How I got cancer. Rami Blekt Intro to number four...
Every person who is faced with the death of a loved one wonders if there is life after death? Now this issue is of particular relevance. If a few centuries ago the answer to this question was obvious to everyone, then now, after the period of atheism, its solution is more difficult. We cannot easily believe hundreds of generations of our ancestors, who, through personal experience, century after century, were convinced that a person has an immortal soul. We want facts. Moreover, the facts are scientific.
They tried to convince us from the school bench that there is no God, there is no immortal soul. At the same time, we were told that this is what science says. And we believed... Let's note that we believed that there is no immortal soul, we believed that science allegedly proved it, we believed that there is no God. None of us even tried to figure out what an impartial science says about the soul. We easily trusted certain authorities, without particularly going into the details of their worldview, objectivity, and their interpretation of scientific facts.
We feel that the soul of the deceased is eternal, that it is alive, but on the other hand, the old and inspired stereotypes that there is no soul drag us into the abyss of despair. This struggle within us is very difficult and very exhausting. We want the truth!
So let's look at the question of the existence of the soul through a real, non-ideological, objective science. We will hear the opinion of real researchers on this issue, we will personally evaluate the logical calculations. Not our belief in the existence or non-existence of the soul, but only knowledge can extinguish this internal conflict, preserve our strength, give confidence, look at the tragedy from a different, real point of view.
First of all, about what Consciousness is in general. People have thought about this issue throughout the history of mankind, but still cannot come to a final decision. We know only some properties, possibilities of consciousness. Consciousness is awareness of oneself, one's personality, it is a great analyzer of all our feelings, emotions, desires, plans. Consciousness is what distinguishes us, what obliges us to feel ourselves not as objects, but as individuals. In other words, consciousness miraculously reveals our fundamental existence. Consciousness is our awareness of our "I", but at the same time Consciousness is a great mystery. Consciousness has no dimensions, no form, no color, no smell, no taste; it cannot be touched or turned in one's hands. Despite the fact that we know very little about consciousness, we absolutely know for sure that we have it.
One of the main questions of humanity is the question of the nature of this very Consciousness (soul, "I", ego). Materialism and idealism have diametrically opposed views on this issue. In the view of materialism, human Consciousness is a substratum of the brain, a product of matter, a product of biochemical processes, a special fusion of nerve cells. In the view of idealism, Consciousness is the ego, "I", spirit, soul - non-material, invisible spiritualizing the body, eternally existing, not dying energy. The subject always takes part in the acts of consciousness, which actually realizes everything.
If you are interested in purely religious ideas about the soul, then religion will not give any evidence of the existence of the soul. The doctrine of the soul is a dogma and is not subject to scientific proof.
There are absolutely no explanations, and even more evidence for materialists who believe that they are impartial researchers (however, this is far from being the case).
But what about the majority of people who are equally far from religion, from philosophy, and from science too, imagine this Consciousness, soul, “I”? Let's ask ourselves, what is "I"?
The first thing that comes to most people's minds is: “I am a man”, “I am a woman (man)”, “I am a businessman (turner, baker)”, “I am Tanya (Katya, Alexei)”, “I am a wife ( husband, daughter)” etc. These are, of course, funny answers. One's individual, unique "I" cannot be defined in general terms. There are a myriad of people in the world with the same characteristics, but they are not your “I”. Half of them are women (men), but they are also not “I”, people with the same professions seem to have their own, and not your “I”, the same can be said about wives (husbands), people of various professions, social status, nationalities, religions, and so on. No belonging to any group or group will explain to you what your individual “I” represents, because Consciousness is always personal. I am not qualities (qualities only belong to our “I”), because the qualities of one and the same person can change, but his “I” will remain unchanged.
Mental and physiological features
Some say that their "I" is their reflexes, their behavior, their individual ideas and addictions, their psychological features etc
In fact, this is not possible with the core of the personality, which is called "I". For what reason? Because throughout life, behavior and ideas and addictions change, and even more so psychological features. It cannot be said that if earlier these features were different, then it was not my “I”. Understanding this, some make the following argument: "I am my individual body." It's already more interesting. Let's examine this assumption.
Everyone also from school course anatomy knows that the cells of our body are gradually renewed throughout life. Old ones die and new ones are born. Some cells are completely renewed almost every day, but there are cells that go through their life cycle much longer. On average, every 5 years, all the cells of the body are renewed. If we consider the "I" ordinary as a set of human cells, then we get an absurdity. It turns out that if a person lives, for example, 70 years. During this time, at least 10 times a person will change all the cells in his body (that is, 10 generations). Could this mean that not one person lived his 70-year life, but 10 various people? Isn't that pretty stupid? We conclude that "I" cannot be a body, because the body is not continuous, but "I" is continuous.
This means that "I" can be neither the qualities of cells, nor their totality.
Materialism is accustomed to decomposing the entire multidimensional world into mechanical components, “checking harmony with algebra” (A.S. Pushkin). The most naive fallacy of militant materialism in relation to personality is the notion that personality is a collection of biological qualities. However, the combination of impersonal objects, even if they are atoms, even if they are neurons, cannot give rise to a personality and its core - “I”.
How is it possible for this most complex "I", feeling, capable of experiencing, love, the sum of specific cells of the body along with the ongoing biochemical and bioelectrical processes? How can these processes form the "I"???
Provided that if the nerve cells were our "I", then we would lose part of our "I" every day. With every dead cell, with every neuron, the "I" would get smaller and smaller. With the restoration of cells, it would increase in size.
Scientific studies conducted in various countries of the world prove that nerve cells, like all other cells of the human body, are capable of regeneration. Here is what the most serious international biological journal Nature writes: “Employees of the California Institute for Biological Research. Salk found that perfectly functional young cells are born in the brain of adult mammals, which function on a par with already existing neurons. Professor Frederick Gage and his colleagues also concluded that brain tissue is most rapidly updated in physically active animals.
This is also confirmed by the publication in one of the most authoritative, refereed biological journals - Science: “Over the past two years, scientists have found that nerve and brain cells are updated, like the rest in the human body. The body is capable of repairing nerve damage on its own,” says scientist Helen M. Blon.”
Thus, even with a complete change of all (including nerve) cells of the body, the “I” of a person remains the same, therefore, it does not belong to a continuously changing material body.
For some reason, it is now so difficult to prove what was obvious and understandable to the ancients. The Roman Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus, who lived back in the 3rd century, wrote: “It is absurd to assume that since none of the parts has life, then life can be created by their totality, .. besides, it is absolutely impossible for life to produce a heap of parts, and that the mind gave birth to that which is devoid of mind. If someone objects that this is not so, but in general, the soul is formed by atoms that have come together, i.e. indivisible into parts of a body, then it will be refuted by the fact that the atoms themselves only lie one next to the other, not forming a living whole, for unity and joint feeling cannot be obtained from bodies that are insensitive and incapable of unification; but the soul feels itself.
"I" is the unchanging core of the personality, which includes many variables, but is not itself variable.
The skeptic may make a last desperate argument: "Is it possible that 'I' is the brain?"
The tale that our Consciousness is the activity of the brain was heard by many at school. An unusually widespread idea is that the brain is essentially a person with his "I". Most of thinks that it is the brain that receives information from the surrounding world, processes it and decides how to act in each specific case, they think that it is the brain that makes us alive, gives us personality. And the body is nothing more than a spacesuit that ensures the activity of the central nervous system.
But this story has nothing to do with science. The brain is now deeply studied. The chemical composition, sections of the brain, the connections of these sections with human functions have long been perfectly studied. The brain organization of perception, attention, memory, and speech has been studied. The functional blocks of the brain have been studied. A myriad of clinics and scientific centers have been studying the human brain for more than a hundred years, for which expensive, efficient equipment has been developed. But, having opened any textbooks, monographs, scientific journals on neurophysiology or neuropsychology, you will not find scientific data on the connection between the brain and Consciousness.
