The question to science is what happens after death. Is there life after death? The memory of the soul is immortal
Content
The question of what will happen after death has interested humanity since ancient times - from the very moment thoughts about the meaning of one’s own individuality appeared. Will consciousness and personality be preserved after the death of the physical shell? Where the soul goes after death - scientific facts and statements of believers equally firmly prove and disprove the possibility of afterlife existence, immortality, eyewitness accounts and scientists equally converge and contradict each other.
Evidence for the existence of the soul after death
Humanity has been striving to prove the presence of a soul (anima, atman, etc.) since the eras of the Sumerian-Akkadian and Egyptian civilizations. In fact, all religious teachings are based on the fact that a person consists of two essences: material and spiritual. The second component is immortal, the basis of personality, and will exist after the death of the physical shell. What scientists say about life after death does not contradict most theologians’ theses about the existence of the afterlife, since science originally emerged from monasteries, when monks were collectors of knowledge.
After the scientific revolution in Europe, many practitioners tried to isolate and prove the existence of the soul in the material world. At the same time, Western European philosophy defined self-awareness (self-determination) as the source of a person, his creative and emotional urges, and the stimulus for reflection. Against this background, the question arises - what will happen to the spirit that forms the personality after the destruction of the physical body.
Before the development of physics and chemistry, evidence for the existence of the soul was based exclusively on philosophical and theological works (Aristotle, Plato, canonical religious works). In the Middle Ages, alchemy tried to isolate the anima not only of humans, but also of any elements, flora and fauna. Modern science of life after death and medicine are trying to document the presence of a soul based on the personal experiences of eyewitnesses who have experienced clinical death, medical data and changes in the condition of patients at various points in their lives.
In Christianity
The Christian Church (in its world-recognized directions) treats human life as a preparatory stage for the afterlife. This does not mean that the material world is not important. On the contrary, the main thing that a Christian faces in life is to live in such a way as to subsequently go to heaven and find eternal bliss. Evidence of the presence of a soul is not required for any religion; this thesis is the basis for religious consciousness, without it it makes no sense. Confirmation of the existence of the soul for Christianity can indirectly come from the personal experience of believers.
The soul of a Christian, if you believe the dogmas, is a part of God, but capable of independently making decisions, creating and creating. Therefore, there is the concept of posthumous punishment or reward, depending on how a person treated the fulfillment of the commandments during material existence. In fact, after death, two key states are possible (and an intermediate one - only for Catholicism):
- paradise is a state of highest bliss, being close to the Creator;
- hell is a punishment for an unrighteous and sinful life that contradicted the commandments of faith, a place of eternal torment;
- purgatory is a place that is present only in the Catholic paradigm. The abode of those who die in peace with God, but need additional cleansing from sins unredeemed during life.
In Islam
The second world religion, Islam, in its dogmatic foundations (the principle of the universe, the presence of a soul, posthumous existence) is not fundamentally different from Christian postulates. The presence of a particle of the Creator inside a person is determined in the suras of the Koran and the religious works of Islamic theologians. A Muslim must live decently and keep the commandments in order to go to heaven. Unlike the Christian dogma of the Last Judgment, where the judge is the Lord, Allah does not take part in determining where the soul will go after death (two angels judge - Nakir and Munkar).
In Buddhism and Hinduism
In Buddhism (in the European sense) there are two concepts: atman (spiritual essence, higher self) and anatman (the absence of an independent personality and soul). The first refers to out-of-body categories, and the second to the illusions of the material world. Therefore, there is no precise definition of which specific part goes to nirvana (Buddhist paradise) and dissolves in it. One thing is certain: after the final immersion in the afterlife, everyone’s consciousness, from the point of view of Buddhists, merges into the common Self.
Human life in Hinduism, as the bard Vladimir Vysotsky accurately noted, is a series of migrations. The soul or consciousness is not placed in heaven or hell, but depending on the righteousness of earthly life, it is reborn into another person, animal, plant or even stone. From this point of view, there is much more evidence of post-mortem experience, because there is a sufficient amount of recorded evidence when a person completely told his previous life (considering that he could not know about it).
In ancient religions
Judaism has not yet defined its attitude to the very essence of the soul (neshamah). In this religion, there are a huge number of directions and traditions that may contradict each other even in basic principles. Thus, the Sadducees are sure that Neshama is mortal and perishes along with the body, while the Pharisees considered it immortal. Some movements of Judaism are based on the thesis adopted from Ancient Egypt that the soul must go through a cycle of rebirths to achieve perfection.
