[size=14pt]A 'cascade' of brain activity as people die could explain near death experiences[/size]

[b]Mysterious near death experiences may be caused by a surge of electrical activity in the brain moments before it dies, it has been claimed.

Doctors believe that a burst of brain activity occurs just before death and this could account for vivid "spiritual" experiences reported by those who come back from the brink.

The researchers suggest this surge could be why some patients who have been revived when close to death report sensations such as walking towards a bright light or a feeling that they are floating above their body.

“We think the near-death experiences could be caused by a surge of electrical energy released as the brain runs out of oxygen,” said Dr Lakhmir Chawla, an intensive care doctor at George Washington University medical centre in Washington.

“As blood flow slows down and oxygen levels fall, the brain cells fire one last electrical impulse. It starts in one part of the brain and spreads in a cascade and this may give people vivid mental sensations.”

Many revived patients have reported being bathed in bright light or suffused with a sense of peace as they start to walk into a light-filled tunnel.

A few even say they experienced visions of religious figures such as Jesus or Muhammad or Krishna, while others describe floating above their own deathbed, observing the scene.

Dr Chawla believes such experiences have a biological explanation rather than a metaphysical one[/b].

In the research he used an electroencephalograph (EEG), a device that measures brain activity, to monitor seven terminally ill people.

The medical purpose of the devices was to make sure that the patients, suffering from conditions such as cancer and heart failure, were sufficiently sedated to be out of pain.

However, Dr Chawla noticed that moments before death the patients experienced a burst in brainwave activity lasting from 30 seconds to three minutes.

The activity was similar to that seen in people who are fully conscious, even though the patients appeared asleep and had no blood pressure. Soon after the surge abated, they were pronounced dead.

Dr Chawla’s research, published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, is thought to be the first to suggest that near-death experiences have a particular physiological cause.

Although it describes only seven patients, he says he has seen the same things happening “at least 50 times” as people die.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7785944/A-cascade-of-brain-activity-as-people-die-could-explain-near-death-experiences.html

the problem with scientists is that they feel that every phenomenon must have a physical explanation. if it doesn't then it is not valid. that is where their limitations start.

we die every day. once you are asleep, your physical body starts resting then the real you, soul,  which is wearing this physical body goes on a trip into one of the inner planes of God where it has experiences.

in the morning soul comes back into the physical body and then the body reawakens. the only problem is that many unaware souls are not able to remember vividly where they go when they are asleep nor are they able to control it.

at death soul simply drops the physical body and goes back to its creator. the physical body of course goes back to the dust whence it came from.

the problem with scientists is that they feel that every phenomenon must have a physical explanation. if it doesn't then it is not valid. that is where their limitations start.

i bet this is the same thing the church told galileo when he first figured the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way round

benodic:

the problem with scientists is that they feel that every phenomenon must have a physical explanation. if it doesn't then it is not valid. that is where their limitations start.

we die every day. once you are asleep, your physical body starts resting then the real you, soul,  which is wearing this physical body goes on a trip into one of the inner planes of God where it has experiences.

in the morning soul comes back into the physical body and then the body reawakens. the only problem is that many unaware souls are not able to remember vividly where they go when they are asleep nor are they able to control it.

at death soul simply drops the physical body and goes back to its creator. the physical body of course goes back to the dust whence it came from.

Everything you call spiritual/metaphysical now will eventually get an objective knowledge based explanation. That is what history has taught us.

what a coincidence.
I recall seeing a programme on similar topic in History yesterday.

Even when someone dies by "remote" in africa,
doctors will still give u one medical terminology to expalin
cause of death other than "remote"!

this "reseach" itself is full of uncertain terms like "may be caused by", "could account for", "we think that",
typically, science continues its attempts at interpreting that which is clearly outside its reach i.e the spiritual.if near death experiences are caused by a so called "surge of electric energy" the question is why is there a surge at that particular point and how come the experiences are somewhat similar across humanity?