Prozac for Kids - A Warning for Parents everywhere

In the book "Flipside" I talk about how there is an alternative to SSRI drugs as described in the research of Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin. He's proven scientificially that meditation can "alleviate or cure symptoms of depression." 

I'm writing about the topic in my next book "It's A Wonderful Afterlife" about SSRI drug use in children in light of the recent shootings across the nation.  (I'm not a Doctor, nor do I dispense medicine. I'm a journalist and filmmaker who is reporting what is out there.)

Every mass shooting we've had in the country since Columbine has included SSRI drugs. 

Meaning the shooter had a history of mental illness, and either a history of being given seratonin release inhibitors or some other drug that affects the ability to know right from wrong.  It's not my opinion, it's part of the record and autopsy reports.

Combine 14 hours of playing "Warcraft" (as in the case of the recent shooting in Santa Barbara) along with easy access to guns and we have a perfect recipe for continuing mayhem.

While researching this information for my next book, in a section about why the "veil" appears to be thinning between the afterlife and our world - there's a discussion of how prescribed drugs appear to be affecting our life path.  I searched the National Institute of Mental Health's website for some details and found this article - no longer online but cached.  

It details how Doctors (may be or) are over prescribing these SSRI drugs to children.  It's in the document.  It's being done.  And it's not part of the national discussion on gun control AT ALL.

I post this article here because it needs to be read to any parent who is considering a Doctor's recommendation to use SSRI drugs with their children.

(On a personal note, I was approached by a teen in Santa Monica, who begged me to help him stop his parents from forcing him to take prescription drugs.  It was out of the blue, I happened to be driving by and saw a distraught mom crying with her son. He came to my car window and said "Please help me. My parents want me to take these drugs for what they claim is a mental illness. I don't want to take them."  I asked the mom if they were SSRI drugs. She said "I'm not comfortable discussing this with you."  On her cellphone I could hear her husband saying "Who the hell are you talking to?"  The father was in the pharmacy, buying the drugs. I wrote down Davidson's name and handed the mom the note to do the research.)

I am not arguing that SSRI drugs like Prozac can't help people.  There are many adults that claim that they do.  But we are talking about giving these drugs to humans under 25 years of age. And the NIMH's own document shows that there is a danger in doing so.  Not my opinion - their own words:

<<<<<"Antidepressant Medications for Children and Adolescents: Information for Parents and Caregivers"

"Depression is a serious disorder that can cause significant problems in mood, thinking, and behavior at home, in school, and with peers. It is estimated that major depressive disorder (MDD) affects about 5 percent of adolescents.

Research has shown that, as in adults, depression in children and adolescents is treatable. Certain antidepressant medications, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), can be beneficial to children and adolescents with MDD. Certain types of psychological therapies also have been shown to be effective. However, our knowledge of antidepressant treatments in youth, though growing substantially, is limited compared to what we know about treating depression in adults."

(So they admit that there's little research on the topic, but it doesn't stop them from giving these drugs to children) 

"Recently, there has been some concern that the use of antidepressant medications themselves may induce suicidal behavior in youths. Following a thorough and comprehensive review of all the available published and unpublished controlled clinical trials of antidepressants in children and adolescents, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public warning  in October 2004 about an increased risk of suicidal thoughts or behavior (suicidality) in children and adolescents treated with SSRI antidepressant medications. In 2006, an advisory committee to the FDA recommended that the agency extend the warning to include young adults up to age 25."

(In fact, they issued "BLACK BOX" warnings on the drugs because kids might kill themselves (or others))

"More recently, results of a comprehensive review of pediatric trials conducted between 1988 and 2006 suggested that the benefits of antidepressant medications likely outweigh their risks to children and adolescents with major depression and anxiety disorders. The study, partially funded by NIMH, was published in the April 18, 2007, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.1

What Did the FDA Review Find?

In the FDA review, no completed suicides occurred among nearly 2,200 children treated with SSRI medications. However, about 4 percent of those taking SSRI medications experienced suicidal thinking or behavior, including actual suicide attempts—twice the rate of those taking placebo, or sugar pills."

(I gather that's not enough to stop them from prescribing them.)

"In response, the FDA adopted a "black box" label warning  indicating that antidepressants may increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in some children and adolescents with MDD. A black-box warning is the most serious type of warning in prescription drug labeling.

The warning also notes that children and adolescents taking SSRI medications should be closely monitored for any worsening in depression, emergence of suicidal thinking or behavior, or unusual changes in behavior, such as sleeplessness, agitation, or withdrawal from normal social situations. Close monitoring is especially important during the first four weeks of treatment. SSRI medications usually have few side effects in children and adolescents, but for unknown reasons, they may trigger agitation and abnormal behavior in certain individuals.

What Do We Know About Antidepressant Medications?

The SSRIs include:

fluoxetine (Prozac)

sertraline (Zoloft)

paroxetine (Paxil)

citalopram (Celexa)

escitalopram (Lexapro)

fluvoxamine (Luvox)

Another antidepressant medication, venlafaxine (Effexor), is not an SSRI but is closely related.

SSRI medications are considered an improvement over older antidepressant medications because they have fewer side effects and are less likely to be harmful if taken in an overdose, which is an issue for patients with depression already at risk for suicide. They have been shown to be safe and effective for adults.

However, use of SSRI medications among children and adolescents ages 10 to 19 has risen dramatically in the past several years. Fluoxetine (Prozac) is the only medication approved by the FDA for use in treating depression in children ages 8 and older. The other SSRI medications and the SSRI-related antidepressant venlafaxine have not been approved for treatment of depression in children or adolescents, but doctors still sometimes prescribe them to children on an "off-label" basis. In June 2003, however, the FDA recommended that paroxetine not be used in children and adolescents for treating MDD.

Fluoxetine can be helpful in treating childhood depression, and can lead to significant improvement of depression overall. However, it may increase the risk for suicidal behaviors in a small subset of adolescents. As with all medical decisions, doctors and families should weigh the risks and benefits of treatment for each individual patient.

