What Happens After We Die?
For many it’s not a topic we often want to talk about. And looking deeper into the
nuts and bolts of passing on is a difficult task. Yet, it is a fact of life, an inescapable
inevitability, and it has been a go-to subject for artists, writers and musicians from all
around the world for centuries. Death is arguably the greatest, most mysterious and most unsettling
of great unknowns. But is there anything about the physical, mental and spiritual aspects
of dying that can make understanding it just a little bit easier?
This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question: what happens after
we die?
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First, the gruesome part; what literally happens to our bodies after we’ve passed on? Well,
most of the key processes begin almost immediately after our hearts stop beating and our brains
cease to function. Pallor mortis refers to how our bodies start to become pale within
fifteen minutes or so after death. Algor Mortis is a reduction in temperature, which typically
starts to set in within the hour. Livor Mortis is when the blood left in our bodies moves
down to the lowest possible point thanks to gravity, leaving discoloration wherever it
settles - it’s usually noticeable within a couple of hours. And then there’s Rigor
Mortis, which is the stiffening of limbs and perhaps the most well-known of all the “mortis
terms” and so-called “signs of death” - it usually happens within the first four
to 24 hours. And by now the once living, breathing body is definitely a corpse.
Right about now, when the body’s muscles are tense, various enzymes set to work decomposing
human tissue… and eventually the muscles that were stiff through rigor mortis relax.
And here’s when the physical side of death takes a fairly infamous turn… As all muscles
are released - including those throughout the digestive system - so, often, are the
remaining contents of the bowels. The body-wide process known as putrefaction also ramps up,
breaking down the physical form on every level. Organs are liquefied as bacteria and funguses
deteriorate the shell down to the skeleton. Our teeth, nails and hair are usually the
last things to go… but most of all of it happens within about a month. For forensic
scientists and medical examiners, it’s a vital period of time because if there are
any questions on how, when or why a person died, then exactly what happens to their body
post-death can provide some answers.
Naturally, today’s question doesn’t only concern physical, observable processes. There’s
also the brain to consider and, from a more spiritual perspective, our consciousness.
When thinking about specific times of death, many consider the moment of “brain death”
to be the key. This is when all signs of the brain working disappear, and when all electrical
activity in the brain ends. Given our ever-expanding understanding of how the brain works, there
is some debate on the criteria for brain death… but in terms of “what happens after we die”,
the brain ultimately succumbs to the same decomposition as the rest of the body.
Ideas on “when we die” branch out further still, though, in part thanks to testimonials
from people who have reportedly been brought back from the brink of death; undergoing what's
commonly known as a near death experience. Thanks to dramatizations in the media, there
are certain stereotypes for what an NDE might look light; a heavenly light, the pearly gates,
our loved ones all waiting for us “on the other side”. And, to some extent, these
images have been backed up by real-world accounts - particularly the “white light” aspect
of them. It’s also relatively common for people to recall an outer body experience
- seeing themselves on the hospital operating table, for example - as well as a strong feeling
of peace, as though all of their fears and anxieties had been lifted from them.
Scientifically speaking, near death experiences are a tricky concept. There’s no evidence
that they’re the result of an actual visit to the afterlife, but there are theories that
they’re brought on by sudden changes in the brain - particularly in the temporal lobe
and hippocampus - or that they’re hallucinations triggered by a loss of oxygen. There are also
psychological theories on NDEs, including that they happen because we’re culturally
conditioned to expect them to, and that the archetypal “tunnel and light” vision is
in some way linked to the trauma of being born. Even the most convincing explanations
struggle to explain instances when patients can recall seeing, hearing or experiencing
things that they couldn’t possibly have known about, though…
Here’s where our ideas on consciousness come into play. A 2017 study from the University
of Southampton in the U.K. challenged the previously held belief that general “awareness”
in the brain ceased approximately thirty seconds after the body stops receiving blood pumped
by the heart. Instead, it’s suggested that there exists a window of up to three minutes
during the cardiac stage of death, when we can still be somewhat aware of our surroundings,
and perhaps all NDEs occur during this time before a patient is brought out of cardiac
arrest and “back to life”.
More than that, though, while we mostly know for sure what happens to our bodies after
death, there is (and has been for centuries) ongoing debate about whether this really is
“the end”. Because, how about if our consciousness continued to exist after death? Building on
ideas first put forward by René Descartes, neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick offers up
the theory that our brains aren't the originators of consciousness, but rather a filter through
which the universe is perceived - similar to how we can only hear certain frequencies
and see certain wavelengths. For Fenwick, there are spiritual connotations here, where
life after death does in some way exist… thanks to a deeper connection between our
detached consciousnesses and the universe at large.
Despite Fenwick’s research (and other similar studies) there is no one accepted rule on
whether what some call the “human spirit” and others “the soul” can survive biological
death. But the idea that it might is a great source of comfort for many. Physically-speaking,
we can chart the expected course for our brains and bodies once we’ve passed away. Metaphysically-speaking,
we’re not so sure. For some, there’s nothing after life; for others, an essence of ourselves
does remain. It’s a point at which scientific theory meets spiritual belief; where that
one “right answer” is always up for debate.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these
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