LIFE AFTER DEATH
Immortal Soul
CONSCIOUSNESS may continue even after death, scientists now believe. Doctors claim to have found scientific evidence thatn patients have had experiences of an afterlife when they were clinically dead. Research suggests the mind may continue to exist after the brain has ceased to function and the body is clinically dead, with no pulse, no respiration and fixed dilated pupils.
Similar to sleep are those instances resulting from a mishap where a person briefly ‘dies’ and then wakes up again after a while. Such accounts have been found in many cultures and have been reported throughout history. In earlier times such cases were related as unbelievable or inexplicable. In present days however, medical studies conducted and documented on such cases provide mounting evidence that man has a separate and distinct existence from his body; an enduring existence that remains even when separated from the body. These instances provide observable evidence that that the mind continues to exist after death.
There has been observable evidence that that the mind continues to exist after death.
Scientists at the University of Southampton conducted a four-year study of 2,060 cardiac arrest patients. The research spanned cases at 15 hospitals in the UK, U.S and Austria. Findings revealed that nearly 40 per cent of the 330 patients who survived, described some kind of ‘awareness’ during the period when they were clinically dead and before their hearts were resuscitated. They explicitly recalled ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ events after their hearts had stopped.
Known medical explanations cannot account for these out-of-body sensations. One in ten heart attack patients experienced emotions, visions and lucid thoughts during their unconscious state with no pulse and breathing activity, say the researchers.
Dr. Sam Parnia, a former Southampton University research fellow now based at the State University of New York, who led the study, said: ‘The evidence thus far suggests that in the first few minutes after death, consciousness is not annihilated. Whether it fades away afterwards, we do not know, but right after death, consciousness is not lost.’
‘In the past it has been assumed that consciousness comes to an end when the brain stops functioning, but there may be some kind of independent existence,’ he said. ‘It would imply that the mind may continue to exist after the death of the body, or an afterlife. ’
Research suggests the mind may continue to exist after the brain has ceased to function and the body is clinically dead.
There have been several recorded medical cases where patients on an operation table have had such out of body experiences. In one such case, during a critical surgical operation, the patient was clinically dead and the heart had stopped functioning. On regaining consciousness, when the patient was asked how he felt during the operation, he said that he had left his body and was floating above the operating table observing the doctors operating on his body. He related factual details about actions and conversations of the attending surgical staff and doctors as if while ‘dead’, he was still able to see and hear what was going on. If a man’s soul was just a function of the body, then how was it possible to have remained alive when separated from the body? A conscious being that remains even after separation from the body is evidence of the fact that man is an eternal creature that continues to exist completely even after separation from the body.
In another case, scientists heard one patient recall leaving his body and watch his resuscitation from the corner of the room. The 57 yearold man from Southampton was ‘dead’ for three minutes yet managed to recount detailed actions of the nursing staff and the sound of the machines.
Dr. Parnia said: ‘We know the brain can’t function when the heart has stopped beating.’ The brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart has stopped. ‘But in this case conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn’t beating.’
‘Furthermore, the detailed recollections of visual awareness in this case were consistent with verified events.’ He said the recollections were not like hallucinations because they were ‘highly structured narratives, easily recalled and clear’.
He added: ‘During cardiac arrest, brainstem activity is rapidly lost. It should not be possible to sustain such lucid processes or allow the formation of lasting memories.’
In another case, a doctor relates an instance when he was treating an old woman suffering from bone cancer. Her cancer had metastasized all over the body and her condition was critical. All efforts at relieving her pain and suffering were in vain. During her treatment, she suddenly lost consciousness. After a while, when she regained consciousness, she looked peaceful and her pain had alleviated considerably. When the attending doctor asked her the reason for this change in her condition, she said that just a few moments ago her dead mother had come to meet her and had told her that very soon they would be together again. After this conversation with her mother she felt at peace. A little while later she died. This case shows that the old woman’s mother was fully conscious even after her death, else it wouldn’t be possible for her to meet her daughter. The fact the patient died soon after her mother’s visit proves that the experience was real and not an illusion.
In Chapter 56, the Quran says:
Why, then, when the soul of the dying man reaches the throat, and you are [at that moment] looking on [helplessly]—and We are nearer to him than you, although you cannot see Us. (56: 83-85)
This verse explains that when a man is close to death and before the soul leaves the body, windows into the other side of death are opened up for him. To a certain extent, the veil covering the other world is lifted. Whilst alive in the present world, he is able to see some of the things of the world hereafter.
A conscious being that remains even after separation from the body is evidence of the fact that man is an eternal creature that continues to exist completely even after separation from the body.
The most commonly reported sightings of the Hereafter are of their dear departed souls. Such observations are reported when the person is very close to death. They call out to their dead relatives and friends as if they are right there close to them. One patient said, ‘There is definitely something there after death—I don’t care what anybody else says.’