People
always want to know what happens when someone die but there's only one
group of people who really know what happens when you
die: the dead. And since the dead won't be revealing their secrets
anytime soon, it's up to scientists to explain what happens when a
person dies.
Death, just like life, is a process, scientists say. The first stage of
this process is known as clinical death. It lasts from four to six
minutes, beginning when a person stops breathing and the heart stops
pumping blood. During this time, there may be enough oxygen in the brain
that no permanent brain damage occurs. Other organs, such as the
kidneys and eyes, also remain alive throughout clinical death.
In the second stage of dying, known as biological death, the cells of
the body begin to degenerate, and the body's organs — including the
brain — shut down. Doctors are sometimes able to stall biological death
by inducing hypothermia
— cooling the body to below its normal temperature. This method can
stop the degeneration of cells and has been used to revive
cardiac-arrest patients. These stages of death are well understood, but what remains elusive is
what happens to a person once he or she is both clinically and
biologically dead. To get some insight into this mystery, researchers
turn to the study of near-death experiences (NDEs). According to the Out-Of-Body Experience Research Center in Los Angeles,
more than 8 million Americans have reported NDEs, which occur when a
person is either clinically dead, near dead or in a situation where
death is likely or expected. Many people who have had near-death experiences report similar
sensations: feeling as though they were floating outside of their
bodies, moving rapidly through a tunnel toward light or seeing deceased
loved ones. Researchers continually study NDEs in an effort to make sense of the
biological and neurological processes that may be behind such events.
Some studies claim that NDEs are just another form of lucid dreaming, while others link these experiences to oxygen deprivation in the brain.
