Evidence of life after death, or lack thereof

   I'm just going to let you have the last word.  I think you might have a heart attack otherwise.

He always gets the last word, even if the only way he can get it is to copy-paste the same nonsense over and over again.  Getting the last word must make him feel as if he has achieved something.

   Not everyone who sees evidence first hand chooses to go public with the information.  There are a lot of those.  I'm sorry you can't benefit from them.

God have mercy on my soles, I do enjoy the howls & tears!

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EDIT -- Oh, and I just reported the POS for the "love letter" shit.  If you want to join him, keep doing what you're doing.

Famous author of 'The Soul of Your Pet: Evidence for the Survival of Animals After Death', available at your latest bookstore. Whether animals have souls is theologically contentious, while souls exist at all remains to be shown to those many who have a purely mechanistic view of consciousness, say. What follows is a brief riposte to the post of Smith's article, ending with less than I might write for fear of taxing the reader.




Skeptics simply ask for the extraordinary evidence necessary to give support to extraordinary claims.



Or, it could just be that they find the evidence offered unconvincing ...



'subtle and complicated' sounds like a set up for some special pleading. But let us allow Mr Smith to go on..



This is just using 'militant' as swear word, and is unfortunate.



So, is the purported 'paranormal world' another dimension of reality or not?

Death-Bed Visions :



Accompanied presumably by pet Sparky, barking at their side.



A book which, it may be observed, Amazon and the internet have never heard of. And what makes a 'noted physic professor' an authority on the afterlife, anyway?




From which one might draw the conclusion that the visions are caused by something very non-specific indeed, a process common to all.



But now Smith has just offered an example which apparently contradicts the just previous findings, being personal and culturally specific!

And again, in Smith's own words:

Which sounds reasonable, especially since Smith has above already mentioned that visions are caused by something very non-specific.

This does indeed appear to be a reasonable assertion, especially as we know that the subconscious mind, once delved into or stimulated can bring forth a host of material we thought we had forgotten or were unaware of.

According to Wiki: "Alexander is the author of the 2012 autobiographical book Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife, in which he asserts that his out of body and near-death experience (NDE) while in a meningitis-induced coma in 2008 proves that consciousness is independent of the brain, that death is a transition, and that an eternity of perfect splendor awaits us beyond the grave – complete with angels, clouds, butterflies, and deceased relatives, one of whom included a beautiful girl in peasant dress whom Alexander later identifies as his deceased sister."

If I had to pick an example of a hallucination which was both personal and culturally specific that would be one. More: "Esquire magazine reported that before the publication of Proof of Heaven, Alexander had been terminated or suspended from multiple hospital positions, and had been the subject of several malpractice lawsuits, including at least two involving the alteration of medical records to cover up a medical error.The magazine also found what it claimed were discrepancies with regard to Alexander's version of events in the book. Among the discrepancies, according to an account of the Esquire article in Forbes, was that "Alexander writes that he slipped into the coma as a result of severe bacterial meningitis and had no higher brain activity, while a doctor who cared for him says the coma was medically induced and the patient was conscious, though hallucinating.. "  A different side to Alexander, indeed.

These facts do not preclude some rave reviews on Amazon though from the credulous.



Without a link it is hard to judge what the report says. My bet is that reactions to medications are sometimes very likely to cause hallucination indeed - especially the strong painkillers administered to those thought in extremis.



And yet, other experiments have shown that patients who experience typical 'out of body' experiences, looking down on their near-dead selves, oddly enough do not see items placed deliberately on top shelves out of sight to all but those watching from their perspective.

And so on. And now:



Today Price's reputation has become tarnished by accusation of some fraud, at least. Of course even if ghosts exist, that does not mean a heaven does or even that they are 'alive', unless we care to redefine 'life' pretty drastically..

Mediums

The history of mediumship is indeed full of mendacity and fraud. And, as I have observed before messages purported to originate from the afterlife are always disappointing mundane and personal. If I was a mouthpiece for eternity I would want to take advantage of a privileged view to let my earth-bound listeners exactly what God hell and heaven look like - not just reiterate that Granny misses someone or a vague 'don't worry'.

On a personal note, I actually dated a medium once - someone who stood up in church halls and did readings. I found in real life she was just as unable to foresee misfortunes as I was, although she was unfamiliar with 'cold reading' as a method.

Actually, it is religious belief that thrives on, even depends on, privilege: the privilege of being free from the kinds of rigorous standards we apply to any other serious subject.

 Work out that angst,  Mr. I'm powerless before the Great Molecule Clack, yet I must furiously argue to change people who can't change because they have no free will aggrieve the nonexistent by birthing them dead can't care psychopathic plead lugubriously morbid asylum escapee.

I certainly am not looking forward to it ending.  Too much love and fun to happily leave behind, and I do possess empathy.   I'm pretty sure that old age or infirmity makes you ready to go at some point.  It's just pathology if you have that outlook from the beginning.

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Morally I would be fine with post-birth abortions, but I realise that this would probably be too radical to ever be implemented.

  I'm really getting annoyed at your ignorance of evidence.  Things don't cease to exist simply you can't see them.  Many people learned that as infants.  Peekaboo!




   I think there should be a law against the lie that there is no evidence.  I'll get to work on that.  I will need to consider the freedom of speech issue.  I might not be able to stop the lies everywhere, but I might prevent them being taught in schools.