Our Universe is full of mysteries that do not fit into the established system of knowledge. The "Epoch Times" column "Beyond Science" presents articles on phenomena that excite our imagination and testify to previously unseen possibilities. Let us know your thoughts on these sometimes controversial topics in the comments section.
Perhaps science will never be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt whether there is an afterlife or not. But science can at least determine how many people have experienced the afterlife and other paranormal events.
Research shows that many of these people were not spiritual or religious. Although their experiences are subjective, objective phenomena are also observed.
Dying visions
Dr. Erlendur Haraldsson of the University of Iceland interviewed about 700 medical professionals in the United States and India about their patients' near-death visions. Nearly 500 terminally ill patients have reported similar experiences.
Studies conducted in North America and Europe showed that 10-40% of respondents said they had contact with the deceased.
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Near-death experience
Near death experiences are reported to be experienced by up to 200,000 Americans a year. They usually leave their bodies watching the resuscitation efforts of doctors and seeing scenes in other dimensions.
People in a coma perceive most of the information from the outside world.
Photo: Christopher Furlong
A 2005 poll of American doctors showed that 59% of them believe in some form of life after death. This is "a much higher percentage than in other scientific specialties," writes Dinesh Souza in his book Life After Death: The Evidence.
Studies in Alzheimer's patients show that the soul may exist
Brains in patients with dementia or Alzheimer's disease often deteriorate to the point that normal mental functioning is impossible if there is no soul and the mind is just a function of the brain.
However, Dr. Alexander Batyani of the University of Vienna reported that 10% of the 227 patients had regained clear consciousness before dying. Doctors are baffled as to how mental functioning could have returned to these patients.
Out of body
Out-of-body experiences also suggest that the soul or mind can exist separately from the body.
Nelson Abreu, an engineer, paranormal researcher and former intern at Princeton University Research Laboratory, is one of the authors of the free e-book, Consciousness Beyond the Body: Evidence and Reflection, published in February this year.
He noted in the book that numerous statistical surveys over the past century in a number of countries (including the United States, Australia and Brazil) on four continents have shown that millions of people have had out-of-body experiences.
Even a conservative estimate based on surveys suggests that around 70 million people worldwide have had out-of-body experiences.
Reincarnation
Dr. Jim Tucker of the University of Virginia has a database of about 2,500 cases where children remembered their past lives. In some cases, children recalled details of their past lives, which were verified as being true.
Based on the analysis, Tucker concluded that about 73% of unnatural deaths in a past life that children remember are in boys. This is in line with US statistics, which show that over a five-year period, 72% of unnatural deaths were male.