For people far from this field of knowledge, this seems surprising. Actually, there is nothing surprising in this. No one has ever easily discovered the connection between the brain and the very center of our personality, our "I". Of course, materialistic researchers have always wanted this. Thousands of studies and millions of experiments were carried out, many billions of dollars were spent on this. The researchers' efforts did not go unnoticed. Thanks to these studies, the parts of the brain themselves were discovered and studied, their connection with physiological processes was established, a lot was done to understand neurophysiological processes and phenomena, but the most important thing was not done. It was not possible to find in the brain the place that is our "I". It was not even possible, despite the extremely active work in this direction, to make a serious assumption about how the brain is possibly connected with our Consciousness.
Where did the assumption that Consciousness resides in the brain come from? One of the first to put forward such an assumption in the middle of the 18th century was the famous electrophysiologist Dubois-Reymond (1818-1896). In his worldview, Dubois-Reymond was one of the prominent representatives mechanistic direction. In one of the letters to his friend, he wrote that “only physical and chemical laws operate in the body; if not everything can be explained with their help, then it is necessary, using physical and mathematical methods, either to find a way of their action, or to accept that there are new forces of matter, equal in value to physical and chemical forces.
But another outstanding physiologist Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig, who lived at the same time as Reymond, did not agree with him. The founder of the scientific school, Ludwig wrote that none of the existing theories nervous activity, including the electrical theory of nerve currents by Dubois-Reymond, cannot say anything about how, as a result of the activity of nerves, acts of sensation become possible. Note that here we are not even talking about the most complex acts of consciousness, but about much more simple sensations. If there is no consciousness, then we cannot feel and feel anything.
Another prominent physiologist of the 19th century, the outstanding English neurophysiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, Nobel Prize winner, said that if it is not clear how the psyche appears from the activity of the brain, then, naturally, it is just as little clear how it can have any effect on the behavior of a living being, which is controlled by the nervous system.
As a result, Dubois-Reymond himself came to this conclusion: “As we are aware, we do not know and will never know. And no matter how deep we go into the jungle of intracerebral neurodynamics, we will not throw a bridge to the realm of consciousness.” Reymon came to a conclusion, disappointing for determinism, that it is impossible to explain Consciousness by material causes. He admitted "that here the human mind comes up against a 'world riddle' which it can never solve."
Professor of Moscow University, philosopher A.I. Vvedensky in 1914 formulated the law of "the absence of objective signs of animation." The meaning of this law is that the role of the psyche in the system of material processes of regulation of behavior is completely elusive and there is no conceivable bridge between the activity of the brain and the area of mental or spiritual phenomena, including Consciousness.
Leading experts in neurophysiology, Nobel Prize winners David Hubel and Thorsten Wiesel recognized that in order to be able to assert the connection between the brain and Consciousness, one must understand what reads and decodes information that comes from the senses. The researchers acknowledged that this could not be done.
There is an interesting and convincing proof of the lack of connection between Consciousness and the work of the brain, understandable even to people who are far from science. Here it is:
Let's assume that "I" is the result of the work of the brain. As neurophysiologists probably know, a person can live even with one hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, he will have Consciousness. A person who lives only with the right hemisphere of the brain undoubtedly has an "I" (Consciousness). Accordingly, we can conclude that the "I" is not located in the left, absent, hemisphere. A person with a single functioning left hemisphere also has a "I", therefore "I" is not located in the right hemisphere, which this person does not have. Consciousness remains regardless of which hemisphere is removed. This means that a person does not have a brain area responsible for Consciousness, neither in the left nor in the right hemisphere of the brain. We have to conclude that the presence of consciousness in a person is not associated with certain areas of the brain.
Professor, MD Voyno-Yasenetsky describes: “In a young wounded man, I opened a huge abscess (about 50 cubic cm, pus), which, of course, destroyed the entire left frontal lobe, and I did not observe any mental defects after this operation. I can say the same about another patient operated on for a huge cyst of the meninges. With a wide opening of the skull, I was surprised to see that almost the entire right half of it was empty, and the entire left hemisphere of the brain was compressed, almost impossible to distinguish it.
In 1940, Dr. Augustine Iturricha made a sensational announcement at the Anthropological Society in Sucre, Bolivia. He and Dr. Ortiz studied the medical history of a 14-year-old boy, a patient from Dr. Ortiz's clinic, for a long time. The teenager was there with a diagnosis of brain tumor. The young man retained Consciousness until his death, complained only of a headache. When a post-mortem autopsy was performed after his death, the doctors were amazed: the entire brain mass was completely separated from the internal cavity of the cranium. A large abscess captured the cerebellum and part of the brain. It remained absolutely incomprehensible how the thinking of the sick boy was preserved.
The fact that consciousness exists independently of the brain is also confirmed by studies carried out relatively recently by Dutch physiologists under the direction of Pim van Lommel. The results of a large-scale experiment were published in the most authoritative biological English magazine The Lancet. “Consciousness exists even after the brain has ceased to function. In other words, Consciousness “lives” by itself, completely by itself. As for the brain, it is not a thinking matter at all, but an organ, like any other, that performs strictly defined functions. It is highly possible that thinking matter, even in principle, does not exist, said the head of the study, the famous scientist Pim van Lommel.
Another argument accessible to the understanding of non-specialists is given by Professor V.F. Voyno-Yasenetsky: “In the wars of ants that do not have a brain, premeditation is clearly revealed, and therefore rationality, which is no different from human”4. This is indeed an amazing fact. Ants solve rather complex tasks of survival, building housing, providing food for themselves, that is, they have a certain intelligence, but they do not have a brain at all. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Neurophysiology does not stand still, but is one of the most dynamically developing sciences. The methods and scope of research speak of the success of the study of the brain. Functions, parts of the brain are being studied, its composition is being clarified in more detail. Despite the titanic work on the study of the brain, world science in our time is also far from understanding what creativity, thinking, memory are and what is their connection with the brain itself. Having come to the understanding that there is no Consciousness inside the body, science draws natural conclusions about the non-material nature of consciousness.
Academician P.K. Anokhin: “None of the “mental” operations that we attribute to the “mind” have so far been directly linked to any part of the brain. If, in principle, we cannot understand how exactly the psychic appears as a result of the activity of the brain, then isn’t it more logical to think that the psyche is not in its essence a function of the brain at all, but is a manifestation of some other - non-material spiritual forces?
At the end of the 20th century, the creator quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize winner E. Schrödinger wrote that the nature of the connection of some physical processes with subjective events (which include Consciousness) lies "away from science and beyond human understanding."
The largest modern neurophysiologist, Nobel Prize winner in medicine J. Eccles developed the idea that it is impossible to determine the origin of mental phenomena based on the analysis of brain activity, and this fact is simply possibly interpreted in the sense that the psyche is not a function of the brain at all. According to Eccles, neither physiology nor the theory of evolution can shed light on the origin and nature of consciousness, which is completely alien to all material processes in the universe. The spiritual world of a person and the world of physical realities, including the activity of the brain, are absolutely independent independent worlds that only interact and to some extent influence each other. He is echoed by such massive specialists as Carl Lashley (an American scientist, director of the primate biology laboratory in Orange Park (Florida), who studied the mechanisms of the brain) and Edward Tolman, doctor of Harvard University.
With his colleague Wilder Penfield, the founder of modern neurosurgery, who performed over 10,000 brain surgeries, Eccles wrote the book The Mystery of Man. In it, the authors explicitly state that "there is no doubt that a person is controlled by SOMETHING outside his body." “I can confirm experimentally,” writes Eccles, “that the workings of the mind cannot possibly be explained by the functioning of the brain. Consciousness exists independently of it from the outside.