What Should You Do for a Child With Depression?

A child or adolescent with MDD should be carefully and thoroughly evaluated by a doctor to determine if medication is appropriate. Psychotherapy often is tried as an initial treatment for mild depression. Psychotherapy may help to determine the severity and persistence of the depression and whether antidepressant medications may be warranted. Types of psychotherapies include "cognitive behavioral therapy," which helps people learn new ways of thinking and behaving, and "interpersonal therapy," which helps people understand and work through troubled personal relationships.

Those who are prescribed an SSRI medication should receive ongoing medical monitoring. Children already taking an SSRI medication should remain on the medication if it has been helpful, but should be carefully monitored by a doctor for side effects. Parents should promptly seek medical advice and evaluation if their child or adolescent experiences suicidal thinking or behavior, nervousness, agitation, irritability, mood instability, or sleeplessness that either emerges or worsens during treatment with SSRI medications.

Once started, treatment with these medications should not be abruptly stopped. Although they are not habit-forming or addictive, abruptly ending an antidepressant can cause withdrawal symptoms or lead to a relapse. Families should not discontinue treatment without consulting their doctor.

All treatments can be associated with side effects. Families and doctors should carefully weigh the risks and benefits, and maintain appropriate follow-up and monitoring to help control for the risks.

What Does Research Tell Us?

An individual's response to a medication cannot be predicted with certainty. It is extremely difficult to determine whether SSRI medications increase the risk for completed suicide, especially because depression itself increases the risk for suicide and because completed suicides, especially among children and adolescents, are rare. Most controlled trials are too small to detect for rare events such as suicide (thousands of participants are needed). In addition, controlled trials typically exclude patients considered at high risk for suicide.

One major clinical trial, the NIMH-funded Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study (TADS)2, has indicated that a combination of medication and psychotherapy is the most effective treatment for adolescents with depression. The clinical trial of 439 adolescents ages 12 to 17 with MDD compared four treatment groups—one that received a combination of fluoxetine and CBT, one that received fluoxetine only, one that received CBT only, and one that received a placebo only. After the first 12 weeks, 71 percent responded to the combination treatment of fluoxetine and CBT, 61 percent responded to the fluoxetine only treatment, 43 percent responded to the CBT only treatment, and 35 percent responded to the placebo treatment.

At the beginning of the study, 29 percent of the TADS participants were having clinically significant suicidal thoughts. Although the rate of suicidal thinking decreased among all the treatment groups, those in the fluoxetine/CBT combination treatment group showed the greatest reduction in suicidal thinking.

Researchers are working to better understand the relationship between antidepressant medications and suicide. So far, results are mixed. One study, using national Medicaid files, found that among adults, the use of antidepressants does not seem to be related to suicide attempts or deaths. However, the analysis found that the use of antidepressant medications may be related to suicide attempts and deaths among children and adolescents.3"

(Congress held hearings in 1991 about the rash of suicides which resulted in these drug makers being forced to put "Black Box" warnings on them.  In 2010 Congress held more hearings into why so many soldiers were doing the same while using the drugs.)

"Another study analyzed health plan records for 65,103 patients treated for depression.4 It found no significant increase among adults and young people in the risk for suicide after starting treatment with newer antidepressant medications.

A third study analyzed suicide data from the National Vital Statistics and commercial prescription data. It found that among children ages five to 14, suicide rates from 1996 to 1998 were actually lower in areas of the country with higher rates of SSRI antidepressant prescriptions. The relationship between the suicide rates and the SSRI use rates, however, is unclear.5

New NIMH-funded research will help clarify the complex interplay between suicide and antidepressant medications. In addition, the NIMH-funded Treatment of Resistant Depression in Adolescents (TORDIA ) study, will investigate how best to treat adolescents whose depression is resistant to the first SSRI medication they have tried. Finally, NIMH also is supporting the Treatment of Adolescent Suicide Attempters (TASA ) study, which is investigating the treatment of adolescents who have attempted suicide. Treatments include antidepressant medications, CBT or both.">>>>>>> (end of article)

So there you have it.  They know they're being over prescribed. They know that doctors are prescribing SSRI drugs to children that haven't been tested.  And I'll be damned - they're not warning the parents. 

 WELL I'M WARNING THE PARENTS.

If your kid is precribed SSRI drugs GRAB THE DOCTOR BY THE shoulder and shake them. SHOUT "ARE YOU CRAZY???? WHAT ABOUT MEDITATION? HAVE YOU LOOKED INTO THE RESULTS THAT SHOW THAT MEDITATION CAN ALLEVIATE OR CURE THE EFFECTS OF DEPRESSION????"

Then hand them an article you've downloaded from the internet about the work of Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin which proves his results in a scientific setting.

I don't know how else to put it. 

The Finish Line

We're almost there.

Why two volumes? Why not?  Twice as much fun. Here's the artwork from Doug Martin. Keyhole. Universe. Flipside. What's not to love?

I'm told that "Flipside The Film" will be available through Netflix in August. Whee!

Volume one includes interviews with scientists talking about how consciousness appears to exist outside the body.  It includes between life sessions, near death experiences and more.

Volume two includes interviews with people who've had both near death experiences and between life session and more.  For those of you who've been eager to hear the latest research about the afterlife, this will combine both science and eyewitness reports.

Hopefully will be in print in a couple of weeks.  Thanks for your patience!  

The Audiobook for Flipside

Post by Rich Martini.

Interview with author David Bennett by Rich Martini

Author David Bennett ("Voyage of Purpose") has written an excellent book about his near death experience, and has been studied by Dr. Bruce Greyson at UVA.  Here is an interview we did in upstate NY after my book talk "It's A Wonderful Afterlife."  If you ever wanted to know what a near death experience was about, David's got an amazing story.  Also he's survived cancer and his journey through that is as compelling.  Highly recommend listening to his story.

