![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/h6NlHL3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Clinically, we understand death to mean the state that takes hold after our hearts stop beating. Blood circulation comes to a halt, we don’t breathe, our brains shut down\u2014and that’s what divides the states we occupy from one moment (alive) to the next (dead). Philosophically, though, our definition of death hinges on something else: the point past which we\u2019re no longer able to return. Those two were more or less the same until about 50 years ago, when we saw the advent of CPR. Today, someone\u2019s heart can stop and they can be dead, and then they can come back.<\/p>\n
……..
\nParnia’s research has shown that people who survive medical death frequently report experiences that share similar themes: bright lights; benevolent guiding figures; relief from physical pain and a deeply felt sensation of peace. Because those experiences are subjective, it’s possible to chalk them up to hallucinations. Where that explanation fails, though, is among the patients who have died on an operating table or crash cart and reported watching\u2014from a corner of the room, from above\u2014as doctors tried to save them, accounts subsequently verified by the (very perplexed) doctors themselves.<\/p>\n
How these patients were able to describe objective events that took place while they were dead, we’re not exactly sure, just as we’re not exactly sure why certain parts of us appear to withstand death even as it takes hold of everything else. But it does seem to suggest that when our brains and bodies die, our consciousness may not, or at least not right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t mean that people have their eyes open or that their brain\u2019s working after they die,” Parnia said. “That petrifies people. I\u2019m saying we have a consciousness that makes up who we are\u2014our selves, thoughts, feelings, emotions\u2014and that entity, it seems, does not become annihilated just because we’ve crossed the threshold of death; it appears to keep functioning and not dissipate. How long it lingers, we can\u2019t say.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Hare](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-YO0c4-U7sVU\/WoAiu0IA1eI\/AAAAAAAAh1E\/By64tPW-YT4NpvJYb7Q6kLt8cbljY_c8wCHMYCw\/s0\/2018-02-11_12-01-25.jpg\")
By Newsweek Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n