Afterlife: what awaits us after death. Soul after death - scientific facts, evidence and real stories Death from a scientific point of view

All living beings on earth, with very rare exceptions, are mortal, and sooner or later life comes to an end. But it can also be different - painful, painful or even pleasant. What does it depend on and what does the science of death say? Can it be easy?

What is death?

The complete cessation of vital activity of the whole organism is called absolute death. Doctors also distinguish the type clinical death when a stop in the activity of one or more individual organs is recorded - the heart, lungs or brain, while other parts of the body are still able to live. In this case, a person can be saved if the functionality of a dying organ is restored. In each of them, with the exception of the lungs, there are pain receptors. Depending on what happens at the time of the death of the body and which organs are affected, a person feels pain and emotions. But this is only if the brain is still alive and it is able to perceive something.

brain death

From a scientific point of view, instantaneous brain death is the easiest death of a living organism. However, we are talking about the brain as a whole, and not about its individual sections, when death occurs slowly and individual, important brain centers continue to function. Doctors say that the partial death of areas of gray matter is accompanied by some of the most painful, painful sensations and it is almost impossible to bear this in the mind.

Complete and instantaneous brain death can occur at the time of a head injury, under the influence of certain chemical substances and in the event of a sudden and complete interruption of the air supply. If, during the onset of clinical death, after diagnosing damage to individual brain centers, doctors still manage to resuscitate a person, then, as a rule, he is no longer adapted to normal life. Dead areas of the brain are not restored.

Lung injury

As mentioned above, the lung tissue is devoid of nerve fibers and therefore its death is not accompanied by pain. The cessation of lung function leads to instantaneous, emotionless death. The defeat of certain parts of the pulmonary system can cause fear and horror, in cases where a person feels a lack of oxygen and suffocates. But if this does not happen, then the gradual death of the lung tissue ends with a painless death, accompanied to the end by clarity of consciousness. This may be the result of various infectious and oncological diseases of the pulmonary system. Such a painless and quiet death was described by Dr. Eric Schwerer in 1904, stated to Anton Chekhov, who suffered from an open form of pulmonary tuberculosis. A few minutes before his death, the writer himself told the doctor that he was dying, turned to the other side and fell asleep without experiencing any pain or terrible emotions.

Decrease in body temperature

It is known that under the influence of cold, complex changes occur in human tissues. A strong decrease in body temperature leads to gradual cell death and spasm of blood vessels. As a result, the blood flow slows down, the action of tissue enzymes stops, the supply of oxygen to the tissues and, above all, to the brain, is significantly reduced, and its functions are impaired. General frostbite blocks the work of pain receptors, due to which the brain incorrectly recognizes the incoming signals of the damaged nervous system. As a result, it may seem to the victim that his limbs are warm, positive emotions arise. Thus, a rapid drop in body temperature leads to a painless and easy death. The dying person does not feel fear and during this period he can see pleasant hallucinations. Similar tragic situations arise in winter when a person falls into icy water, falls asleep in the snow, getting lost in the forest. At certain stages of general frostbite, the body can be brought back to life, and when the work of the nervous system is restored, the pain will be unbearable.

Nature does not provide for an easy death for a person, and when a natural death occurs due to the aging of the body, each individual goes through three stages - a preagonal state, agony and clinical death. And although in the preagonal state, the reflex protective reaction of the body is activated at the level of the central nervous system in order to reduce the likely torment, the person still experiences pain and fear. But their degree depends on the sequence of death of organs. And if the brain or lungs are the first to turn off, then the dying person more calmly and quickly transfers his departure to another world.

All over the world there are a huge number of religions, sects and preachers who are trying to tell what happens to a person after death. Even scientists are interested in getting an answer to the question. However, no one to date has advanced far enough to get the only correct answer to this question. So we can only consider different theories.

What does a person feel before death?

One question can be more or less truthfully answered, given the success of resuscitation measures:

Each patient speaks his own, because before death, the perception of reality is often disturbed.
All stories largely converge in patients with the same injuries or lesions of the same organs.
Depending on the situation, a person may not even have time to understand anything. This usually happens during accidents or episodes of violence.
The situation is much worse when death occurs as a result of chronic diseases. In this case, prolonged agony and full awareness of what is happening is possible.
Death in a dream really is one of most painless, the person does not have time to understand what happened to him.

