The Sun's Shadow

Stumbling to find a light switch in the dark

The Dying Process

Sounds a little morbid I must admit, but in reality it some really cool research that is being under taken. There is a new study being conducted called AWARE, doctors will examine patients who are in state of cardiac arrest… why cardiac arrest well as it turns out death is not one single moment but a process.

“Contrary to popular perception, death is not a specific moment,” said leader of the study Dr. Sam Parnia of the University of Southampton in the U.K. “It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning — a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death.”

Clinical death is basically when the blood stop circulating in the body and everything afterwards shuts down, so it makes sense then to study cardiac arrest patients, they are having heart attacks and their hearts have stopped.

This will help to provide further insight as to what is happening to us (our brain) as we die, and this is important due to the reports that people bring back from the “other side” or what they possible imagine the otherside to be

Previous research suggests about 10 to 20 percent of people who live through cardiac arrest report lucid, well-structured thought processes, reasoning, memories and sometimes detailed recall of events during their encounter with death.

One study found that people who reported peaceful feelings, bright light and out-of-body experiences during a brush with death are more likely to have had difficulty separating sleep from wakefulness in their everyday lives. Both before and after their near-death experiences, these people often have symptoms of the rapid-eye movement (REM) state of sleep while awake.

Death is the natural end to our natural lives, and as our brain struggles in the final moments it is comforting to think that it can be akin to having a dream so long as that dream doesn’t become a nightmare… I wonder if this research will turn up any interesting correlations on the type of people who see positive or negative things during a near death experience.


September 18, 2008 - Posted by | life, Medicine, Science | , , ,

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