According to Eccles' deep conviction, consciousness is not possible by an object scientific research. In his opinion, the emergence of consciousness, as well as the emergence of life, is the highest religious mystery. In his report, the Nobel laureate relied on the conclusions of the book "Personality and the Brain", written together with the American philosopher and sociologist Karl Popper.
Wilder Penfield, as a result of many years of studying the activity of the brain, also came to the conclusion that “the energy of the mind has differences from the energy of brain neural impulses”6.
Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Russian Federation, Director of Scientific research institute Mozga (Russian Academy of Medical Sciences), world-famous neurophysiologist, professor, MD Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva: “The hypothesis that the human brain only perceives thoughts from somewhere outside, I first heard from the lips Nobel laureate, Professor John Eccles. Of course, at the time it seemed absurd to me. But then research conducted at our St. Petersburg Research Institute of the Brain confirmed that we cannot explain the mechanics of the creative process. The brain can generate only the simplest thoughts like how to turn the pages the book you read or stir sugar in a glass. And the creative process is a manifestation of the latest quality. As a believer, I admit the participation of the Almighty in the management of the thought process.
Science is gradually coming to the conclusion that the brain is not the source of thought and consciousness, but at most its relay.
Professor S. Grof says this about it: “Imagine that your TV has broken down and you called a TV technician who, by twisting various knobs, set it up. It doesn’t occur to you that all these stations are sitting in this box.”
Also in 1956, the outstanding largest scientist-surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor V.F. Voyno-Yasenetsky believed that our brain is not only not connected with Consciousness, but is not even capable of thinking on its own, since the mental process is taken out of it. In his book, Valentin Feliksovich claims that “the brain is not an organ of thought, feelings”, and that “the Spirit goes beyond the brain, determining its activity, and our entire being, when the brain works as a transmitter, receiving signals and transmitting them to the organs of the body” 7.
The same conclusions were reached by English scientists Peter Fenwick from the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parnia from Southampton Central Clinic. They examined patients who came back to life after cardiac arrest, and found that some of them certainly recounted the contents of the conversations that the medical staff had while they were in a state of clinical death. Others gave an accurate description of the events that occurred in a given time period. Sam Parnia argues that the brain, like any other organ of the human body, is made up of cells and is incapable of thinking. However, it can work as a device that detects thoughts, that is, as an antenna, with the help of which it becomes possible to receive a signal from the outside. The researchers suggested that during clinical death, the Consciousness, acting independently of the brain, uses it as a screen. Like a television receiver, which first receives the waves falling into it, and then converts them into sound and image.
If we turn off the radio, this does not mean that the radio station stops broadcasting. Those. after the death of the physical body, Consciousness continues to live.
The fact of the continuation of the life of Consciousness after the death of the body is also confirmed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of the Human Brain, Professor N.P. Bekhterev in his book “The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life”. In addition to the discussion of purely scientific issues, in this book the author also cites his own personal experience encounters with post-mortem phenomena.
Natalya Bekhtereva, talking about a meeting with the Bulgarian clairvoyant Vanga Dimitrova, speaks very precisely about this in one of her interviews: “The example of Vanga absolutely convinced me that there is a phenomenon of contact with the dead,” and also a quote from her book: “ I can't believe what I've heard and seen myself. A scientist does not have the right to reject facts just because they do not fit into a dogma, worldview.
The first consistent description of afterlife based on scientific observations was given by the Swedish scientist and naturalist Emmanuel Swedenborg. After that, this problem was seriously studied by the famous psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler Ross, the equally famous psychiatrist Raymond Moody, conscientious researchers, academicians Oliver Lodge, William Crooks, Alfred Wallace, Alexander Butlerov, Professor Friedrich Myers, American pediatrician Melvin Morse. Among the serious and systematic scholars of the question of dying, one should mention the professor of medicine at Emory University and the staff physician at the Veterans Hospital in Atlanta, Dr. Michael Sabom, the systematic study of the psychiatrist Kenneth Ring is also very valuable, the doctor of medicine, resuscitator Moritz Roolings, was studying this problem. , our contemporary, thanatopsychologist A.A. Nalchadzhyan. The well-known Soviet scientist, a prominent specialist in the field of thermodynamic processes, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus Albert Veinik worked a lot on understanding this problem from the point of view of physics. A world-famous American psychologist made a significant contribution to the study of near-death experiences. Czech origin, founder of the transpersonal school of psychology Dr. Stanislav Grof.
The variety of facts accumulated by science indisputably proves that after physical death, each of the living now inherits a different reality, preserving their Consciousness.
Despite the limitations of our ability to cognize this reality with the help of material means, today there are a number of its characteristics obtained through experiments and observations of researchers investigating this problem.
These characteristics were listed by A.V. Mikheev, a researcher at the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University in his report at the international symposium "Life after death: from faith to knowledge" which was held on April 8-9, 2005 in St. Petersburg:
1. There is a so-called “subtle body”, which is the carrier of self-consciousness, memory, emotions and the “inner life” of a person. This body exists ... after physical death, being for the duration of the existence of the physical body its "parallel component", providing the above processes. The physical body is only an intermediary for their manifestation on the physical (terrestrial) level.
2. The life of an individual does not end with the current earthly death. Survival after death is a natural law for a person.
3. The next reality is divided into a large number of levels, differing in the frequency characteristics of their components.
4. The destination of a person during the posthumous transition is determined by his tuning to a certain level, which is the total result of his thoughts, feelings and actions during his life on Earth. Just as the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a chemical substance depends on its composition, a person's posthumous destination is definitely determined by the "composite characteristic" of his inner life.
5. The concepts of "Heaven and Hell" reflect two polarities, possible posthumous states.
6. In addition to similar polar states, there are a number of intermediate ones. The selection of an adequate state is automatically determined by the mental-emotional "pattern" formed by a person during earthly life. That is why bad emotions, violence, the desire for destruction and fanaticism, no matter how they are justified outwardly, in this respect are extremely destructive for the future fate of a person. This is a solid rationale for personal responsibility and adherence to ethical principles.
All of the above arguments are surprisingly accurate with the religious knowledge of all traditional religions. This is an occasion to cast aside doubts and decide. Is not it?
This information is of interest to most people. Previously, mankind only speculated whether there was life after death, scientific evidence was provided by modern scientists, using the latest technologies and research methods. Belief in the continuation of life in some other form, perhaps in another dimension, allows people to achieve their goals. If there is no such confidence, then there is no motivation for further development, improvement.
No one draws final conclusions. Research continues, new evidence of various theories is emerging. When irrefutable evidence is provided for the existence of life after death, then the philosophy of human life will change completely.
Scientific theories and evidence
According to Tsiolkovsky's scientific explanation, physical death does not mean the end of life. In his theory, souls are presented in the form of indivisible atoms, therefore, saying goodbye to perishable bodies, they do not disappear, but continue to wander in the Universe. Consciousness persists even after death. This was the first attempt to scientifically substantiate the assumption that there is life after death, although evidence has not been presented.
Similar conclusions were made by English researchers working at the London Institute of Psychiatry. Their patients completely stopped the heart, and clinical death occurred. The medical staff at that time discussed various nuances. Some patients recounted the topics of these conversations very accurately.
According to Sam Parnia, the brain is an ordinary human organ, and its cells are in no way able to generate thoughts. The entire thought process is organized by consciousness. The brain, on the other hand, works as a receiver, receiving and processing ready-made information. If we turn off the receiver, then the radio station will not stop broadcasting. The same can be said about the physical body after death, when consciousness does not die.
Feelings of people who have experienced clinical death
The best proof of whether there is life after death is the testimonies of people. There are many eyewitnesses to their own death. Scientists are trying to systematize their memories, to find a scientific justification, to explain what is happening with the usual physical process.
The stories of people who have experienced clinical death differ sharply from each other. Not all patients had different visions. Many do not remember anything at all. But some people shared their impressions after an unusual state. These cases have their own characteristics.
