Supernatural Operation

The human brain is the most complex thing on this planet. Atheists and theists fight over what the brain is. Is the "soul" just the brain's "consciousness"? Mystery is often attributed to the supernatural. The less people know about science, the more they attribute to the gods. So, this concept is often then used to disprove religion. For instance, there is an argument that near-death experiences which tell of a mysterious "white light" are proof of the after-life. Some scientific evidence seems to show that these may be due to a lack of oxygen. This lack of oxygen causes the brain to reduce it's activity to it's innermost parts (which also happen to be the more primitive parts of the brain). So the "white light" is simply the result of the brain closing down to the simplest state in order to still run. Okay, so should we chalk this up to another win for atheists? There's just one problem with this. On the same program where I heard all these things I'm discussing, there was a man who told a story that fits with this situation. He said that he had an "out-of-body" experience while being operated on. He said that he hovered over his body while it was being operated on. Okay, so you're probably thinking that he's crazy. Well, he remembers some things about the surgery that would seem impossible to know unless somehow his consciousness was able to exit his body.

First let me provide some facts to counteract a probable skeptical argument. He was put under sedation. Besides this, his eyes were taped close with bandages. Besides that, a medical sheet was placed from his neck up vertically about 2 or 3 feet. So even if he woke up and some how could see through his bandages, he still would have only seen a sheet and not his body or the doctors. Also, he did not know any of the surgeons or nurses working on him. Okay, so let's look at what he said.

He said while hovering over his body, he could look down at himself and see what was going on. It was like his body was in one place but his consciousness was in another. I guess sort of like you are right now aware of where your toes are, but your consciousness isn't in your toes. So, here is the part that lends credibility to his story. He said that the doctor did some really strange things. He said it looked like his doctor was flapping his arms like he was pretending to be a chicken while barking out orders. Crazy...yes. Well, amazingly, this is exactly what the doctor said happened. Now why would a doctor do that? He said that while his part of the operation isn't going on, he likes to keep his hands sterile by tucking them under his body near his armpits. He points with his elbows to direct the other surgeons/nurses. This requires him to twist to the left and right back and forth to use both his left and right elbow to point. So what was a very strange thing to say actually happened. If someone were to make up a story about an out-of-body experience, they would lie about things which make sense to them. They would discuss it the way they think it would play out. They would not accuse the doctor of looking and acting like a chicken.

So we're left with this: did he actually know the doctor despite both claiming they didn't know each other? If so, then what is the motive? There is no money involved in this. The only other easy option is that he saw the doctor do this with his own physical eyes, but again, I've already shown why that was a near impossibility. So the third option, that I can think of, is that this actually happened. This man's consciousness actually somehow exited his body and then re-entered his body. What does this do to the thought of an after-life? Is it really that ludicrous? Empiricism is not truth. It's a method to arrive at truth. Therefore, it is insufficient in some cases (e.g. this one). This doesn't prove the Christian God, or even a God at all. If it happened like the witness said, then it certainly seems like an after-life is much more likely than current science would allow. And that, in turn, effects the possibility of a God. If death doesn't kill consciousness, then religion was right all along.