he got
0:20:19 all the details right which was
0:20:22 impossible because not only had he been
0:20:24 lying in a stall I'm not sure what that
0:20:27 word means uh and had no pulse
0:20:30 throughout the arrest but he wasn't even
0:20:32 being resuscitate resuscitated for about
0:20:34 15 minutes afterward
0:20:37 what he told me really freaked me out
0:20:39 says the cardiologist and to this day I
0:20:42 haven't told anyone because I just can't
0:20:44 explain it I just can't explain it I
0:20:48 don't think about it anymore end quote
0:20:51 it's a very sad uh the Cardiology who
0:20:53 had seen something absolutely remarkable
0:20:55 and just hadn't told anyone presumably
0:20:57 because he might have been ridiculed or
0:21:00 it might have affected his career
0:21:01 negatively if he got out that you know
0:21:03 he had he had said and seen these things
0:21:05 who knows why but nevertheless a
0:21:08 reliable medical profession
0:21:09 corroborating uh what happened to this
0:21:13 patient
0:21:15 these are more words of an emergency
0:21:17 medical physician in other words doctor
0:21:20 in theory he a patient who was
0:21:24 successfully resuscitated could have
0:21:27 heard what we said aloud and recounted
0:21:29 it later but he also visit visually
0:21:32 described the room and the dark-haired
0:21:35 nurse in detail and what she did even
0:21:39 when she was not talking so even if a
0:21:41 guy could hear
0:21:42 he he shouldn't be able to see anything
0:21:45 this should have been impossible as he
0:21:48 never spontaneously opened his eyes and
0:21:51 had no signs of the visual brain centers
0:21:54 working
0:21:56 there were approximately 60 staff
0:21:58 members or more in the emergency
0:22:00 department additionally he described in
0:22:04 detail what the Pacific woman did to him
0:22:07 I cannot imagine that random chance
0:22:10 would have allowed him to pick her up
0:22:13 from the previously from a previously
0:22:16 known population and then describe in
0:22:18 detail what she did
0:22:21 end quote
0:22:23 this is another one these are the words
0:22:26 of a neurosurgeon who worked on Pam
0:22:29 Reynolds
0:22:31 there was absolutely no question that
0:22:33 Pam Reynolds quoting here was clinically
0:22:36 dead
0:22:38 her EEG was completely flat
0:22:42 and her evoked potential too was
0:22:45 completely gone
0:22:47 I believe that pan recalled things that
0:22:49 were remarkably accurate I do not
0:22:52 understand from a physiological
0:22:54 perspective how that could possibly have
0:22:57 happened he's being honesty as a doctor
0:22:59 he has no physical explanation as to how
0:23:01 this could have happened I hope not to
0:23:04 be arrogant enough to say it can't
0:23:07 happen so the doctor here's Church being
0:23:09 humble in the face of the Unexplained
0:23:11 but from a scientific perspective there
0:23:14 is no acceptable explanation to me he
0:23:17 said as a neurosurgeon I have
0:23:20 encountered so many things that I didn't
0:23:22 have an explanation for
0:23:24 you keep it in the back of your mind and
0:23:26 if in your life you come up with another
0:23:28 explanation then you can recall it and
0:23:30 say ah this is how it works in Pam's
0:23:34 case I'm far far from that
0:23:40 these are the words of an orthopedic
0:23:43 surgeon quote her observations are the
0:23:46 minutest details of her Cardiac Arrest
0:23:49 were things that no one would have known
0:23:52 my mind raced to find a logical
0:23:55 scientific explanation for what she was
0:23:57 telling me
0:23:58 but I could not
0:24:01 she had not been conscious her eyes were
0:24:04 closed and she had no logical way of
0:24:06 knowing what took place in the or that
0:24:09 day
0:24:12 another quote and this one's quite
0:24:13 interesting
0:24:15 even more interesting than others I
0:24:17 should say these are the words of a
0:24:19 cardiac anesthesiologist the patient
0:24:21 quote went on to describe the number of
0:24:24 surgeons in the operating theater where
0:24:27 they were positioned the actions of the
0:24:29 nurses the other events that made it
0:24:31 clear he had been observing events from
0:24:35 somewhere above us notice the
0:24:37 positioning because it's not like
0:24:38 horizontally observing like the patient
0:24:41 would do but he was above them in his
0:24:45 spirit in his soul in what everyone
0:24:46 called it
0:24:47 I could hardly believe what he was
0:24:50 saying
0:24:51 over the course of my 25-year career