In fact, every religion is based on the fact that the purpose of earthly life is the return of the soul to its creator. The belief of believers in the existence of an afterlife is based for the most part on faith, rather than on evidence. But there is no evidence to refute the existence of the soul.
Death from a scientific point of view
The most accurate definition of death, which is accepted among the scientific community, is irreversible loss of vital functions. Clinical death involves a short-term cessation of breathing, blood circulation and brain activity, after which the patient returns to life. The number of definitions of the end of life, even among modern medicine and philosophy, exceeds two dozen. This process or fact remains as much a mystery as the fact of the presence or absence of a soul.
Evidence of life after death
“There are many things in the world, friend Horace, that our sages never dreamed of” - this Shakespearean quote with a great degree of accuracy reflects the attitude of scientists towards the unknowable. After all, just because we don’t know about something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Finding evidence of the existence of life after death is an attempt to confirm the existence of a soul. Materialists claim that the whole world consists of only particles, but the presence of an energetic entity, substance or field that creates a person does not contradict classical science due to lack of evidence (for example, the Higgs boson, a recently discovered particle, was considered fiction).
Testimonies of people
In these cases, the stories of people are considered reliable, which are confirmed by an independent commission of psychiatrists, psychologists and theologians. Conventionally, they are divided into two categories: memories of past lives and stories of survivors of clinical death. The first case is the experiment of Ian Stevenson, who established about 2000 facts of reincarnation (under hypnosis, the test subject cannot lie, and many of the facts indicated by patients were confirmed by historical data).
Descriptions of the state of clinical death are often explained by oxygen starvation, which the human brain experiences at this time, and are treated with a considerable degree of skepticism. However, strikingly identical stories that have been recorded for more than one decade may indicate that the fact that a certain entity (soul) exits the material body at the time of its death cannot be ruled out. It is worth mentioning a large number of descriptions of small details regarding operating rooms, doctors and the environment, phrases they uttered that patients in a state of clinical death could not know.
History facts
The historical facts of the presence of an afterlife include the resurrection of Christ. Here we mean not only the basis of the Christian faith, but a large number of historical documents that were not related to each other, but described the same facts and events in a single period of time. Also, for example, it is worth mentioning the famous recognized signature of Napoleon Bonaparte, which appeared on a document of Louis XVIII in 1821 after the death of the emperor (recognized as authentic by modern historians).
It’s hard to say whether there is evidence of life after death that is 100% reliable. There is always an objective counterthesis to any fact of post-mortem experience. Everyone has individual ideas on this matter. Until the existence of a soul is proven so that even a person far from science agrees with this fact, the debate will continue. However, the scientific world strives for maximum research into subtle matters in order to get closer to understanding and a scientific explanation of human essence.
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Life after death Confession of a dead man
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If we try to find out what death is, we will come to the conclusion that there are many definitions of this phenomenon. Science also does not provide a clear and understandable definition. Let's try to consult the explanatory dictionary of S.I. Ozhegov and N.Yu. Shvedova. Here's what they write:
» DEATH. Termination of the body's vital functions.
Clinical death(a short period after the cessation of breathing and cardiac activity, during which tissue viability still remains).
Biological death(irreversible cessation of biological processes in the cells and tissues of the body).”
The definition is understandable, but does not explain much. Moreover, there is no mention of the Soul in it. Let's take a look at V.I.'s explanatory dictionary. Dalia. It says:
“DEATH is the end of earthly life, death, separation of the soul from the body, dying, the state of being obsolete. The death of man, the end of carnal life, resurrection, transition to eternal, to spiritual life.”
The definition is not so clear, but it already contains a mention of the Soul. The remark about “eternal and spiritual life” is interesting, but, unfortunately, what it is is completely unclear.
The Oxford Academic Dictionary gives a completely meaningless definition: "Death is the end of life."
The 1986 Encyclopedia Britannica interprets death as "complete cessation of life processes."
Medical guidelines define death as follows: “No signs of life” and “No brain activity confirmed by electroencephalogram.”
The 22nd World Medical Congress in 1968, which specifically studied the problem of death, gave the following definition: “Irreversible loss of whole body functions.”
Another definition is often found, which also does not give a clear idea: “Death is the final cessation of vital functions in an animal or plant.”
Thus, the concept of “death” is still not firmly established even among professional doctors. The criteria for death vary even among doctors themselves.
Let's look at the three main definitions of "death".
Definition No. 1.
“Death” is the absence of clinically detectable signs of life.
By this definition, a person whose heart has stopped, breathing has stopped, blood pressure has dropped to a level that can no longer be determined by instruments, pupils have dilated, body temperature begins to drop, etc. can be considered dead.
