Near Death...or not.

The dying Brain...

There are a few stages that the human mind goes through in order to reach its final result of death. Physically, and psychological changes are all to be expected. For example, Physically, body heat is lowered causing the person to feel cold, and they may get a very dry mouth but what is going on physiologically when the human mind is nearing its death.
Many have claimed stages of hallucination or Near Death Experiences(NDE). There is debate on whether a person is in a state of hallucination or experiencing a life after death experience, considering many who themselves have experienced it claim it to be that. Although research proves this to be wrong considering there has been no proof that any factual information from an unknown location to the person has been obtained from their state of being but instead they often describe false perceptions of the physical world during their experience.

The NDE's is the brain releasing dimethlyltryptamine or DMT, same chemical released that causes us to dream.

So in our last seconds of life our brain gives us an experience that may seem so real that we think it is, but what if this is not the end of the road?
In the last seconds of our lives how many times has someone been pronounced dead before they really are.
We need to find the loop hole in medical science that is lacking and save the lives that should have been saved.

Near Death...

Brain Waves Before Death

Many of you may have heard of the term "near-death experience" but how many of you know exactly what that term means? Does it really exist? And what happens during a "near-death experience?" A study at the George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates shows research done on seven terminally ill patients. The study showed a corresponding rush of brain waves minutes before death. Brain waves are defined as "rhythmic fluctuations of voltage between parts of the brain resulting in the flow of an electric current." This shows perhaps a physiological evidence of a "near-death experience" or an "out of body" experience. Through the research, patients showed an experience of spikes minutes before death and during death at the same intensity and duration.

There are plenty of misconceptions regarding death, in particular being brain dead. Let me start off by stating that brain death is irreversible. Patients who are brain dead have lost all components of brain activity permanently. The meaning of brain death is still a bit confusing to many healthcare professionals as well as common folk.

Tamar

Near Death Experiences

When my Grandfather was lying on his death bed he said that he could see an angel sitting at the end of his bed. Not only that but he saw his mother waiting for him to pass through to the other side. Depending on your beliefs this could claimed as a religious experience or something that could be explained through science.
When we dream our brain releases a chemical that causes to dream, it’s the same chemical released just before death which cause us to have these hallucinations know as Near Death Experiences or NDE. The chemical is called Dimethyltryptamine or DMT and is released from the pineal gland of our brain. DMT is also used as a powerful hallucinogenic drug found in many plants that can be extracted. This is what causes people to claim that they are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, old loved ones, and even themselves from a different body also known as outer body experiences.
“When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about 10 sec., brain activity ceases —as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, 10% or 20% of people who are then brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness.”

There is an on going study to what really happens to our brain when we die. Many of these outer body experiences claim to have had full conciseness after being pronounced dead and can recall everything that had happened during those few encountered moments of death. Jeffrey Long, MD & Paul Bernstein, PhD have conducted a 13 year study interviewing people with near death experiences. "Of the 344 patients tracked by the Dutch team, 18% had some memory from their period of unconsciousness, and 12% (1 out of every 8) had what the physicians called a "core" or "deep" NDE." There are explanations for these experiences and further study will help explain what actually goes on with our brain during this time.


Bryan Sims

Six Crucial Minutes

When one thinks about a person’s brain operations and his phenomenological experiences, one tends to assume that his brain is healthy and functional. But in a person’s last moments before his brain shuts off, one can only imagine that all perception must be greatly altered.

Before we can talk about what happens to the brain when it dies or as it’s dying, we must first set the parameters of death. First there is clinical death, when a person’s heart stops beating. At this point, the person can still be revived or resuscitated. But in this stage, no air is circulating around the body, and the brain, which cannot hold any oxygen by itself starts to suffocate, which shortly leads to biological death—that is, when the brain and it’s functions are damaged irreversibly.

The duration of time between clinical death and biological death is around six minutes, and it is in those six minutes where the dying brain experiences a multitude of things for a multitude of reasons. There is a category of phenomena called “near death experiences.” Precisely as it sounds, a person experiences this when they are about to die. People who have been declared clinically dead and have been revived often describe feelings of calmness and seeing bright lights filling the space. Sometimes they feel as though they have left their body and can see their own physical form from this “spirit form.” Some doctors have had patients come back from being unconscious and recount everything that has happened. On the scientific side, explanations tend to attribute all the psychological effects on physiological reactions—that the brain, deprived of oxygen and flooded with chemicals, starts to hallucinate. Nothing, be it esoteric or scientific, has been conclusive so far.

Philip.

References:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842627,00.html

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/anoxia/anoxia.htm

http://www.horizonresearch.org/main_page.php?cat_id=82

http://www.dana.org/news/brainwork/detail.aspx?id=6494

http://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/death-dying/dying.htm