Holy crap, did I really type all of that???

Quoted from jonny_eh

And when doctors say that someone only has a few months to live, they usually phrase it like "you have a 90% chance of dying within the next 6 months" or something like that. And ya, doctors can (and are) wrong, a LOT. That of course means that if someone lives longer than predicted, then it's probably a bit premature to jump to a supernatural conclusion. A much simpler explanation was that the doctor was wrong (have any of you guys made a mistake while on the job?), the lab equipment was bad, there was a lab mixup, the person was in the lucky 10% group, or a gazillion other mundane explanations.

The problem here is that people believe exactly what they are being told to be  their only possible reality. Once you believe something to be 100% true then you are already done. My father passed away  about 2 weeks after they told him he had Cancer but before that it was only pneumonia for 6 months. I can't help but wonder if they kept telling him it was pneumonia, would he have lived  longer? 6 months more, 12 months, 2 years. Who knows.

well, that explains "letting go" to some extent. Many people (including a family member) fought tooth and nail through a long period of pain. At some point, they'll say "ok, I'm ready, enough is enough" and boom within a day, they're gone.  I don't know if Willpower alone can do it but I'm convinced a lack of will power will certainly speed things along to the end.

Sure, I'll concede that it's plausible that if someone is on their deathbed that they can hold on 'just a bit longer' through willpower. Although, I remain somewhat skeptical due to the lack of evidence. This is the best article I could find on the subject.

According to their study, if 50 people died before xmas and 40 died after, this proves there is no evidence to show people can will themselves to meet/pass an important day like birthday or Xmas.  Anyone who reads that study and agrees with that conclusion forgets one little itty bitty bit of information and is committing a serious scientific mistake commonly known as "assuming". .  Assuming?

Sure, the question was, can someone will themselves to keep living.  This study does not answer that question, this study breaks down mortality rates and is assuming that everyone who dies wants to make it to Christmas or their birthdays.  Although I'd wager quite a few would want that, I would think given the type of illness (ie: being eaten alive by cancer) would perhaps not lead one to want to have a lot of people see themselves look so sickly, as would happen during a holiday like Christmas, at least I don't think I would!

The proper way this study would show the right result would be to ask the correct question to terminally ill patients and when you get a "yes" out of 100 people, follow them and see what happens.  I doubt very much such an accurate assessment will take place due to the uncomfortable nature of asking such a question but IMHO, this study is akin to asking 100 people if they like fruits and then taking the result and stating "hey, x amount of people love bananas".

Finally, the study does acknowledge it’s shortcomings in the end of the article but IMHO the very fact they drew a conclusion based on erroneous data invalidates their entire research.  They may have a point, but since part of their data is based on an assumption of facts…

I agree 100% there is insufficient evidence to prove otherwise but studies like this pass on the impression there is evidence to support this as fact and I just don't see that.

Here's a fantastic example of how skepticism and science can enrich our worldview, I highly recommend this podcast, they're great at making science engaging and exciting. It also touches on some themes we've discussed in this thread.
http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2009/06/15/stochasticity/

Those of you that like numbers or simply something that stands out of the ordinary should take a look at this.

Its a lot of reading but I am sure it will interest  some.
They call it "Global Consciousness" and if you read all the details it seems very similar to "The Force" in many ways.

http://noosphere.princeton.edu/