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Its claimed
a new study 'proves' the soul exists.
The evidence
is from 'dead' patients whose hearts stop beating and then experience
a form of afterlife.
The study will
be published in the Lancet later this week.
Doctors who
studied 344 heart attack survivors found more than one in 10 had
experienced emotions, visions or lucid thoughts while they were
"clinically dead" - unconscious with no signs of pulse,
breathing or brain activity.
Some reported
having "out-of-body" experiences. It supports a long-held
view that the mind - or soul - can survive death.
The research,
by a Dutch team, will be seized on by academics who support a theory
that the mind can continue to work after the brain has stopped.
Church leaders
will cite it as evidence for the existence of a soul.
The two-year
study in 10 Dutch hospitals is the largest study into the phenomenon.
It found that
12 per cent of cardiac arrest survivors reported having various
"near-death experiences" (NDEs) before being resuscitated.
Dr Peter Fenwick,
a consultant neuropsychiatrist at London University, told The Sunday
Telegraph, "If the mind and brain can be independent, then
that raises questions about the continuation of consciousness after
death. It also raises questions about a spiritual component to humans
and about a meaningful universe with a purpose rather than a random
universe."
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