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By Sivad
#15119401
Is There Life after Death? Fifty Years of Research at UVA


Moderator: John Cleese, Cofounder, Monty Python

Speakers:

Jim B. Tucker M.D. , UVA, Director of the Division of Perceptual Studies, Bonner-Lowry Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences

Bruce Greyson, M.D. , UVA, Chester F. Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences

Kim Penberthy, Ph.D. , UVA, ABPP, Chester F. Carlson Professor of Psychiatry & Neurobehavioral Sciences

Edward Kelly, Ph.D. , UVA, Professor of Research, Division of Perceptual Studies, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences

Emily Williams Kelly, Ph.D. , UVA, Assistant Professor of Research, Division of Perceptual Studies, Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences

Does some aspect of our personality survive bodily death? Long a philosophical and theological question, in the 20th century this became the subject of scientific research. Fifty years ago, in 1967, Ian Stevenson, then chair of UVA's Department of Psychiatry, created a research unit—now named the Division of Perceptual Studies—to study what, if anything, of the human personality survives after death. Dr. Stevenson's own research investigated hundreds of accounts of young children who claimed to recall past lives.

In this Medical Center Hour, faculty from the Division of Perceptual Studies highlight the unit's work since its founding, including studies of purported past lives, near-death experiences, and mind-brain interactions in phenomena such as deep meditation, veridical out-of-body experiences, deathbed visions, apparent communication from deceased persons, altered states of consciousness, and terminal lucidity in persons with irreversible brain damage. As the division enters its second half-century, what are its research priorities and partnerships?

University of Virginia Division of Perceptual Studies Faculty:

Jim B. Tucker, M.D.
Director of the Division of Perceptual Studies
Bonner-Lowry Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
Research Interests:
◊ children who report memories of previous lives
◊ prenatal & birth memories

Ross Dunseath, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Research
Research Interests:
◊ biomedical instrumentation
◊ concurrent EEG and functional MRI brain imaging

Bruce Greyson, M.D.
Chester F. Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
Former Editor, Journal of Near-Death Studies
Research Interests:
◊ near-death experiences
◊ crisis apparitions
◊ death-bed visions

Edward F. Kelly, Ph.D.
Professor of Research
Research Interests:
◊ physiological correlates of psi
◊ altered states of consciousness

Emily Williams Kelly, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Research
Research Interests:
◊ death-bed visions
◊ crisis apparitions
◊ near-death experiences, esp. veridical NDEs
◊ Frederic W. H. Myers (19th century psychologist and psychical researcher)

Marieta Pehlivanova, Ph.D.
Senior Research Specialist
Research Interests:
◊ near-death experiences
◊ biostatistics
◊ experimental psychology

J. Kim Penberthy, Ph.D.
ABPP, Chester F. Carlson Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences
Research Interests:
◊ altered states of consciousness
◊ mindfulness and health
◊ hospice experiences
User avatar
By Potemkin
#15119406
Drlee wrote:Reproductive age had nothing to do with evolution.

Actually, it has a lot to do with evolution. Some organisms can reproduce within a couple of years of birth, others within a couple of decades. This difference is due to evolutionary factors.

We are all capable of reproduction long past the age at which we become incapable.

Wait, what? :eh:

Our motivation for living past the time when we choose to reproduce is just that. A choice. We value longevity for reasons other than biology.

Granted. But how does this relate to whether or not an organism feels "euphoric" at the moment of its death? My point was that no change in the way in which an organism experiences its own death can possibly be passed on to its descendants, or have any survival advantage even if it were.
By B0ycey
#15119408
Potemkin wrote:My point was that no change in the way in which an organism experiences its own death can possibly be passed on to its descendants, or have any survival advantage even if it were.


You write as if death is the underlining factor when it is the experience of pain that is. Perhaps you missed the point. That isn't to say death is euphoric nor it is to say it isn't. We will only know when the time comes. It's just to say that if it were, there would be an evolution advantage the same as way toothache essing or finding the will to survive when injuried badly is and that actually if you think about it, a silence death is far more superior than a noisy death in tribal prey species and that this is likely to have past down the evolution line to us.
Last edited by B0ycey on 13 Sep 2020 10:36, edited 1 time in total.
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By Potemkin
#15119409
B0ycey wrote:You write as if death is the underlining factor when it is the experience of pain that is. Perhaps you missed the point. That isn't to say death is euphoric nor it is to say it isn't. We will only know when the time comes. It's just to say that if it were, there would be an evolution advantage the same as way toothache or finding the will to survive when injuries badly is and that actually if you think about it, silence death is far more superior than a noisy death in tribal prey species and that this is likely to have past down the evolution line to us.

If anything, one of their tribal members suffering a noisy, painful death would at least alert the other members of the tribe to the fact that a sabre-toothed tiger had just pounced on one of their number. Lol.
By B0ycey
#15119411
Potemkin wrote:If anything, one of their tribal members suffering a noisy, painful death would at least alert the other members of the tribe to the fact that a sabre-toothed tiger had just pounced on one of their number. Lol.