Schematically, the process of dying from the point of view of medicine occurs as follows:

Failure of one of the organ systems, pain is possible.
Violation of blood circulation and heart function. Pain and heaviness in the chest.
Respiratory failure. Sensation as if something heavy were pressing down on the chest.
Stopping breathing and heartbeat, after which a person can be conscious for up to ten seconds.
Direct agony. Disruption of all control systems, pain, panic, muscle spasm.
Dying. Shutdown of all organs and systems, complete cessation of life.

How long does a person die?

Not everything has to happen according to a strictly described scheme. As already mentioned, all depends on the nature of the injury.

It is extremely painful for people to leave kidney dysfunction This spectacle is not for the faint of heart.
Victims heart attacks experience more panic and horror than actual pain. By the way, in such a situation, it is important to pull yourself together, because emotional stress only adds stress to the heart muscle.
About brain death figures vary, some argue that after 3-4 minutes irreversible changes occur. But at the same time, there are examples of successful resuscitation and almost complete recovery after 10, 15, and even 20 minutes after cardiac arrest. A matter of luck and functionality of the body. But in any case, the count goes on for minutes, and without oxygen, all the neurons of the brain will die, the connections between them will be broken, and everything that formed our personality will disappear forever.

What awaits a person after death?

But it was a materialistic view of life. You can sweeten the pill a little, and at the same time make a comparison:

In terms of religion	From the point of view of science
The soul is immortal.	There is nothing but the physical shell.
After the death of a person, heaven or hell awaits, depending on lifetime actions.	Death is finite, it is impossible to avert or significantly prolong life.
Immortality is guaranteed to everyone, the only question is whether it will be eternal pleasures or endless torment.	The only kind of immortality you can have is in your children. genetic continuation.
Earthly life is only a brief prelude to infinite existence.	Life is all you have and that is what should be valued the most.

From a long-term perspective, the statements of religious figures are much more pleasant. It is difficult to give up the idea of eternal life, gardens of Eden, houris and other joys of life.

But if we consider present day, one specifically taken moment, scientists and atheists are already taking over.

After all, it is much more interesting to try to achieve something in this life. than to hope for an eternal existence, which may not be.

Does the person feel his death?

But this is not the easiest question. If in terms of premonitions, then there are examples in history when people predicted their death over the next few days. But this does not mean that everyone is capable of this. And don't forget about the great power of coincidences.

It may be interesting to know if a person is able to understand that he is dying:

We all feel the deterioration of our own condition.
Although not all internal organs have pain receptors, in our body there are more than enough of them.
We even feel the arrival of a banal SARS. What can we say about death.
Regardless of our desires, the body does not want to die in a panic and activates all resources to fight a serious condition.
This process may be accompanied by convulsions, pain, severe shortness of breath.
But not every sharp deterioration in well-being indicates. Most often, the alarm will be false, so you should not panic in advance.
Do not try to cope with conditions close to critical on your own. Call for help from everyone you can.

The psychological aspect of death

Sometimes the harbinger of death can be much worse than the process itself. The oppressive expectation of an imminent end can drive anyone crazy. Most often, these thoughts haunt the seriously ill and the elderly; against this background, severe depression.

Here, as with panic during a heart attack - only an additional load will be created, which will contribute to the deterioration of the condition. Therefore, in all life situations it is necessary to be, if not an optimist, then at least a realist.

None of us can know what is destined for a person after death. Perhaps death is indeed the last stop, after which there will never be anything. Or maybe just a new beginning of something really amazing.

Don't waste your time reflecting on this topic. However, don't get discouraged either.. No wonder in most religions despondency is considered a mortal sin.

What awaits us "at the end of the road"?

In terms of various teachings after death:

The human soul will go to judgment.
After which it will be determined either in the best place or to hell.
In Asia, the idea of transmigration of souls and births in other bodies is popular.
The quality of life in all subsequent incarnations depends on the actions in previous lives.
After the death of the body, the life path of a person ends, there is no hidden veil and afterlife existence.
The existence of ghosts and other restless souls has not been confirmed, but not refuted either.
The idea of quantum immortality boils down to the fact that at least in one of the infinite set of universes we still remain alive.

All this is insanely interesting, but you should never check it on your own experience.

There is no clear answer to the most important question What happens to a person after death is still the same mystery as many thousands of years ago. Neither science, nor religion, nor medicine helped to get closer to the solution. However, not everyone wants to think that death is really the end.

Video: what will happen to us after death?

Incredible Facts

Scientists have evidence for the existence of life after death.

