NDExp Frequently Asked Questions.
What is the Near Death Experiment?
Are there any secondary objectives
of the NDExp?
Flatlining? Isn't that dangerous?
Why not just do the research on people already being
flatlined for surgery?
Why not just use hypnotism, or people who have trained
themselves to have Out of Body Experiences?
Whats the big deal with being
so scientific? I know of heaps of people who have proven psychic
and paranormal phenomena of one sort or another.
Can research, such as the
NDexp prove the existance of life after death?
Are you people barking mad?
You don't need to do this!
Haven't you heard the good news about "Insert name of deity
here"?
What is the Near Death Experiment?
The Near Death Exploration Project is an effort to scientifically
explore the initial stages of death, in order to establish whether
a person does leave their body on death.
It will do this by firstly “flatlining” and resuscitating
a person and then finding out if they were aware of anything going
on in their environment, while they were “dead”.
If a person is able to describe events taking place while they
are effectively “dead”, then we will have established
to a high degree of probability that that person did in fact leave
their body, while they were dead.
Are there any secondary
objectives of the NDExp?
In addition to attempting to obtain a scientific answer on the
question of a person leaving their body after death, the NDExp
also seeks to investigate the phenomenon of the Near Death Experience
(NDE) and the psychological and physiological after effects that
are claimed by many researchers.
It will do this, by having all participants undergo an intensive
medical and psychological profiling prior to their being flatlined
and then by re-examining them on a frequent basis for at least
5 - 10 years afterwards.
Flatlining? Isn't that
dangerous?
Yes, but not as dangerous as you might suspect. The flatlining
of patients will be achieved through the use of Hypothermic Circulatory
Arrest (HCA). This is a surgical proceedure in which a person’s
body temperature is reduced, by running their blood through a
Heart-Lung Machine with an attached cooler. This cools the body
rapidly, ensuring minimal damage to the brain. In addition, while
it is not uncommon to flatline patients for 30 minutes or more
during surgery, the NDExP, will only require they be flatlined
for 10 minutes, at the most.
Why not just do the research
on people already being flatlined for surgery?
This just wouldn't be ethical. People who
are being flatlined as a part of surgery are often very ill and
the last thing they, or the doctors need is a mob of experimenters
running around doing silly things and asking silly questions.
In addition, the very nature of the NDExp requires a highly controlled
environement, that simply isn't achievable within a normal surgical
environment.
Why not just use hypnotism,
or people who have trained themselves to have Out of Body Experiences?
Because from a scientific perspective it
simply won't work. Several researchers have already tried to research
Out of Body Experiences, in this manner, but none have yet produced
conclusive, unambigous, scientifically reproducable positive results.
While many would consider it a somewhat drastic approach, any
positive result produced by the NDExp will be inherantly reproducable
by anyone, anywhere and therefore able to stand up in the court
of scientific opinion.
Can research, such as the
NDExp prove the existance of life after death?
Strickly speaking, no. Because all of our participants will be
resuscitated, they cannot be said to have “died” any
any permanent sense. At best the experiment will be able to demonstrate
life during death, which would certainly provide a hint of life
after death.
Whats the big deal with
being so scientific? I know of heaps of people who have proven
psychic phenomena of one sort or another.
We are glad you do, because we aren't aware
of a single psychic, or paranormal phenomena (assuming normal
usage of the term) that has been accepted by mainstream scientists.
Frankly, if something hasn't been established scientifically,
then it hasn't been established at all. Broadly, in order for
something to be established scientifically, the result needs to
be verifiable and reproducable for anyone using the same
methodology and equipment. If successful the NDExp will provide
that.
Are you people barking mad?
This is probably the most common reaction that we get when discussing
the NDExp. Most people simply cannot understand why anyone would
want to flatline themselves in order to explore the realms of
death, and assume it is merely a “morbid”, or suicidal
fascination.
This response to the NDExP, is however merely a reflection of
our society’s somewhat irrational fear of death. It is said
that there are two things that we can’t avoid, Death and
Taxes. The fact is that many people do avoid taxes, but none can
avoid death. Given the number of people who are in the business
of exploring tax, it shouldn’t be surprising that a few
want to explore death.
Like any exploration the journey is likely to be dangerous, but
if humans as a race were always to avoid danger, we would still
be nervously clinging to the fire afraid to leave the cave.
Its not like we are climbing Mount Everest or going into space.
Now that would be mad!
You don't need to do this! Haven't you
heard the good news about "My Favorite Deity (tm)"?
Please. Don't even go there.
