Take this recent study reported on in Science magazine. An apparently dead subject was shown images of faces which displayed a variety of human emotions. A type of brain scan detected some activity when the images were changed. It appeared that the brain, even after death, was perceiving visual images and thinking about the emotional meaning of them in some way.
At least, that’s one way to interpret the data. Another way to look at the data is to take into account that the dead subject was a salmon, which is incapable of registering human emotions even when it’s alive.
This was part of an experiment to test the degree to which scientific equipment can provide false positives – the appearance of meaningful data where none exists.
The experiment did not prove that there is life after death, that the brain keeps on thinking and feeling things long after the heart and lungs have stopped. It merely showed that people eager to find such things could easily do so, just by looking at the equivalent of snow on an old broadcast television.
The study concludes that people who are predisposed to see patterns in data will see those patterns, and interpret them as proof of what they already believed. That’s just a part of being human.
Nicole Rodriguez in Broward County recently blogged about the 23-year old investigation of life after death by the Pembroke Pines-based Survival Research Foundation. Dr. Arthur Berger, head of the foundation told her he believed there is sufficient evidence that suggests there is life after what we call death.
Here’s how the active study works: while their hearts are still pumping, participants leave some type of locking device behind. They are the sole keepers of the device’s code. After they drop dead, they must communicate the secret code to the holder of the device. And if it’s correct – ta-da – proof of an afterlife.
So far, nobody’s cracked the code, although a computer was successful in testing different combos until the right one worked.
So Dr. Berger, where is your sufficient evidence suggesting life after death? So far, the experiment is batting zero. Yet he hasn’t given up. Berger claims to be working with participants all over the world. Maybe one of them will pass on the secret code … but after 23 years of trying, it doesn’t seem likely.