During a complex operation, one patient experienced clinical death. He describes in detail the situation that was in the operating room, although he was taken to the hospital in an unconscious state. The hero saw all his saviors from the side, as well as his body. Later, in the hospital, he recognized doctors by sight, surprising them. After all, they left the operating room before the patient regained consciousness.
The woman had other visions. She felt a rapid movement in space, during which there were several stops. The heroine communicated with figures that did not have clear forms, but she was able to remember the essence of the conversation. There was a clear awareness that she was outside the body. Such a state could not be called a dream or a vision, because everything looked too realistic.
It also remains inexplicable that some people who have experienced clinical death acquire new abilities, talents, and extrasensory abilities appear. A lot of potential dead people had a vision in the form of a long light tunnel, bright flashes. Conditions are very different: from blissful pacification to panic fear, fettering horror. This can only mean one thing: not all people are destined for the same fate. People's testimonies of such phenomena can more accurately say whether there is life after death.
Major religions about life after death
The question of life and death interested people in different times. This could not but be reflected in religious beliefs. Different religions in their own way explain the possibility of continuing life after the onset of physical death.
Attitude towards earthly life Christianity very disrespectful. Real, true existence begins in another world, for which one must prepare. The soul departs a few days after death, being close to the body. In this case, there is no doubt about whether there is an afterlife after death. When moving to another state, thoughts remain the same. In the other world, angels, demons and other souls await people. The degree of spirituality and sin determines the further fate of a particular soul. All this is decided at the Last Judgment. Unrepentant and great sinners do not have a chance to go to heaven - they are destined for a place in hell.
AT islam people who do not believe in the afterlife are considered malicious apostates. It also considers earthly life, as a transitional stage before Achiret. Allah decides on the length of a person's life. With great faith and few sins, the believers of Islam die with a light heart. Infidels and atheists do not have the opportunity to escape from hell, while the believers of Islam can count on it.
Do not attach of great importance matter of life or death in Buddhism. The Buddha identified several other undesirable questions. Buddhists do not think about the soul, because it does not exist. Although representatives of this religion believe in reincarnation and nirvana. Rebirth in different forms continues until the person enters nirvana. All believers in Buddhism aspire to this state, because this is how an unhappy carnal existence ends.
AT Judaism there is no clear emphasis on the issue of interest. Exist different variants which sometimes contradict each other. Such confusion is explained by the fact that other religious movements became the source.
In any religion there is a mystical beginning, although many facts are taken from real life. The afterlife cannot be denied, otherwise the meaning of faith is lost. The use of human fears and experiences is quite normal for any religious movement. The sacred books clearly confirm the possibility of continuing their existence after earthly life. If you consider the number of believers on Earth, it becomes clear that most people believe in an afterlife.
Communication of mediums with the afterlife
The strongest proof of the continuation of life after death is the activity of mediums. This category of people has special abilities that allow them to establish contacts with dead people. When there is nothing left of a person, then it is impossible to communicate with him. Based on the opposite, it is easy to understand that another world exists. However, there are many charlatans among mediums.
No one will doubt now the abilities of the famous Bulgarian seer Vanga. She was visited by a large number famous people. The prophecies of a clairvoyant and a real medium are still relevant and important. Many were struck by what Vanga said about life after death. This woman told her guests in great detail about their deceased relatives.
Vanga argued that death occurs only for the body. In the soul, everything goes on. In another world, a person looks the same. The seer even told what clothes the deceased was wearing. According to the description, relatives recognized the favorite clothes of the deceased. Souls glow. They have the same character as in life. Communication with the dead is not interrupted. People from the next world try to influence the course of events in the lives of friends and relatives, but this is not always possible. They experience the same feelings, trying to help. In the other world, the existence of the soul continues with all the former memories.
As soon as visitors came to Vanga, their dead relatives immediately appeared in the room. The interest of living people in them is very great. People like Vanga can see ghosts and fully communicate with them. She had conversations with souls, learning from them future events. The woman served as a kind of bridge between the two worlds, through which their representatives could communicate. The fear of death, according to Vanga, is too common among people. In fact, this is just another stage of existence, when a person gets rid of the outer shell, although he experiences discomfort.
American Arthur Ford for several decades did not tire of surprising people with his abilities. He communicated with people who had not been in this world for a long time. Some sessions could be seen by millions of viewers. Various mediums spoke about life after death, based on own experience. For the first time, Ford's psychic abilities manifested themselves during the war. From somewhere he received information about his colleagues who died in the coming days. Since that time, Arthur took up the study of parapsychology and developed his abilities.
There were many skeptics who explained the phenomenon of Ford by his telepathic gift. That is, the information was provided to the medium by the people themselves. But too many facts disproved such a theory.
The example of the Englishman Leslie Flint was another confirmation of the existence of the afterlife. He began communicating with ghosts as a child. Leslie at a certain time agreed to cooperate with scientists. The study of psychologists, psychiatrists, parapsychologists confirmed the extraordinary abilities of this person. They tried to convict him of fraud more than once, but such attempts were unsuccessful.
There were sound recordings of the voices of famous personalities of different eras through a medium. They reported themselves Interesting Facts. Many continued to work on what they loved. Leslie was able to prove that people who have moved to another world receive information about what is happening in real life.
Psychics were able to prove by practical actions the existence of the soul and the afterlife. Although the non-material world is still shrouded in mystery. It is not entirely clear under what conditions the soul exists. Mediums work like receiving and transmitting devices, without affecting the process itself.
Summing up all the above facts, it can be argued that the human body is nothing more than a shell. The nature of the soul has not yet been studied, and it is not known whether this is possible in principle. Maybe there is a certain limit of human capabilities and knowledge that people will never cross. The existence of the soul instills optimism in people, because they can realize themselves after death in a different capacity, and not just turn into ordinary fertilizer. After the above material, everyone must decide for himself whether there is life after death, but the scientific evidence, however, is not yet too convincing.
It is believed that the human soul is a bundle of energy. And if we consider energy from the point of view of physics, then it cannot arise from nowhere and disappear without a trace. The energy must go into another state. It turns out that the soul does not disappear into nowhere. So maybe this law answers the question that has been tormenting humanity for many centuries: is there life after death?
The Hindu Vedas say that any creature has two bodies: subtle and gross, and the interaction between them occurs only thanks to the soul. And so, when the gross (that is, physical) body wears out, the soul passes into the subtle, so the gross dies, and the subtle seeks a new one for itself. Therefore, there is a rebirth.
But sometimes it happens that, it would seem, the physical body has died, but some of its fragments continue to live. A clear illustration of this phenomenon is the mummies of monks. Several of these exist in Tibet.
It's hard to believe, but, firstly, their bodies do not decompose, and, secondly, they grow hair and nails! Although, of course, there are no signs of breathing and heartbeat. It turns out that there is life in the mummy? But modern technology cannot catch these processes. But the energy-information field can be measured. And it is many times higher in such mummies than in an ordinary person. So the soul is still alive? How to explain it?
The rector of the International Institute for Social Ecology, Vyacheslav Gubanov, divides death into three types:
In his opinion, a person is a combination of three elements: the Spirit, the Personality and the physical body. If everything is clear about the body, then questions arise about the first two components.
Spirit- a subtle-material object, which is represented on the causal plane of the existence of matter. That is, it is a kind of substance that moves the physical body in order to perform certain karmic tasks, to gain the necessary experience.
Personality- formation on the mental plane of the existence of matter, which implements free will. In other words, it is a complex of psychological qualities of our character.
When the physical body dies, consciousness, according to the scientist, is simply transferred to a higher level of existence of matter. It turns out that this is life after death. People who managed to transfer to the level of the Spirit for a while, and then returned to their physical body, exist. These are those who experienced "clinical death" or coma.
Real facts: what do people feel after leaving for another world?
