Researchers say there's evidence that consciousness continues after clinical death
- Thread starter vbj
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One interesting finding is that NDE survivors have similar visions of entering a tunnel and meeting a being or loved ones at the end. People hallucinate for many reasons like illness or drugs but they see different things. NDE survivors having similar visions suggests there's more going on than hallucination.
Temujin
Well-known member
I have seen reports, though I can't remember where, that the progressive failure of the brain to manage the visual field means that the peripheral vision fails first, leading to a tunnel effect, with the centre increasing in brightness while the edges fade. If true, and it sounds reasonable, this is a good explanation of why people see tunnels.
It would be mind-blowing (for me, anyway) if they actually came up with evidence that someone was conscious when an EEG showed that his brain was shut down. So I think it's worth doing more research in this area, even though I think the results will ultimately be consistent with consciousness being a function of the brain.
Is this doctor using the word, annhilation, correctly? All the brain cells will die, become necrotic and decay, but I've always thought of annihilation as a more immediate event.
Annihilation-Complete destruction or obliteration
Annihilation-Complete destruction or obliteration
This doesn't sound like a good explanation. The doctor said that the patient whose brain had shut down after death and has related experiencing awareness of their surrroundings or saw a tunnel, bright light, and deceased family members were not alert/awake, iow, their eyes are not open. To all the bystanders taking part in the attempts to resucitate the patient, he/she appears dead...no cardiac rhythm and no breathing. Clinically dead. How, then, would someone's vision play a role in this situation?
They have evidence. Some patients have been able to tell what they experienced after the medical team thought they were dead and their experiences were verified.
Do you think the diagnosis brain death should be the more accurate measure of a patient's death and not cardiac/pulmonary arrest?
Temujin
Well-known member
As the brain shuts down, the brain cells fire randomly. The brain cells covering the centre of the visual field vastly outnumber those on the periphery, thus leading to a tunnel effect. Sorry that my previous explanation wasn't very clear.
My point is that when the eyes are closed, how can they see? I been involved in many codes and the patients are unresponsive and their eyes are never open.
Would you say that a living person is actually seeing what they dream?
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There is also evidence that brain activity can occur after the heart stops:
source
(Note that the primary author of that study was the interviewee in the video linked in the OP.)
Absolutely.
Temujin
Well-known member
It's nothing to do with the eyes. Vision is a function of the brain. The brain cells stimulated by the optical nerve can fire independently of any visual input.
Dreams are different again. The "narrative" calls up various images, mostly distorted memories. Again though, nothing to do with the eyes. Though interestingly the eyes are the only part of the body that isn't paralysed during dreams. Hence REM sleep.