They found that consciousness can continue after death.

Although this topic is treated with great skepticism, there are testimonies from people who have experienced this experience that will make you think about it.

And although these conclusions are not definitive, you may begin to doubt that death is, in fact, the end of everything.

Is there life after death?

Dr. Sam Parnia, a professor of near-death experience and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, believes that a person's consciousness can survive brain death when there is no blood flow to the brain and there is no electrical activity.

Beginning in 2008, he collected a wealth of testimonies about near-death experiences that occurred when a person's brain was no more active than a loaf of bread.

According to the visions conscious awareness lasted up to three minutes after the heart stopped, although the brain usually shuts down within 20 to 30 seconds after the heart has stopped.

You may have heard from people about the feeling of separation from your own body, and they seemed to you a fabrication. American singer Pam Reynolds spoke about her out-of-body experience during brain surgery, which she experienced at the age of 35.

She was placed in an artificial coma, her body was cooled to 15 degrees Celsius, and her brain was practically deprived of blood supply. In addition, her eyes were closed, and headphones were inserted into her ears, which drowned out sounds.

Floating over your body she was able to oversee her own operation. The description was very clear. She heard someone say: Her arteries are too small"and the song played in the background" Hotel California by The Eagles.

The doctors themselves were shocked by all the details that Pam told about her experience.

One of the classic examples of a near-death experience is the encounter with deceased relatives on the other side.

Researcher Bruce Grayson(Bruce Greyson) believes that what we see when we are in a state of clinical death is not just vivid hallucinations. In 2013, he published a study in which he indicated that the number of patients who met deceased relatives far exceeded the number of those who met living people.

Moreover, there were several cases when people met a dead relative on the other side, not knowing that this person had died.

Life after death: facts

Internationally Recognized Belgian Neurologist Stephen Loreys(Steven Laureys) doesn't believe in life after death. He believes that all near-death experiences can be explained through physical phenomena.

Loreys and his team expected NDEs to be like dreams or hallucinations and fade over time.

However, he found that near-death memories remain fresh and vivid regardless of the elapsed time and sometimes even overshadow the memories of real events.

In one study, researchers asked 344 patients who had experienced cardiac arrest to describe their experiences within a week of resuscitation.

Of all the people surveyed, 18% could hardly remember their experience, and 8-12 % led classic example near death experiences. This means that between 28 and 41 people, unrelated to each other, from different hospitals recalled almost the same experience.

Dutch explorer Pim van Lommel(Pim van Lommel) studied the memories of people who survived clinical death.

According to the results, many people have lost the fear of death, become happier, more positive and more sociable. Virtually everyone spoke of near-death experiences as a positive experience that further influenced their lives over time.

Life after death: evidence

American neurosurgeon Eben Alexander spent 7 days in a coma in 2008, which changed his mind about NDEs. He claimed to have seen things that were hard to believe.

He said that he saw a light and a melody emanating from there, he saw something like a portal to a magnificent reality filled with waterfalls of indescribable colors and millions of butterflies flying across this stage. However, his brain was disabled during these visions. to the point where he shouldn't have had any glimpses of consciousness.

Many have questioned Dr. Eben's words, but if he is telling the truth, perhaps his experiences and those of others should not be ignored.

They interviewed 31 blind people who had experienced clinical death or out-of-body experiences. At the same time, 14 of them were blind from birth.

However, they all describe visual image you during your experiences, whether it be a tunnel of light, deceased relatives, or watching your body from above.

According to professor Robert Lanza(Robert Lanza) All possibilities in the universe happen at the same time. But when the "observer" decides to look, all these possibilities come down to one, which happens in our world.

In the culture of Western civilizations, there are three main concepts about what happens to people after death. posthumous existence in Paradise or Hell in religions, the concept of materialists and reincarnation (the concept of the cycle of rebirth).

The most common version of what happens to people after death is the concept of Hell and Heaven. But this is typical only for Western religions. According to this concept, the Supreme Being judges human souls after their death. Curiously, in some they are punished for certain actions, but in others they are punished for completely different ones. As a result, it turns out that most souls end up in Hell, where they are doomed to eternal torment and incredible suffering. Only a small percentage of the righteous who follow strict rules have a chance of entering Paradise.

In the science of Western civilization, the concept of materialism has become most widespread. What happens to people after death according to materialists? Consciousness - as a product of the activity of the brain - completely stops its activity after the death of the brain itself. On the other hand, a lot of different studies, which were conducted mainly in American and English clinics, show that in most people during clinical death, consciousness is not interrupted even in the absence of brain activity. Also, the flow of sensations is not interrupted.