Sam Parnia, a doctor from an English hospital, decided to conduct an experiment to find out what a person feels after death. At his direction, several boards with colored pictures painted on them were hung under the ceiling in some operating rooms. And every time the patient's heart, breathing and pulse stopped, and then it was possible to bring him back to life, the doctors recorded all his sensations.
One of the participants in this experiment, a housewife from Southampton, said the following:
“I passed out in one of the stores, went there for groceries. I woke up during the operation, but realized that I was floating above my own body. Doctors crowded there, they were doing something, talking among themselves.
I looked to my right and saw a hospital corridor. My cousin was standing there talking on the phone. I overheard him telling someone that I bought too many groceries and the bags were so heavy that my aching heart gave out. When I woke up and my brother came up to me, I told him what I had heard. He immediately turned pale and confirmed that he spoke about this while I was unconscious.
A little less than half of the patients in the first seconds perfectly remembered what happened to them when they were unconscious. But what is surprising, none of them saw the drawings! But the patients said that during the "clinical death" there was no pain at all, but they were immersed in peace and bliss. At some point, they would come to the end of a tunnel or gate, where they would have to decide whether to cross that line or go back.
But how to understand where this trait is? And when does the soul pass from the physical to the spiritual body? Our compatriot, Doctor of Technical Sciences Korotkov Konstantin Georgievich tried to answer this question.
He did an incredible experiment. Its essence was to examine the bodies of people who had just died with the help of Kirlian photographs. The hand of the deceased was photographed every hour in a gas-discharge flash. Then the data was transferred to a computer, and an analysis was carried out there according to the necessary indicators. This survey took place over the course of three to five days. The age, sex of the deceased and the nature of death were very different. As a result, all data was divided into three types:
- The amplitude of the oscillation was quite small;
- The same, only with a pronounced peak;
- Large amplitude with long oscillations.
And strangely enough, each type of death was suitable for one single type of data received. If we correlate the nature of death and the amplitude of fluctuations of the curves, it turned out that:
- the first type corresponds to the natural death of an elderly person;
- the second is accidental death as a result of an accident;
- the third is unexpected death or suicide.
But most of all Korotkov was struck by the fact that he photographed the people of the dead, but there were still fluctuations for some time! But this corresponds only to a living organism! It turns out that devices showed vital activity according to all physical data of a deceased person.
The oscillation time was also divided into three groups:
- With natural death - from 16 to 55 hours;
- In case of accidental death, a visible jump occurs either after eight hours or at the end of the first day, and after two days the fluctuations come to naught.
- With an unexpected death, the amplitude becomes smaller only by the end of the first day, and completely disappears by the end of the second. In addition, it was noticed that in the time interval from nine in the evening to two or three in the morning, the most intense bursts are observed.
Summing up the Korotkov experiment, we can conclude that, indeed, even a physically dead body without breathing and heartbeat is not dead - astral.
It is not for nothing that in many traditional religions there is a certain period of time. In Christianity, for example, it is nine and forty days. But what does the soul do at this time? Here we can only guess. Perhaps she is traveling between two worlds, or her future fate is being decided. No wonder, probably, there is a rite of burial and prayer for the soul of the deceased. People believe that one should speak about the dead either well or not at all. Most likely our kind words help the soul make the difficult transition from the physical to the spiritual body.
By the way, the same Korotkov tells a few more amazing facts. Every night he went down to the morgue to take the necessary measurements. And the first time he came there, it immediately seemed to him that someone was following him. The scientist looked around, but saw no one. He never considered himself a coward, but at that moment it became really scary.
Konstantin Georgievich felt a close look at him, but there was no one in the room besides him and the deceased! Then he decided to establish where this invisible someone is. He took steps around the room, and finally determined that the entity was not far from the body of the deceased. The following nights were just as frightening, but Korotkov nevertheless curbed his emotions. He also said that, surprisingly, he got tired quite quickly with such measurements. Although during the day this work was not tiring for him. It felt like someone was sucking the energy out of him.
But what happens to the soul after it finally leaves the physical body? Here it is worth citing another eyewitness account. Sandra Ayling is a nurse in Plymouth. One day she was watching TV at home and suddenly felt a squeezing pain in her chest. Later it turned out that she had a blockage of blood vessels, and she could die. Here is what Sandra said about her feelings at that moment:
“It seemed to me that I was flying at great speed through a vertical tunnel. Looking back, I saw great amount faces, only they were distorted into disgusting grimaces. I was scared, but soon I flew past them, they were left behind. I flew towards the light, but still could not reach it. As if he was moving away from me more and more.
Suddenly, at one moment, it seemed to me that all the pain was gone. It became good and calm, I was embraced by a feeling of peace. True, it did not last long. At one point, I sharply felt my own body and returned to reality. I was taken to the hospital, but I kept thinking about the sensations that I experienced. The scary faces I saw must have been hell, and the light and the feeling of bliss must have been heaven.”
But then how can the theory of reincarnation be explained? It has been in existence for thousands of years.
Reincarnation is the rebirth of the soul in a new physical body. This process was described in detail by the famous psychiatrist Ian Stevenson.
He studied more than two thousand cases of reincarnation and came to the conclusion that a person in his new incarnation will have the same physical and physiological features as in the past. For example, warts, scars, freckles. Even burr and stuttering can be carried through several reincarnations.
Stevenson chose hypnosis to find out what happened to his patients in past lives. One boy had a strange scar on his head. Thanks to hypnosis, he remembered that in a past life he was crushed in the head with an ax. According to his descriptions, Stevenson went to look for people who might have known about this boy in his past life. And luck smiled at him. But what was the surprise of the scientist when he found out that, indeed, in the place that the boy pointed out to him, a man used to live. And he died from a blow with an axe.
Another participant in the experiment was born almost without fingers. Once again Stevenson put him under hypnosis. So he learned that in the last incarnation a person was injured while working in the field. The psychiatrist found people who confirmed to him that there was a man who accidentally put his hand into the harvester and cut off his fingers.
So how to understand whether the soul will go to heaven or hell after the death of the physical body, or be reborn? E. Barker offers his theory in the book “Letters from the Living Deceased”. He compares the physical body of a person with a shitik (dragonfly larva), and the spiritual body with the dragonfly itself. According to the researcher, the physical body walks on the ground, like a larva on the bottom of a reservoir, and the thin one, like a dragonfly, soars in the air.
If a person has “worked out” all the necessary tasks in his physical body (shitika), then he “turns” into a dragonfly and gets new list, only for more high level, the level of matter. If he has not worked out the previous tasks, then reincarnation occurs, and the person is reborn in another physical body.
At the same time, the soul keeps memories of all its past lives and transfers mistakes to a new one. Therefore, in order to understand why certain failures occur, people go to hypnotists who help them remember what happened in those past lives. Thanks to this, people begin to more consciously approach their actions and avoid old mistakes.
Perhaps, after death, one of us will go to the next, spiritual level, and will solve some extraterrestrial problems there. Others will be reborn and become human again. Only in a different time and physical body.
In any case, I want to believe that there, beyond the line, there is something else. Some other life, about which we can now only build hypotheses and assumptions, explore it and set up various experiments.
But still, the main thing is not to get hung up on this issue, but just to live. Here and now. And then death will no longer seem like a terrible old woman with a scythe.
Death will come to everyone, it is impossible to escape from it, it is the law of nature. But it is in our power to make this life bright, memorable and full of only positive memories.
One of the most exciting questions for the mind of people is “is there something there after death, or not?”. Many religions have been created, each revealing the secret of the afterlife in its own way. Libraries of books on the topic of life after death have been written. And, in the end, billions of souls, who were once inhabitants of the mortal earth, have already gone there, into an unknown reality and distant non-existence. And they are aware of all the secrets, but they will not tell us. Between the world of the dead and the living is a huge abyss . But this is provided that the world of the dead exists.
