Another interesting event

People with dementia have been reported to have moments of clarity. Dementia usually only eats up short term memory, whilst long term memory are less affected.

My own theory is that short term memory isn't 100% gone, but can have maybe ~0.5% left, and can thereby have sporadic functionality.

So where did I say it proves an after life?

You presume too much. You would wish me to make that claim, in reality, to satisfy your egotistic intentions.

You want to ignore my reasons and make your own irrelevant reply.

You want to dismiss it without interrogation, simply on the principle that it reminds you of other reports.

I tried to present it as a reasonable reason for the personal experience to be considered as life changing for those who experience them ,not your dismissal of the experience.

Try understanding that those who have them believe them and understand from a philosophical manner their reasoning.

Lets say I present a story that withstands all interrogation and no logical explaination remains....Now you are still entitled to have your disbelief but surely your able to debate how it can have an enormous influence on those who have them.

But xris, if you frame the thread like that, then what is there to say? People do have experiences that affect them profoundly. Beyond that, I think we can reasonably discuss why it affected them, and what alternative explanations we could have.

Well, I once briefly believed I had a ghost in my house. It was quite interesting. After thinking it over I realized what had caused me to believe that. Should I have not thought it over? Some people have dreams that involve sleep paralysis etc, which create a very powerful perception of being haunted. Does the fact that the experience is powerful mean that they should accept it as truth?

I'm not dismissing them you know. I love ghost stories; I don't reject them because they interfere with some treasured scientific beliefs I have. But I have reasons for not believing in them, despite powerful experiences. Don't you think logic and reasoning can be powerful too?

The difference is you dont believe you met a ghost and I know I had sleep paralysis nightmare. If you believed you had met a ghost , no matter how much logic you applied to the experience, it would still make a profound difference to your beliefs. You cant put logic into a profound experience no matter what others say or do. I penned four numbers out of six and wrote a 6 when a 9 was drawn. This is after waking up and searching for pen and paper. Now I know others wont believe me and logic tells me a million people may dream the lottery numbers every night but only a few by chance get them right. BUT that dream was almost a real experience to me...I say again you dont have to believe me but cant you see the reason why it had an affect on me.

Your story of the lottery numbers reminded me of something else. There is a brilliant episode of the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents show entitled "Mail Order Prophet" (Season 3, Episode 2). In it, a guy receives a letter from some stranger claiming the ability to predict the future, like the outcome of elections and sporting events. For full effect, I recommend watching the episode:

IMDb Video: The Mail Order Prophet




****SPOILERS****

Do not continue reading if you want to watch the episode, as things are revealed below that will spoil some surprises.



The letter suggests that the guy bet on the outcome. And the prediction in the letter turns out to be right. And then he gets another letter, with another prediction. It, too, turns out to be right. The letters continue. And so the guy makes bets, and gets rich, as the predictions all turn out to be right.

The thing is, there is a logical explanation of it at the end of the show, even though most people will never guess how there could be. And yet there is one. Of course, such things have a strong psychological effect on people. But that is because many people do not think logically and rationally about things, and jump to conclusions simply because they do not know the answer or have any good evidence regarding how something happened.

My daughter in laws grandmother died last week. She was 96 and had suffered with dementia for the last six years, not even recognising her daughter for the last six months. The day before she died, she suddenly recognised her daughter again and told her daughter with great excitement and joy that she had just seen her mother and father who had told her not to worry, everything was going to be OK.

I know all the obvious answers but I cant help thinking another odd event that gets me wondering, yet again.

Im sorry but you will have to explain the fictional story as its not available outside the US.

I'm pretty sure it's based on reality. The explanation is that someone started off by sending out 2,000 letters, with 1,000 predicting outcome A and 1,000 predicting outcome B. Then the next week he does the same thing, but only sends letters to the people he sent correct predictions too. In this way, after a number of weeks there is still 1 person who has received a huge string of correct predictions.

Generally this was a scam, and they would start charging money for future tips. I think this is a good argument for not stopping at the "gets me wondering" stage. Yes, these experiences are interesting and they have a profound effect on people. But why wouldn't they want to examine them more closely? The truth can be just as interesting as an illusion.

Thanks for that but I'm a bit bewildered on who actually sent me the dream. I wonder would you bet a pound or dollar on a dream about seeing the winner of a horse race? You have to be a darned determined skeptic to turn down that opportunity.

I can assure you I examined mine very closely, do you think something of this magnitude would be treated lightly? I never ever believed that the future was written, it gave me many sleepless nights pondering on its significance. BUT as I say, knowing my reaction to others experiences, I can appreciate your feelings about mine. I will say it again many logical reasonable individuals are experiencing certain events they feel they have reason to believe and find them life changing. The shame of it is I did not treat it seriously or I would be sunning myself on a tropical beach now...

Jebediah explained it basically correctly.

I did not mean that this example is the same as your dreams, which is why I prefaced it with saying that it "reminded me of something else" and did not say that it reminded me of something very like it. I am sorry if I was not clear enough on that point.

It is not, however, totally irrelevant, since it is an example of something having a very significant emotional effect on someone, regardless of what the true facts are, of which the person is unaware.