Mankind has always wondered about what happens at the time of death and what actually happens shortly afterwards. No existence after death has been hard to explain by all cultures till date and with scientists failing to provide a solid answer, the task has been taken up by religions to describe the event as passing away of consciousness from the body after its death. Why do many of the survivors of cardiac arrests report seeing burst of light or light at the end of a tunnel?
Advertisement
This is a puzzle that scientists have been trying to solve for the last many decades. Scientists label it as NDE or near death
experiment. One such experiment that was conducted in the University of Michigan last week was reported widely by the media. The experiment involved mice that were taken to death by injecting them with potassium chloride that resulted in cardiac arrests. They attached nine electrodes at different parts of the brains of these mice to record the brain activity of these mice.
It was found that that there was a period of high brain activity soon after the rats had heart attacks. There was a high level of connectivity inside the brain just before death that far exceeded the activity during normal waking state. This has been described as the near death experience. This experiment was similar to the one where rats had inhaled CO2 and died because of it. The recording of the EEG during that experiment and the present experiment was almost identical and the scientists have been able to connect this sudden increased activity as an explosion inside the brain that eventually led to death.
Jimo Borgigin, the scientist at the University of Michigan who led the research, said that these experiments can be extended and applied to human beings. It makes it easy to explain why nearly 20% of the cardiac arrest survivors say they saw a light at the end of the tunnel before they were brought back to consciousness. There have been umpteen incidents of people recounting their experiences at the time of cardiac arrest as powerful, serene, and peaceful. Many describe it as being in a dark tunnel looking at the bright light ahead. There have also been people surviving heart attacks who say they met their long lost loved ones. These people actually experience a sudden increase in the brain activity that takes place just before death and shortly after the cardiac arrest.
Advertisement
Jimo Borginin said that the experiences of these people convinced her that there had to be some intense activity inside the brain just before death. The fact that her team of scientists was able to record these activities in the brains of mice experiencing cardiac arrests proves her right. The brains of the mice injected with lethal doses of potassium chloride showed signs of hyperactivity. Jimo says that is what actually happens in the cases of human beings also. This burst of activity is nothing but a mini explosion inside the mind that is an attempt by the brain to survive.