During these studies, the purpose of which was to explain what happens to people after death, scientists were not interested in the nature of individual experiences (most people claimed to have seen their body from the side, heard some voices), but the very facts of these experiences in moment of death. The absence of electrical impulses of the brain baffled science. When decent statistics were accumulated, scientists came to the conclusion that the very existence of experiences does not depend at all on whether brain activity and electrical nerve impulses during or continue. If we accept the theory that consciousness is a product of the brain, then a person will not be able to experience anything at the time of the absence of brain activity. That is, he will not be able to realize the fact that he died. However, research contradicts the theory.

Finally, there is another concept that attempts to answer the question, "What happens to people after death?" This is the theory of rebirth (of reincarnation). According to this view, our consciousness does not disappear after the death of the physical body. It, like everything that surrounds us, simply passes into other forms and states. After the death of a mother, father, son, daughter, or other loved one, many people choose to believe this particular theory. The Celts, for example, had a custom according to which a person who borrowed an amount wrote a will. After his death, he promised to return this money, but in another body. And this practice was considered normal. Reincarnation is found not only among the peoples of the East. Even Pythagoras became one of the first philosophers who began to openly express ideas about the rebirth of souls. The scientist himself often said that he remembers his past incarnations.

Content

The question of what will happen after death has been of interest to mankind since ancient times - from the very moment of the appearance of reflections on the meaning of one's own individuality. Will consciousness, personality be preserved after the death of the physical shell? Where does the soul go after death - scientific facts and the statements of believers equally firmly prove and refute the possibility of an afterlife, immortality, the testimonies of eyewitnesses and scientists equally converge and contradict each other.

Evidence for the existence of the soul after death

To prove the existence of the soul (anima, atman, etc.), humanity has sought since the era of the Sumerian-Akkadian and Egyptian civilizations. In fact, all religious teachings are based on the fact that a person consists of two entities: material and spiritual. The second component is immortal, the basis of the personality, and will exist after the death of the physical shell. What scientists say about life after death does not contradict most of the theses of theologians about the existence of the afterlife, since science originally came out of monasteries when the monks were collectors of knowledge.

After the scientific revolution in Europe, many practitioners tried to isolate and prove the existence of the soul in the material world. In parallel, Western European philosophy defined self-consciousness (self-determination) as the source of a person, his creative and emotional urges, and an incentive for reflection. Against this background, the question arises - what will happen to the spirit that forms the personality after the destruction of the physical body.

Before the development of physics and chemistry, evidence for the existence of the soul was based solely on philosophical and theological works (Aristotle, Plato, canonical religious works). In the Middle Ages, alchemy tried to isolate the anima not only of man, but also of any elements, flora and fauna. modern science about life after death and medicine try to fix the presence of the soul on the basis of the personal experience of eyewitnesses who survived the experience of near-death experience, medical data and changes in the condition of patients at various points in their lives.

In Christianity

Christian Church (in recognized by the world directions) refers to human life as a preparatory stage after death. This does not mean that the material world does not matter. On the contrary, the main thing that a Christian has to do in life is to live in such a way as to subsequently go to heaven and find eternal bliss. Evidence of the presence of a soul for any religion is not required, this thesis is the basis for religious consciousness, without it it makes no sense. Confirmation of the existence of the soul for Christianity can indirectly serve personal experience believers.

The soul of a Christian, according to dogmas, is a part of God, but capable of independently making decisions, creating and creating. Therefore, there is the concept of posthumous punishment or reward, depending on how a person treated the fulfillment of the commandments during material existence. In fact, after death, two key states are possible (and an intermediate one - only for Catholicism):

Paradise is the state of the highest bliss, being close to the Creator;
hell - a punishment for an unrighteous and sinful life that contradicted the commandments of faith, a place of eternal torment;
purgatory is a place that is present only in the Catholic paradigm. The abode of those who die in peace with God, but need additional cleansing from sins unredeemed during life.

In Islam

The second world religion, Islam, according to dogmatic foundations (the principle of the universe, the presence of a soul, posthumous existence) does not radically differ from Christian postulates. The presence of a particle of the Creator inside a person is determined in the suras of the Koran and the religious works of Islamic theologians. A Muslim must live decently, keep the commandments in order to enter paradise. Unlike the Christian dogma of the Last Judgment, where the judge is the Lord, Allah does not take part in determining where the soul will go after death (two angels judge - Nakir and Munkar).

