Only death is certain

The question of death has puzzled people's minds all the time. It seems impossible that the existence of strong, powerful, rich, healthy, and notable people can stop in an instant. Our primary normal human instinct is denial. Our minds cannot change in an instant to the thought of a person we have known intimately to be gone forever. We can experience disillusionment, sorrow, regret, and ask, is there something beyond this life? 

Death will happen to every human being, there is always the real risk of illness, and car accidents, criminal activities, attacks, natural disasters, wars, and terrorism are some of the actual events that we cannot control. Afraid of the unknown and the idea of leaving behind your loved ones, or the idea of not completing your life cycle could cause untold stress and draw unnecessary fear. 

Events such as war or other timely escapes from disasters can trigger our minds to dwell on issues relating to death and life and find some valuable significance. Death remains a daunting issue but one that we will all have to meet one day. We seek answers and consolations in the inevitable happening, we want to stay in control, our natural human instinct to survive, and we use the resources we have to make informed decisions. We look at after life and search for the truth.

Afterlife, and near death experiences have often been reported by people who are on the verge of dying. Typically the reports of floating above their body as they follow the doctors perform live saving procedures have been recorded. Alternatively, travelling through tunnels toward intense light, the feeling of being separated from the body, and sighting a hint of the afterlife. Meeting with angels or long departed loved ones. The experience of a life review of some kind of judgement. 

The reality of near death experience may be more straightforward than reports received from the public. Research has now concluded that the experience of the afterlife feeling is a mere charge of electrical movement in the dying brain.

Experiments performed on rats whose hearts had stopped beating had shown that there was the pattern of activity similar to when the animals were fully conscious. This has now sparked the reasoning for the reports of near death experience as a rush of brain motion in the dying rats seem to confirm signs of a conscious perception. With no blood flowing from the heart to the brain, it appeared the signals were eight times stronger. There is the assumption that the brain is highly active in the seconds after the heart stops and this suggests a more physical activity taking place rather than a spiritual one.

 

Arguments have signalled that the dying brain is incapable of such complex activity, and that is the reason for the near death experiences originating in the soul. Suggestions have been noted that on the verge of death, the conscious brain is aroused to a higher than normal level, and this would trigger the hallucinations and feelings associated with near death experiences.

People who have survived cardiac arrests have reported having had other worldly experiences while been certified clinically dead. Some have emerged from this experience as changed characters with entirely altered outlooks on life or a different perspective on religion.

Scientists believe the near death experiences are nothing more than illusions driven by the effects of the shutdown of the brain.

Dr Jimo Borjigin from the University of Michigan said the study relates to the reduction of oxygen during a cardiac arrest, and this causes the stimulation of brain activity that is associated with the conscious process. The research recorded the nerve impulses of sedated rats whose hearts were artificially stopped. This test concluded that within thirty seconds of the heart arrest, all the animals showed a sharp surge of rampant brain movement.

The researchers were astounded by the extraordinary levels of activity recorded from the brain after the cardiac arrest and they have suggested that the brain’s capability of organized electrical action during the early phases of clinical death.

Their findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the past, it was presumed that the brain activity immediately stopped when the heart no long functioned and this study concluded that the decrease of oxygen and or glucose during a cardiac seizure can fuel the brain activity. This study provides the basic scientific structure for further analysis of near death experiences described by survivors of cardiac arrest symptoms.

Other scientists have been cautious in the study regarding the human form near moments of death. Dr Chris Chambers, Senior Research Fellow at Cardiff University admitted that it was tempting to draw a link between the surge of neutral activity and consciousness and said there were two barriers limiting this conclusion. The first being that they do not know to what extent the rats experience consciousness and the researchers do not know what the activity actually means. Secondly to conclude from the brain movement alone that the bursts of activity reflect consciousness would be a logically mistake. He continued and said the experiments would have to be run on humans in order to relate to the changes in activity and thus overcome the limitations of the recent study.

That is the most honest opinion rising from this recent research, it is a possibility that the near death experiences are actually a sudden surge of electrical nerve impulses from the clinically dead person’s brain as the studies on rats indicated. Or the chance of relating to a true after life experience as documented by neuroscientists who have survived the near death experience and forever remain totally changed by their ordeal. Science is an on-going recognized resource for the benefit of all mankind, and we should accept the research and not limit our perceptions but remain open minded.

Summarizing the above research, with the words uttered by Paulo Coelho would have the best practical meaning. “'We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.”

Note -  I wrote this article for the Guardian LV about two years ago.