Various religious teachings, each of which interprets in its own way the further path of a person after leaving the body, on the whole support the version that the soul exists and it is immortal. The exceptions are the religious directions of the Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, they adhere to the version of the perishability of the soul. And the afterlife, Hell and Paradise, the quintessence of variations of afterlife existence, according to most religions, for the true worshipers of God will be presented in a much better form than that, that is, on earth. Belief in the excellent after death, in higher justice, in the eternal continuation of life is the basis of many religious worldviews.
And although scientists and atheists claim that a person hopes, because it is inherent in his nature at the genetic level, they say, “ he just needs to believe in something, and preferably global, with a saving mission ”, - this does not become an “antidote” of craving for religions. Even if we take into account the genetic attraction to God, where did it come from in pure consciousness?
Soul and where is it located
Soul- it is an immortal substance, not tangible and not measured with the help of material standards. Something connecting spirit and body, individual, identifying a person as a person. There are many people who look similar in appearance, twin brothers and sisters are just copies of each other, there are also enough “twins” who do not have a consanguinity. But these people will always differ in their inner spiritual content, and this does not concern the level, quality and scale of thoughts, desires, but, above all, abilities, facets, features, and potential of the individual. The soul is something that accompanies us on earth, reviving the mortal shell.
Most people are sure that the soul is in the heart, or somewhere in the region. solar plexus, there are opinions that it is in the head, the brain. Scientists, in the course of a series of experiments, have established that when animals are killed with a current at a meat processing plant, a certain ethereal substance comes out at the moment of termination of life precisely from the upper part of the head (skull). The soul was measured: in the course of experiments carried out at the beginning of the 20th century by the American physician Duncan MacDougall, soul weight - 21 grams . Approximately such a mass was lost by 6 patients at the time of death, which the doctor was able to fix with the help of supersensitive beds-scales on which the dying lay. However, later experiments conducted by other doctors found that a person loses a similar body weight when falling asleep.
Is death just a long (eternal) sleep?
The bible says the soul is in the blood. In the days of the Old Testament, and even to this day, Christians were forbidden to drink and eat processed animal blood.
“For the soul of every body is its blood, it is its soul; Therefore I said to the children of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any body, for the soul of every body is its blood: whoever eats it shall be cut off.” (Old Testament, Leviticus 17:14)
“... and to all the beasts of the earth, and to all the birds of the air, and to every creeping thing on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I have given all green herbs for food. And so it became” (Genesis 1:30)
That is, living creatures have a soul, but they are deprived of the ability to think, make decisions, they lack a highly organized mental activity. If any soul is immortal, then the animals will be in spiritual incarnation in the afterlife. However, in the same Old Testament it is said that earlier all animals simply ceased to exist after physical death, without any other continuation. The main goal of their life was affirmed: to be eaten; born to "capture and exterminate". The immortality of the human soul was also questioned.
“I said in my heart about the sons of men, that God might test them, and that they might see that they themselves are animals; because the fate of the sons of men and the fate of animals is the same fate: as they die, so these also die, and everyone has one breath, and a person has no advantage over cattle, because everything is vanity! Everything goes to one place: everything came from dust and everything will return to dust. Who knows whether the spirit of the sons of men goes up, and the spirit of the animals goes down into the earth? (Ecclesiastes 3:18-21)
But the hope for Christians that the animals in one of their incarnations are incorruptible is preserved, because in the New Testament, in particular in the Revelation of John the Theologian, there are lines that there will be many animals in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The New Testament teaches that accepting the sacrifice of Christ will give life to all people who desire salvation. Those who don't accept it, according to the Bible, don't have Eternal Life. Whether this means that they will go to Hell or that they will hang somewhere in a state of “spiritual disability” is unknown. In Buddhist teachings, reincarnation means that the soul that previously belonged to a person, who accompanied him, can settle in an animal in the next life. Yes, and the man himself in Buddhism takes a dual position, that is, it seems that he is not “pressed” as in Christianity, but he is not the Crown of Creation, master over all living things.
And it is located somewhere between the lower entities, “demons” and other evil spirits and higher, enlightened Buddhas. His path and subsequent reincarnation depend on the degree of enlightenment in today's life. Astrologers talk about the existence of seven human bodies, and not just the soul, spirit and body. Etheric, astral, mental, causal, buddhial, atmanic and naturally physical. According to esotericists, six bodies are part of the soul, but according to some esotericists, they accompany the soul on earthly paths.
There are many teachings, treatises and doctrines that interpret the essence of being, life and death in their own way. And, of course, not all are true, the truth, as they say, is one. It is easy to get confused in the wilds of other people's worldview, it is important to adhere to the position once chosen. Because if everything was simple and we knew the answer that there, at the other end of life, there would not be so many guesses, and as a result of global, radically different versions.
Christianity highlights the spirit, soul and body of man:
"In His hand is the soul of all living things, and the spirit of all human flesh." (Job 12:10)
Moreover, there is no doubt that the spirit and the soul are different phenomena, but what is their difference? Does the spirit (it is also mentioned in animals) go after death to another world or soul? And if the spirit leaves, what happens to the soul?
Termination of life and clinical death
Doctors distinguish biological, clinical and final death. Biological death implies a cessation of cardiac activity, respiration, blood circulation, depression, followed by the cessation of reflexes of the central nervous system. Final - all of the listed signs of biological death, including brain death. Clinical death precedes biological death, is a reversible transitional state from life to death.
After stopping breathing and palpitations, during resuscitation, it is possible to bring a person back to life without serious damage to health only in the first few minutes: up to a maximum of 5 minutes, more often within 2-3 minutes after the pulse stops.
Cases of a safe return and after 10 minutes of stay in clinical death are described. Resuscitation is carried out within 30 minutes after cardiac arrest, breathing or loss of consciousness in the absence of circumstances that make the resumption of life impossible. Sometimes 3 minutes is enough for the development of irreversible changes in the brain. In cases of death of a person in conditions of low temperature, when metabolism is slowed down, the interval of a successful “return” to life increases, and can reach 2 hours after cardiac arrest. Despite the strong opinion based on medical practice that after 8 minutes without a heartbeat and breathing, the patient is unlikely to be brought back to life without serious consequences for his health in the future, hearts begin to beat, people come to life. And they meet further life without serious violations of the functions and systems of the body. Sometimes the 31st minute of resuscitation is decisive. However, most people who have experienced prolonged clinical death rarely return to their former fullness of existence, some go into a vegetative state.
There have been cases where doctors mistakenly recorded biological death, and the patient later came to his senses, scaring the mortuary workers more than any horror movie they had ever watched. Lethargic dreams, decreased cardiovascular and respiratory systems with the oppression of consciousness and reflexes, but the preservation of life - a reality, and it is possible to confuse an imaginary death with a true one.
And yet here is the paradox: if the soul is in the blood, as the Bible says, then where is it in a person who is in a vegetative state or in a “beyond coma”? Who is artificially kept alive with the help of apparatuses, but doctors have long stated irreversible changes in the brain or brain death? At the same time, it is absurd to deny the fact that when blood circulation stops, life stops.
See God and not die
So what did they see, people who survived clinical death? Lots of evidence. Someone says that Hell and Paradise appeared before him in colors, someone saw angels, demons, deceased relatives, communicated with them. Someone traveled, flying like a bird, all over the earth, not feeling any hunger, or pain, or his former self. In front of another, his whole life flashes in a moment in pictures, another sees himself, doctors from the outside.
But in most descriptions there is the famous mysteriously deadly image of the light at the end of the tunnel. The vision of light at the end of the tunnel is explained by several theories. According to psychologist Pyell Watson, this is a prototype of passing through the birth canal, a person at the time of death remembers his birth. According to the Russian resuscitator Nikolai Gubin - manifestations of toxic psychosis.