"It's A Wonderful Afterlife" Flipside Book Talk with Rich Martini

Here's my latest "Flipside" book talk "It's A Wonderful Afterlife" given at the upstate NY iands (international association of near death studies) group.  Because of the topic, this could never be a Ted talk - they just don't consider this stuff science. But it's 80 minutes of an adventure unlike any adventure you've ever heard before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eliMNnj-yTg

FLIPSIDE KINDLE ON SALE FOR 2.99!

An open letter for Michael Moore to check into Common Core

Dear Mike,

We met at a DGA event.  I shook your hand, I thanked you for all your work for humanity. I meant it.

I wasn't aware of Common Core until my kids started coming home with these questions in tests like "When did Xbox first show up on the scene?" My wife began to research it in great detail, and she's the one who has suggested, prodded me to bring this up to you.

I was not aware of any of the politics around Common Core - and have not come to this argument as a libertarian, a seperatist, a communist, or any of the lovely epitath's that have been flung at those opposed to Common Core. I'm a filmmaker, I've made documentaries, you could say I'm left of the left - whatever that means.  I believe in common sense, and I care about humanity.

The headline for this story is "Bill Gates Buys Education."  If you're not up on Common Core, and you do the research you'll find one fella behind the nation's adopting this new system.  Whether it's Bill personally, or just a corporate behemoth, I don't know.  I do know that he's behind every study that's been done, he's behind every lobbyist in DC that got this passed, he's behind the whole kit and kaboodle.

Oh, other's are involved - Michael Milken and his K-12.com. After all, it's a profitable venture.  A close friend of mine worked for him and did not sign the heavily "non disclosure" dox that they force everyone to sign over there - but saw first hand what was afoot.  If you buy the process, then you own the process, then you control the message.

I have a cousin who is the head of his teacher's union back east. He put it this way: "They send you these convoluted tests that are created by programmers - created and graded by computers - and they're designed to make your school look stupid or behind the curve. Then they sell you software to upgrade your school, to make it smarter, so it's part of the curve." Pretty simply put.

At the core of Common Core is the idea that Asian countries are ahead of us in education because they emphasize math.  So the entire curriculum was tossed out in favor of this "diminish reading and playtime" in K-12 schools in favor of math questions.  Then, with the help of programmers (called "interns" as they don't have any requirements to be teachers) they programmed what these new tests will be.  That's why thousands of teachers in NY state went ballistic and protested. That's why Louis CK has taken to the airwaves to say these tests are "stupid." That's why teachers are resigning across the nation because they're being forced to not teach - but to program.

Allow me to return to Bill Gates for a moment. If you haven't seen it, Bill has publically acknowledged that he dislikes teachers.  Why, I don't know. But he has repeatedly said to the effect "older teachers aren't valuable" and that bascially anyone with a basic knowledge can do what they do - and that getting rid of the old teachers, allows students to focus on what they want to do, like learning to code.  So there is a rationale for this Common Core - which again, if you look into it, you'll find was passed without anyone paying attention to who was funding it.  Bill is more clever than the Koch brothers, as he knows how to create entities that don't seem to be his.  But I've done the research, and every single think tank involved was funding by him in large part.  Every single entity I've come up against that is promoting Common Core is somehow connected to him.

I also know that on the other side, there are tea partiers, the Glenn Becks of the world, who hate the President, hate government and would like to see it all burned to the ground.  It's unfortunate that I happen to be on the same side of the coin as these people I vehemently disagree with - but for whatever reason it's come to be, that's where I stand.

And as a filmmaker who has the resources and passion to tell this story, I'm glad to be able to share it with you.  Maybe it's a Frontline piece.  But there's such a human issue involved, with teachers quitting, being fired, being harassed, that its worth pointing a camera towards.  I'd make the film myself, but just don't have the resources to do so.  And you do.

Here's an article about a teacher who quit over it:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/24/teachers-resignation-letter-after-25-years-describes-disturbing-era-in-public-schools/

Here's the post I wrote yesterday and posted on my FB page:

"The Common Core concept is simple and insidious. Bill Gates is on record stating teachers are overpaid and should be set aside. The reason Louis CK mocked these new tests is because a computer writes them and grades them too.

Its the same thing that happened to the Italian eyeglass industry. China came and bought up all their equipment, then hired italian experts to teach their techies to run it. The eyeglass industry disappeared overnight - now all Italians do is put in the screws in the glasses so they're "assembled in Italy."

The same concept is being applied to education - Milken invested heavily in private education (K12.com) because whoever controls the tests (or the teaching or the information) controls the students.

Bill Gates invested in every level of Common Core from developing it to paying the lobbyists to get it passed - school systems are now forced to buy apps and software that teach kids to purchase their product. Schools are sold confusing tests, then have to purchase software to help them get a higher percentage of correct answers. (I'm not making this up, just search for some of the sample questions. Its like having Big Pharma sponsor school lunches with ads for Prozac on the walls.)

I just attended a DARE graduation program where kids said "I pledge to not do drugs so I can learn to code when I grow up." Not one teacher or astronaut in the bunch. All professional sports and tech jobs - little do they know they'll be shuffled into the job they're supposed to take by the data from these Common Core  tests which will follow them through their lives.

Get it? Code so you can have a place in the giant machine built by Gates, designed by Gates and will pay Gates. Meanwhile teachers disappear like Italian eyeglass designers because they're useless cogs in the computer program. Why have a teacher when a program will impart the same knowledge? Why have a teacher when an energetic intern can teach the same code?

There's nothing wrong with learning to code. But there's something wrong with eliminating the teachers who give shape and context to the human spirit. They've designed an educational system devoid of humanity. 

And one day they too will be tossed aside for the next revolution, which decides (like the "cultural revolution" in China did) that "Elites" and "teachers" have to be sent into the fields to learn to farm.

