Neuroscientist Sees 'Proof of Heaven' - Yahoo!

First of all, Yahoo! routinely sets its videos to launch upon the page opening--which tends to annoy me.

You have been warned.

Neuroscientist Sees 'Proof of Heaven' - Yahoo!: Sure.

One thing though--how is this any different than the revelations of thousands of (often conflicting) accounts of various "believers" throughout history? We just have to take their word for it. Burning bushes that talk? Trust Moses. Snakes that talk? Adam and Eve have that one covered. Mohammad receiving the Holy Quran from the Archangel Gabriel, letting us know that Jews and Christians only got it partially right, but now we have the "final word" and so forth? Absolutely. Trust Mohammad.

I cannot say whether there is an afterlife of some kind. I honestly don't know. But I am not going to spin my wheels in the sand trying to comfort myself with the presumed traction accounts like this one offers, because it is completely subjective.

Full disclosure: I have some previous experiences with hallucinogens like DMT, psilocybin. and mescaline. Yet, were I to report that I had "proof" of Heaven or anything else of the kind base on "drug experiences", most people would reject such information without giving it a second thought. This is ironic as these same folks wouldn't even need to take my word for it--they could take the journey for themselves. But few would, because "drugs are 'bad'".

I understand why these stories can be so appealing. Death is a frightening prospect for most people, and the thought of somehow continuing some sort of conscious existence post-mortem provides some comfort (unless one also believes in "hell", I suppose).

But let's not kid ourselves that anecdotal evidence is somehow more persuasive simply because a person can be described as a "scientist". There are many so-called "rational" people who scoff at things like astrology, but still believe that a Judean preacher was miraculously spawned without the aid of human sperm, performed miracles like walking on water and raising the dead, and then came back from the grave himself. Why? Because the one is "pseudoscience" where the other is "the truth".

Humans have the remarkable ability (or suffer the burden) being able to hold several conflicting viewpoints at the same time. Some people are stridently "pro-life" to the point where they will murder abortion doctors and passionately support war and the death penalty.

Finally--this account doesn't settle any of the more pressing issues that abound from the fact that most major religions are exclusive about who gets to go to heaven. Depending on who is doing the talking, if you are not a Christian, Muslim, Pentecostal, or whatever, you are DOOMED! According to the story above, none of that matters. (On that point I suspect this could be true--but I won't "know" for sure until....well...you get the picture.)


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