This clinical definition of death has been used by doctors for many centuries. Most people were declared dead based on these criteria.
Often, in order to determine whether a person died or not, a mirror was held to his lips. If it fogged up, then this indicated that the person was still breathing. But lack of breathing is not death. Drowned people who were pulled out of the water were sometimes able to be revived.
Sometimes the doctor would make a small cut in the skin to see if blood would flow. However, this was also not a very reliable method. After cardiac arrest and cessation of blood circulation, it was also possible to save people’s lives.
Therefore, this definition is more suitable for the concept of clinical death. And as you know, clinical death is not the end of existence.
People who experienced life outside the body were also considered dead according to this definition. However, modern resuscitation methods made it possible to restore their lives and they were able to talk about their experience.
Definition #2
“Death” is the absence of brain activity.
Modern technical advances have made it possible to create sensitive equipment that makes it possible to record biological processes hidden from direct observation. One such device is an electroencephalograph. This is a device that amplifies and records even the weakest electrical signals from the brain.
With the advent of this device, at first glance, it became possible to draw a conclusion about death based on the absence of electrical activity of the brain. At the moment of death, a clearly visible flat area (plateau) appears on the electroencephalograph screen. However, such a plateau was also obtained in people who were subsequently resuscitated. Scientists have also found that drugs are depressants of the nervous system and their increased levels in the body also lead to a plateau. The same plateau appears when the temperature of the human body decreases.
Therefore, this method of establishing death is also not perfect.
Definition #3
“Death” is the irreversible loss of vital functions.
This definition suggests that a structural change in tissue has already begun. Resuscitation is possible only if irreversible destruction of body tissues has not yet occurred. Once the tissues begin to disintegrate, no resuscitation is possible. Some experts propose an even stricter definition, according to which no one can be declared dead, regardless of whether there are clinical signs of life or not, if resuscitation has followed. In other words, “death” is a state when it is no longer possible to bring a person back to life.
However, we are talking not only about the moment of transition, but also about the very existence of the amazing phenomenon of life after life, when some part of a person leaves his body and can observe this body and everything around him from the outside. It becomes clear that conscious life can continue regardless of the vital activity of the physical body.
The body, as we know, consists of cells and tissues, and when a person dies, different cells and tissues are destroyed at different times. Brain cells die first. Cells of some other tissues, more primitive ones, can live and even reproduce for some time. For example, it is well known that when a person has already died, his hair and nails continue to grow for several days. From the point of view of science, it is generally impossible to talk about the simultaneous death of the entire human body.
Is it possible to somehow establish the moment when the Soul and life completely left the body? It is unlikely that anyone can do this. Even medicine currently does not have absolutely accurate criteria for determining the moment of death. Or maybe there is no death itself? It’s probably not for nothing that the word “transition” has appeared in the vocabulary of doctors studying issues of death. Death is usually understood as the end of human life. Now it is known that after the death of the body, the Personality of a person continues to live. Therefore, we can talk about the death of the physical body and the transition of the Soul to a new state of Being. It follows from this that there is some mechanism by which the Soul can leave the body. Sometimes this mechanism starts even before actual death. At the same time, people may experience unusual sensations, for example, seeing their entire past life in a few seconds. Some people, on the eve of their death, actually have a presentiment of it, and sometimes even feel how and when it will happen.
Also, at present it is impossible to accurately determine from what point a return to life is impossible. This moment depends not only on the person himself, his qualities, physical condition, but also on many other factors. Just a few decades ago, most people could not be brought back to life. The rapid development of resuscitation technology will make it possible to bring back to life many of those whom doctors were unable to save yesterday.
It is imperative to make the definition of death as specific as possible. After all, the correct declaration of death is very important when transplanting organs from a deceased person to a living person. Such operations are extremely expensive, but very popular all over the world. However, there are many different moral and legal nuances here.
Doctors who perform resuscitation and doctors who accept an organ from a deceased person for transplantation have a colossal responsibility. Resuscitation doctors are obliged to fully use all opportunities to bring a person back to life. This is their moral and professional duty.
But on the other hand, the heart, kidney or liver must be removed from the donor's body quickly enough, immediately after the donor's death, while the organ is still alive and able to function. Accordingly, the medical team performing organ removal should be nearby. Based on this situation, a certain procedure has developed. When a person is admitted to intensive care with little chance of returning to life, resuscitators immediately report this case to their colleagues who are involved in organ transplantation. A special team of doctors immediately goes to the resuscitation site to await the results of resuscitation. In the event of the death of a donor, after its official confirmation, this team immediately removes the necessary organ from the body of the deceased.
