4 Theories On What Happens When We Die

Despite the gigantic leaps made by science in the last few decades, a comprehensive explanation of what exactly happens to us when we die is yet to emerge. Simultaneously, more research than ever before has now been done on near-death experiences -- those fleeting, almost supernatural experiences that hundreds of thousands of people have reported feeling on the brink of death.

This oxymoronic combination of progress and the lack of it has meant that a variety of theories on death have emerged in the last several years. Here's a quick look at some of them.

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There Is An Afterlife

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Dr. Eben Alexander III has been a neurosurgeon and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School for 25 years. In 2008, he contracted an extremely rare form of bacterial meningitis and fell into a deep coma. After seven days of virtual brain death, Dr. Alexander emerged from the coma, virtually unscathed. His recollection of the coma varies from a vision of murky brown, to a journey through "the core", where he was faced with the vision of God. Waking up, he realized there was another existence beyond the one he knew and had studied. Most scientists conclude that "when the brain actually dies, so does the mind/soul/self." But Dr. Alexander's experience shows that this isn't the whole truth -- how can the soul die with the brain if, in the midst of being brain-dead, one had a rich spiritual experience?

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Dr. Eben Alexander III has been a neurosurgeon and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School for 25 years. In 2008, he contracted an extremely rare form of bacterial meningitis and fell into a deep coma.

After seven days of virtual brain death, Dr. Alexander emerged from the coma, virtually unscathed. His recollection of the coma varies from a vision of murky brown, to a journey through "the core", where he was faced with the vision of God. Waking up, he realized there was another existence beyond the one he knew and had studied.

Most scientists conclude that "when the brain actually dies, so does the mind/soul/self." But Dr. Alexander's experience shows that this isn't the whole truth -- how can the soul die with the brain if, in the midst of being brain-dead, one had a rich spiritual experience?

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Comments

[jankantius]

07:01 AM on 07/31/2011

My best friend in high school confided that if he didn't believe in god and an afterlife he would be quite happy to rob, rape and kill. I thank God for religion.. it provides an incentive for those without an internal moral compass to behave themselves.

[jthinker]

10:27 AM on 07/30/2011

Oh come on. We humans are capable of creating whatever scenerio fits us and our circumstance at any point. It means nothing about what actually happens when people have these kinds of experiences, and means everything about the person who had or "created" the experience for her or himself. It seems that those who believe in an afterlife are willing to suspend the laws of physics just for this one event, that, guess what, effects only human beings. Talk about self-centeredness. The two reasons there are all these ideas about life after death are, 1) that our brains give us the capacity to imagine this possibility (however fantastical) and 2) to assauge our fear about death ( which by the way, is also possible to conceptualize because of our brains).

[iLdoRight]

05:17 PM on 07/25/2011

Ezekiel 18:4, "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Ecclesiastes 9:5 "For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 9:10, "What so ever, thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, wither thou goest."

[bostonjake]

11:40 AM on 07/04/2011

Just finished a great science thriller, Tunnel Vision, that explores these questions of near death experience, paranormal experiences, and an after life in a very smart way. I am a nut for factual accuracy so I was pleased that Tunnel Vision seemed to be very well researched and grounded in science. Gary Braver, the author, makes it a fun and provocative read while not taking sides.

[Holly Smoke]

12:35 PM on 06/30/2011

Well, we just to wait until the alleged Second Coming to find out, would not we?

[lauratrueman762]

09:38 PM on 06/29/2011

Robert Lanza and Wendy Wright were the most correct.

The man in the 7 day coma said there is a consciousness outside of our perceived consciousness (duh). To think there isn't is stupid, arrogant, and ignorant.
I hate articles that only give a portion of death, those opinions are only given because they are the opinions given to the vast majority who can't handle the true nature of everything. We don't exist at all, we are just mere reflections of perfect ideas. There are parallel universes that we can perceive by just being able to see other choices that we can make. We are in one parallel universe, there is no free-will as control over our lives is an illusion, simply because nature is running it's course. We are just one of the infinite possibilities manifesting itself.

This death article is primitive, and it blows my mind how we are still pondering our existence, and that egoistic selfish people actually think they have a purpose. From and omniscient perspective, no one has a purpose, other than to divulge in egoistic pleasures, such as food, sex, relationships, and pure selfishness. Thinking your purpose is to reproduce (for example) is selfish. Everything you want or desire is egoistic & selfishness. To be ungrateful is equivalent to a realization when one comes to terms with his insignificance. There is no free will, there is only fate, that has been, always will be, nature running its course. Control is an illusion.

[ballpark]

06:22 PM on 07/24/2011

WOW! I cannot even fathom how off the mark this line of thinking is. Especialy when it's pretty much an amalgam of other peoples thoughts. First off, we do exist. Secondly, we have a purpose. Not pre-ordained, but rather, self made. Lastly, there is no "after-life" but simply "life".
Thus, there is no death. There is no final judgement, just an on-going one. And that judment is made against your self made purpose, by those who are aware of your existance. Contol is not an illusion, "fate" is the illusion. Yes, we are individualy insignificant, but not to those who are aware of our existance.

