Posted on 06/16/2023 1:13:33 PM PDT by FarCenter
Long the fixation of religions, philosophy and literature the world over, the conscious experience of dying has recently received increasingly significant attention from science. This comes as medical advances extend the ability to keep the body alive, steadily prying open a window into the ultimate locked room: the last living moments of a human mind.
“Around 1959 humans discovered a method to restart the heart in people who would have died, and we called this CPR,” says Sam Parnia, a critical care physician at NYU Langone Health. Parnia has studied people’s recollections after being revived from cardiac arrest—phenomena that he refers to as “recalled experiences surrounding death.” Before CPR techniques were developed, cardiac arrest was basically synonymous with death. But now doctors can revive some people up to 20 minutes or more after their heart has stopped beating. Furthermore, Parnia says, many brain cells remain somewhat intact for hours to days postmortem—challenging our notions of a rigid boundary between life and death.
Advancements in medical technology and neuroscience, as well as shifts in researchers’ perspectives, are revolutionizing our understanding of the dying process. Research over the past decade has demonstrated a surge in brain activity in human and animal subjects undergoing cardiac arrest. Meanwhile large surveys are documenting the seemingly inexplicable periods of lucidity that hospice workers and grieving families often report witnessing in people with dementia who are dying. Poet Dylan Thomas famously admonished his readers, “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” But as more resources are devoted to the study of death, it is becoming increasingly clear that dying is not the simple dimming of one’s internal light of awareness but rather an incredibly active process in the brain.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
So if someone yells Bosco! find out what they want.
All you have to do is ignore the existence of the soul to make confusion at this juncture.
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What is this “soul” of which you speak?
It happened to my mom a month ago. She had stopped eating and been pretty out of it for days. Then she woke up and wanted to sit on her couch. I was there and recognized it, and called my sisters-in-law to come over.
We talked and laughed, and it was sweet.
Unfortunately, my brother missed it. He was traveling. She woke up when he got there, and started yelling at everyone and accused us of trying to kill her. I felt bad for my brother.
She did not go peacefully after that. It was very hard.
I’m waiting for a “burst of lucidity” from Biden. If he has one, it will be his first.
I gave up on Scientific American back in the late 1970’s when they dumped science for political correctness....
Maybe Joe will finally be able to remember where all that money came from.
Witnessed this with a friend who had pancreatic cancer. His last day he was unconscious but had a smile on his face.
Also heard horror stories from an ex who was a hospice RN... geez
My mom’s decline was pretty rapid. She was still driving and living on her own in November and she died in January.
One day she couldn’t get out of bed. She went tot the hospital, then into physical therapy and from there into hospice.
She was never completely out of it, she knew who she was, where she was and who the people around her were, but she was obviously failing. The day before she died, a friend came to visit her and she was completely lucid. When I described this to a caregiver, she said it is fairly common and caregivers call it the ‘Last Hurrah’.
That made me laugh. Thanks.
“...Why Dying People Often Experience a Burst of Lucidity...”
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Never saw an answer to the “why”.
I see what you did there!
Jimmy Durante in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World” shows this phenomenon very well (at about 3.20 mark)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w00Kab17aeI
Worth repeating
I find that statement rather disconcerting on many levels.
SA was completely hijacked by leftists years ago. A once respected scientific journal it is now just a propaganda platform all kinds of leftist issues.
My wife’s Mother had a quick and hard dementia/Alzheimer’s onset.
She went from a very smart and positive woman in her 80’s into one who could not remember anyone nor basically any thing.
My wife got a call from a SIL, who was also an RN, and she told my wife if she wanted to say goodbye. She needed to back to her midwest home asap.
My wife went back for a week, and her Mother didn’t recognize her in the 4 days of a week stay. On the way to the airport, she and her siblings decided to have my wife say goodbye. So they went to the nursing home where my wife’s Mother was staying.
Her mother immediately recognized my wife and called for her to come and kiss her. They had a great conversation with hugs and kisses for about 45 minutes. Then her, Mother told my wife to kiss her goodbye, hug her and to not miss her plane back to California.
My wife kissed her and hugged and said goodbye. RN SIL said that by the time my wife kissed, hugged and left her mother, her Mother was gone mentally. She died about 2 weeks later and never mentally recovered after my wife’s visit.
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