However, only in theory everything looks smooth. The same practice shows that sometimes doctors, in pursuit of material rewards, either do not fulfill their moral duty, or perform it carelessly and, thus, deprive a person of the right to continue life. It seems to us that until science recognizes the existence of the subtle world, it will not be able to give a more precise definition of the concept of “death.” How close scientists are to such recognition - only time will tell...
§ 2. Resuscitation technique
Popular, scientific and fiction literature has sufficiently described cases in which a person who had already been declared dead sometimes came to life. The most famous cases are the resurrection of the deceased Lazarus by Jesus Christ on the third day after death (Bible, Gospel of John, chapter 11), and, of course, the amazing resurrection of Christ itself.
The belief that resurrection was possible led people to attempt revival. The most ancient attempts were very primitive. Most often, the deceased was flogged with nettles, air was blown into the lungs with bellows, and they were placed on a horse in the hope that the shaking would bring him back to life. Later they began to use electric current to revive. All this suggests that people subconsciously felt that strong irritation was necessary to resurrect a person.
Obviously, such amateurish actions rarely led to success. Nevertheless, at all times people hoped that one day it would be possible to bring the dead back to life.
Until recently, the vital activity of the entire organism often depended on the performance of one of the organs. If a vital organ stopped working, the person died. For example, cardiac arrest or liver failure resulted in death. However, with the development of medicine, this problem was also solved. Scientists have developed new methods of revival: artificial respiration, blood transfusion, organ transplantation. Artificial organs are being used more and more often: heart, lungs, kidneys, etc.
Attempts at resuscitation were successful, as a rule, only in the first minutes after the extinction of vital functions. If the state of death did not last long and irreversible decay of the body tissues had not yet occurred, then the person received a chance to return to life.
In principle, knowing the mechanisms of human life and especially the functioning of his subtle energy bodies, reviving a person is in principle possible. However, there is one important point here that makes you wonder whether such a revival is necessary. If a person really died and was in this state for some time (an hour, two, a day, two), then after his revival, the result will always be a sick and mentally disabled person, since, first of all, when a biological body dies, the brain dies. And the brain is directly connected with Consciousness and Reason. As soon as the brain ceases to function, Consciousness and Mind become separate and exist, as if separately from the physical body. Therefore, if the biological body comes to life, the result will be an imbecile, acting only in the mode of satisfying biological instincts. This will no longer be a full-fledged person.
In any case, this is a rather controversial topic and can cause a lot of both positive and negative responses. Is it worth it for a person to interfere with God’s Plan at all? This is what we suggest you think about before expressing your opinion.
Let's return to real facts and phenomena, or rather to people who have gone through clinical death. Often they later talked about their experiences at the moment of death. They retained the ability to perceive their surroundings. They could, for example, look at their dead body from the outside, see how doctors were trying to bring it back to life, and could hear and understand their conversations. Thus, it turned out that the person brought back to life retained the memory of what happened and could later talk about what he saw and heard. But at that time he was lying on the operating table and showed no signs of life.
This suggests a logical conclusion. The personality or Soul of a person does not die simultaneously with the body, but continues to exist independently. If the deceased can be revived, the Soul returns to the body again. Thus, a person receives the right to continue life.
In more precise terms, a person’s return to life after clinical death is the beginning of his new incarnation on Earth. When dying, the Soul of a person leaves the current body, and after some time receives a new body. We call this reincarnation. In case of clinical death, the Soul only temporarily leaves its body and after some time moves into it again. This is like the second birth of a person, the beginning of his new life on Earth. You can believe it or not, but experience shows that a person who has experienced clinical death very often changes for the better. This is a separate topic for conversation and we will return to it a little later. For those wishing to thoroughly understand this amazing phenomenon, we recommend reading our book “Life is only a moment. Knowledge of the 21st century".
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Imagine that right now you were given evidence of life after death, how your reality could change... Read and think. There is enough information for thought.
In the article:
Religion's point of view on the afterlife
Life after death... It sounds like an oxymoron, death is the end of life. Humanity has been haunted by the idea that the biological death of the body is not the end of human existence. What remains after the death of the camp, different peoples in different periods of history had their own views, which also had common features.
Representations of tribal peoples
We cannot say for sure what views our prehistoric ancestors held; anthropologists have collected a sufficient number of observations of modern tribes, whose way of life has changed since Neolithic times. It is worth drawing some conclusions. During the period of physical death, the soul of the deceased leaves the body and replenishes the host of ancestral spirits.