We can only opt out for so long, eventually we have to opt in to prod our political leaders and administrators to see who is pulling the strings behind this insidious policy. My two cents."

So Mike, you've got a lot of issues that you can focus on - perhaps ones with more heart.  But to my mind, this story is a metaphor about where we've been, and where we're headed.  Instead of asking "how can we make a better country?" we asked "How can we get more people into the job market?" Instead of asking "How can we help children to become better learners?"  we asked "How can we code tests so we don't need teachers anymore?"  Instead of asking "What's the best course for a better country?" we allowed it to be "What's the most profitable way to run education?"

You see? 

I hope you do.

Best of luck in all your endeavors, and I think an investigation into this is worth your effort.  And you'll teach a few things too.

Rich

Filmmaker
Author
Teacher
Parent

It's A Wonderful Afterlife

Here's my latest "Flipside" book talk "It's A Wonderful Afterlife" given at the upstate NY iands (international association of near death studies) group.  Because of the topic, this could never be a Ted talk - they just don't consider this stuff science. But it's 80 minutes of an adventure unlike any adventure you've ever heard before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eliMNnj-yTg

FLIPSIDE KINDLE ON SALE FOR 2.99!

An Interview with Gilda Radner (or someone who sounds like her) from the afterlife

I worked with Gilda Rander briefly, on Charles Grodin's film "Movers & Shakers" - I got the chance to hear her laugh in person. So when I ran across the following interview with her from the Afterlife - I gave it my full attention. I will post it in the comment section, as it's a bit long for an update, but I am posting it because everything she (or whoever is speaking) says in the interview, is confirmed in the research behind Flipside: A Tourist's Guide On How To Navigate the Afterlife. 

In the next book "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" I expand the research into scientists speaking about consciousness, and Doctors recounting near death experiences (NDE's) as well as new between life hypnotherapy sessions that by and large confirm everything this interview says about the journey into the afterlife. It's excerpted and edited with the permission of the woman who conducted the interview. I give you Gilda (or someone who's speaking as if she is Gilda) from the great beyond....


"An interview with Gilda Radner" (Edited from channelingerik.com)

Dr. Medhus: What was your transition like for you?

Gilda: Hell. It was hell. The moment of death and on is great. The moment of diagnosis and going through everything is hell. Because all of a sudden, everybody’s light in their eyes changes when they look at you. They know that you have something that can kill you, and they don’t know how to respond to you. That’s the biggest thing our entire culture is lacking, and if anything in this world we need to change—skip elementary school. We’re gonna learn all that shit anyway. You skip elementary school and learn how to cope with and handle death. If you can’t handle death, how’re you going to handle life? I was shocked how people didn’t know how to support me during my transition. As you know, cancer took my life. It had spread, so I knew my time was coming, my body was weak. I was just waiting for the appropriate time, and when it came, it was like a warm blanket—kind of like when you pee in your bed unexpectedly. It’s warm and it’s soft and it’s— I’m just telling the truth! So, I’m a bit awkward in how I explain it! But that’s how my physical body felt. My spiritual body felt completely embraced and loved down to every imperfect cell that I ever created. I’ve never felt a love like that before.

Q: Can you share your surroundings and your thoughts when you realized where you were?

Gilda: It literally brought me to tears— to know that you’re leaving the warm embrace of friendships and the family that you made—and you’re actually being blessed with something better. I almost didn’t feel worthy enough.

Q: So, what did your heaven look like?

Gilda: In many ways, it looked just like home, but the capabilities that you have here are just so different; they’re not confined anymore. Nothing confines the body anymore. Here you’ve got thought-energy, and the word “manifestation” is just what you do when you want to create something. There’s lack of struggle. It takes some getting used to. You have to adjust to it. You can go to different worlds and different places and dimensions, and you can connect with people—spirits, entities—and meet them for the first time. We’re not all-knowing. We’re still learning, but we have the right to connect to the all-knowing source. That’s what our poorly structured religions are based on, on earth.

Q: Was it your destiny to die when and how you did?

Gilda: Yes, yes. I don’t think it was by any fault or mistake, and the idea that it was ovarian cancer—the very right of a woman, you know, to procreate, to give birth. I abused myself. I didn’t like the way my body was; I didn’t like the way my voice sounded, so being a comedian was the perfect outlet. The only way I knew how to love myself was to make fun of it all and bring everybody on board with me. Through that underlying sabotaging energy, I created this cancer all on my own. I did this to myself and for myself. Sincerely, as I look back, it was my way out. I don’t think I would have burned as brightly as I wanted to if I had a longer life.

Q: Can you describe what your afterlife looks like now?

Gilda: Well, I’m in touch with my family; I work a lot with people on Earth of all cultures in how to find joy with the bodies that they have and to find laughter in healthy ways instead of as a cover-up.

Q: So, tell me what specifically your heaven looks like.

Gilda: A lot of what I find comfortable is being a part of the earthly plane. I think you’ll find that’s a really common answer. You know, we have so many dimensions to come from, but were leaving this world; it’s absolutely natural that you’d be attracted to coming back to it.

Q: Were you here to learn anything else other than what you’ve already said?

Gilda: Just because you’re created differently and your perspective is different and you’re wittier and faster than most doesn’t mean that you have to separate from the community and ostracize yourself—even though I did do that.

Q: Do you think you were here to teach anything?

Gilda: When I was human, I definitely would have told you that my job was to make you laugh. Yeah, I do regret that I couldn’t look at myself and enjoy that body for what it was. I really regret that because I was beautiful, and I never caught on to that… My proudest accomplishment was the work I did—the comedy on TV and my Broadway success, the fact that I was able to suspend people’s beliefs when they were being entertained by my characters. From the moment in time when you are soaked up into my story, my character, my show, you’re not thinking about yourself. You have a moment of suspended belief.

Q: Do you have any messages for your husband, Gene Wilder?