In the course of an experiment conducted by American scientists with laboratory mice, it was found that animals, when experiencing clinical death, see the same tunnel with light at the end. And the reason is much more banal than the approach of the afterlife illuminating the darkness. The brain in the first minutes after the cessation of the heartbeat and breathing produces powerful impulses, which are accepted by the dying as the image described above. Moreover, the activity of the brain in these very moments is incredibly high, which contributes to the appearance of vivid visions, hallucinations.
The appearance of pictures from the past is due to the fact that new structures of the brain begin to fade first, then the old ones, when the vital activity of the brain is resumed, the process occurs in the reverse order: first, the old ones begin to function, then the new sections of the cerebral cortex. What causes the “emergence” in the emerging consciousness of the most significant pictures of the past, then the present. I don't want to believe that everything is so simple, right? I really want everything to be confused on mysticism, mixed up on the most bizarre assumptions, shown in bright colors, with feelings, spectacles, tricks.
The consciousness of many people refuses to believe in ordinary death without mystery, without continuation. . And how can you really agree that someday you will not be at all? And there will be no eternity, or at least some kind of continuation ... When you look inside yourself, sometimes the most terrible thing is to feel the hopelessness of the situation, the finiteness of being, the unknown, not knowing what is next and stepping into the abyss blindfolded.
“How many of them have fallen into this abyss, I'll open it away! The day will come when I will disappear From the surface of the earth. Everything that sang and fought will freeze, It shone and burst. And the green of my eyes, and a gentle voice, And gold hair. And there will be life with its daily bread, With forgetfulness of the day. And everything will be - as if under the sky And there was no me!” M. Tsvetaeva “Monologue”
The lyrics can be endless, since death is the biggest mystery, everyone who, no matter how they get away from thinking on this topic, will have to experience everything on their own experience. If the picture were unambiguous, obvious and transparent, we would have been convinced long ago by thousands of discoveries of scientists, stunning results obtained as a result of experiments, versions of various teachings about the absolute mortality of the body and soul. But no one has been able to establish and prove with absolute accuracy what awaits us at the other end of life. Christians are waiting for Paradise, Buddhists are waiting for reincarnation, esotericists of flight into the astral plane, tourists to continue their travels, etc.
But it is reasonable to admit the existence of God, since many, who during their lifetime denied the highest justice in the Other World, often repent of their ardor before death. They remember the One who was so often deprived of a place in his spiritual temple.
Have survivors of clinical death seen God? If you have ever heard or will hear that someone in a state of clinical death saw God, doubt it very much.
First, God will not meet at the “gate”, he is not a Swiss... Everyone will appear at the judgment of God already during the Apocalypse, that is, for the majority - after the stage of rigor mortis. By that time, hardly anyone will be able to return and tell about the Other Light. “Seeing God” is generally not an adventure for the faint of heart. In the Old Testament (in Deuteronomy) there are words that no one has yet seen God and remained alive. God spoke to Moses and the people at Horeb from the midst of the fire, without showing an image, and even to God in covert people were afraid to come close.
The Bible also states that God is a spirit, and the spirit is immaterial, respectively, we cannot see him as each other. Although the miracles performed by Christ during His stay on earth in the flesh, spoke of the opposite: you can return to the world of the living already during or after the funeral. Let us remember the resurrected Lazarus, who was revived on the 4th day, when it already began to stink. And his testimony to another world. But Christianity is more than 2000 years old, during this time were there many people (not counting believers) who read the lines about Lazarus in the New Testament and believed in God on the basis of this? Likewise, thousands of testimonies, miracles for those who are convinced in advance of the opposite, can be meaningless, vain.
Sometimes you have to see it for yourself to believe it. But even personal experience tends to be forgotten. There is a moment of replacing the real with the desired, excessive impressionability - when people strongly want to see something, during their lifetime they often and a lot draw it in their minds, and during and after clinical death, based on sensations, they finish impressions. According to statistics, most people who saw something grandiose after a cardiac arrest, Hell, Paradise, God, demons, etc. were mentally unstable. Resuscitation doctors, who have repeatedly observed the state of clinical deaths, saving people, say that in the vast majority of cases patients did not see anything.
It so happened that the author of these lines once visited the Other World. I was 18 years old. A relatively easy operation turned into almost real death due to an overdose of anesthesia by doctors. Light at the end of the tunnel, the tunnel is like an endless hospital corridor. Just a couple of days before I ended up in the hospital, I was thinking about death. I thought that a person should have a movement, a development goal, in the end, family, children, career, study, and all this should be loved by him. But somehow there was so much “depression” around at that moment that it seemed to me that everything was in vain, life was meaningless, and maybe it would be nice to leave before this “torment” had yet begun in full. I don't mean suicidal thoughts, but rather fear of the unknown and the future. Difficult family circumstances, work and study.
And here is the flight into oblivion. Already after this tunnel - and after the tunnel I just saw a girl whose face the doctor looks at, covers with a veil, puts a tag on her toe - I hear a question. And this question, perhaps, is the only thing that I could not find an explanation for, from where, who asked it. “I wanted to leave. Will you go?” And I seem to be listening, but I don’t hear anyone, neither the voice, nor what is happening around, I am shocked that death exists. The whole period, while I was observing everything, and then, after the return of consciousness, I repeated the same question, my own, “So, death is a reality? Can I die? I died? And now I will see God?
At first, I saw myself from the side of the doctors, but not in exact forms, but blurry and chaotic, mixed with other images. I did not understand at all that they were saving me. The more they manipulated, the more it seemed to me that they were saving someone else. She heard the names of medicines, the doctors' conversations, screams, and, as if yawning lazily, she also decided to cheer up the rescued person, she began to say in unison to the alarmists, “Breathe, open your eyes. Come to your senses, etc.” I sincerely worried about him. I was spinning around the whole crowd, then as if I saw everything that would happen next: a tunnel, a morgue with a tag, some orderlies were weighing my sins on Soviet scales ...
I become some kind of small grain of rice (these are the associations I have when I remember). There are no thoughts, only sensations, and my name was not at all what my mother and father were called, the name was generally a temporary earthly number. And it seemed that I had been alive only a thousandth part of the eternity into which I was going. But I didn’t feel like a person, some small substance, I don’t know, a spirit or a soul, I understand everything, but I just can’t react. I don’t understand how it was before, but I realize a new reality, but I just can’t get used to it, it was very uncomfortable. My life seemed like a spark, burning for a second, extinguished quickly and imperceptibly.
There was a feeling that there was an exam ahead (not a trial, but some kind of selection), for which I did not prepare, but I would not present anything serious to me, I had not done either evil or good in a worthy measure. But as if frozen at the moment of death, and it is impossible to change something, somehow influence fate. There was no pain, no regrets, but a feeling of discomfort and confusion from how I was so small, the size of a grain, I was going to live. Without thoughts, they were not, everything is at the level of feelings. After being in a room (as I understand it, a morgue), where I spent a long time near the body with a tag on my finger and could not leave this place, I start looking for a way out, because I want to fly further, it’s boring here and I’m not here anymore. I fly out the window and fly towards the light, with speed, suddenly a flash, akin to an explosion. Everything is very bright. Looks like it's coming back at this point.
A gap of silence and emptiness, and again a room with doctors, manipulations with me, but as if with someone else. The last I remember is incredible severe pain and pain in the eyes from the fact that they shine with a lantern. And the pain in my whole body is hellish, I again wet the earth into myself, and somehow it’s wrong, it seems that I stuffed my legs into my hands. There was a feeling that I was a cow, that I was square, that I was made of plasticine, I really didn’t want to go back, but they pushed me in. I have almost come to terms with the fact that I left, but now I have to go back again. Got in. It hurt for a long time, hysteria began from what he saw, but she could not speak or even explain the reason for the roar to anyone. During the rest of my life, I once again endured anesthesia in a few hours, everything was quite safe, except for the chills after. There were no visions. A decade has passed since my “flight”, and, of course, a lot has happened in my life since then. And I rarely told anyone about that long-standing event, but when I did share it, most of the listeners were very worried about the answer to the question “Did I see God or not?”. And although I repeated a hundred times that I did not see God, I used to be asked again and with a twist: “And Hell or Paradise?” Did not see… It doesn't mean they don't exist, it means I didn't see them.
