Now this is interesting. Activity in the brain surges at the point of death. From the story:
A study of seven terminally ill patients found identical surges in brain activity moments before death, providing what may be physiological evidence of “out of body” experiences reported by people who survive near-death ordeals.
Doctors at George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates recorded brain activity of people dying from critical illnesses, such as cancer or heart attacks. Moments before death, the patients experienced a burst in brain wave activity, with the spikes occurring at the same time before death and at comparable intensity and duration. Writing in the October issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine, the doctors theorize that the brain surges may be tied to widely reported near-death experiences which typically involve spiritual or religious attributes.
Now, that can be interpreted a number of ways; the soul leaving the body, hallucination, a last burst of energy from a dying star (to use a metaphor), the organ reacting to a loss of function. But it sure is interesting.
October 9th, 2009 | 10:57 pm
Ok. Do I get this right? Physicians, who, when they are with fellow human beings at the point of their deaths, aren’t praying for them, or holding their hands, or apparently trying to give them comfort as they pass into eternity (as they might be contemplating their own morality at that moment). Nope. They are busy with machines attached to the poor dying folks. And they are looking at knobs. And maybe listening to things that go pingy and bleep a bit and have little lights that turn on and off really fast. And maybe the doc’s are going “ah” and “oh” with all the little bleeps and pings. And the bleeps and pings and blinking lights (my goodness, it’s starting to sound like the Fourth of July) gives them really neat lists of numbers. And when the folks who are attached to the pingy and bleeping machines are finally dead, then the doc’s can coral some graduate students and have them write up the pings and the bleeps and the flashing lights and publish it—under their own names of course– in a Journal. And really important people will read the journal and will be so impressed with all the bleeping and pinging and lists of numbers that they will give the doctors better bleeping and pinging machines and maybe even a new job where the doc’s can have more graduate students and machines with lights that turn on and off really, really fast, and be the envy of other doc’s who don’t have such cool bleeping and pinging stuff. . .and oh, be still my quivering heart—-maybe really, really REALLY important people in Scandinavia someday will hear about the doctors and be so happy with what they’ve done and think those lists of numbers are so cool that they will invite them to Stockholm and let them dress up like waiters and give them a really fancy dinner and a piece of paper with outrageously awesome writing on it and lots of other people dressed up like waiters will stand up and go clappy clappy clappy really loud.
Yeah. I have it right.
October 10th, 2009 | 11:36 am
Apparently not Michael Linton, but Wesley Smith and others might know of or be interested in a scifi novel by Connie Willis titled [i]Passage.[/i] It weaves together the story of the Titanic (and other disasters) with a psychologist and a neurologist studying near-death experiences. Willis appears to have the perspective of a liberal Protestant Christian, but it is Christian, and a good read.
I understand and basically agree that our society has a problem with elevating techne – skill – over wisdom and eternal values, but I don’t believe that the scientific study of what happens to the brain at death is necessarily irreverent and self-serving.
October 12th, 2009 | 12:20 pm
Traditional Catholic teaching about the hour of our death tells us that this is when Satan intensifies his efforts to steal the soul – hence the plea to Our Lady to be with us at the hour of our death. Makes sense to me that there would be a burst in brain wave activity.
Links
Blogs
Find Us
Contact