Science on what we see when we die

Daisy Hernandez (Men's Health via MSN); Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Scientists finally have clues about what we see when we die

What's going on? My life is flashing before me!

As it turns out, there might really be something to the reports of people seeing their lives flash before their eyes during near-death experiences (NDEs). For the very first time, scientists have recorded the brain waves of a dying person.

The recordings indicate that there is likely truth to the statement “My life flashed before my eyes” when someone has a near-death experience.

Move it along. Nothing to see here.

The findings, which have been published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, are not comprehensive because the patient had also suffered brain injuries.

For the first time ever, we’ve caught a glimpse of what human brain waves look like in a dying person. After a fall, an 87-year-old male went to the emergency room and rapidly deteriorated while hooked up to an electroencephalograph (EEG) machine that captured his brain waves as he passed from a heart attack.

This is not the first time we’ve seen the brain activity in a dying person. Some patients who have been pulled off of life support have had simplified EEG recordings taken, though they’ve been limited to frontal cortex signals.

This, however, is the first case of detailed recordings that may be able to shed some light on what we experience when we die.

I see a wondrous light. (@peepo/Getty Images)

“For decades now, people have reported episodes of paradoxical lucidity and heightened consciousness in relation to death. This is intriguing as this seems to be occurring in brain areas that are shutting down in relation to death,” says Dr. Sam Parnia, director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone. More

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