Near-death experiences are 'electrical surge in dying brain'

Near-death survivors have reported seeing bright white lights and having out-of-body experiences

A surge of electrical activity in the brain could be responsible for the vivid experiences described by near-death survivors, scientists report.

A study carried out on dying rats found high levels of brainwaves at the point of the animals' demise.

US researchers said that in humans this could give rise to a heightened state of consciousness.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The lead author of the study, Dr Jimo Borjigin, of the University of Michigan, said: "A lot of people thought that the brain after clinical death was inactive or hypoactive, with less activity than the waking state, and we show that is definitely not the case.

"If anything, it is much more active during the dying process than even the waking state."

Consciousness

From bright white lights to out-of-body sensations and feelings of life flashing before their eyes, the experiences reported by people who have come close to death but survived are common the world over.

However, studying this in humans is a challenge, and these visions are little understood.

To find out more, scientists at the University of Michigan monitored nine rats as they were dying.

In the 30-second period after the animal's hearts stopped beating, they measured a sharp increase in high-frequency brainwaves called gamma oscillations.

These pulses are one of the neuronal features that are thought to underpin consciousness in humans, especially when they help to "link" information from different parts of the brain.

In the rats, these electrical pulses were found at even higher levels just after the cardiac arrest than when animals were awake and well.

Dr Borjigin said it was feasible that the same thing would happen in the human brain, and that an elevated level of brain activity and consciousness could give rise to near-death visions.

Neurons in the brain may go into overdrive around the point of death

"This can give us a framework to begin to explain these. The fact they see light perhaps indicates the visual cortex in the brain is highly activated - and we have evidence to suggest this might be the case, because we have seen increased gamma in area of the brain that is right on top of the visual cortex," she said.

"We have seen increased coupling between the lower-frequency waves and the gamma that has been shown to be a feature of visual awareness and visual sensation."

However, she said that to confirm the findings a study would have to be carried out on humans who have experienced clinical death and have been revived.

Commenting on the research, Dr Jason Braithwaite, of the University of Birmingham, said the phenomenon appeared to be the brain's "last hurrah".

"This is a very neat demonstration of an idea that's been around for a long time: that under certain unfamiliar and confusing circumstances - like near-death - the brain becomes overstimulated and hyperexcited," he said.

"Like 'fire raging through the brain', activity can surge through brain areas involved in conscious experience, furnishing all resultant perceptions with realer-than-real feelings and emotions."

But he added: "One limitation is that we do not know when, in time, the near-death experience really occurs. Perhaps it was before patients had anaesthesia, or at some safe point during an operation long before cardiac arrest.

"However, for those instances where experiences may occur around the time of cardiac arrest - or beyond it - these new findings provide further meat to the bones of the idea that the brain drives these fascinating and striking experiences"

Dr Chris Chambers, of Cardiff University, said: "This is an interesting and well-conducted piece of research. We know precious little about brain activity during death, let alone conscious brain activity. These findings open the door to further studies in humans.

"[But] we should be extremely cautious before drawing any conclusions about human near-death experiences: it is one thing to measure brain activity in rats during cardiac arrest, and quite another to relate that to human experience."

Artist creates sketch of mysterious 'angel priest' who appeared at Mo. crash scene

An artist has created a sketch of the mysterious "angel priest" who witnesses say appeared at the scene of a Missouri car accident Sunday, anointed and prayed with the teenage victim and then vanished without a trace. 

Fox4KC reports Tucson-based artist Randall Sands created the sketch using online face sketch software at facesid.com based on media reports, hoping someone would be able to identify the cleric.

Officials are still scratching their heads over the priest, who they say appeared out of nowhere. Perhaps more mysteriously, the local fire chief said he does not appear in any of 80 photos from the accident scene.

"I think that this time I've actually witnessed a guardian angel at work," Jeremiah See of the New London Fire Department told ABC News.

Family and friends of the victim, 19-year-old Katie Lentz of Quincy, Mo., say they are hoping to find the priest and thank him for making the rescue possible.

"Where did this guy come from?" Lentz's friend Travis Wiseman asked, according to KHQA. "We're looking for the priest and so far, no one has seen him. Whether it was a priest as an angel or an actual angel, he was an angel to all those and to Katie."

Rescuers tell Fox4KC a 26-year-old driver crossed the center lane and hit Lentz' car head-on. Authorities spent about 45 minutes trying to cut her out of the car, but the metal on her older car dulled the equipment. 

“The fire chief, Raymond Reed, had stepped back and came up to me and said he was concerned because he was out of options. His tools weren’t working and by that time, it was almost an hour and said I don’t know how we’re going to get her out,” Ralls County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Adair told KHQA.

At this point, Fox4KC reports Lentz asked the rescuers to pray with her. Then the priest appeared – although the highway was blocked for two to three miles and emergency responders were not letting anyone past the roadblocks.

