No matter who you are or where you come from, your social status and well-being are unimportant; death will inevitably await everyone at the end. Starting from a conscious age, a person is already thinking about what awaits him “later” and how it will be.
Have you ever thought about the moment of death? Modern science can tell in detail about the details of this moment, when together with the brain and body, our consciousness goes out. Long-term observations and modern technology will help us better understand the nature of death and the sensations that a person experiences at this moment.
1
Ambiguity
We study the status of "officially dead." That is, to be dead and to be officially dead are two different concepts. In medical terminology, the concepts of “officially dead” and “clinically dead” are distinguished. Many people believe that if the body stops moving and breathing, then this is a dead state. For others, a sign of death is heart failure. The rest determine death by the cessation of brain activity. So what is death?
A difficult question without an answer. Even after a complete cardiac arrest and cessation of brain activity during surgery, life can be maintained with the help of modern heart-lung machines. Although we know that in this case a person will not return to real life, but the body continues to function. Based on this, death will occur when all organs of the body cease to function, and it will not be possible to place it.
2
Consciousness
Consciousness cannot be touched or seen. This is what makes us people and personalities. No one knows what exactly happens to consciousness after death. According to the latest scientific hypotheses, consciousness is created by the brain at the level of neural connections. If the brain dies, then consciousness dies with it.
Issues of the existence of consciousness and its functions are discussed by philosophers and scientists. But the presence of consciousness does not determine the factor of life or death. For example, when a person under anesthesia, his consciousness does not function, but the body and brain are alive. Therefore, many consider consciousness as something voluminous, and not as an indicator of life or death.
Thanks to consciousness, we are aware of ourselves as individuals. We know that we are we. But modern science gives consciousness and simple organisms. After all, even the simplest cell knows why it exists and what its role in life is. What can not be said about people. Many live life, but never find its meaning.
If we start from the fact that consciousness is generated by the activity of the brain, then from the moment of its death our consciousness also disappears. That is, complete emptiness and vacuum. All that we have learned and are able to do, all this becomes meaningless and unnecessary.
3
Brain
It is not entirely true that a dead brain is a sign of death. As a rule, after the death of the brain, other parts of the body stop. In medicine in other countries, the signal of "brain death" is the cessation of the functional activity of the brain stem. It is the brain stem that is responsible for the activity of all important body systems. It connects the back and brain and controls nervous activity. So, all movies about zombies are just fantastic. No one can move with a dead brain.
In the modern world, brain stem death is an indicator of the official death of a person. If the heart stops, then our brain will work for several more minutes, although its cells will quickly die, creating irreversible consequences. If the brain dies, then the body will live for a very short time. But if the brain stem is alive, then a person is not recognized as dead, even if the heart stopped.
4
Brain activity
There is another curious fact about our brain, which is associated with the moment of death. When oxygen no longer enters the cells of our body and the heart stops, the brain begins to simply explode from activity. Although brain tomography is not permitted for a dead person, animal observations have shown vigorous brain activity at the time of decay.
This is similar to the fact that our brain begins to feverishly seek a way out of the situation - a certain function of self-preservation. Many believe that this activity is provoked by those incredible images and visions that people who have experienced clinical death tell about.
5
Increased perception
An increase in brain activity several times suggests that along with this, our perception and awareness of everything around us increases. We will not talk about any mysticism, because we only consider the scientific approach to death.
But those who return from the “other world” often describe a very bright light, incredible smells, sensations and tastes that you will never meet in real life. All this can be explained by an increase in brain activity at the time of death.
We can conclude that our last seconds are the brightest and most conscious moments that we have ever experienced in life.
6
Biological death
There is still much unknown and incomprehensible in the matter of the “moment of death” itself. We have already said above that death can be recorded in different ways, but from a clinically more accurate fact of death of the brain stem. But even if a person has reached the milestone when there is no turning back, many cells of the body are still alive, although very soon they will inevitably die too.
The question then arises: "Who are we really?" Maybe we are just a collection of cells that someday age and die? Or are we something more endowed with consciousness and feelings? Maybe our "consciousness" simply separates from the body and passes into another dimension and watches what is happening from the outside.
Scientists cannot find a definite answer. According to them, we are biological creatures that are endowed with their "I". And yet, when do we die? After the death of each cell or after our "I" leaves the body? This is a difficult unanswered question.
Interested in the secrets of the universe? On most-beauty.ru there is a fascinating article about the stories of the creation of the world from various cultures.
7
Time
According to the stories of people who survived clinical death, time is distorted and flows completely differently at this moment. Many find some mystical explanation in this. Scientists are trying to explain this, suggesting a slowdown or a complete stop of time at the time of death for a person. Some said that it was like a failure in which time does not matter.
British scientist Bruce Grayson carefully studied this issue. He interviewed many people with near-death experiences. Of the respondents, 70% spoke of the distortion of temporary space. Time flowed slowly or completely for them. You can’t say exactly how this happens. Perhaps this is just a game of our mind or there really is something in this beyond our reality. Modern science is still looking for answers to these questions.
8
Genes
When the body dies, the different genes that previously “slept” are activated. No one can name the exact reason for this. It is interesting that some genes continue to work actively for quite some time after the death of the body.
It used to be that gene death occurs along with cell death.
But modern science has found that for 24 hours our genes continue to work. This can be explained by the fact that the body does not want to give up and this is such an instinct for its survival. Even after death, we fight for existence.
For example, in mice and zebras, more than 500 genes are activated after death, which continue activity for another 48 hours.
9
Rhythm
Observations showed that a person has a rhythm by which it is possible to determine the moment of biological death. Similar to the circadian rhythm, the biological rhythm of our life is laid in our body. The daily rhythm regulates not only the time of sleep and wakefulness, but it is also responsible for our mood, appetite, needs and much more. It has been established that those people who die in the morning have a different composition of the brain and other biological clocks than people who die at night.
California scientists have decided to delve into this issue and try to compare the brains of people who have died of their own death and the brain who died in a car accident. They found that in both cases the brain had a similar cyclic structure. This means that our brain somehow “sees” the moment of death, whether it is expected or not.
10
A life
All the arguments above indicate that even after death, the body has enough resources to continue its kind. Modern science and technology makes it possible to delay the moment of death as much as possible. It was once believed that the body dies when the heart stops. Now everything has changed, which allows us to expand the boundaries of the study. This topic causes a lot of controversy and discussion in the scientific world.
Large corporations have long been investing millions of dollars in medical research, hoping to find a way to bring a dead organism back to life when it crossed a critical line.
These attempts seem pointless, but remember the animals that can grow lost limbs or separate the part of the body that begins to live its own life. All this is inherent in nature. In fact, the line between life and death is very fragile. Someday there will come a time when people will be able to look where no one else has managed to look and find out the secret of life and death.