After Death, You’re Aware That You’ve Died, Say Scientists

a reply to: bgerbger

I always heard that they don't officially label someone as dead until Brain Death, not Heart Death. Not for Clinical Official type records anyway. Because people come back from Hearts Stopping sometimes. But not Brain Death. So I'm not sure if this is anything new actually. We've known about Near Death stuff for a long time and have studied it. But Near Death isn't usually considered Death in a medial sense. Only Brain Death is considered Death.

a reply to: CJCrawley

The doctor's report in that story is skeptical. After a head is severed consciousness could last a few seconds, arguably up to 12.

What is known is, when the heart stops (cardiac arrest) consciousness can last about the same or a little longer 20 seconds. Once this happens, technically the person is clinically dead. However the brain can last up to 10 minutes (highly unlikely). 5-7 minutes after cardiac arrest I believe its about 30-40℅ chance they can be resuscitated. However, a full brain recovery after 3 minutes is rare. The more time after cardiac arrest the less the chance of being resuscitated. The article is misleading with the headline about consciousness after death. That simply isn't possible, death being different than clinically dead. Furthermore the article went on to say the brain doesn't entirely die for hours after cardiac arrest. I don't know if you were able to read the whole story, but after this is stated no support to that claim was given. So, basically I couldn't see this as news either, after I went back and reread it.

originally posted by: bgerbger
It seems that when the body dies, we still have awareness according to this new study.

bigthink.com...

Time of death is considered when a person has gone into cardiac arrest. This is the cessation of the electrical impulse that drive the heartbeat. As a result, the heart locks up. The moment the heart stops is considered time of death. But does death overtake our mind immediately afterward or does it slowly creep in?

Some scientists have studied near death experiences (NDEs) to try to gain insights into how death overcomes the brain. What they’ve found is remarkable, a surge of electricity enters the brain moments before brain death. One 2013 study out of the University of Michigan, which examined electrical signals inside the heads of rats, found they entered a hyper-alert state just before death.

So in this hyper alert state we have abnormal levels of brain activity. The article suggests the 'white light' some people experience may in fact come from neural activity. Near death experiences are a fascinating phenomena, with some people seeming to have an awareness of what is going on around them.

“Many times, those who have had such experiences talk about floating around the room and being aware of the medical team working on their body,” Dr. Parnia told Live Science. “They'll describe watching doctors and nurses working and they'll describe having awareness of full conversations, of visual things that were going on, that would otherwise not be known to them.”

So how is this possible? It seems that 'brain death' may take longer to set in.

According to Parnia during this period, "You lose all your brain stem reflexes — your gag reflex, your pupil reflex, all that is gone." Brain waves from the cerebral cortex soon become undetectable. Even so, it can take hours for our thinking organ to fully shut down.

Very materialistic, with little to nothing to indicate an extension of consciousness beyond the period of brain death, but this is science here, not mysticism, so any proof of life beyond brain death seems unlikely to be proven anytime soon.

What purpose would this serve in terms of evolution?
Why not justs lights out?

Possibly off-topic.This OP brings to mind the movie Brainstorm where the lady records her brainwaves while she is dying and Christopher Walken “views” them at the end of the movie.I need re- watch that movie again.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
"If you believe in a wonderful life after death, then why do you wear a seatbelt?"
-- Doug Stanhope

Same reason the Christian/Catholic church doesn't condone suicide and labels it a big sin and you will not go to heaven.

Imagine what people would do if it wasn't a sin?

originally posted by: buckwhizzle
Possibly off-topic.This OP brings to mind the movie Brainstorm where the lady records her brainwaves while she is dying and Christopher Walken “views” them at the end of the movie.I need re- watch that movie again.

Cool movie.
That's the one where you can record an experience and others can relive it.
Sort of like Total Recall only real. lol.

Flatliners was good too.

originally posted by: SR1TX
a reply to: Krazysh0t

Those are not religions.

