What AJ Ayers saw when he was dead for 4 minutes

[Gary Childress]

I'm inclined to believe that nothing fantastically extraordinary can be ascertained from Ayers' clinical death experience. Are we to believe that the mind completely ceases to operate while it's still intact in a clinically dead body for 4 minutes? The most obvious thought is that it must be something of a dream state.

EEG scans have apparently recorded a sudden spike in brain activity during the process of dying. What does it mean? Does it mean that when our brains do finally decay, taking all the neurons with it and possibly our memories and experiences, that we are somehow still aware even after our lives thoroughly end? I don't think it does. However, the possibility is not necessarily ruled out either.

I remain agnostic.

https://www.philosopher.eu/others-writi ... -was-dead/

[Belinda]

I'm inclined to believe that nothing fantastically extraordinary can be ascertained from Ayers' clinical death experience. Are we to believe that the mind completely ceases to operate while it's still intact in a clinically dead body for 4 minutes? The most obvious thought is that it must be something of a dream state.

EEG scans have apparently recorded a sudden spike in brain activity during the process of dying. What does it mean? Does it mean that when our brains do finally decay, taking all the neurons with it and possibly our memories and experiences, that we are somehow still aware even after our lives thoroughly end? I don't think it does. However, the possibility is not necessarily ruled out either.

I remain agnostic.

https://www.philosopher.eu/others-writi ... -was-dead/

There can be no reasonable doubt that when you die you will be a corpse. However some people still believe minds can exist independently from bodies.That theory of existence is called Cartesianism.

[Gary Childress]

I'm inclined to believe that nothing fantastically extraordinary can be ascertained from Ayers' clinical death experience. Are we to believe that the mind completely ceases to operate while it's still intact in a clinically dead body for 4 minutes? The most obvious thought is that it must be something of a dream state.

EEG scans have apparently recorded a sudden spike in brain activity during the process of dying. What does it mean? Does it mean that when our brains do finally decay, taking all the neurons with it and possibly our memories and experiences, that we are somehow still aware even after our lives thoroughly end? I don't think it does. However, the possibility is not necessarily ruled out either.

I remain agnostic.

https://www.philosopher.eu/others-writi ... -was-dead/

There can be no reasonable doubt that when you die you will be a corpse. However some people still believe minds can exist independently from bodies.That theory of existence is called Cartesianism.

Indeed.

[Martin Peter Clarke]

I'm inclined to believe that nothing fantastically extraordinary can be ascertained from Ayers' clinical death experience. Are we to believe that the mind completely ceases to operate while it's still intact in a clinically dead body for 4 minutes? The most obvious thought is that it must be something of a dream state.

EEG scans have apparently recorded a sudden spike in brain activity during the process of dying. What does it mean? Does it mean that when our brains do finally decay, taking all the neurons with it and possibly our memories and experiences, that we are somehow still aware even after our lives thoroughly end? I don't think it does. However, the possibility is not necessarily ruled out either.

I remain agnostic.

https://www.philosopher.eu/others-writi ... -was-dead/

It's, obviously, entirely natural. We'd need someone who had their head blown off to tell us otherwise. As in a continuous suspension of the laws of physics, with a thousand forensic eye witnesses throughout, fully monitored. Ayer's incoherent rambling about the normal natural experience is all too natural too.

PS It's very sad when great men lose it. Senility is a good excuse. Still sad. Anthony Flew of this parish. Laithwaite. Freeman Dyson. The most tragic being SIr Fred Hoyle. And great women, an order of magnitude less represented of course; Lynn Margulis. The last two had issues.

[accelafine]

I didn't get to the 'near death' part. All I could think about is what an unlikeable, self-important man he was. How lucky for him that he had so many people 'in awe' of him that he had the best care possible...