Gilda: Gene is the love of my life. I was so grateful to have the opportunity to work with him, because it was love at first sight for me. I pursued him. I was married, and I pursued him. I had to get divorced so I could have that man.

(Excerpted from “ChannelingErik.com” “Interview with Gilda” All Rights Reserved and belong to Dr. Elisa Medhus)

Flipside book talk "The Rise of the Phoenix"

This is a "Flipside" talk I gave in Phoenix last year. It's in black and white as I was getting a strobe when I wave my hand - which is a lot. It's a bit like sitting around a campfire and hearing me tell ghost stories; past life, between life stories, and my journey to this research. It's improvised, off the top of my head; but every story is true. (As I remember them). Caveat emptor: not for the faint of heart, if you're already convince how reality works - this is not for you. This talk is called "The Rise of the Phoenix"  http://youtu.be/Zi6lbNblYZ4

"Heaven is for Real" Faith based or Science based? You decide

The headline for this story shouldn't be

‘Heaven Is for Real’ Rides Faith-Based Wave to Big Easter Score at Box Office

This is a film that talks about the afterlife to be sure.  It talks about "Heaven" as well.  And there is a lot of prayer involved in this film, from the parents and those who feared Todd's son Colton Burpo's death.  And he survived his NDE (near death experience) as thousands have done before him.

But this film is contrary to the dogma that has been taught be Churches for centuries. A "Near Death Experience" has been studied by peer reviewed journals- (see Dr. Bruce Greyson's work at UVA for references in how it is categorized by his studies) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGZSC8odIU

What this film shows is the EVIDENCE that occurs while having a Near Death Experience.  This boy's father is a Minister and he didn't believe what his son experienced because it flew in the face of everything he'd been taught, everything he believed.  But he had the SAME EXPERIENCE that is cataloged in THOUSANDS OF ACCOUNTS of people having NDE's, or LBLs.  It's the same reports of "an afterlife" of "seeing loved ones no longer on the planet" of "celestial music" of a "feeling of seeing or being connected to a creator or god" - the same.

His son saw relatives he wasn't aware of (a sister who died at birth), saw people who appeared to him at the age they wanted to appear as ("everyone in heaven is young") - these are the IDENTICAL ACCOUNTS that are reported in "Flipside." It's not based on faith, or belief, or a religion.  It's based on the data.  Easy to call this a "faith based" story.  But   it's "Fact based."

I recommend seeing this film based on the trailer alone. Based on the science that Dr. Greyson "(Irreducible Mind"), Dr. Mario Beauregard ("Brain Wars") Gary Schwartz PhD ("Afterlife Experiments") Michael Newton ("Journey of Souls") Dr. Helen Wambach ("Life Before Life") have done - cataloging, reporting. Sharing the DATA.

http://youtu.be/mydh4MEo2B0

"Heaven is for Real" trailer:

Appearing May 9th talking "Flipside" in Liverpool NY Iands group

For all of my east coast pals: I will be appearing in Liverpool NY on May 9th. Come on down!!!!

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NOTE: See Events for details on our future and past meetings. Upcoming Events & Meetings: Friday May 9, 2014 From ~ 6:00 to 9:00 PM  Richard Martini ~ Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife Author and award winning filmmaker Richard Martini has written and/or directed 9 films. A former free lance journalist for Variety, Inc.Com, Premiere and other magazines. Richard will talk about the findings of his extensive research for his book "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" his debut non-fiction book on a topic that's been haunting him since the death of a soul mate, upon which his 90 minute documentary of the same name is based. After a dream vision of visiting his friend in the Great Beyond, Martini went on a literary quest to find out what the prevailing science and philosophical opinions on the Afterlife are. He journeyed into Tibetan Philosophy, made documentaries in Tibet and India, and eventually was introduced to the work of the Newton Institute, founded by renowned author and hypnotherapist Dr. Michael Newton ("Journey of Souls"). Martini’s first documentary film "Special Olympians" won the 1980 Mexico City International Film Festival. He then made his feature film directorial debut "You Can't Hurry Love,”with Bridget Fonda. Martini wrote his first feature “My Champion” which starred Christopher Mitchum and Yoko Shimada . He then wrote the Charlie Sheen comedy “Three For the Road” for Vista Films. He worked on the films "Amelia" and "Salt" as a digital media curator, pioneering a method of previsualizing a film online, film director Phillip Noyce hired him to work on both films. As an actor, he's made numerous appearances in bit parts in various films, including "Salt" as the driver who drives Angelina Jolie out of North Korea. He's also directed documentaries; "Tibetan Refugee"explores the Tibetan community in Dharamsala, "White City/Windy City" explores the relationship between Chicago and Casablanca in the Eisenhower "Sister Cities" program, and "Journey Into Tibet", follows Buddhist scholar and author Robert Thurman on a sacred journey around Mt. Kailash in Western Tibet. Registration starts at 6:00 pm. Meeting begins promptly at 6:30 pm. A $10 at the door. No advance sales At the Holiday Inn 441 Electronics Parkway Liverpool, NY 13088 For Directions Click Here

Near death, explained  Dr. Mario Beauregard, who I interview in the next edition of "Flipside" talks about the research that both he and Dr. Greyson at UVA have been doing into consciousness and the brain. Oh, and the KINDLE VERSION OF FLIPSIDE IS ON SALE FOR 99 CENTS:  

Near death, explained

New science is shedding light on what really happens during out-of-body experiences -- with shocking results.

MARIO BEAUREGARD

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TOPICS: NEUROSCIENCE, SCIENCE, EDITOR'S PICKS, LIFE NEWS, ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

Mopic via Shutterstock

This article was adapted from the new book "Brain Wars", from Harper One.

In 1991, Atlanta-based singer and songwriter Pam Reynolds felt extremely dizzy, lost her ability to speak, and had difficulty moving her body. A CAT scan showed that she had a giant artery aneurysm—a grossly swollen blood vessel in the wall of her basilar artery, close to the brain stem. If it burst, which could happen at any moment, it would kill her. But the standard surgery to drain and repair it might kill her too.

