STUDY: Near-death experiences are 'electrical surge in dying brain'

[Meatpie]

A surge of electrical activity in the brain could be responsible for the vivid experiences described by near-death survivors, scientists report.

A study carried out on dying rats found high levels of brainwaves at the point of the animals' demise.


US researchers said that in humans this could give rise to a heightened state of consciousness.


The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


The lead author of the study, Dr Jimo Borjigin, of the University of Michigan, said: "A lot of people thought that the brain after clinical death was inactive or hypoactive, with less activity than the waking state, and we show that is definitely not the case.


"If anything, it is much more active during the dying process than even the waking state."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23672150

 

[New Yorker]

People who claim they had a near death experience have some very interesting stories. I remember when I was taking psychology of death in college there was this born again Christian girl saying she had a car accident and then she saw herself in heaven talking to God. She said God was not a being but rather a splendid flare of light. They communicating telepathically and God told her all her sins were forgiven. She said the place they were in was sublime filled with flowers and intoxicating smells. She felt so in peace and euphoric. Then she returned to her body and became a devout Christian.

I was in a really lousy mood that day and I thought to myself after she was done telling the story "if I were the Devil that's exacly the way I would welcome newcomers to hell." Lure them into a false sense of security making them feel safe and in peace and then all of the sudden BANG!!!!! YOU ARE IN HELL BITCH AND YOUR ASS IS MINE!!!!!!!!!!!

seriously NOW, I believe in an afterlife so I am perfectly ok with the possibility of NDE being true. One theory that tries to explain NDE and that even supports this claim is that the brain can't really cope with death. When we are in new and unusual situations the brain tries to find memories of similar situations in our lives to give us some guidance. But death is something very unique and most people only face their own death only once so the brain kind of goes insane searching for memories that might resemble death or at least memories that might be soothing fir the conscious mind.

 

[PiercedChest]

Of course NDEs are some sort of neuronal activity, there's nothing else!
I'd only be interested in a genuine After Death Experience (ADE).

Meatpie gives an interesting scientific background source, but I wonder whether studies on real human subjects have been done (under EEG surveillance while dying for instance). A statement like 'in humans could give rise to' amounts to pseudo-scientific babble at best.

NewYorker: I'd be really interested if NDEs weren't just like ordinary dreams (and more fascinating than those stale old stories of eternal peace etc; in that respect I'd love to hear from someone your "YOU'RE IN HELL BITCH" story, a LOT more convincing!).

 

[djbear]

In executions say be electric chair or long drop hanging, would those ultrrapid electrical forces occur if unconsciousness was immediate? I can understand in the case of no neck broken or when gas chamber is used.

 

[fireboots]

I've had a near-death experience and can attest to this. I was in a coma on life support for 4 days with a broken skull and multiple other injuries. I can remember hitting the road and having flashes before my eyes. When I woke up I was totally disoriented but I had memories of powerful visions including seeing myself on the hospital bed with a defibrillator attached to me and my body with what looked like lightning arching around it. I also had a feeling of extreme cold.

After I came out of the coma they told me that my heart had stopped twice in the first night I was there while and was defibrillated they were trying to relieve the blood pressure that was squeezing my brain, control the bleeding inside my right lung, and to re-inflate that lung. They cooled my body down to slow my body functions and help control the internal bleeding. I had regular visions for months after that event, strange disconnected memories of things that had happened in my life, and things that were so out there that my damaged brain must have twisted reality, fiction, and fantasy together.

 

[PiercedChest]

Congratulations, Fireboots, on pulling through.

 

[fireboots]

Congratulations, Fireboots, on pulling through.

Thanks Pierced Chest. This event was over 35 years ago and I still have strange flash-backs. Somehow I survived and have done fairly well.

Another thing I saw in my visions was me on a raised hospital bed with blood coming out of my right ear, eye, and nose. I also had visions of myself wandering naked through fire, I guess I thought I was in Hell, but I was actually enjoying that.

Fireboots

 

[KiltedSoldier]

I thought you would enjoy going to the flames and a vision of Hell in the afterlife Maybe your enthusiasm for going to the fire is a memory from how a previous life ended As a warrior I hope for Valhalla or the Celtic version Tir Nan Og when slain

 

[Dan_Wolfskin]

The explanation involving electrical surges in the dying brain, me be true to some point, but it still does not explain the out-of-body experiences that many has experimented. There are many serious reports of NDEs where people who came back to life accurately reported stuff they saw while out of their bodies, heard what doctors were saying to nurses, assistants, or doing to them, objects in other nearby rooms they haven't been in.

What about those theories attempting to explain the possible existence of consciousness outside of the brain? Some involving quantum mechanics theories?

 

[PiercedChest]

The explanation involving electrical surges in the dying brain, me be true to some point, but it still does not explain the out-of-body experiences that many has experimented. There are many serious reports of NDEs where people who came back to life accurately reported stuff they saw while out of their bodies, heard what doctors were saying to nurses, assistants, or doing to them, objects in other nearby rooms they haven't been in.

What about those theories attempting to explain the possible existence of consciousness outside of the brain? Some involving quantum mechanics theories?

Out-of-body experiences can be easily invoked in many people using trans cranial magnetic stimulation. I'd very much like to experience that myself once!

When well-controlled experiments are done (placing an object or a card with a clear symbol on top of a shelf or cupboard, not visible lying down, easily visible from above), subjects fail to report what it is although they claim to have hovered above their bodies.

Quasi-scientific babble about quantum mechanics and consciousness can't be taken seriously. But if anyone performs a repeatable well-controlled experiment that proves otherwise I'm the first to admit I was wrong.