Existence after dying First big investigation is to reveal the secrets

Modern answers to an age-old question

For centuries we have been dealing with the topic: "What happens when and after I die?". People around the world, from priests to scientists, have very different theories about this, but the enthusiasm for this topic is shared by all groups and religions.

Near-death experiences, heavenly realms, rebirth or nothingness - what is possible? US scientists from the New York University Langone School of Medicine under the direction of Drs. Sam Parnia is trying in a recent study to solve this mystery with modern methods. The first results are very surprising, because the perception of most of the patients studied did not end with death.

Study death

In the said study, various methods were used to monitor the brain after the onset of cardiac arrest. Because the entrance of death is exactly the moment, where the heart stops, explains Dr. Parnia opposite the magazine "Live Science". At this moment, the brain is no longer supplied and you lose all brain stem, choking and pupil reflexes, Dr. Parnia. The cerebral cortex, the so-called "thinking apparatus", instantaneously slows down its function in the moment of cardiac arrest, so that no brain waves can be measured anymore, emphasizes the physician. From this point, the brain cells begin to die. But this process could, according to Dr. Parnia take several hours.

Death is not the end

The doctor further reports that resuscitation measures send blood to the brain. Already 15 percent of the normal blood volume is sufficient according to Dr. med. Parnia out to slow the dying of brain cells. This allows patients to experience some kind of consciousness in the first few minutes after death. In interviews with patients who were successfully reanimated, those involved described how they could watch the doctors and nurses at work and even listen to conversations. So the revived patients knew things they really could not have known since they happened at a time when they were already clinically dead, Dr. Parnia.

New technique to fathom death

Dr. Parnia and his colleagues are currently investigating in the largest study of their kind how and in what way the consciousness remains after death. For this purpose, a large number of patients from Europe and America who suffered a cardiac arrest are examined. The next important step in gaining deeper insights is to develop better methods for monitoring the brain after clinical death, reports Live Science magazine in a contribution to the study. (Fp)