There were also spirits of animals, trees, and stones. Man was not fundamentally separated from the surrounding universe. There was no place for the eternal rest of the spirits - they continued to live in that harmony, observing the living, assisting them in their affairs and helping them with advice through shaman intermediaries.
The deceased ancestors provided assistance disinterestedly: the aborigines, ignorant of commodity-money relations, did not tolerate them in communicating with the world of spirits - the latter were content with respect.
Christianity
Thanks to the missionary activities of its adherents, it swept the universe. The denominations agreed that after death a person goes either to Hell, where a loving God will punish him forever, or to Heaven, where there is constant happiness and grace. Christianity is a separate topic; you can learn more about the afterlife.
Judaism
Judaism, from which Christianity “grew,” has no considerations about life after death, the facts are not presented, because no one returned back.
The Old Testament was interpreted by the Pharisees, that there is an afterlife and reward, and by the Sadducees, who were confident that everything ends with death. Quote from the Bible “...a living dog is better than a dead lion” Ek. 9.4. The book of Ecclesiastes was written by a Sadducee who did not believe in an afterlife.
Islam
Judaism is one of the Abrahamic religions. Whether there is life after death has been clearly defined - yes. Muslims go to Heaven, the rest go to Hell together. No appeals.
Hinduism
World religion on earth tells a lot about the afterlife. According to beliefs, after physical death, people go either to heavenly realms, where life is better and longer than on Earth, or to hellish planets, where everything is worse.
One thing is good: unlike Christianity, you can return to Earth from the hellish realms for exemplary behavior, and from the heavenly realms you can fall again if something goes wrong for you. There is no eternal sentence to hell.
Buddhism
Religion - from Hinduism. Buddhists believe that until you receive enlightenment on earth and merge with the Absolute, the series of births and deaths is endless and is called “”.
Life on earth is sheer suffering, man is overwhelmed by his endless desires, and failure to fulfill them makes him unhappy. Give up thirst and you are free. It's right.
Mummies of Eastern monks
“Living” 200-year-old mummy of a Tibetan monk from Ulaanbaatar
The phenomenon was discovered by scientists in southeast Asia, and today it is one of the proofs, indirectly, that a person still lives after turning off all functions of the camp.
The bodies of eastern monks were not buried, but mummified. Not like the pharaohs in Egypt, but in natural conditions, created thanks to moist air with above-zero temperatures. They still have hair and nails growing for some time. If in the corpse of an ordinary person this phenomenon is explained by the drying out of the shell and the visual lengthening of the nail plates, then in mummies they actually grow back.
The energy-information field, which is measured by a thermometer, thermal imager, UHF receiver and other modern devices, is three or four times greater in these mummies than in the average person. Scientists call this energy the noosphere, which allows mummies to remain intact and maintain contact with the earth's information field.
Scientific evidence of life after death
If religious fanatics or simply believers do not question what is written in the doctrine, modern people with critical thinking doubt the truth of the theories. When the hour of death approaches, a person is seized by a trembling fear of the unknown, and this stimulates curiosity and a desire to find out what awaits us beyond the boundaries of the material world.
Scientists have found that death is a phenomenon characterized by a number of obvious factors:
- lack of heartbeat;
- cessation of any mental processes in the brain;
- stopping bleeding and blood clotting;
- some time after death, the body begins to numb and decompose, and what remains of it is a light, empty and dry shell.
Duncan McDougall
An American researcher named Duncan McDougall carried out an experiment at the beginning of the 20th century where he found that the weight of the human body after death decreases by 21 grams. Calculations allowed him to conclude that the difference in mass - the weight of the soul leaves the body after death. The theory has been criticized, this is one of the works to find evidence for it.
Researchers have found that the soul has physical weight!
The idea of what awaits us is surrounded by many myths and hoaxes that are created by charlatans posing as scientists. It is difficult to figure out what is fact or fiction; confident theories can be questioned due to lack of evidence.
Scientists continue their search and introduce people to new research and experiments.
Ian Stevenson
Canadian-American biochemist and psychiatrist, author of the work “Twenty Cases of Alleged Reincarnation,” Ian Stevenson conducted an experiment: he analyzed the stories of more than 2 thousand people who claimed to store memories from past lives.
The biochemist expressed the theory that a person simultaneously exists on two levels of existence - gross or physical, earthly, and subtle, that is, spiritual, immaterial. Leaving a body that is worn out and unsuitable for further existence, the soul goes in search of a new one. The end result of this journey is the birth of a person on Earth.
