It looks like some more “proof” of god and the afterlife just bit the dust…
A study of the brainwaves of dying patients showed a surge of electrical activity in the moments before their lives ended. The researchers suggest this surge may be the cause of near-death experiences, the mysterious medical phenomena in which patients who have been revived when close to death report sensations such as walking towards a bright light or a feeling that they are floating above their body.
Many people experience the sensation as a religious vision and treat it as confirmation of an afterlife. However, the scientists behind the new research believe that is wrong.
Please, people with degrees instead of funny hats, enlighten us…
“We think the near-death experiences could be caused by a surge of electrical energy released as the brain runs out of oxygen,” said Lakhmir Chawla, an intensive care doctor at George Washington University medical center in Washington.
“As blood flow slows down and oxygen levels fall, the brain cells fire one last electrical impulse. It starts in one part of the brain and spreads in a cascade and this may give people vivid mental sensations.”
Depressing? Not really – I think it’s pretty awesome that many of life’s mysteries can be explained in time, although that time would be a lot sooner if we stopped listening to preachers and started listening to researchers…they tend to read more than one book.
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I found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it. Great article!
That’s really interesting. I had always assumed it was oxygen depletion.
This helped me a lot in my college assignment. Thank you for looking this up and bringing it to my attention.
Makes a lot more sense than an invisible man.
Keep fighting the good fight. I like your writing.