It turns out that as early as the early 20th century, a German doctor named Berndt had made up his mind to know how people feel after death. After a detailed investigation of the people who once lingered on the boundary between life and death, he found that the people who came back from the dead first experienced a strong sense of joy after entering the world of death.
A man named Arnold once fell into a canyon in the Alps. After falling 300 meters, the body fell on a branch and lingered on the edge of life and death for several days. He recalled: "I felt that the process of falling was very long and I felt a strong joy. I have never felt so good in my life. "
Modi believes that in the face of the threat of death, a person can recall everything that happened in his life in one second. A driver recalled that when his truck fell off the bridge, he "remembered everything in his life, lifelike as if it were true." I remembered how I followed my father on the riverbank when I was two years old. "
"I will think about how the toy car broke down when I was 5 years old, and how I cried when I first went to school. I remember that when I was in school, I taught every grade and every teacher, and then my memory came into adulthood. I saw all these scenes for a second, and then it was over. My truck was completely wrecked, but I was safe and sound. I jumped out of the broken windshield frame. "
"I can remember everything I saw. It took 15 minutes, but it all happened in a short second."
Near-death experience exists in both east and west, but the specific content is surprisingly consistent.
This seemingly mysterious near-death experience not only exists in the West, but also has been deeply studied by neurologists in China.
Professor Feng Zhiying and Professor Liu Jianxun of Tianjin Anding Hospital once randomly selected 100 paraplegic patients who were dying in Tangshan earthquake and were rescued from danger. The results show that more than half of these near-death experiences have physical strangeness, clear thinking and abnormal body, which seems to be a dream, moving towards death, calm and relief, life review or "panoramic memory", and the thinking process is accelerated. It can be seen that people's near-death experience is surprisingly consistent in the East and the West.
According to reports, Kenneth Reinger, a psychosociologist, basically summarized this strange near-death experience described by people who were rescued by life-saving methods after clinical death into five stages.
The first stage is quiet and relaxed. About 57% people hold this view, and most of them are adaptable. I feel that I am drifting with the wind, and when I am drifting into the darkness, I feel extremely calm, serene and relaxed.
In the second stage, consciousness escapes from the body. People who have this kind of consciousness account for 35%, and most of them feel that their consciousness is floating on the ceiling and in mid-air. Many people also feel that their body image is divorced from their own bodies, and this self-image sometimes returns to their own bodies.
The third stage, through the black hole. 23% people hold this view. They felt that they were sucked into a huge black hole by a whirlwind and rushed forward rapidly in the black hole. I feel my body being pulled and squeezed. At this point, their mood is more calm.
The fourth stage is to get together with friends and family. At the end of the black hole, there is a faint light flashing. When they get close to this light, they feel that this light has given them a pure love. Friends and relatives greeted them at the mouth of the cave. Some of them are still alive, and some have passed away. The only thing that is the same is that they are all tall, colorful and have a halo. At this time, major experiences in my life flew by before my eyes, most of which were pleasant and important events.
The fifth stage is unity with the universe. People who hold this view account for 10%. In a flash, they felt that they were integrated with the universe and got the perfect love at the same time.
The cause of the near-death experience has not been ascertained, and experts from various disciplines in various countries have expressed their views.
What changes have taken place in the human body that have caused these feelings? Scholars have always had different views. Olaf Blanc, a neuroscientist at the University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, found that the angular gyrus is a complex part of the brain. One of its functions is to feel the body and space and tell the brain where the body is in space. Blank believes that when the angular gyrus can't process the sensory information of vision and body normally, it will have the illusion of being out of the body, that is, people feel that they are outside their own bodies and "see" themselves. However, he only observed a single case, so he didn't declare that all "OBE" experiences were related to the angular gyrus.
Mike Persinger, a neuroscientist at Laurentia University in sudbury, Ontario, used soft electromagnetic radiation to stimulate the right temporal lobe of volunteers. The subjects all said that they saw light, so they suggested that the dying person saw light because of the damage of the right temporal lobe of the brain. Some scientists believe that the feeling of bright light is caused by lack of oxygen. Hypoxia will affect the photoreceptor nerve connecting the eyes and the brain.
Some scientists have suggested that the five stages of near-death experience are people's subjective experiences in a short time when they are on the verge of death. The first stage is that individuals defend and preserve the instinct of the dying. Under the threat of death, excessive sadness and fear will accelerate the consumption of human energy. In the second stage, dying people don't want to die, trying to deny that they have stepped into the gate of hell and symbolically escape physical pain. The third stage is the resurrection of the birth memory of the dying. The experience of a black hole is a symbol of birth through the mother's birth canal. The fourth stage is the self-comfort and illusory satisfaction of the dying person, and repeated life makes him feel eternal. Getting together with relatives and friends is a retreat response to the fear of death. The fifth stage is to explore the potential knowledge field of the dying, which is a special form of inspiration response in the human body.
Experts in China are planning to continue to study the near-death experience from the perspective of predictable death and apply the results to the treatment of mental illness.
Professor Feng Zhiying is one of the few experts who systematically study near-death experience in China. He told reporters that although there are great differences in religion and culture between the East and the West, the content of the near-death experience is basically the same, and many phenomena are common. Not only people with religious beliefs, but also atheists. Most people who have near-death experiences are the same.
Professor Feng pointed out that the appearance of light can't be explained by the lack of oxygen in the brain, because sometimes people who are dying have a lot of space around them, and their bodies are not oppressed or lack of oxygen, but they will also experience seeing light. In addition, if electric shock produces a similar light sensation in a certain area of the brain and it is attributed to a certain area of the brain, it is a bit hasty and can only be proved by a large number of case test results. However, the statement that "near-death experience is only a subjective experience of people in a short time when they are on the verge of death" is only based on psychological analysis and reasoning of phenomena, lacking practical scientific basis and needing biological indicators to explain scientifically.
He admits that although "there are many explanations for the phenomenon of near-death experience at home and abroad, the physiological mechanism of this phenomenon is still unclear. Studying this phenomenon also requires the participation of many disciplines such as medicine, sociology and anthropology. "
In the previous research on Tangshan earthquake survivors, the interviewees' near-death experience was unexpected, that is, they were not prepared before their death, so the investigation was flawed. At present, Professor Feng is planning a project to study the specific situation of people who have death expectations. He explained that if a chronic patient has a sudden attack and may die, he will have the psychological expectation of death. When the patient is really saved, we can compare whether the near-death experience is the same as when there is no expectation of death.
Professor Feng said that some patients with high fever will have similar near-death experiences, but the reasons are not clear. Understanding the near-death experience is of great significance to the clinical treatment of psychiatry.
At present, more than half of suicides are mentally abnormal, and sometimes the proportion is as high as 60%. Some of them meet the diagnostic criteria of mental illness, while others do not. Because ordinary people have experienced this kind of experience, looking back on their life in an instant can make people think clearly about the meaning of life and how to face the suffering of life. If we turn the near-death experience into vivid words, let the suicides experience a symbolic death, and convey the calm and relaxed feelings to the suicides, they can realize the value of life, correctly understand the success or failure of life and rebuild a meaningful life.