Ian Stevenson
Researchers have found that every life lived leaves imprints in the form of moles, scars discovered after the birth of a child, physical and mental deformations. The theory is reminiscent of the Buddhist one: when dying, the soul is reincarnated in another body, with already accumulated experience.
The psychiatrist worked with the subconscious of people: in the group they studied there were children who were born with defects. Putting his charges into a trance state, he tried to get any information proving that the soul living in this body had found refuge before. One of the boys, in a state of hypnosis, told Stevenson that he had been hacked to death with an ax and dictated the approximate address of his past family. Arriving at the indicated place, the scientist found people, one of the members of whose house was actually killed with an ax to the head. The wound was reflected on the new body in the form of a growth on the back of the head.
The materials of Professor Stevenson's work give many reasons to believe that the fact of reincarnation has indeed been scientifically proven, that the feeling of “déjà vu” is a memory from a past life, given to us by the subconscious.
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky
K. E. Tsiolkovsky
The first attempt by Russian researchers to determine such a component of human life as the soul was the research of the famous scientist K. E. Tsiolkovsky.
According to the theory, there cannot be absolute death in the universe by definition, and clots of energy called the soul consist of indivisible atoms endlessly wandering throughout the vast Universe.
Clinical death
Many consider the fact of clinical death to be modern evidence of life after death - a condition experienced by people, often on the operating table. This topic was popularized in the 70s of the 20th century by Dr. Raymond Moody, who published a book called “Life after Death.”
The descriptions of most of the respondents agree:
- about 31% felt flying through the tunnel;
- 29% - saw a starry landscape;
- 24% observed their own body in an unconscious state, lying on the couch, described the real actions of doctors at this moment;
- 23% of patients were attracted by the alluring bright light;
- 13% of people during clinical death watched episodes from life like a movie;
- another 8% saw the border between two worlds - the dead and the living, and some - their own deceased relatives.
Among the respondents were people who were blind from birth. And the testimony is similar to the stories of sighted people. Skeptics explain the visions as oxygen deprivation of the brain and fantasy.
Nikolai Viktorovich Levashov in the early 90s of the 20th century described in detail and accurately what Life (living matter) is, how and where it appears; what conditions must be on planets for the origin of life; what is memory; how and where it functions; what is Reason; what are the necessary and sufficient conditions for the appearance of Mind in living matter; what emotions are and what their role is in the evolutionary development of Man, and much more. He proved inevitability and pattern appearance of Life on any planet on which the corresponding conditions simultaneously occur. For the first time, he accurately and clearly showed what Man really is, how and why he is embodied in a physical body, and what happens to him after the inevitable death of this body. has long given comprehensive answers to the questions posed by the author in this article. Nevertheless, quite sufficient arguments have been collected here indicating that modern science knows practically nothing about either Man or real the structure of the World in which we all live...
There is life after death!
The view of modern science: does the soul exist, and is Consciousness immortal?
Every person who has encountered the death of a loved one asks the question: is there life after death? Nowadays, this issue is of particular relevance. If several centuries ago the answer to this question was obvious to everyone, now, after a period of atheism, its solution is more difficult. We cannot simply believe hundreds of generations of our ancestors, who, through personal experience, century after century, were convinced that man has an immortal soul. We want to have facts. Moreover, the facts are scientific. From school they tried to convince us that there is no God, there is no immortal soul. At the same time, we were told that this is what he says. And we believed... Note that exactly believed that there is no immortal soul, believed that this is supposedly proven by science, believed that there is no God. None of us has even tried to figure out what impartial science says about the soul. We simply trusted certain authorities, without particularly going into the details of their worldview, objectivity and interpretation of scientific facts.
And now, when the tragedy happened, there is a conflict within us. We feel that the soul of the deceased is eternal, that it is alive, but on the other hand, the old stereotypes instilled in us 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 real, non-ideologized, objective science. Let's hear the opinions of real scientists on this issue and personally evaluate the logical calculations. It is not our FAITH in the existence or non-existence of the soul, but only KNOWLEDGE that can extinguish this internal conflict, preserve our strength, give confidence, and look at the tragedy from a different, real point of view.
The article will talk about Consciousness. We will analyze the question of Consciousness from the point of view of science: where is Consciousness located in our body and can it stop its life?
What is Consciousness?