Stop splitting hairs and answer the question.

a reply to: bgerbger

Interesting study for sure.
It takes me back to my Mother and the moment of her death. She fought for many days and was not at peace. Her brain had been damaged so badly in the prior days/weeks and that, coupled with the other physical breakdowns, left no hope or chance for survival. Before she came home, she began speaking to one of her brothers who had been dead for years.

After she came home to bed and to die, I think for a few days before her actual death, consciousness may have still existed and was demonstrated by her trying to get out of the bed (getting away from the awful situation) even though she had been unable, for years, to do that unaided. She would reach for things that I was unable to see and she would react negatively if I played a particular song or said something that I derived she didn't care for based on those reactions (negative-head shaking 'no' or looking away). She would open her mouth when it was time for her medication.
A day or two before the end, she must have slipped into an almost coma so I think that her conscious awareness was nearly gone at that point. I don't KNOW for certain, of course. As the mottling began, it was almost as if one could feel her slipping away (?) and coming back to this place. Almost as if tethered between this world and somewhere else. The hours before her body finally gave up was brutal for her.

My sister (she was 80 at the time) and I were at her side holding her when she passed. Her breathing had become quite shallow and there seemed to be minutes between breaths with me thinking (hoping for her sake) that each one was the last. My sister and her partner had been RNs for 40+ years and oddly we didn't discuss at all what should be expected.

At the final moment she didn't breathe for about 3 minutes then suddenly one last gasp, being ignorant of the process, I thought she had started back breathing again and it may NOT be the end. She was gone. She began turning gray almost immediately.

I hope that she , somehow in those final moments, realized that she was going to or had passed and that allowed her to find some peace at the end or allowed the end to come on so as to end her physical suffering or allowed her to more easily move on to the next place, which is what I choose to believe happens after death. I cannot nor do I believe anyone else ever will prove an afterlife or not.

a reply to: burgerbuddy

Here's the thing. It doesn't say anywhere that it's a sin.

I guess they would do the same thing that any non christian would do. Keep living life. Even Christians are afraid of dying. Who really wants to leave their loved ones behind even if there is a greater love that awaits? We don't know what that greater love feels like. We don't know what that paradise is. We only know what we can see around us in the physical, only feel what we feel... Who would want to leave that behind?

originally posted by: violet

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: bgerbger
Strictly speaking, if the brain has awareness, then it hasn't died yet. So awareness of "having died" would not be possible. (That is why philosophers say "Death is not an experience".)

Sounds horrible to be aware you're dead, unable to move or speak. Knowing you're being wheeled down to the morgue. Laying there for hours in the morgue. If it takes hours

I lost my beloved 2 months ago today , he died in the hospital and although I had never really thought about it, I was absolutely dead set that he not be taken to the morgue at the time. It haunts me that he was scared or aware in some way after his body died. I felt some small comfort knowing he was taken to the funeral parlor directly with his favorite pillow.

originally posted by: MountainLaurel

originally posted by: violet

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: bgerbger
Strictly speaking, if the brain has awareness, then it hasn't died yet. So awareness of "having died" would not be possible. (That is why philosophers say "Death is not an experience".)

Sounds horrible to be aware you're dead, unable to move or speak. Knowing you're being wheeled down to the morgue. Laying there for hours in the morgue. If it takes hours

I lost my beloved 2 months ago today , he died in the hospital and although I had never really thought about it, I was absolutely dead set that he not be taken to the morgue at the time. It haunts me that he was scared or aware in some way after his body died. I felt some small comfort knowing he was taken to the funeral parlor directly with his favorite pillow.

I'm so sorry for your loss.
That was a compassionate thing to do for him

I sure hope we are not aware and being left in some stuck state.

Thank-You, I hope so too......I do believe his "energy" is still with me, but that's a discussion for a different thread.

I hope your doing better after your stroke, that must have been pretty scary....The mind is an amazing thing !

a reply to: trollz

Can you give me a few examples of how to achieve this ? Even a few links to sites you recommend would be great

a reply to: bgerbger

Watch the 4 part series on Howard Storm. Prepare to be awoken.