0:24:54 there had been patients who claimed to
0:24:56 see deceased friends during their
0:24:58 Cardiac Arrest or who saw lights and the
0:25:01 end of tunnels or you claimed to see
0:25:04 people made of light
0:25:06 perhaps Angels but I I choked that up up
0:25:09 I chalked that off to some kind of
0:25:12 fantasy and refer them to the
0:25:14 psychiatrist he says
0:25:17 but what happened to this man was
0:25:19 different he had accurately described
0:25:21 the operating room I was working in with
0:25:24 great clarity
0:25:26 he not only showed signs of being alive
0:25:29 when his heart and brain were inert but
0:25:32 also of being awake
0:25:35 end quote
0:25:36 so here was a patient
0:25:39 whose heart and brain were inert in
0:25:41 other words they weren't working
0:25:43 but who also showed signs of being awake
0:25:46 above what was happening observing
0:25:48 accurately recounting everything that
0:25:51 took place during his virtual death his
0:25:54 near-death experience
0:25:57 these are the words of an inpatient
0:25:59 medical director for a hospice center
0:26:01 quote
0:26:04 I continued my conversation with Ricardo
0:26:07 hoping there was something he would say
0:26:09 that would prove his experience
0:26:12 Dr Lerma I need your help when I was out
0:26:16 of my body and floating up above the
0:26:18 trauma room I spotted a 1985 quarter so
0:26:23 American coin lying in the right hand
0:26:26 corner of an eight foot high cardiac
0:26:29 monitor could you please check for me
0:26:32 it would mean so much
0:26:35 I was curious and skeptical enough to
0:26:37 oblige him and went to the emergency
0:26:39 room with a ladder
0:26:41 I climbed up with the nurses standing by
0:26:46 they were also curious to know if a
0:26:48 patient had really been able to see
0:26:50 something while being while we were
0:26:52 bringing him back to life so the patient
0:26:55 wasn't even Fully Alive at this point to
0:26:57 our total amazement there it was just as
0:27:01 he had seen it and even the year was
0:27:04 right
0:27:05 1985 still I was skeptical I wondered if
0:27:09 this man could have put the quarter
0:27:12 there so I checked some of the details
0:27:14 and found there was no way he could have
0:27:16 known the quarter was there
0:27:18 it had been years since he'd been able
0:27:21 to climb a ladder I could find no
0:27:24 connection with anyone who had worked on
0:27:26 the newly built trauma rooms end quote
0:27:31 another example these are the words of a
0:27:34 psychiatrist on call at an ER recounting
0:27:38 his response after a patient told him
0:27:40 they had been going that that he had
0:27:43 been doing down the hall
0:27:46 that's what it says doing down the hall
0:27:47 while he while she was unconscious the
0:27:50 person was going down the hallway whilst
0:27:52 unconscious quote the hair rose on the
0:27:56 back of my neck and I felt Goose Bumps
0:27:59 so the psychiatrist saying this
0:28:01 there was no way Holly could have known
0:28:04 that I had spoken with Susan let alone
0:28:07 been familiar with the content of our
0:28:09 conversation or the stain on my tie and
0:28:13 yet
0:28:14 she did every time I tried to focus on
0:28:18 what she said I found my thoughts
0:28:19 getting muddled psychiatrist saying this
0:28:22 I couldn't deny that she knew the
0:28:24 details of my conversation with her
0:28:26 roommate
0:28:27 I'd heard it with my own ears it
0:28:30 definitely happened but I couldn't
0:28:32 figure out how she knew them I told
0:28:34 myself it had to be a lucky guess or
0:28:37 some kind of trick
0:28:39 quote it's the only explanation to come
0:28:40 up with some kind of trick
0:28:42 here is one more testimony uh the last
0:28:45 one I'll recount there's so many in this
0:28:47 book it's just packed full of uh
0:28:49 accounts uh like this
0:28:51 this is from a critical care physician
0:28:53 and ICU director quote
0:28:57 Howard not only remembered the events of
0:29:00 his Cardiac Arrest what was said what
0:29:03 people were wearing who was present but
0:29:06 he recounted it in such detail that it
0:29:08 was clear he had a witness to his that
0:29:11 he was a witness to his own event
0:29:15 even though he was completely
0:29:17 unconscious at the time so he saw what
0:29:20 was going on heard it witnessed it
0:29:21 recounted it and he was completely
0:29:23 unconscious at the time I could have
0:29:25 rationalized some of his memories Away
0:29:27 by accepting that perhaps while