First, about what Consciousness is in general. People have thought about this question throughout the history of mankind, but still cannot come to a final decision. We know only some of the properties and 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 sets us apart, what makes us feel that we are not objects, but 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 your hands. Even though we know very little about consciousness, we know with absolute certainty 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. From point of view materialism Human Consciousness is the substrate of the brain, a product of matter, a product of biochemical processes, a special fusion of nerve cells. From point of view idealism Consciousness is the ego, “I”, spirit, soul - an immaterial, invisible, eternally existing, non-dying energy that spiritualizes the body. Acts of consciousness always involve a subject who is actually aware of everything.
If you are interested in purely religious ideas about the soul, then it will not provide 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, much less evidence, for materialists who believe that they are impartial scientists (although this is far from the case).
But how do most 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”?
Gender, name, profession and other role functions
The first thing that comes to mind for most is: “I am a person”, “I am a woman (man)”, “I am a businessman (turner, baker)”, “I am Tanya (Katya, Alexey)”, “I am a wife ( husband, daughter)”, etc. These are certainly funny answers. Your individual, unique “I” cannot be defined in general terms. There are a huge number of people in the world with the same characteristics, but they are not your “I”. Half of them are women (men), but they are not “I” either, people with the same professions seem to have their own “I”, not yours, the same can be said about wives (husbands), people of different professions, social status , nationalities, religion, etc. No affiliation with any 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 the same person can change, but his “I” will remain unchanged.
Mental and physiological characteristics
Some say that their "I" are their reflexes, their behavior, their individual ideas and preferences, their psychological characteristics, etc. In fact, this cannot be the core of the personality, which is called “I”. Why? Because throughout life, behavior, ideas, preferences, and, especially, psychological characteristics change. It cannot be said that if these features were different before, then it was not my “I”.
Realizing this, some people make the following argument: “I am my individual body”. This is already more interesting. Let's examine this assumption as well. Everyone knows from the school anatomy course that the cells of our body are gradually renewed throughout life. Old ones die (apoptosis), and new ones are born. Some cells (the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract) 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” to be a simple collection of human cells, then the result will be absurd. It turns out that if a person lives, for example, 70 years, during this time all the cells in his body will change at least 10 times (i.e. 10 generations). Could this mean that not one person, but 10 different people lived their 70-year life? Isn't that pretty stupid? We conclude that “I” cannot be a body, because the body is not permanent, but “I” is permanent. This means that the “I” cannot be either the qualities of cells or their totality.
But here the particularly erudite give a counter-argument: “Okay, with bones and muscles it’s clear, this really cannot be the “I”, but there are nerve cells! And they are alone for the rest of their lives. Maybe “I” is the sum of nerve cells?”
Let's think about this question together...
Does consciousness consist of nerve cells? Materialism is accustomed to decomposing the entire multidimensional world into mechanical components, “testing harmony with algebra” (A.S. Pushkin). The most naive misconception of militant materialism regarding personality is the idea that personality is a set of biological qualities. However, the combination of impersonal objects, be they even neurons, cannot give rise to a personality and its core - the “I”.
How can this most complex “I”, feeling, capable of experiences, love, be simply the sum of specific cells of the body, along with the ongoing biochemical and bioelectric processes? How might these processes shape the self? Provided that nerve cells constituted our “I”, then we would lose part of our “I” every day. With each dead cell, with each neuron, the “I” would become smaller and smaller. With cell restoration, it would increase in size.
Scientific studies conducted in different countries of the world prove that nerve cells, like all other cells of the human body, are capable of regeneration (restoration). This is what the most serious international biological journal writes: Nature: “Employees of the Californian Institute for Biological Research. Salk discovered that in the brains of adult mammals, fully functional young cells are born that function on a par with existing neurons. Professor Frederick Gage and his colleagues also concluded that brain tissue renews itself most rapidly in physically active animals...”
This is confirmed by publication in another authoritative, peer-reviewed biological journal Science: “Over the past two years, researchers have discovered that nerve and brain cells renew themselves, just like the rest of the human body. The body is capable of repairing disorders related to the nervous tract itself.”, 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 the constantly changing material body.
For some reason, in our time it is so difficult to prove what was obvious and understandable to the ancients. The Roman Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus, who lived in the 3rd century, wrote: “It is absurd to assume that, since not one of the parts has life, then life can be created by their totality... moreover, it is completely impossible for life to be produced by an accumulation of parts, and that the mind was generated by that which is devoid of mind. If anyone objects that this is not so, but that in fact the soul is formed by atoms coming together, that is, bodies indivisible into parts, then he 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” (1).
“I” is the unchanging core of personality, which includes many variables but is not itself a variable.
A skeptic can put forward a last desperate argument: “Maybe “I” is the brain?” Is Consciousness a product of brain activity? What does he say?