“He came and he asked to anoint the girl in the car,” Adair said. “My first thought was that it would possibly send the wrong message to Katie that maybe we had called a priest and thought she wasn’t going to make it. So I went back and talked to the priest and told him we were worried she would think we’d given up hope. He said, ‘I just want to anoint her’ and so we just let him come up to the scene.”

Witnesses said he anointed Lentz and her rescuers with oil, prayed with them and asked them to remain calm.

The Hannibal fire department then pulled up with fresh equipment and was able to free Lentz. After getting her in the Air Evac helicopter, rescue workers said the priest was nowhere to be found.

Fire Chief Reed said the department took 80 photos of the scene and the priest did not appear in any of them. 

A witness who said she and her husband held Lentz' hand after the accident tells KHQA she remembers the priest well.

"He was dark complected," she said. "He had an accent, but I'm not sure what nationality. He was probably 5 feet 6 inches maybe. He was not heavy set, but he probably weighed close to 200 pounds. He had dark hair."

The Diocese of Jefferson City says it has not located the priest involved and does not plan to search for him. 

“Out of respect for the privacy of any priest who may have been involved and does not wish to come forward, the Diocese does not plan to further investigate this incident. The Diocese is grateful that a priest was able to exercise his ministry in this manner and requests prayers for healing of the victim, as well as prayers of thanks.” Deacon Dan Joyce said.

Ralls County Prosecuting Attorney Rodney Rodenbaugh said he anticipates charges will be filed against the driver Aaron Smith, KHQA reports. 

Lentz remains at Blessing Hospital in serious condition. She was treated for multiple fractures and serious internal injuries.

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The Missing Times - News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up

"When UFOs Appear,
National News Agencies Fall Silent..." Terry Hansen

Very few if any books written about the mass media and the UFO cover-up display the insight and hard hitting critical analysis as that provided by Terry Hansen in his book The Missing Times - NEWS MEDIA COMPLICITY IN THE UFO COVER-UP.

Although it was published nearly 14 years ago Hansen's research has withstood the test of time by sustaining and keeping relevant the incestuous relationship that exists between the American intelligence agency infrastructure and the news media.

Hansen describes it best when he quotes Joseph DeTrani, former CIA Director of public affairs:

Hansen uses an enthralling assortment of examples to illustrate how the US military and its co-terminus intelligence agencies have constructed a well-orchestrated political strangle-hold on the news. He graphically depicts how exquisite governmental manipulation of public perception is used to under-mind democracy while at the same time deftly sustain the facade of a free press. This theme flows consistently through his work.

President Kennedy - A Media Master

Hansen uses President Kennedy's interaction with the New York Times as a classic exemplar of government and media complicity.

Little known to the public, President John Kennedy cleverly attempted to utilize covert censorship when he contrived to restrain Times publisher Orvil Dryfoos from publishing details of a controversial CIA program to recruit and train Cuban exiles in Guatemala for what eventually became the disaster known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. Kennedy’s glowing and almost saint-like persona would have been severely tarnished had this kind of news been allowed to seep into the public domain. Moreover, the political price Kennedy would have had to pay had the Times not complied was reason enough to impose his will on Dryfoos.

In another startling revelation Hansen also reveals that during the development of the atomic bomb in the 1940’s, government and military and government officials contrived to have the media communicate to an unwitting public that the horrendously huge first test of the A-bomb was a ‘munitions dump explosion’ that caused little or no damage and; that claims by some journalists about radiation poisoning were nonsense - both as it turned out were blatant government lies.

Somehow they got away with it. Eventually this kind of historical deception in journalism has become an accepted way of doing business among those in the media and between the government interests they are persuaded to protect.

Katherine Graham - A Media Mistress

In altering public opinion by manipulating facts and perceptions over the decades, it has become almost impossible to distinguish the truth from treachery. Regrettably this kind of complicity between the news media and the American political system has continued unabated for decades. It leads any inquiring mind to question the kind of 'democracy' we really have - or, even more disturbingly - is there a democracy at all? Hansen provides more specific clarity on this point with a poignant illustration that many may feel borders on sedition.

The one-time matriarch of the American press industry Katherine Graham is quoted as saying, before select members of the CIA, "There are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn't."

This kind of editorial philosophy by a leading American newspaper should be of real concern to the American public.

Members of the press who may read Hansen’s work might need to pause to re-assess their role as journalists when they hear one of their own describe how those in the upper echelons of government and media contrive to control the news and succeed at institutionalizing it. The question occurs to this author – what was Katherine Graham doing talking to the CIA in the first place?

Methods of Media Mendacity

As Hansen discusses later in his book, it is of little surprise that US intelligence agency's propensity to feign disinterest in the UFO phenomenon gives mainstream press carte-blanche to do exactly the same. Even though some foreign news agencies do a fine job of exposing UFO related stories - the powerful American mainstream media seems to be able to pulls its influential trump card to manage UFO news – thus keeping foreign press stories on UFOs from reaching international wire services.