With no other options, Pam turned to a last, desperate measure offered by neurosurgeon Robert Spetzler at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Dr. Spetzler was a specialist and pioneer in hypothermic cardiac arrest—a daring surgical procedure nicknamed “Operation Standstill.” Spetzler would bring Pam’s body down to a temperature so low that she was essentially dead. Her brain would not function, but it would be able to survive longer without oxygen at this temperature. The low temperature would also soften the swollen blood vessels, allowing them to be operated on with less risk of bursting. When the procedure was complete, the surgical team would bring her back to a normal temperature before irreversible damage set in.

Essentially, Pam agreed to die in order to save her life—and in the process had what is perhaps the most famous case of independent corroboration of out of body experience (OBE) perceptions on record. This case is especially important because cardiologist Michael Sabom was able to obtain verification from medical personnel regarding crucial details of the surgical intervention that Pam reported. Here’s what happened.

Pam was brought into the operating room at 7:15 a.m., she was given general anesthesia, and she quickly lost conscious awareness. At this point, Spetzler and his team of more than 20 physicians, nurses, and technicians went to work. They lubricated Pam’s eyes to prevent drying, and taped them shut. They attached EEG electrodes to monitor the electrical activity of her cerebral cortex. They inserted small, molded speakers into her ears and secured them with gauze and tape. The speakers would emit repeated 100-decibel clicks—approximately the noise produced by a speeding express train—eliminating outside sounds and measuring the activity of her brainstem.

At 8:40 a.m., the tray of surgical instruments was uncovered, and Robert Spetzler began cutting through Pam’s skull with a special surgical saw that produced a noise similar to a dental drill. At this moment, Pam later said, she felt herself “pop” out of her body and hover above it, watching as doctors worked on her body.

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Although she no longer had use of her eyes and ears, she described her observations in terms of her senses and perceptions. “I thought the way they had my head shaved was very peculiar,” she said. “I expected them to take all of the hair, but they did not.” She also described the Midas Rex bone saw (“The saw thing that I hated the sound of looked like an electric toothbrush and it had a dent in it … ”) and the dental-drill sound it made with considerable accuracy.

Meanwhile, Spetzler was removing the outermost membrane of Pamela’s brain, cutting it open with scissors. At about the same time, a female cardiac surgeon was attempting to locate the femoral artery in Pam’s right groin. Remarkably, Pam later claimed to remember a female voice saying, “We have a problem. Her arteries are too small.” And then a male voice: “Try the other side.” Medical records confirm this conversation, yet Pam could not have heard them.

The cardiac surgeon was right—Pam’s blood vessels were indeed too small to accept the abundant blood flow requested by the cardiopulmonary bypass machine, so at 10:50 a.m., a tube was inserted into Pam’s left femoral artery and connected to the cardiopulmonary bypass machine. The warm blood circulated from the artery into the cylinders of the bypass machine, where it was cooled down before being returned to her body. Her body temperature began to fall, and at 11:05 a.m. Pam’s heart stopped. Her EEG brain waves flattened into total silence. A few minutes later, her brain stem became totally unresponsive, and her body temperature fell to a sepulchral 60 degrees Fahrenheit. At 11:25 a.m., the team tilted up the head of the operating table, turned off the bypass machine, and drained the blood from her body. Pamela Reynolds was clinically dead.

At this point, Pam’s out-of-body adventure transformed into a near-death experience (NDE): She recalls floating out of the operating room and traveling down a tunnel with a light. She saw deceased relatives and friends, including her long-dead grandmother, waiting at the end of this tunnel. She entered the presence of a brilliant, wonderfully warm and loving light, and sensed that her soul was part of God and that everything in existence was created from the light (the breathing of God). But this extraordinary experience ended abruptly, as Reynolds’s deceased uncle led her back to her body—a feeling she described as “plunging into a pool of ice.”

Meanwhile, in the operating room, the surgery had come to an end. When all the blood had drained from Pam’s brain, the aneurysm simply collapsed and Spetzler clipped it off. Soon, the bypass machine was turned on and warm blood was pumped back into her body. As her body temperature started to increase, her brainsteam began to respond to the clicking speakers in her ears and the EEG recorded electrical activity in the cortex. The bypass machine was turned off at 12:32 p.m. Pam’s life had been restored, and she was taken to the recovery room in stable condition at 2:10 p.m.

Tales of otherworldly experiences have been part of human cultures seemingly forever, but NDEs as such first came to broad public attention in 1975 by way of American psychiatrist and philosopher Raymond Moody’s popular book Life After Life. He presented more than 100 case studies of people who experienced vivid mental experiences close to death or during “clinical death” and were subsequently revived to tell the tale. Their experiences were remarkably similar, and Moody coined the term NDE to refer to this phenomenon. The book was popular and controversial, and scientific investigation of NDEs began soon after its publication with the founding, in 1978, of the International Association for Near Death Studies (IANDS)—the first organization in the world devoted to the scientific study of NDEs and their relationship to mind and consciousness.

NDEs are the vivid, realistic, and often deeply life-changing experiences of men, women, and children who have been physiologically or psychologically close to death. They can be evoked by cardiac arrest and coma caused by brain damage, intoxication, or asphyxia. They can also happen following such events as electrocution, complications from surgery, or severe blood loss during or after a delivery. They can even occur as the result of accidents or illnesses in which individuals genuinely fear they might die. Surveys conducted in the United States and Germany suggest that approximately 4.2 percent of the population has reported an NDE. It has also been estimated that more than 25 million individuals worldwide have had an NDE in the past 50 years.