Many people heard the fairy tale about the fact that our Consciousness is the activity of the brain in school. The idea that the brain is essentially a person with his “I” is extremely widespread. Most people think that it is the brain that perceives information from the world around us, processes it and decides how to act in each specific case; they think that it is the brain that makes us alive and gives us personality. And the body is nothing more than a spacesuit that ensures the activity of the central nervous system.
But this tale has nothing to do with science. The brain is currently being studied in depth. The chemical composition, parts of the brain, and the connections of these parts with human functions have been well studied for a long time. The brain organization of perception, attention, memory, and speech has been studied. Functional blocks of the brain have been studied. A huge number of clinics and research centers have been studying the human brain for more than a hundred years, for which expensive, effective equipment has been developed. But, opening any textbooks, monographs, scientific journals on neurophysiology or neuropsychology, you will not find scientific data about the connection of the brain with Consciousness.
For people far from this field of knowledge, this seems surprising. In fact, there is nothing surprising about this. Just no one ever didn't find it connections between the brain and the very center of our personality, our “I”. Of course, materialist scientists have always wanted this. Thousands of studies and millions of experiments have been conducted, many billions of dollars have been spent on this. The efforts of scientists were not in vain. 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 achieved. It was not possible to find the place in the brain that is our “I”. It was not even possible, despite extremely active work in this direction, to make a serious assumption about how the brain can be connected with our Consciousness?..
There is life after death!
English researchers Peter Fenwick from the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parnia from Southampton Central Clinic came to the same conclusions. They examined patients who returned to life after cardiac arrest and found that some of them exactly recounted the contents of conversations conducted by medical personnel while they were in a state. Others gave exact a description of the events that occurred during this time period.
Sam Parnia argues that the brain, like any other organ of the human body, is composed of cells and is not capable of thinking. However, it can work as a thought detecting device, i.e. like an antenna, with the help of which it becomes possible to receive a signal from the outside. Scientists have suggested that during clinical death, Consciousness, acting independently of the brain, uses it as a screen. Like a television receiver, which first receives the waves entering 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. That is, 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 confirmed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of the Human Brain, Professor N.P. Bekhterev in her book “The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life.” In addition to discussing purely scientific issues, in this book the author also cites his personal experience of encountering posthumous phenomena.
In the culture of Western civilizations there are three main concepts about what happens to people after death. posthumous existence in Heaven or Hell in religions, the concept of materialists and reincarnation (the concept of the cycle of rebirth).
The most common version of what happens to people after death is the concept of Hell and Heaven. But this is typical only for Western religions. According to this concept, the Supreme Being judges human souls after their death. What is curious is that in some they are punished for certain specific actions, but in others - for completely different ones. As a result, it turns out that most souls end up in Hell, where they are doomed to eternal torment and incredible suffering. Only a small percentage of righteous people who observe strict rules have a chance of entering Heaven.
In the science of Western civilization, the concept of materialism is most widespread. What happens to people after death according to materialists? Consciousness - as a product of brain activity - completely ceases its activity after the death of the brain itself. On the other hand, a lot of different studies, which were carried out mainly in American and English clinics, show that in most people during clinical death, consciousness is not interrupted even with an absolute absence of brain activity. The flow of sensations is also uninterrupted.
During these studies, the purpose of which was to explain what happens to people after death, scientists were interested not in the nature of individual experiences (most people claimed that they saw their body from the outside, heard some voices), but the very facts of these experiences precisely in moment of death. The absence of electrical impulses from the brain has baffled science. When decent statistics were accumulated, scientists came to the conclusion that the very presence of experiences does not depend at all on whether brain activity and electrical nerve impulses stop during or continue. If we accept the theory that consciousness is a product of the brain, then a person will not be able to experience anything when the brain is not active. That is, he will not be able to comprehend the fact that he has died. However, research contradicts the theory.
Finally, there is another concept that attempts to answer the question: “What happens to people after they die?” This is a theory about rebirth (about reincarnation). According to this view, our consciousness does not disappear after the death of the physical body. It, like everything that surrounds us, simply transforms into other forms and states. After the death of a mother, father, son, daughter or other loved one, many people choose to believe this theory. The Celts, for example, had a custom according to which a person who borrowed a sum wrote a will. After his death, he promised to return this money, but in a different body. And this practice was considered normal. Reincarnation occurs not only among the peoples of the East. Pythagoras became one of the first philosophers who began to openly express ideas about the rebirth of souls. The scientist himself often said that he remembered his past incarnations.
Reaction rate constant Guidelines for laboratory work
Is there life after death?
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