Posts Tagged → death
The Last Chapter in the Book
A while ago I was asked by a friend what it feels like to die and if people suffer. At the time I didn’t know the answer. One month on and I’m still no closer to it. Hopefully this provides some closure for people who have lost friends and loved ones recently…… the heat is a killer ……
By the time your average medical student is in his/her final year they usually know how to dodge every bullet and answer every question you throw at them. The fuckers go through paper faster than termites …..
But there is (and will always be) one question which they can’t answer, not for lack of trying but for lack of research. Most (all) doctors don’t know what it feels like for a patient when s/he dies and can’t tell you if they felt pain during death, as frustrating as that sounds not only has modern science failed us at curing AIDS, cancer and obesity; they’ve also forgotten to do their homework on the last chapter of the book.
Having spent the last month trying to find articles of any merit on the subject I’ve come to this conclusion:
WE KNOW FUCKALL ABOUT DEATH
We do however know alot about near death experiences, cases where somebody was brought back to life by CPR, or (if you prefer) a touch of the divine. Unfortunately because of the how closely death is linked to religion many of these cases have been interpreted from a more theological standpoint making them angel laden, filled with ether,pomp and circumstance and very hard to believe. But there is one study I found very helpful by Limmel and his team and published in the Lancet (Forbes Magazine for medics). The study interviewed 344 patients who were (and I cringe as I use this term) brought back (ugh …. fuckers think they’re gods ….all they did was get daddy pay the school fees on time) and found that a good one in five (well 18%) had experienced one of the following if not more:
- The notice of a very unpleasant sound or noise.
- A sense/awareness of being dead.
- A sense of peace, well-being and painlessness. Positive emotions. A feeling of being removed from the world.
- An out-of-body experience. A perception of one’s body from an outside position. Sometimes observing doctors and nurses performing medical resuscitation efforts.
- A “tunnel experience”. A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.
- A rapid movement toward and/or sudden immersion in a powerful light. Communication with the light.
- An intense feeling of unconditional love.
And as they came back they saw being of light which upon further focusing turned out to be nurses doing all the work while the doctors signed the death certificate.*
Now, most people would regard that as a pretty fair description of going to heaven. You know you’re dying, people are screaming all around you everything goes dark then goes white again and you feel oh so happy for once in your life now that you’re rid of that pesky mutt of a boss and that stupid tea boy who keep putting too much sugar in your coffee ………
But the scientific hypothesis (yet to be proved but far more convincing that angels bathed in light) proposed by many “experts” in the field seems to point to the fact that the process occurs as a result of the progressive shut down of different centers in the brain and for those of you who really want to know the details here they are (taken from a book by Ivan and Melrose 1986):
- The triggering mechanism is decreased blood oxygen availability. The feeling of peace and tranquillity is an early manifestation of decreased nerve activity (the way tranquillisers work, this is theacceptance of death part).
- As the chemical changes increase in quantity there is an effect in the limbic system of the brain (the part activated during arousal and motivated behaviour) such that there is a sense of euphoria and body-separation.
- With the progressive changes, other elements of the brain become involved and when the visual cortex is affected ‘blacking out’ occurs (entering the darkness).
- Further changes cause hyperactivity of the same nerve cells and visual hallucinations become intensified (seeing the light).
- In the final stage, just before the part of the brain responsible for consciousness is abolished, a hallucination occurs (entering the light).
This by and large makes sense (well at least it does for me and should to most neuro-physiologists), so in theory at least (coupled with the first hand experience of about 80/344 people) we can all assume that for the most part the way we die (slit wrists, fall from the roof, car crash, drug over dose, heart attack) doesn’t really affect us in our last moments, so in other words we can all rest assured that we’ll be getting that last moment of bliss ….. that millionaires death …. no better or worse than saying good night to your loved ones, going to bed and not waking up in the morning ……
And for those of you who (like me) have found the evidence a wee bit too shoddy there is light at the end of the tunnel, a group at the University of Southampton of have taken on the task of interviewing over 1500 people and assessing them clinically (brain scans, blood work up, psych evaluation) at the time directly after they’ve been “brought back” and after a 6 month follow-up. They’ll be taking into account everything from the persons religious views to their cholesterol level and are hoping to prove/disprove what we now assume is what that last chapter feels like ……..
* No, I wasn’t being serious …..
Drunk on Life…… [longest post on the planet]
I love it when people set their sites on the unreachable and unfathomable; and that’s exactly what Dr. Aubrey de Gray a gentleman scientist (an old, debunked term for self-funded scientist) is doing. An engineer by trade, de Gray has spent the last 6 or so years of his life trying to make us immortal and has published a rather impressive set of articles/books on the various solutions he proposes.
He has also established the Methuslah Foundation which has raised a 3 million dollar prize for anybody who can extend the life of mice. De Gray, an engineer by trade has based his theories on a very simple notion, if you can control cellular DNA and RNA (think of it as the bodies HTML and Javascript) and keep them mutation free then you can live forever* (or until you get a blood clot somewhere).
I’ve also always had a rather myopic (= immature) view of life, life seems to be nothing more than a journey in which you get faced with problem after problem and challenge after challenge until one of them kills you or or an organ gives out from the wear and tear of it all.
Your life expectancy (how long you’ll live) is largely dictated by a combination of how much you are willing to put up with, dumb luck and whether you get admitted to a kuwaiti hospital or not (don’t get me wrong a healthy diet, not smoking, drinking in moderation etc does help; it just doesn’t help alot unless the thing you are doing or not does reduces cellular wear and tear)
You see a toddler starts life in a pretty healthy state but s/he has to put up with parents who fill her/his stomach with stale, bacteria laden milk making her/him feel queasy; they then shake him until he throws up and chokes on his own vomit.
Provided you survive the first 4 years of your life and numerous episodes of choking and near drowning on said milk you are then faced with another (more daunting) set of problems ….. walking across a jungle of crap that you’ve never seen before and is usually twice your size and will end up scaring you into falling and sustaining a number of stitches, juvinile fractures and burns.
If you do reach your preteen years unscathed, you’d then have to face a myriad of psychological attacks including bullying, scolding and generally fucking up.
Your teens will then be met with a whole load of teenage angst and a somewhat awkward montage of aching moments involving the opposite sex (or in some cases same sex). Provided you live into your late teens and twenties you should have already went through and probably survived a whole load of expermentation with various drugs and of course alcohol and sex (unless you are in this country in which case you’d spend your teens and twenties trying to kill your self and others with your car but not to worry you’ll still be a virgin, be sober and pure).
You’ll then begin to “build your life” namely:
- Marry someone you think you may or may not love but seems okay and may make a good mother/father.
- Have kids which you’ll never have enough time to bring up thanks to your and your other halfs’ job and social engagements.
- Get into mounds and mounds of debt trying to sustain a quality of life you cannot afford with an ever rising inflation rate.
This “life building” exercise lasts about thirty years, the stress and frustration brought on by a lack of emotional development within the family unit and the debt is what eventually kills you.
Despite all of this turmoil, destruction and bedlam life seems to have a pretty good fanbase and as a result immortality is largely seen as one of those unreachable goals that scientists should aim for. Should you have any questions regarding Dr. de Grays rather interesting body of work feel free to ask him yourself …..
* I know I’ve over simplified things; I’m not a biochemist or gerontologist by trade and therefor lack the ability to appreciate the more minute aspects of his thesis.
This post is far too long and I wouldn’t be offended if none of you read through the whole thing.
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