In Buddhism and Hinduism

In Buddhism (in the European sense) there are two concepts: atman (spiritual essence, higher Self) and anatman (lack of an independent personality and soul). The first refers to out-of-body categories, and the second to the illusions of the material world. Therefore, there is no exact definition of which specific part goes to nirvana (Buddhist paradise) and dissolves into it. One thing is for sure: after the final immersion in the afterlife, the consciousness of each, from the point of view of the Buddhists, merges into the common Self.

The life of a person in Hinduism, as the bard Vladimir Vysotsky accurately noted, is a series of migrations. The soul or consciousness does not fit in heaven or hell, but depending on the righteousness of earthly life, it is reborn into another person, animal, plant or even a stone. From this point of view, there is much more evidence for post-mortem experiences, because there is a sufficient amount of recorded evidence when a person fully told his previous life (given that he could not know about it).

In ancient religions

Judaism has not yet defined its attitude to the very essence of the soul (neshama). In this religion, there are a huge number of directions and traditions that may even contradict each other in basic principles. So, the Sadducees are sure that Neshama is mortal and dies with the body, while the Pharisees considered her immortal. Some currents of Judaism are based on accepted from ancient egypt the thesis that the soul must go through a cycle of rebirth in order to achieve perfection.

In fact, every religion is based on the fact that the purpose of earthly life is the return of the soul to its creator. The belief of believers in the existence of an afterlife is based largely on faith, and not on evidence. But there is no evidence to disprove the existence of the soul.

Death from a scientific point of view

The most accurate definition of death, which is accepted among the scientific community, is the irreversible loss of vital functions. Clinical death implies a short-term cessation of breathing, circulation and brain activity, after which the patient returns to life. The number of definitions of the end of life, even in modern medicine and philosophy, exceeds two dozen. This process or fact remains as much a mystery as the fact of the presence or absence of a soul.

Evidence of life after death

"There are many things in the world, friend Horace, that our wise men never dreamed of" - this Shakespearean quote with a great deal of accuracy reflects the attitude of scientists to the unknowable. Just because we don't know about something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Finding evidence for the existence of life after death is an attempt to confirm the existence of a soul. Materialists claim that the whole world consists of only particles, but at the same time, the presence of an energy entity, substance or field that creates a person does not contradict classical science due to lack of evidence (for example, the Higgs boson, a recently found particle, was considered fiction).

Testimony of people

In these cases, the stories of people are considered reliable, which are confirmed by an independent commission of psychiatrists, psychologists and theologians. Conventionally, they are divided into two categories: memories of past lives and stories of survivors of clinical death. The first case is the experiment of Ian Stevenson, who established about 2000 facts of reincarnation (under hypnosis, the test person cannot lie, and many of the facts indicated by patients were confirmed by historical data).

Descriptions of the state of clinical death are often explained by the oxygen starvation that the human brain experiences at this time, and they are treated with a considerable amount of skepticism. However, strikingly identical stories that have been recorded for more than one decade may indicate that the fact of the exit of some entity (soul) from the material body at the time of its death cannot be ruled out. Worth mentioning a large number of descriptions of small details concerning operating rooms, doctors and the environment, phrases they utter, which patients in a state of clinical death could not know.

History facts

TO historical facts the presence of the afterlife can be attributed to the resurrection of Christ. Here we mean not only the basis of the Christian faith, but a large number of historical documents that were not interconnected, but described the same facts and events in a single period of time. Also, for example, it is worth mentioning the famous recognized signature of Napoleon Bonaparte, which appeared on the document of Louis XVIII in 1821 after the death of the emperor (recognized as genuine by modern historians).

out-of-body experience, visions experienced by patients during operations;

meeting with deceased relatives and people whom the patient might not even know, but described after returning;

general similarity of near-death experiences;

scientific evidence for life after death based on the study of post-mortem transition states;

lack of defects in disabled people during out-of-body stay;

the ability of children to remember past lives.

Whether there is evidence of life after death, 100% reliable, is hard to say. There will always be an objective counterthesis to any fact of post-mortem experience. Everyone has their own ideas about this. Until the existence of the soul is proved in such a way that even a person far from science agrees with this fact, disputes will continue. However, the scientific world strives for the maximum study of subtle matters in order to get closer to understanding, the scientific explanation of human essence.

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