Oxygen and meeting the God
Hi steemians!
So, this is my third episode of my "Near death experience" series. In my last episode I talked about the out of body experience from the neurological perspective. I also made an argument that many weird experiences are possible when your brain is not functioning properly. Today I'd like to tell you specifically what can seriously disrupt your brain functioning.
Almighty Oxygen
Let's face it - you are screwed without oxygen. Your brain (I love how we use to say 'your brain'.... but actually your brain...is you, isn't it?) absolutely depends on oxygen. Approximately 20% of the blood your heart pumps goes directly to your brain (you?). If the blood suply is reduced to 1/3, after 10-20 seconds you lose your consciousness. But your brain cells should stay intact even after 30 minutes. The problem is more evident when your brain (YOU???) have no oxygen at all. Your brain cells can last up to 10 seconds. After that neurons start dying very rapidly. So If we want to find someting that will certainly disrupt your brain, it is oxygen depletion.
And this is precisely what studied dr. Thomas Lempert in the 90s in Berlin. He studied fainting in laboratory conditions. He had few volunteers (poor students) doing this "procedure" like little boys use to. They crouched, started to hyperventilate for about 30-60 seconds and then stood up very fast. This procedure ensures your brain will not get enough oxygen and you will faint.
After this very wise exercise, Lemper asked his students few questions. Like "Did you meet god?" or something... silly right... Well gues what? 20% of them told they met supernatural being while fainting. You can see the results in the table below.
Source: The God Impulse by Kevin Nelson
It is evident that there is nothing mystical about NDE and they have probably nothing to do with "near death". The students were well alive and very far from being dead. It is more likely, that these weird phenomena are caused by our brains. When they fail, they tend to create all sorts of hallucinations. But why? Well, that will be the topic of my next episode about NDE.
Sources:
The God Impulse by Kevin Nelson
Dr. Lempert's study
Brain and oxygen