Let's return to the article, or rather finish it. By the way, the story by V. Zazubrin “Sliver” that I read after clinical death left a serious imprint on my attitude to life in general. Maybe the story is depressing, too realistic and bloody, but that's exactly what it seemed to me: life is a sliver ...
But through all the revolutions, executions, wars, deaths, diseases, one could see what is eternal: soul. And it’s not scary to get into the next world, it’s scary to get there and not be able to change anything, while realizing that the test has not passed. But life is worth living, definitely, at least in order to pass exams ...
What are you living for?
Early 21st century - A study was published by Peter Fenwick of the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parin of Southampton Central Hospital. Researchers have received irrefutable evidence that human consciousness does not depend on the activity of the brain and does not cease to live when all processes in the brain have already stopped.
As part of the experiment, scientists studied the case histories and personally interviewed 63 cardiac patients who had experienced clinical death. It turned out that 56 who returned from the other world did not remember anything. They lost consciousness and came to their senses in a hospital room. But seven patients retained clear memories of the experience. Four claimed that they were seized with a sense of calm and joy, the passage of time accelerated, the feeling of their body did not disappear, their mood improved, even became elevated. Then a bright light appeared, as evidence of a transition to another world. A little later, mythical creatures appeared that looked like angels or saints. Patients were for some time in another world, and then returned to our reality.
Note that these people were not pious at all. For example, three said they did not attend church at all. Therefore, to explain this kind of messages by religious fanaticism will not work.
But sensational in the study of scientists was completely different. After carefully studying the medical records of patients, the doctors issued a verdict - the prevailing opinion about the termination of the brain due to oxygen deficiency is wrong. None of those who were in a state of clinical death recorded a significant decrease in the content of life-giving gas in the tissues of the central nervous system.
Another hypothesis was also erroneous: that vision could be caused by an irrational combination of medications used during resuscitation. Everything was done strictly according to the standard.
Sam Parina assures that he started the experiment as a skeptic, but now he is one hundred percent sure - "there is something here." “Respondents experienced their incredible states at a time when the brain was no longer functioning and therefore was not able to reproduce any memories.”
According to the British scientist, human consciousness is not a function of the brain. And if this is so, explains Peter Fenwick, "consciousness is quite capable of continuing its existence after the death of the physical body."
“When we conduct research on the brain,” wrote Sam Parina, “it is clearly seen that the cells of the brain in their structure, in principle, do not differ from the rest of the cells of the body. They also produce protein and other chemical substances, but they are not capable of creating the subjective thoughts and images that we define as human consciousness. In the end, we need our brain only as a receiver-transducer. It works like a kind of “live TV”: at first it perceives the waves falling into it, and then it converts them into an image and sound, which form integral pictures.”
Later, in December 2001, three scientists from the Rijenstate Hospital (Holland), led by Pim Van Lommel, conducted the largest study to date of people who have experienced clinical death. The results were published in the article "Near-death experience of survivors" after cardiac arrest: a targeted study of a specially formed group in the Netherlands in the British medical journal The Lancet. The Dutch researchers came to similar conclusions as their British counterparts from Southampton.
Based on statistical data obtained over a decade, researchers have found that visions are far from visited by all survivors of clinical death. Only 62 patients (18%) of 344 who underwent 509 resuscitations retained a clear memory of a near-death experience.
- During clinical death, more than half of the patients experienced positive emotions.
- Awareness of the fact of one's own death was noted in 50% of cases.
- In 32% there were meetings with dead people.
- 33% of those who died spoke about passing through the tunnel.
- Pictures of the alien landscape have seen almost as many reanimated.
- The out-of-body phenomenon (when a person looks at himself from the outside) was experienced by 24% of the respondents.
- A blinding flash of light recorded the same number of people brought back to life.
- In 13% of cases, the resuscitated observed pictures of their lives passing by in succession.
- Less than 10% of respondents spoke about the vision of the border between the world of the living and the dead.
- None of the survivors of clinical death reported fearful or unpleasant sensations.
- Particularly impressive is the fact that people who were blind from birth spoke about visual impressions, they literally repeated verbatim the narrations of the sighted.
It will be interesting to note that a little earlier, Dr. Ring from America made attempts to find out the content of the dying visions of those who were blind from birth. He, along with colleague Sharon Cooper, recorded the testimonies of 18 blind people who, for some reason, ended up in a state of “temporary death.”
According to the testimonies of those interviewed, the visions before death were the only way for them to understand what it meant to "see."
One of the reanimated Vicki Yumipeg survived "" in the hospital. Vicki looked down from somewhere at her body lying on the operating table, and at the team of doctors who carried out resuscitation. So for the first time she saw and understood what light is.
Blind from birth, Martin Marsh, who experienced similar death visions, remembered most of all the variety of colors of the world around him. Martin is sure that the post-mortem experience helped him understand how sighted people see the world.
But let's return to the research of scientists from Holland. They set a goal to determine exactly when people are visited by visions: during clinical death or during the period of brain activity. Van Lammel and his colleagues say they succeeded. The conclusion of the researchers is that visions are observed precisely during the “shutdown” of the central nervous system. As a result, it was shown that consciousness exists independently of the work of the brain.
Perhaps the most surprising Van Lammel considers the case recorded by one of his colleagues. The patient was taken to the intensive care unit. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. The brain died, the encephalogram gave out a straight line. It was decided to use intubation (insert a tube into the larynx and trachea for artificial ventilation and restore airway patency). The patient had a denture in his mouth. The doctor took it out and put it in a drawer. After an hour and a half, the patient's heartbeat resumed and blood pressure returned to normal. A week later, when the same doctor entered the ward, the resuscitated man told her, “You know where my prosthesis is! You pulled out my teeth and put them in drawer table on wheels! Upon careful questioning, it turned out that the operated person observed himself lying on the operating table from above. He described in detail the chamber and the actions of doctors at the time of his death. The man was very afraid that the doctors would stop resuscitating him, and he tried in every possible way to let them know that he was alive ...
Their confidence that consciousness can exist separately from the brain, Dutch scientists confirm the purity of the experiments. To exclude the possibility of the appearance of so-called false memories (cases when a person, having heard from others stories about visions at clinical death, suddenly “remembers” something that he himself did not experience), religious fanaticism and other similar cases, scientists carefully studied all the factors that capable of influencing the reports of victims.
All respondents were mentally healthy. They were men and women aged 26 to 92, with different levels of education, believers and non-believers in God. Some have heard of "post-mortem experiences" before, others have not.
The general conclusions of researchers from Holland are as follows:
- Post-mortem visions in a person appear during the suspension of the brain.
- They cannot be explained by a lack of oxygen in the cells of the central nervous system.
- Into the depths of "near-death experiences" big influence provided by gender and age. Women tend to experience stronger sensations than men.
- Most of the resuscitated, who had a deeper "post-mortem experience", died within a month after resuscitation.
- The experience of dying of the blind from birth does not differ from the impressions of the sighted.
All of the above gives grounds to assert that at the moment scientists have come close to the scientific substantiation of the immortality of the soul.
It remains for us to do just a little to realize that death is only a transfer station on the border between two Worlds, and to overcome fear before its inevitability.
The question arises: where does the soul go after the death of a person?
“If you died after living an unrighteous life, then you will not go to hell, but will forever be on the earthly plane in the worst periods of mankind. If your life was impeccable, then in this case you will find yourself on Earth, but in an age where there is no place for violence and cruelty.
This is the opinion of the French psychotherapist Michel Lerier, author of the book "Eternity in a Past Life". He was convinced of this through numerous interviews and hypnotic sessions with people who had been in a state of clinical death.
