‘Afterlife’ feels ‘even more real than real,’ researcher says

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

Updated 5:21 AM ET, Wed April 10, 2013

Scans compare neurological activity in a brain that is healthy, one that is comatose and another that is dead

 I have researched a lot about my topic ” Is there life and existence after physical death.? I studied the doctrines of Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim religions about this question and summarised their teachings. I also looked into the teachings of some philosophical schools, and I collected the personal interview of the people who had near-death experiences. My last genre which I would like to present, I think, is the most valuable. The article “Afterlife feels even more real than real researcher says” presents the scientific argument about life after death. It is helpful and more persuasive to a more rational and scientific audience since there is no religious point of view and no religious bios. The article provides only scientific data and explores the afterlife based on the neuroscientists’ observation and conclusion. Doctor Steven Laureys, a neuroscientist at the university hospital in Liege, and his colleagues published a scientific study on NDE. Doctor Laureys works in this field for quite a while. He observed and interviewed many clinically dead patients or in a coma who came back to life. There is strong evidence that life after death feels “even more real than real” His team wanted to monitor the human brain’s function during NDE, but it is challenging to observe. He says, “it would be cruel to run brain scans on someone who was possibly facing the moment of death.” As an alternative option, the scientists did the memory characteristics questionnaire tests. These tests collected information about people’s memories of life events and emotions and compared them with NDE accounts. NDE events were more real, more vivid, and richer even they took place a long time ago. “The memories of these experiences beat all other memories, hands down, for their vivid sense of reality…Even if the patient had the experience a long time ago, its memory was as rich as though it was yesterday.” These people were asked about their certainty level, and all of them agreed that it was not imagined or dreamed but real.

What do those people who experienced clinical death tell? According to Laureys, many stories have similar elements, like seeing one’s own body on an operation table, going through a black tunnel, and sometimes seeing religious images of Buddha, Jesus, or Muhammed during NDE.

Going through a black tunnel

Seeing one’s own body on an operation table

However, Doctor Laureys tries to leave religion out and explain what happened in scientific and medical terms. He states that near-death experience originates in human physiology. When the brain becomes dysfunctional, it produces these phenomena. Laureys claimes that there cannot be a conscious experience without brain activity. The mind having the NDE may be functioning minimally, but it is still alive, Laureys hypothesized. Laureys and his team of professors neurosciences recognize that there is still a need for better research in this field, and more scientists get involved.  

Remember about death, and you will not sin. People are born to die, and it is a simple fact of life. The topic that I chose for my research is about life after death and how it is relevant. When I was growing up in a little village in Ukraine, I would sometimes go to awake. I was always wondering what happens to dead people. Can they hear and see us when we go to a funeral? What do they feel, where are they going? When I am dead, what would happen to me? These thoughts and questions prompted me to do this research. Up until now, I have collected different genres. These are the teaching of the major religious traditions about the afterlife. Philosophical arguments about the same question, personal accounts of the people who have experienced NDE (near-death experiences.) I also recently came across the article “‘Afterlife’ feels ‘even more real than real,’ researcher says,” by Ben Brumfield. It is a CNN article about the topic from the point of view of neuroscience. This last source has a lot of exciting perspectives on what medical doctors say. It is also interesting to know what non-religious sources say about the afterlife. Doctor Laureys heads the Coma Science Group at the university hospital in the city of Liege. According to his research, people who had NDE and returned to everyday life say the experience was something they will never forget. Laureys noted that he and his group of scientists wanted to find out what happened with the brain when it was dead, and there was no consciousness activity. It is difficult to do this research when a patient experiences clinical death to determine the brain’s state. These scientists decided to do a survey and ask people the most vivid memories in their lives. Among those who participated in the survey, people who had NDE said that it was the most extraordinary real event that they ever lived through. In this article, the author also calls upon the authority of the American Psychological Association. APA defines near-death experiences as “profound psychological events with transcendental and mystical elements, typically occurring to individuals close to death or in situations of intense physical or emotional danger.” I am pleased I have this valuable input from the point of view of neuroscientists. In my research of the topic, I hope to appeal to academics and philosophers, to people who try to verify the truth in sense experience, the logical positivists, agnostics, and even atheists. This last genre can be of particular interest to them since there is no religious bias here, and the data is understandable. This article also has a helpful photo. It shows the human brain’s three images: ordinary consciousness, cardiac arrest, and brain death, which also adds some extra useful information. It has been quite a journey in the research that I have made. Now I know a lot more than before. The thought of death became a reality of something that should not be frightful.

Where, o death, is your victory? Where, o death is your sting? (1 Cor. 15:55.)

Remember about death, and you will not sin. People are born to die, and it is a simple fact of life. The topic that I chose for my research is about life after death and how it is relevant. When I was growing up in a little village in Ukraine, I would sometimes go to awake. I was always wondering what happens to dead people. Can they hear and see us when we go to a funeral? What do they feel, where are they going? When I am dead, what would happen to me? These thoughts and questions prompted me to do this research. Up until now, I have collected different genres. These are the teaching of the major religious traditions about the afterlife. Philosophical arguments about the same question, personal accounts of the people who have experienced NDE (near-death experiences.) I also recently came across the article “‘Afterlife’ feels ‘even more real than real,’ researcher says,” by Ben Brumfield. It is a CNN article about the topic from the point of view of neuroscience. This last source has a lot of exciting perspectives on what medical doctors say. It is also interesting to know what non-religious sources say about the afterlife. Doctor Laureys heads the Coma Science Group at the university hospital in the city of Liege. According to his research, people who had NDE and returned to everyday life say the experience was something they will never forget. Laureys noted that he and his group of scientists wanted to find out what happened with the brain when it was dead, and there was no consciousness activity. It is difficult to do this research when a patient experiences clinical death to determine the brain’s state. These scientists decided to do a survey and ask people the most vivid memories in their lives. Among those who participated in the survey, people who had NDE said that it was the most extraordinary real event that they ever lived through. In this article, the author also calls upon the authority of the American Psychological Association. APA defines near-death experiences as “profound psychological events with transcendental and mystical elements, typically occurring to individuals close to death or in situations of intense physical or emotional danger.” I am pleased I have this valuable input from the point of view of neuroscientists. In my research of the topic, I hope to appeal to academics and philosophers, to people who try to verify the truth in sense experience, the logical positivists, agnostics, and even atheists. This last genre can be of particular interest to them since there is no religious bias here, and the data is understandable. This article also has a helpful photo. It shows the human brain’s three images: ordinary consciousness, cardiac arrest, and brain death, which also adds some extra useful information. It has been quite a journey in the research that I have made. Now I know a lot more than before. The thought of death became a reality of something that should not be frightful.