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From: andrea@hp-sdd.HP.COM (Andrea K. Frankel)
Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.misc
Subject: Re: NDE's in childhood
Message-ID: <582@hp-sdd.HP.COM>
Date: Tue, 11-Nov-86 18:19:09 EST
Article-I.D.: hp-sdd.582
Posted: Tue Nov 11 18:19:09 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Nov-86 03:08:17 EST
References: <2303@bucse.bu-cs.BU.EDU> <6931@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: andrea@hp-sdd.UUCP (Andrea K. Frankel)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, San Diego Division
Lines: 36
Xref: mnetor sci.med:231 sci.misc:84

In article <6931@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> dcohen@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU ( ) writes:
>   This is probably the most sensible explanation of NDE's I've seen
>yet.  The only thing that puzzles me about it is that I can't think of
>a good evolutionary advantage to having this neuronal structure
>around.  Why should it be useful to devote a chunk of brain circuitry
>to creating hallucinations of leaving the body?

I just finished "Using Your Brain, For a Change" - the latest
NLP refinement - and it seems that one of the most significant
ways you can decrease the emotional impact of a memory is to
change it from associative to dissociative.  (Associative = reliving
it through your own eyes, from the vantage point you had; dissociative =
seeing yourself in the memory, as if from an outside viewpoint.)
And vice versa: you can make a memory more significant emotionally
by changing from dissociative to associative.  The book had many
anecdotes about helping depressives, who seem to have about the
same number of happy and sad memories as non-depressives, but who
have all or most of the happy ones dissociated and the unhappy ones
associated!  (Clearly, you want it the other way around.)

So for an off-the-wall guess extrapolated from the above, our
caveman ancestors may have been able to deal with intense pain
(such as being gored during a hunt) or other acute unpleasantness
by dissociating immediately, even during the experience if possible.
It worked for me while getting a wisdom tooth pulled (I was able to
get by with less anesthesia than I usually need).  So there may be
some survival value lurking in there after all.

Andrea Frankel, Hewlett-Packard (San Diego Division) (619) 592-4664
 "every time that wheel goes round, bound to cover just a little more ground"
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