I guess. But in a tribe, I suspect they would already know. It would also alert more predators to the den.
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By Potemkin
#15119413
B0ycey wrote:I guess. But in a tribe, I suspect they would already know. It would also alert more predators to the den.

If a sabre-toothed cat gets into your cave, then your whole tribe is already fucked. No, the real danger would have been while they were out hunting themselves; in which case, being alerted by blood-curdling screams of pain from the sabre-toothed's first victim would be a distinct advantage.
By B0ycey
#15119414
Potemkin wrote:If a sabre-toothed cat gets into your cave, then your whole tribe is already fucked. No, the real danger would have been while they were out hunting themselves; in which case, being alerted by blood-curdling screams of pain from the sabre-toothed's first victim would be a distinct advantage.


We are talking about prey. Not every mammal is a predator and humans have molar teeth. Although from experience prey die silently anyways, so whether we accept your so called "evolution" advantage or not, it hasn't evolved that way in any case and there is still an advantage in silence death, whether you want to accept my point or not.
Last edited by B0ycey on 13 Sep 2020 10:54, edited 1 time in total.
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By Potemkin
#15119415
B0ycey wrote:We are talking about prey. Not every mammal is a predator and humans have molar teeth. Although from experience prey die silently anyways, so whether we accept youe so called "evolution" advantage or not, it hasn't evolved that way in any case and there is still an advantage in silence death, whether you want to accept my point or not.

Meh, we're just arguing around in circles. Neither of us is an evolutionary biologist, so we're just using hand-waving arguments anyway. I was merely pointing out that asserting that evolution affects how an animal experiences its own death is unwarranted.
User avatar
By jimjam
#15124278
Death is not so very difficult ……. we long for oblivion …….
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By Rancid
#15124279
whenever I'm on an airplane, right as we take off, I constantly imagine the airplane losing control and crashing and killing me. :hmm: It freaks me out a bit, but I can't help but think about that, right at that moment.

On the flight, I also imagine what it might feel like being on an airplane that's going down. I'd just be screaming "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" for the 5 minutes or whatever it takes to finally crash.
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By Potemkin
#15124340
jimjam wrote:Death is not so very difficult ……. we long for oblivion …….

As Derrida pointed out, everything we do or say is inscribed under the sign of erasure. Nothing in human life is permanent, and thank God for that.

Besides, I didn't exist for countless billions of years before I was born, and I will not exist for countless trillions of years after my death. Why mourn the passing of a brief blip in between two vast gulfs of non-existence?
By Sivad
#15124482
Rancid wrote:whenever I'm on an airplane, right as we take off, I constantly imagine the airplane losing control and crashing and killing me. :hmm: It freaks me out a bit, but I can't help but think about that, right at that moment.

On the flight, I also imagine what it might feel like being on an airplane that's going down. I'd just be screaming "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" for the 5 minutes or whatever it takes to finally crash.


User avatar
By jimjam
#15124700
I have decided not to die. I have located Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth …… the below picture shows five little kids at the fountain who, just moments prior, five aged humans sporting walkers, wheel chairs and crutches drank of these magical waters. NOW for just $49.99 I will reveal to you the location of this magical fountain …………. I accept PayPal, credit cards, cash and, best of all, gold.



Image

foot note: supposedly what Ponce was really looking for was a cure for impotence. The story, over 500 years, has evolved.
By Atlantis
#15124751
Potemkin wrote:Besides, I didn't exist for countless billions of years before I was born, and I will not exist for countless trillions of years after my death. Why mourn the passing of a brief blip in between two vast gulfs of non-existence?


You didn't exist before and you won't exist in the future. What makes you think you exist now? What makes you think you are anything but an illusion?
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By Potemkin
#15124756
Atlantis wrote:You didn't exist before and you won't exist in the future. What makes you think you exist now? What makes you think you are anything but an illusion?

Nothing, of course. I have not yet been born, and I have already been dead for a thousand years.
By Atlantis
#15124828
Potemkin wrote:Nothing, of course. I have not yet been born, and I have already been dead for a thousand years.


Who has not yet been born if you haven't even been born?
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By Potemkin
#15124834
Atlantis wrote:Who has not yet been born if you haven't even been born?

Everyone, Grasshopper. And no-one. *gazes off into the middle distance with a mystical look on his face*
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By Local Localist
#15124870
Is it truly possible to say, definitively, how long one has been alive or dead? It seems that all that defines life is a lack of death, and all that defines death is a lack of life. Is it right to position it as a binary? The subject of life, in a sense, is death, when life is viewed as a delaying of death. But what if life is actually a process, or, indeed, a stage of death?
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By Drlee
#15124877
Isn't it nice to know that some people, religious like myself, do not have an issue with this. We have faith that we will be back. We have this faith and math on our side.

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