0:29:29 unconscious he was able to hear
0:29:31 on some level now this is a valid point
0:29:34 maybe unconscious people would do hear
0:29:35 things apparently they can
0:29:37 but Howard was not only telling me what
0:29:40 he heard but also what he had seen with
0:29:45 Incredible accuracy so here's an
0:29:48 unconscious man
0:29:49 okay uh during his Cardiac Arrest who
0:29:54 could see quote with Incredible accuracy
0:29:57 what was going on around him and above
0:29:59 him and so on with great lucidity
0:30:02 he said I and this is the the patient I
0:30:05 felt myself rising up through the
0:30:07 ceiling and it was like I was going
0:30:09 through the structure of the ceiling
0:30:12 he was a guy he moved like a spiritual
0:30:14 ghost or whatever you want to call it
0:30:16 through the building itself
0:30:18 there were individual rooms All Around
0:30:21 The Edge and on some of the beds were
0:30:23 these people except they were not really
0:30:26 people exactly
0:30:28 they look like mannequins and they had
0:30:31 IVs hooked up to them but they didn't
0:30:33 look real in the center was an open area
0:30:37 that looked like a collection of
0:30:39 workstations with computers
0:30:42 that that's when my jaw really dropped
0:30:46 says the uh the physician
0:30:49 right above the ICU is a nurse Training
0:30:53 Center where new hires spend a few days
0:30:55 rotating through different scenarios
0:30:58 there are simulated hospital rooms
0:31:01 around the perimeter with medical
0:31:03 mannequins let's go dummies I guess on
0:31:06 some of the beds in the center there is
0:31:08 indeed a collection of workspaces with
0:31:12 computers the doctor concluded I was
0:31:15 amazed end quote
0:31:18 now those are the ends of the anecdotes
0:31:20 I'm not going to mention more there are
0:31:22 literally hundreds in this extraordinary
0:31:23 book I first I want to just mention
0:31:26 um some of Professor Dale Allison's
0:31:28 conclusions and then I come to my own
0:31:30 more explicit uh conclusions Dell
0:31:34 Allison says on page 139 I acknowledge
0:31:37 that these accounts are anecdotal he
0:31:39 writes this does not however leave us
0:31:42 free to discount them without
0:31:44 compunction there is often strength in
0:31:47 numbers and if the anecdotes come from
0:31:50 on the scene experts which they did
0:31:53 who admit to being flummoxed
0:31:56 does this not intimate a genuine anomaly
0:32:00 he writes those who believe because of
0:32:02 their worldview that the testimony is
0:32:04 just quoted cannot imply what they seem
0:32:07 to imply are like the philosopher David
0:32:10 Hume on Miracles he's a famous Scottish
0:32:13 Enlightenment philosopher very skeptical
0:32:16 The Impossible is impossible whatever
0:32:18 the testimony to the contrary that's
0:32:20 what David Hume would say the impossible
0:32:22 is impossible whatever the evidence to
0:32:24 the country
0:32:25 such people it says Dell Larson are
0:32:27 immovable objects in others like a brick
0:32:29 wall you can't do anything with it what
0:32:31 however of the rest of us who are
0:32:34 subject to persuasion I think any
0:32:37 reasonable person should be open to
0:32:38 persuasion
0:32:39 how many perplexed testimonials from
0:32:42 attending medical professionals do we
0:32:44 need before the skeptical dissections
0:32:48 begin to feel strained
0:32:51 I am unsure but maybe we are already
0:32:54 there end quote yep I agree
0:32:59 but we really need to know what's going
0:33:01 on we I think we can be more explicit
0:33:03 than Dale is we've looked at the
0:33:05 Lucidity before death and we've looked
0:33:07 at people having near-death experiences
0:33:09 and I think in the light of uh all the
0:33:13 evidence dust narrated and there's much
0:33:16 much more
0:33:18 we can reasonably conclude that our
0:33:21 world our universe is much more
0:33:24 multi-dimensional strange and spiritual
0:33:27 than the philosophy of materialism would
0:33:30 suggest materialism of course denies a
0:33:31 supernatural denies and Transcendent
0:33:33 reduces everything to Mere Mata it would
0:33:37 appear that even well-established
0:33:39 scientific views of our Origins as a
0:33:42 species are called into question by this
0:33:46 data now how so how do I think they're
0:33:49 calling to question well this is my view
0:33:51 and I'll end uh in a second with some
0:33:53 quotes from macron
0:33:56 the purely materialist explanation of
0:33:59 our Origins as human beings needs to