People from all walks of life and belief systems have this experience. Studies indicate that the experience of an NDE is not influenced by gender, race, socioeconomic status, or level of education. Although NDEs are sometimes presented as religious experiences, this seems to be a matter of individual perception. Furthermore, researchers have found no relationship between religion and the experience of an NDE. That is, it did not matter whether the people recruited in those studies were Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, atheist, or agnostic.

Although the details differ, NDEs are characterized by a number of core features. Perhaps the most vivid is the OBE: the sense of having left one’s body and of watching events going on around one’s body or, occasionally, at some distant physical location. During OBEs, near-death experiencers (NDErs) are often astonished to discover that they have retained consciousness, perception, lucid thinking, memory, emotions, and their sense of personal identity. If anything, these processes are heightened: Thinking is vivid; hearing is sharp; and vision can extend to 360 degrees. NDErs claim that without physical bodies, they are able to penetrate through walls and doors and project themselves wherever they want. They frequently report the ability to read people’s thoughts.

The effects of NDEs on the experience are intense, overwhelming, and real. A number of studies conducted in United States, Western European countries, and Australia have shown that most NDErs are profoundly and positively transformed by the experience. One woman says, “I was completely altered after the accident. I was another person, according to those who lived near me. I was happy, laughing, appreciated little things, joked, smiled a lot, became friends with everyone … so completely different than I was before!”

However different their personalities before the NDE, experiencers tend to share a similar psychological profile after the NDE. Indeed, their beliefs, values, behaviors, and worldviews seem quite comparable afterward. Importantly, these psychological and behavioral changes are not the kind of changes one would expect if this experience were a hallucination. And, as noted NDE researcher Pim van Lommel and his colleagues have demonstrated, these changes become more apparent with the passage of time.

Some skeptics legitimately argue that the main problem with reports of OBE perceptions is that they often rest uniquely on the NDEr’s testimony—there is no independent corroboration. From a scientific perspective, such self-reports remain inconclusive. But during the last few decades, some self-reports of NDErs have been independently corroborated by witnesses, such as that of Pam Reynolds. One of the best known of these corroborated veridical NDE perceptions—perceptions that can be proven to coincide with reality—is the experience of a woman named Maria, whose case was first documented by her critical care social worker, Kimberly Clark.

Maria was a migrant worker who had a severe heart attack while visiting friends in Seattle. She was rushed to Harborview Hospital and placed in the coronary care unit. A few days later, she had a cardiac arrest but was rapidly resuscitated. The following day, Clark visited her. Maria told Clark that during her cardiac arrest she was able to look down from the ceiling and watch the medical team at work on her body. At one point in this experience, said Maria, she found herself outside the hospital and spotted a tennis shoe on the ledge of the north side of the third floor of the building. She was able to provide several details regarding its appearance, including the observations that one of its laces was stuck underneath the heel and that the little toe area was worn. Maria wanted to know for sure whether she had “really” seen that shoe, and she begged Clark to try to locate it.

Quite skeptical, Clark went to the location described by Maria—and found the tennis shoe. From the window of her hospital room, the details that Maria had recounted could not be discerned. But upon retrieval of the shoe, Clark confirmed Maria’s observations. “The only way she could have had such a perspective,” said Clark, “was if she had been floating right outside and at very close range to the tennis shoe. I retrieved the shoe and brought it back to Maria; it was very concrete evidence for me.”

This case is particularly impressive given that during cardiac arrest, the flow of blood to the brain is interrupted. When this happens, the brain’s electrical activity (as measured with EEG) disappears after 10 to 20 seconds. In this state, a patient is deeply comatose. Because the brain structures mediating higher mental functions are severely impaired, such patients are expected to have no clear and lucid mental experiences that will be remembered. Nonetheless, studies conducted in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States have revealed that approximately 15 percent of cardiac arrest survivors do report some recollection from the time when they were clinically dead. These studies indicate that consciousness, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings can be experienced during a period when the brain shows no measurable activity.

NDEs experienced by people who do not have sight in everyday life are quite intriguing. In 1994, researchers Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper decided to undertake a search for cases of NDE-based perception in the blind. They reasoned that such cases would represent the ultimate demonstration of veridical perceptions during NDEs. If a blind person was able to report on verifiable events that took place when they were clinically dead, that would mean something real was occurring. They interviewed 31 individuals, of whom 14 were blind from birth. Twenty-one of the participants had had an NDE; the others had had OBEs only. Strikingly, the experiences they reported conform to the classic NDE pattern, whether they were born blind or had lost their sight in later life. The results of the study were published in 1997. Based on all the cases they investigated, Ring and Cooper concluded that what happens during an NDE affords another perspective to perceive reality that does not depend on the senses of the physical body. They proposed to call this other mode of perception mindsight. 

Despite corroborated reports, many materialist scientists cling to the notion that OBEs and NDEs are located in the brain. In 2002, neurologist Olaf Blanke and colleagues at the University Hospitals of Geneva and Lausanne in Switzerland described in the prestigious scientific journalNature the strange occurrence that happened to a 43-year-old female patient with epilepsy. Because her seizures could not be controlled by medication alone, neurosurgery was being considered as the next step. The researchers implanted electrodes in her right temporal lobe to provide information about the localization and extent of the epileptogenic zone—the area of the brain that was causing the seizures—which had to be surgically removed. Other electrodes were implanted to identify and localize, by means of electrical stimulation, the areas of the brain that—if removed—would result in loss of sensory capacities, linguistic ability, or even paralysis. Such a procedure is particularly critical to spare important brain areas that are adjacent to the epileptogenic zone.

When they stimulated the angular gyrus—a region of the brain in the parietal lobe that is thought to integrate sensory information related to vision, touch, and balance to give us a perception of our own bodies—the patient reported seeing herself “lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk.” She described herself as “floating” near the ceiling. She also reported seeing her legs “becoming shorter.”

The article received global press coverage and created quite a commotion. The editors ofNature went so far as to declare triumphantly that as a result of this one study—which involved only one patient—the part of the brain that can induce OBEs had been located.

