*Our Moment of Death Is So Peaceful* Seeing loved ones – deceased or living – is common among NDEs, as is seeing a bright light at the end of a tunnel.
Other people have reported more corporeal sensations like that of leaving their body, <https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0227402#pone.0227402.ref007> floating above it, feeling physically drawn into that tunnel with the light at the end of it, or having a spiritual encounter <https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0227402#pone.0227402.ref007> with a supreme being, aliens, or lost loved ones. And all the while, during these other-worldly experiences, people rarely report having felt fear or pain – it's usually an overwhelming sense of calm and love. Some of these phenomena can't be explained by science – at least not yet. But in 2022 the NDE research community received something it had never witnessed before: the brain scan of a dying man <https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2022.813531/full>. And it unveiled some secrets that, up to that point, scientists could only speculate. *The brain scan of a dying man* In 2016, a then-87-year-old man was connected to an electroencephalogram, or EEG, when he unexpectedly Undergoing a brush with death may sound terrifying. But people who have had a near-death experience (NDE) typically report feeling peace, comfort, and calm throughout the ordeal. Perhaps it's the brain's way of coming to terms with its mortality. Or perhaps something more complex is going on. Scientists have several theories to explain some of the surprising sensations associated with NDEs, such as physiological changes in the brain <https://www.atmph.org/is-there-science-behind-the-near-death-experience/> as brain cells die. But a lot about NDEs remains a mystery, in part, because it's practically impossible to study in real-time, said Dr. Bruce Greyson <https://www.brucegreyson.com/about/>, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia <https://med.virginia.edu/perceptual-studies/our-research/near-death-experiences-ndes/> and co-founder of the International Association of Near-Death Studies <https://iands.org/>. Researchers must rely on anecdotes, memory recall, and in some cases, animal studies to understand how brains change from a NDE and what it could mean for future medicine. *What a near-death experience feels like* When it comes to describing NDEs, there are two sides to the coin: what's physically happening to you versus what you're perceiving on a psychological level. Physically, NDEs are typically associated with extremely painful events, including a head injury, heart attack, or respiratory arrest. But psychologically, the brain tends to shut down the sensation of pain – or at least the memory of it. For example, Julia Nicholson – a former CEO, executive leadership expert, and business consultant – said that she saw the faces of her loved ones vividly flash before her eyes, one by one, during a near-fatal car crash in 1980. "I don't remember feeling any pain until I arrived at the hospital," she recently told Newsweek <https://www.newsweek.com/survived-near-death-now-ceo-million-dollar-company-1770836> . had a heart attack and died. Researchers later published the results in *Frontiers of Aging Neuroscience*. An EEG measures electrical signals <https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/electroencephalogram/> that the brain produces in order to help diagnose or examine certain neurological conditions like seizures and memory loss. Sure enough, doctors were monitoring the man for a series of recent seizures when his heart suddenly stopped beating. In the paper, researchers reported that during the 15 seconds leading up to the man's heart attack, the EEG scan revealed high-frequency brainwaves called gamma oscillations, which are thought to play a role in creating and retrieving memories <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6139067/>. "It is very hard to make claims with one case… but what we can claim is that we have signals just before death and just after the heart stops like those that happen in the healthy human when they dream or memorize or meditate," lead study author Dr. Ajmal Zemmar told Insider's Anna Medaris <https://www.insider.com/brain-scans-dying-man-study-life-flashed-before-his-eyes-2022-2> . Of course, these scans are of a man seconds before death and not exactly equivalent to an NDE, where the person survives. However, such activity may help explain why people see memory flashbacks or faces of people they know during an NDE, Greyson said. KR IRS 27123 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZorpLRRRtt1VQ8nfv2gGWvHWr%3DGZ1301mn6RSuZTDz8osA%40mail.gmail.com.
