Ice skating on Fulton Street at the South Street Seaport.
(Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

sure what the ultimate use would be and that would relate to the development coming in the future." Levine that Howard Hughes was "putting different pieces together. My understanding is that we would find out in the fall what the ultimate use is for that building."

In the meantime, Howard Hughes has not released any detailed plans for its current Seaport holdings (other than its mall now under construction on Pier 17) and for those parts of the Seaport on which it has its eye.

Curry told Levine that the plans might be revealed "as early as February" and that Howard Hughes might put them in front of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in March. They would then have to go through the ULURP process (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure), which is required for the disposition of city-owned property. This usually takes a minimum of six months and entails sign-offs by the Community Board, the Borough President, the City Planning Commission and City Council. 

However, Community Board 1 along with other neighborhood stakeholders, is not content just to let Howard Hughes dictate what will happen in the Seaport. C.B. 1 has scheduled a Town Hall meeting for Jan. 13, 2014 at 6 p.m. at which anyone who wants to speak can offer views on what's happening at the Seaport and on what should happen. It will be held at Pace University, 1 Pace Plaza, in the Student Union. 

Curry will not be present but said that he will send a representative.  

"The purpose of this Town Hall isn't to hear from him - we've heard enough from him," Fratta said. "Now it's time for them to hear from the community as to what we expect and what we would like to see at the Seaport."

Everyone will get two minutes to speak. Organizations with several possible speakers can relinquish time to each other to create a larger block of time for their presentation. No previous sign-up is necessary. - Terese Loeb Kreuzer 

As part of a series called "Rethinking Mortality" at the New York Academy of Sciences, on Dec. 11, a panel of doctors talked about "Experiencing Death." From left to right, moderator, Steve Paulson, Sam Parnia, Mary Neal, Kevin Nelson and Peter Fenwick. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

Mary Neal, an orthopedic surgeon from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was on a panel of four physicians at the New York Academy of Sciences on Dec. 11. Remarkably, in 1999, she had drowned in a boating accident and was without oxygen for around 30 minutes. Depending on your definition of "death," you could say that she had been dead.

The topic for the evening was "Experiencing Death: An Insider's Perspective," the third in a four-part series at the N.Y.A.S. entitled "Rethinking Mortality."

"Certain experiences seem to defy scientific explanation," said Steve Paulson, executive producer of Wisconsin Public Radio's nationally syndicated program, "To the Best of Our Knowledge," and moderator of the panel. "What are typically called 'near death and out of body experiences' [are] an extremely controversial subject, that often pits truly materialist explanations against explicitly religious ones. Near-death experiences push us to the edge of what we know about the nature of consciousness."

Advances in intensive care medicine and an understanding of how to do C.P.R. (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) that occurred in the 1960s have enabled many people to survive heart attacks and grievous illnesses who otherwise would have died.

Peter Fenwick, a neuropsychiatrist, and a leading clinical expert on near-death experiences, said that there are numerous reports from these people of going down a tunnel, seeing beings of light, going to a place of peace and beauty and meeting dead relatives. "You may have a life review, come to a border and then be sent back," he said.

Fenwick said that although a review of life experiences was mainly reported in Western cultures, other aspects of widely reported encounters with death had nothing to do with cultural or religious affiliation. "Atheists will have exactly the same experience," he said. "These experiences are worldwide. They've also been reported throughout history."

The panelists disagreed on the exact definition of "death." Sam Parnia, who is a medical doctor and also has a Ph.D. in cell biology, said that the traditional definition was that death occurred when the heart stops beating, no blood goes to the brain and people get fixed and dilated pupils. However, he said, that with new scientific knowledge, that definition and understanding now are being redefined.

"After a person dies - when the heart stops - the brain cells don't immediately disintegrate and disappear. That process can take hours," he said.

Kevin Nelson, professor of neurology at the University of Kentucky Medical Center, said that, "In cardiac arrest, the brain is still working. It can continue to work for about 10 seconds even with no blood flow. A person may appear dead - comatose or paralyzed - but not be dead. You've gone to the edge but not over the edge."

"We have to redefine how we issue death certificates," said Fenwick.

"There are probably five acceptable and reasonable definitions of death," said Mary Neal. She said that for her, it occurred "when the spirit leaves the body."

Then she recounted her own riveting experience with dying. She was kayaking on a river in Chile with her husband and some friends who kayak for a living. She went over a 15-foot-tall waterfall and was pinned at the bottom under eight to 10 feet of water, her boat caught between some rocks.

"I am a spine surgeon and am very calm. I didn't panic," she said. This wasn't the first time I was under water. I tried to free the boat and I tried to free myself from the boat. It became clear that nothing was working. I'm a very pragmatic person. I knew that I was about to drown and I asked that God's will be done and the moment I asked that, I was immediately overcome with a very, very physical sensation of being held and comforted and reassured that everything was fine. My husband would be fine. My four young children would be fine regardless of whether I lived or died."

Neal said that she was well aware of her circumstances. "I could feel the water sucking my body over the front deck of the boat and I could feel my knees bending back on themselves and bones breaking and ligaments tearing. At this point, I've been asked many times, did you feel yourself become unconscious? I would say that I had been conscious and then more conscious. And I was still me. I was still my same, somewhat cynical, analytical self and my thought balloon off to the side was experiencing this and thinking this is strange."

As she felt her body coming out of the boat, she said that she felt her spirit peeling away from her body and rising from the river. "I was immediately greeted by a group of something - people, spirits, beings," she said. "They were people that I absolutely knew on a very core level had known me and loved me as long as I existed. I knew them. I loved them and we were all overjoyed."

Neal said that she didn't want to come back, but she did. She also reported that she could see her friends performing C.P.R. on her body and calling to her to breath.

A video of this panel discussion and of other lectures and panels is on the N.Y.A.S. website.

The next and final session in the Academy's "Rethinking Mortality" series is on Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. It is entitled, "Confronting Mortality: Faith and Meaning Across Cultures." For more information and tickets, click here. - Terese Loeb Kreuzer