Michael Cook has an interesting and slightly spooky BioEdge piece on near-death experiences.
What is that bright light at the end of the tunnel?
Reports of near-death experiences — with tales of white light, visits from departed loved ones, hearing voices, seeing Heaven — capture our imagination.
The fact that these reports share so many common elements begs the question of whether there is something fundamentally real underpinning them — and that those who have managed to survive death are providing glimpses of a consciousness that does not completely disappear, even after the heart stops beating.
There is a certain fascination in the pursuit of the elusive, probing the boundaries of what is knowable. Take it a little further - imagine a person opts for euthanasia. On the brink of the Eternal, a detectable flicker of consciousness indicates they have changed their mind just at the point when it is far, far too late.
Researchers at the University of Michigan studied four patients who died after a cardiac arrest in the hospital while under EEG monitoring. All four were comatose and unresponsive and were ultimately removed from life support.
Upon removal of ventilator support, two of the patients showed an increase in heart rate along with a surge of gamma wave activity, considered the fastest brain activity and associated with consciousness.
Furthermore, the activity was detected in the so-called hot zone of neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the junction between the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes in the back of the brain. This area has been correlated with dreaming, visual hallucinations in epilepsy, and altered states of consciousness in other brain studies.
Reports of near-death experiences — with tales of white light, visits from departed loved ones, hearing voices, seeing Heaven — capture our imagination.
The fact that these reports share so many common elements begs the question of whether there is something fundamentally real underpinning them — and that those who have managed to survive death are providing glimpses of a consciousness that does not completely disappear, even after the heart stops beating.
There is a certain fascination in the pursuit of the elusive, probing the boundaries of what is knowable. Take it a little further - imagine a person opts for euthanasia. On the brink of the Eternal, a detectable flicker of consciousness indicates they have changed their mind just at the point when it is far, far too late.
Researchers at the University of Michigan studied four patients who died after a cardiac arrest in the hospital while under EEG monitoring. All four were comatose and unresponsive and were ultimately removed from life support.
Upon removal of ventilator support, two of the patients showed an increase in heart rate along with a surge of gamma wave activity, considered the fastest brain activity and associated with consciousness.
Furthermore, the activity was detected in the so-called hot zone of neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the junction between the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes in the back of the brain. This area has been correlated with dreaming, visual hallucinations in epilepsy, and altered states of consciousness in other brain studies.
9 comments:
It's worse than that: he may or may not be dead, Jim.
Jannie - he shouldn't be dead Jim, we only set phasers to "Vaccinate".
As long as it doesn't hurt, than so be it...
Scrobs - and quick, that would be good too.
Schrodinger (can't do ummlaut) had thoughts on this.
If in doubt, don't open the box.
Doonhamer - "open the box" reminds me of Michael Miles. Some things stay with us forever.
When I died I fell on my bike and the shock restarted my heart. That, at least, was the diagnosis of the cardiologists.
I saw no bright lights, didn't meet Peter, or anything like that - I remember feeling woozy, beginning to ask someone for help ("Excuse me...") and then waking up in the ambulance.
See? As soon as we leave the EU, people start dying.
dearieme - sounds as if it was too sudden to be scary except afterwards. "Excuse me..." would have been my reaction, polite to the last.
Sam - good point, it's the proof Remainers have been looking for.
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