0:34:02 incorporate I suggest the empirically
0:34:05 grounded observation that we have souls
0:34:09 or Spirits or whatever you want to call
0:34:11 them that are the essence of what we are
0:34:15 that our minds our Consciousness are not
0:34:18 merely the byproducts of our brains as
0:34:22 materialism would have us believe
0:34:24 that the core of what we are ourselves
0:34:27 survives bodily death
0:34:30 that the religious explanation of where
0:34:33 we came from I God and where we are
0:34:37 headed after this life I the afterlife
0:34:40 are true descriptions of reality after
0:34:44 all
0:34:46 one day I think the ruling Western
0:34:49 materialist Outlook will need to undergo
0:34:52 another paradigm shift if it is to
0:34:55 Encompass the extraordinary documented
0:34:58 phenomena that are widely experienced
0:35:01 these experiences by the way are not
0:35:03 rare I won't go into statistics you can
0:35:05 look in the book but they are
0:35:07 surprisingly common
0:35:09 these uh so if we are to Encompass these
0:35:12 extraordinary doctorate phenomena that
0:35:14 are widely experienced and researched
0:35:16 but are still not taken seriously by The
0:35:19 Gatekeepers of knowledge in our society
0:35:23 so what I'm going to do now is just
0:35:25 quite a few verses from macrame which I
0:35:27 think point in the same direction about
0:35:30 the nature of us as human beings and our
0:35:32 souls and what happens when we die and
0:35:35 in one passage in the Quran it says it
0:35:37 is Allah who calls back The Souls of
0:35:40 people upon their death
0:35:42 as well as the souls of the living
0:35:44 during their sleep
0:35:46 he then keeps those for whom he has
0:35:49 ordained death and releases the others
0:35:52 until their appointed time and many
0:35:56 people by the way with endies we say
0:35:57 report that they had reached a certain
0:35:59 limit in their experience when they were
0:36:01 told it's not your time you can't go any
0:36:04 further you must go back you must go
0:36:07 back to this world this is a very
0:36:08 frequent testimony the Quran says surely
0:36:12 in this are signs for people who reflect
0:36:15 so instead of the David Humes of this
0:36:17 world dogmatically rejecting this
0:36:20 phenomena
0:36:21 the Quran is inviting us to reflect
0:36:24 and another passage my final one the
0:36:27 Quran says you paid no attention to this
0:36:31 day but today we have removed your Veil
0:36:34 and your sight is sharp 50-22 you have
0:36:39 paid no attention so almost as if
0:36:41 speaking to mankind here those who
0:36:42 refuse to acknowledge this phenomena you
0:36:46 paid no attention to this day the day of
0:36:49 someone's death but today we have
0:36:51 removed your Veil
0:36:53 so people can see now and your sight is
0:36:56 sharp they can see these realities these
0:36:59 other dimensions
0:37:01 of existence uh that this phenomena
0:37:04 alludes to quite powerfully I think and
0:37:07 I mentioned the questioning of our
0:37:08 Origins as a species I think if we Now
0:37:11 understand who we are as human beings
0:37:13 now as embodied uh people who possess
0:37:17 spiritual Souls that are not simply
0:37:19 produced by the brain but somehow are
0:37:22 separated from the brain in very extreme
0:37:24 situations like approaching death or
0:37:26 near-death experiences this suggests
0:37:28 that we cannot just be products of an
0:37:31 undesigned blind material process of
0:37:34 evolution human beings I mean
0:37:36 specifically human beings
0:37:38 because he cannot account there's no way
0:37:40 that physical material Evolution that's
0:37:42 not directed alone can give rise to
0:37:47 spiritual reality to our Consciousness
0:37:50 uh which will survive our bodily death
0:37:52 so we need a paradigm shift there a
0:37:55 different understanding of who we are as
0:37:57 a species in the light of all this
0:37:59 phenomena that is increasingly available
0:38:01 to to look at and research and examine
0:38:04 ourselves online so I think this is an
0:38:07 extraordinary challenge to materialism
0:38:09 of course it vindicates Islam and its
0:38:12 beliefs it also vindigates other faiths
0:38:14 which assert the same thing of course
0:38:16 that have a vivid belief in the
0:38:19 afterlife and the existence of our souls
0:38:21 or Spirits Beyond Death inshallah uh
0:38:25 more and more of us will understand this
0:38:27 and see the world differently and live
0:38:29 accordingly inshallah till next time