Hansen suggests several methods have been and are used to manage news about UFOs: recruiting influential journalists, monitoring and intercepting UFO-related news, instilling fear through the film industry about ‘evil aliens’, surveillance of UFO organizations, propaganda, misleading information or disinformation or, recruitment of influential people as media spokespersons to name a few.

Hansen goes into great detail to illustrate how these strategies are regularly used to pummel UFO news or evidence of it into oblivion so that no reputable news agency will touch it.

The result is a woefully uniformed and indolent citizenry that ensures the success of an institutionalized form of control through mendacity and complicity.

Hansen also goes to great lengths in pointing out that some of the historical media-control strategies used to manipulate public opinion during the second world war, the war in Vietnam and the Gulf war were re-cycled to tackle the ‘new media-menace’ called UFOs and extraterrestrials. The fact that the UFO issue has never become the massive mainstream story of the century is a testament to the success and over-all effectiveness of these strategies.

Monster Media-Machine

Ultimately what we learn from Hansen’s research is that this mendacity has created a two headed monster media-machine; one funded by tax dollars and one funded by billions in commercial advertising revenues.

We also learn how large corporate-media interests are permitted, in an unrestrained manner, to flood or dilute the essence of the political and national security implications of the UFO matter with fantasy, delusion and, what many call - the ‘giggle-factor’. Fundamentally the UFO issue is the most openly talked-about government secret in history – yet few in the public domain take it seriously.

Under these nearly perfect set of circumstances Hansen depicts why there is little wonder the authentic nature of the UFO phenomenon has virtually no chance of ever being fully disclosed in American mass media.

[Ed. Note: This feature of UFO secrecy has changed significantly since Hansen first published his book. Today - global efforts by many activists and groups to bring UFO/ET Disclosure into the political arena for the public have met with good success but continue to fall short of full government disclosure.]

Hansen goes on to suggest news stories about UFOs circulate with vigour within American intelligence channels. Hansen’s assertion is clearly corroborated by many UFO analysts who have often written about how validated information about UFOs is routinely supplanted by stories on terrorist bombings, war in the Middle-East or the waist size of Jennifer Aniston.

Routinely, the general public satiates itself on a feast of celebrity trivia, the banality of local news and the tireless on-slot of an expensive war economy. With little or no resistance, this news media-monster has come to life. It tramples on the US constitution by employing obfuscation, diversion and censorship as key tools in the dumbing-down of public awareness.

This is the world of the American news consumer - and quite frankly - they seem to gleefully accept it all as a way of life.

The Hansen Alternative

In The Missing Times Terry Hansen reminds us that all information - regardless of how unpalatable or uncomfortable it may be, must be accessible by the public. This is especially true when the source and holder of this information is the elected body known as the ‘government of the people and by the people’. Any other standard for or use of information that restricts the public’s right-to-know is an abrogation of authority and an illegitimate use of power.

Most if not all of Hansen’s book is quite familiar territory to UFO researchers and analysts. However to those unfamiliar with the UFO issue or with the historical techniques used by military and intelligence agencies to control public perceptions about everything from weapons of mass destruction to Monsanto’s influence within the American pharmaceutical industry, what Terry Hansen has to say about government/media complicity may appear quite unbelievable even mind-boggling to the average consumer of news who accepts at face value what the media spews out on a daily basis.

Hansen offers a thoroughly different worldview.

For those who may wish to venture beyond the edge of the worldview of Nightly News, Dancing with the Stars, Kate and William’s baby and who might win the World Series, Terry Hansen has drawn a picture of an alternative, uncomfortable yet very authentic new worldview about our place in the universe - among off-world civilizations who are knocking at our door and, more importantly - why the US government and media refuse to answer the door. The adventure of reading this powerful and professionally researched work by an accredited journalist is as energizing as it is painless for those who wish to know more than what’s on TV or Facebook.

As one reads Hansen’s entire work, the complicity of the diversionary brand journalism he describes so articulately becomes readily apparent in the very first chapter. The careful reader will discover two essential ideas from Hansen’s analysis. First, the UFO cover-up is real and second - the truth is free - not open to negotiation, attack or control by elite factions that seek to define reality for their own purposes.

In its infancy, the press served to protect such attacks on the truth. As the watch-dog for the people the press at one time exposed and challenged attempts by government to control news.

According to Terry Hansen - it appears this is no longer the case.

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NOTES: For those who are interested in gaining a full appreciation of how the media has become an unofficial arm of government propaganda with respect to the UFO issue - The Missing Times by Terry Hansen is a must read.

Sample Topics in The Missing Times:

• Sources of Silence
• A brief History of Lies
• Editing History
• Perception Management

Web site: http://www.themissingtimes.com/

For a CHAPTER SYNOPSIS go to: http://www.themissingtimes.com/synopsis.xhtml
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Victor Viggiani is the news director of ZNN - the ZlandCommunications NewsNetwork

https://sites.google.com/site/zlandcommunications/

ZNN Press Room - http://zlandcommunications.blogspot.ca/