“It’s another blow against those who believe that the mind and spirit are somehow separate from the brain,” said psychologist Michael Shermer, director of the Skeptics Society, which seeks to debunk all kinds of paranormal claims. “In reality, all experience is derived from the brain.”

In another article published in 2004, Blanke and co-workers described six patients, of whom three had experienced an atypical and incomplete OBE. Four patients reported an autoscopy—that is, they saw their own double from the vantage point of their own body. In this paper, the researchers describe an OBE as a temporary dysfunction of the junction of the temporal and parietal cortex. But, as Pim van Lommel noted, the abnormal bodily experiences described by Blanke and colleagues entail a false sense of reality. Typical OBEs, in contrast, implicate a verifiable perception (from a position above or outside of the body) of events, such as their own resuscitation or a traffic accident, and the surroundings in which the events took place. Along the same lines, psychiatrist Bruce Greyson of the University of Virginia commented that “We cannot assume from the fact that electrical stimulation of the brain can induce OBE-like illusions that all OBEs are therefore illusions.”

Materialistic scientists have proposed a number of physiological explanations to account for the various features of NDEs. British psychologist Susan Blackmore has propounded the “dying brain” hypothesis: that a lack of oxygen (or anoxia) during the dying process might induce abnormal firing of neurons in brain areas responsible for vision, and that such an abnormal firing would lead to the illusion of seeing a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel.

Would it? Van Lommel and colleagues objected that if anoxia plays a central role in the production of NDEs, most cardiac arrest patients would report an NDE. Studies show that this is clearly not the case. Another problem with this view is that reports of a tunnel are absent from several accounts of NDErs. As pointed out by renowned NDE researcher Sam Parnia, some individuals have reported an NDE when they had not been terminally ill and so would have had normal levels of oxygen in their brains.

Parnia raises another problem: When oxygen levels decrease markedly, patients whose lungs or hearts do not work properly experience an “acute confusional state,” during which they are highly confused and agitated and have little or no memory recall. In stark contrast, during NDEs people experience lucid consciousness, well-structured thought processes, and clear reasoning. They also have an excellent memory of the NDE, which usually stays with them for several decades. In other respects, Parnia argues that if this hypothesis is correct, then the illusion of seeing a light and tunnel would progressively develop as the patient’s blood oxygen level drops. Medical observations, however, indicate that patients with low oxygen levels do not report seeing a light, a tunnel, or any of the common features of an NDE we discussed earlier.

During the 1990s, more research indicated that the anoxia theory of NDEs was on the wrong track. James Whinnery, a chemistry professor with West Texas A&M, was involved with studies simulating the extreme conditions that can occur during aerial combat maneuvers. In these studies, fighter pilots were subjected to extreme gravitational forces in a giant centrifuge. Such rapid acceleration decreases blood flow and, consequently, delivery of oxygen to the brain. In so doing, it induces brief periods of unconsciousness that Whinnery calls “dreamlets.” Whinnery hypothesized that although some of the core features of NDEs are found during dreamlets, the main characteristics of dreamlets are impaired memory for events just prior to the onset of unconsciousness, confusion, and disorientation upon awakening. These symptoms are not typically associated with NDEs. In addition, life transformations are never reported following dreamlets.

So, if the “dying brain” is not responsible for NDEs, could they simply be hallucinations? In my opinion, the answer is no. Let’s look at the example of hallucinations that can result from ingesting ketamine, a veterinary drug that is sometimes used recreationally, and often at great cost to the user.

At small doses, the anesthetic agent ketamine can induce hallucinations and feelings of being out of the body. Ketamine is thought to act primarily by inhibiting N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors, which normally open in response to binding of glutamate, the most abundant excitatory chemical messenger in the human brain. Psychiatrist Karl Jensen has speculated that the blockade of NMDA receptors may induce an NDE. But ketamine experiences are often frightening, producing weird images; and most ketamine users realize that the experiences produced by this drug are illusory. In contrast, NDErs are strongly convinced of the reality of what they experienced. Furthermore, many of the central features of NDEs are not reported with ketamine. That being said, we cannot rule out that the blockade of NMDA receptors may be involved in some NDEs.

Neuroscientist Michael Persinger has claimed that he and his colleagues have produced all the major features of the NDE by using weak transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the temporal lobes. Persinger’s work is based on the premise that abnormal activity in the temporal lobe may trigger an NDE. A review of the literature on epilepsy, however, indicates that the classical features of NDEs are not associated with epileptic seizures located in the temporal lobes. Moreover, as Bruce Greyson and his collaborators have correctly emphasized, the experiences reported by participants in Persinger’s TMS studies bear little resemblance with the typical features of NDEs.

The scientific NDE studies performed over the past decades indicate that heightened mental functions can be experienced independently of the body at a time when brain activity is greatly impaired or seemingly absent (such as during cardiac arrest). Some of these studies demonstrate that blind people can have veridical perceptions during OBEs associated with an NDE. Other investigations show that NDEs often result in deep psychological and spiritual changes.

These findings strongly challenge the mainstream neuroscientific view that mind and consciousness result solely from brain activity. As we have seen, such a view fails to account for how NDErs can experience—while their hearts are stopped—vivid and complex thoughts and acquire veridical information about objects or events remote from their bodies.

NDE studies also suggest that after physical death, mind and consciousness may continue in a transcendent level of reality that normally is not accessible to our senses and awareness. Needless to say, this view is utterly incompatible with the belief of many materialists that the material world is the only reality.

Excerpted with permission from “The Brain Wars: The Scientific Battle Over the Existence of the Mind and the Proof That Will Change the Way We Live Our Lives.” Courtesy of HarperOne.

Mario Beauregard is associate research professor at the Departments of Psychology and Radiology and the Neuroscience Research Center at the University of Montreal. He is the coauthor of "The Spiritual Brain" and more than one hundred publications in neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry.

MORE MARIO BEAUREGARD.