[22Keys]

02:12 PM on 06/29/2011

"Most atheist appear convinced that consciousness is reducible to the workings of the brain...this is an unwarranted assumption. The truth is we do not yet know what the relationship between matter and consciousness actually is yet."

- Sam Harris, The End of Faith, Paperback, Pg. 235

If a computer system could be constructed that duplicated the mapping of a human brain I find it highly unlikely that anyone would believe that it harbored a consciousness. Yet this is precisely what I am asked to believe when the neuro-pathways are biological and not machanical.

[Tykster]

12:50 PM on 06/29/2011

Quote, "Without the concrete existence of time, you can take any moment of time -- whether past or future -- as your new frame of reference. "

No you can't. If it doesn't exist, it doesn't exist.

[Tatyana Elmanovich]

05:13 AM on 06/29/2011

September 5, 2010, morning, I couldn't brief. To call 911, or go back to bed and wait untill it will pass? I returned to bedroom... But it was not my bedroom! It was a very clean and more like I WANTED IT TO BE! Wooden floor, no bed! My bed was gone, no place to lay down, and a voice said, "If the door closes behind you, it will never open again! I don't remember how I got to the neighbour's door... I touched it with my elbow, and Geni happens to be behind the door with open cell in her hand... The next thing I recall, the emergency folks was ministering adrenaline shots straight through my cloths. After the forth shot they get me into their van, and soon I was in the hospital. Heart attack! ... Everything what I experienced in that brief moment in my "bedroom" was real. Death can be as easy as stepping from one room to another. And there is something big behind that door! I am from former Soviet Union, from Estonia, it was not fashinable to believe in anything like that.... This brieth encounter with death changed everything. NOW I KNOW that it is truly rediculous to have enemies, it is rediculous to worry, because eternity waits us behind the door... Tatyana

[oldstudent10]

03:23 PM on 06/28/2011

There is no way for science to "prove" what happens after physical death, and never will. If there is an afterlife it is obvious of the immaterial sort (one where your material being doesn't go [at least for now if you believe ina resurrection]) and science can only prove something investigate and prove a material reality.

Can science speculate? Sure, but it cannot be verified if there is something on, "the other side" unless the "other side" comes here.

[robin360]

08:00 PM on 06/27/2011

Death: You don't know and neither do I. I guess we'll all find out sometime, though. Meanwhile, "dum spiro spero" (While I breathe, I hope...).

[Sonupv]

02:19 PM on 06/27/2011

Some eastern spiritual traditions suggest that with long term practice of meditation living humans can experience the things often described in modern world as near-death experience. In their words, you can realize god and gain consciousness of your true being. In buddism, I think this state of consciousness is called nirvana. For example search for "Muraqaba/Nirvana" on wikipedia. Rest who knows.

[livefortruth]

02:58 PM on 06/27/2011

I know that to be true. Through my own experience. Without a NDE.

[buggeroffyou666]

04:40 PM on 06/27/2011

There you go saying true again. Well there is some nut like you (knows) they just saw Elvis. By you funny definition of true then Elvis must be alive.

[jf12]

03:47 PM on 06/28/2011

I would like to hear more.

[buggeroffyou666]

01:09 PM on 06/27/2011

Only ' Nothing happens' is even worthy of the title theory. The other three are nothing but completely baseless assertions. to call them theories is an insult to real science.

[livefortruth]

01:27 PM on 06/27/2011

buggeroff :)

You do realize science isn't finished yet, don't you?

Science does not 'discover' anything. It 'uncovers' what is already there.

[ChaCubed]

01:52 PM on 06/27/2011

Please give an example of a discovery of something which isn't already there.

[buggeroffyou666]

02:14 PM on 06/27/2011

And if science discovers even one iota of evidence them maybe you can claim to have a hypothesis concerning a soul an afterlife or a god. Till then it's still every bit just baseless assertions that what we DO know runs contrary.

[Bob Wood]

12:43 PM on 06/27/2011

To paraphrase Mark Twain...I suspect that the after-life will be pretty much like the before-life...which I didn't find the least bit inconvenient...(sigh)

[considerthis]

10:49 AM on 06/30/2011

Hmm - interesting way to put it. But, it feeds into circular thinking -- what was the pre-life: energy/soul/spirit? And active inquisitive mind can just have fun thinking through the possibilities, without expecting a concrete answer.

[Bob Wood]

12:20 PM on 06/30/2011

Round and round and round we go...(sigh)

[woodheat]

12:17 PM on 06/27/2011

Most theories or belief about what happens after death serve to comfort the anxious or are used as a means of societal control. Maybe people need to feel that they have some control over the inevitable. I prefer the wait and see approach. I take comfort in knowing there will be no more pain.

[CoastalNC]

11:48 AM on 06/29/2011

"no more pain"...that's what I take comfort in myself!!