Why do people leave the body, fall into a dark tunnel and see dead relatives.
People who have been on the verge of life and death always tell about the same thing: a person slides along a dark tunnel to a bright light at the end, a feeling of absolute peace and happiness envelops him, he hears pleasant music, soft light envelops him from all sides. Often people describe their way out of the body: they see themselves from the outside and feel a sense of floating.
Those who have received near-death experience (NDE) sincerely believe in the reality of their experiences and use them as proof of the existence of the soul and life after death. However, neurophysiologists speculate that all of the effects of NDE are due to the dying brain.
What happens to the brain after cardiac arrest
Using electrodes implanted in the brains of patients, neurologists discovered the Terminal spreading depolarization and electrical silence in death of the human cerebral cortex, that even after the heartbeat stops, the brain's nerve cells continue to function.
Death is marked by the final wave of electrical activity in the brain. This wave begins 2-5 minutes after the oxygenated blood ceases to flow to the brain and displays dangerous neuronal changes that lead to irreversible damage.
A short burst of activity was also found in an earlier study Surges of electroencephalogram activity at the time of death: a case series.. Scientists performed electroencephalography (EEG) in dying people and found that blood pressure loss was followed by a temporary peak in activity that is characteristic in consciousness. Scientists have suggested that it is associated with depolarization of neurons due to hypoxia - a lack of oxygen. It has also been suggested that people who have gone through near-death experiences could have received their mystical experience at this very moment.
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However, the effects of NDE are not only experienced on the eve of death. Similar conditions can be experienced without a threat to life.
When to experience the effects of near-death experiences
A recent study showed DMT Models the Near-Death Experience that psychedelic drugs can be used to relive NDEs.
The experiment was split into two parts: one took the psychedelic dimethyltryptomin (DMT) and the other a placebo. After completing the trip, the subjects completed the NDE Scale questionnaires, compiled with the help of people who had had a near-death experience.
According to another study, Features of "near-death experience" in relation to whether or not patients were near death., Only 51.7% of patients experience NDE on the verge of death. Of the 58 participants with near-death experiences, only 28 could actually die without medical intervention. The remaining 30 people did not have a serious threat to life, but still survived all the effects of the near-death experience.
What Causes NDE Effects
Realizing your own death
One of the most common experiences is the realization of one's own death. However, this feeling was also experienced by living people with Cotard's syndrome (walking corpse syndrome).
A striking example is the case of Attributional style in a case of Cotard delusion. A 24-year-old patient at a London hospital. She believed that she died of a cold and was in heaven. After a few days, the mania began to subside, and then disappeared altogether.
This syndrome is associated with dysfunction of the parietal lobe and the prefrontal cortex. It occurs after head injuries, during the advanced stage of typhoid fever and multiple sclerosis.
Light at the end of the tunnel
This experience is also often mentioned when describing the near-death experience. Living people experience similar sensations. During overload, pilots experience a severe decrease in blood pressure and may experience hypotensive syncope, which is accompanied by temporary depression. Direct determination of man's blood pressure on the human centrifuge during positive acceleration. peripheral vision. For 5-8 seconds, the pilots observe the same dark tunnel as people during the NDE.
There is a suggestion that the tunnel arises Out-of-body experience and arousal. due to impaired blood supply to the retina. This state is characteristic of extreme fear and hypoxia, which, in principle, is close to dying.
Out of body
It has been suggested that the angular gyrus is responsible for this experience. In one experiment, Stimulating illusory own-body perceptions. found that stimulation of this zone evoked a sensation of transformation in the subjects' arms and legs (response of the somatosensory cortex) and movement of the whole body (response of the vestibular system).
Also, the experiences of out-of-body experience are characteristic of the state on the border of sleep and wakefulness - hypnagogia and sleep paralysis The body unbound: vestibular-motor hallucinations and out-of-body experiences.. In this state, a person can see hallucinations, be conscious, unable to move, and also feel the sensation of floating next to your body.
Happiness and well-being
The near-death experience is usually accompanied by a state of euphoria and calmness. The same effect can be obtained from taking certain medications, such as ketamine. This drug binds to the opioid mu receptors and induces euphoria, dissociation, spiritual experiences and hallucinations.
There is also a theory that norepinephrine is worth the euphoria. There is nothing paranormal about near-death experiences: how neuroscience can explain seeing bright lights, meeting the dead, or being convinced you are one of them. and the blue spot is the part of the brain responsible for the release of this hormone.
Norepinephrine is involved in a person's arousal from fear, stress and hypercapnia - an excessive amount of CO2 in the blood, so it may well be released in a near-death state.
Blue spot is associated with the structures of the brain responsible for emotions (amygdala) and memory (hippocampus), response to fear and opioid pain relief (periaqueductal gray matter), dopamine reward system (ventral tegmental area). Scientists believe that the norepinephrine system may be associated with positive emotions, hallucinations, and other effects of near-death experiences.
All life before my eyes
In a near-death state, people often see a series of events in their own lives. In his book “We are our brain. From Uterus to Alzheimer's Dick Swaab argues that people relive past events by activating the medial temporal lobe. This structure is involved in the storage of episodic autobiographical memories and is very sensitive to lack of oxygen, so it is easy to activate.
The 2004 Near-Death Experiences and the Temporal Lobe, Britton study confirmed that near-death experiences change activity in the temporal lobe.
Meeting the dead
Many scientists believe that a person's near-death experience takes place in an intermediate state between sleep and wakefulness, and the REM sleep phase is responsible for all mystical images and hallucinations.
To test this hypothesis, scientists investigated Does the arousal system contribute to near death experience? 55 people who survived near-death experiences. It turned out that these people were more susceptible to sleep paralysis and the associated visual and auditory hallucinations. Scientists have suggested that in a state of danger, such people are more prone to immersion in REM sleep, and that is why they have vivid memories of the near-death experience.
In addition, hallucinations are common in some brain damage. For example, patients with Alzheimer's or progressive Parkinson's sometimes talk about ghosts or monsters, and after brain surgery, some patients see dead relatives.
Is there life after death
Despite all the research and scientific theories, scientists lack the evidence to claim that the NDE is solely due to brain activity. On the other hand, people who prove the existence of the soul and life after death have no scientific evidence at all.
What to believe: life after death, your religion, unity with the Universe or the activity of a dying brain - you decide.