The Stuff of Life

Christopher Reeve once said in an interview regarding a film he made called ‘Somewhere in Time’ (I love that movie – cheesy love-story). There’s a scene at the end of the movie where the character dies and his soul leaves his body and ascends upward and into the heavens (naturally to be rejoined with the soul of his long, lost love). At the time, ascention of the soul was a notion that Reeve found "unlikely".

During Reeve’s interview (and years after the movie), he recalled having a similar experience at the time of his crippling accident which led to a change of mind. Reeve claimed that after the accident he flat-lined for 50 seconds during which time he had an out-of-body experience; He actually floated above himself, looked down at himself on the hospital table watching as doctors scrambled to revive him <> Doctors eventually gave him a massive dose of epinephrine and instantly he was back in his body.

I don’t know if it’s true but it brings up an interesting thought: if people are made up of the stuff of stars and the universe as we know ourselves to be (excluding dark matter since we don’t even know what it is) and if an out-of-body experience is possible... how does matter in the form of hydrogen and helium (and other universal matter that constitutes our make-up) produce conscious thought and translate images into visual acuity? Could an out-of-body experience suggest the existence of the human soul - a “celestial” entity that can carry our conscious selves after our bodies have “died”. And if so, would the existence of a human soul suggest the existence of a supernatural being along with heaven and hell?

Maybe not.

For everything we know about the brain and the mind, there are more things about the two and how they work that we do not know; And will likely be the case for a very long time. If the brain were at it's most fully-functioning state (and maybe there are circumstances when we die where this would happen - an eclipse of all functions all at once) perhaps we could experience peripheral existence. Given that the universe is made mostly of the “stuff” we can’t see, feel, or touch or even distinguish (i.e., dark matter) it’s possible that we as people are also made up of stuff that is not material (excluding the known universal elements; another form of energy perhaps) that cannot be seen, felt or even distinguished based on the known elements. Maybe it's this "stuff" that can carry our memories and thoughts, in the form of radio waves and frequencies, into what we consider to be a transcendental state of existence.

As for the question of sight (being able to look down at yourself), well...this may very well be far-fetched but perhaps there is a moment before the brain dies where the electrical impusles that speak to our brain and translate messages into visual images are still connected and speaking to the "stuff" carrying our thoughts and memories; And thus we maintain visual acuity for a brief period. Hey, why not? the body is a magnificent wonder of mechanical perfection. Thoughts, feelings, sight...it's all fundamentally based on electrical impulses that talk to the brain (in simplistic terms anyway). And we only use a very, small portion of our brain so at its' most fully functioning state isnt it at least, not completely implausible...?

Crazy theories - maybe - but it's fun to think about and disect.
Of course, If such a possiblity exists then where would we go after we die – dreams, memories, thoughts and all - float up into space where the rest of the “stuff” of the universe is?