Life after death

[Mulder]

Many people believe that consciousness is somehow detached from the brain and floats away when you die. So the question is, what if you're unconscious? What happens if you die in your sleep?

[Loomer]

That sounds like the dualism v's material based monism debate... I fall in the materialism camp, so I say when you die, you die...








However, I don't think that answers your question as it is posed...

I guess if I was a dualist, then I would say something like "your spirit will find a way..."


Rgds

Jon

[Lord Muck oGentry]

Many people believe that consciousness is somehow detached from the brain and floats away when you die. So the question is, what if you're unconscious? What happens if you die in your sleep?

How does a spook tell whether another spook is having a long kip or is just pining for the fjords?

[Mulder]

It's a serious question. If consciousness survives bodily death, what happens if you die when your asleep? Where is your consciouness when unconscious?

[filippo lippi]

You're asking the wrong crowd

[Mulder]

You're asking the wrong crowd

I tried it on 'another crowd' but they went kind of quiet.

[Cuddles]

It's a serious question. If consciousness survives bodily death, what happens if you die when your asleep? Where is your consciouness when unconscious?

It's actually worse than that. It's almost impossible to die while concious, because you're body starts shutting down before you actually die. Virtually everyone will die while unconcious. If your conciousness survives bodily death, how does it know if you're actually going to die or if you're just falling unconcious? Does it hang around to check or something?

[Dr B]

I have discussed this extensively elsewhere on the forum under the 'science' section and general paranormal section.

Check out those threads as, if my memory serves me rightly, there was quite a discussion on these topics and skeptical positions on them.

[dashwood]

is it sleep or orgasum that the french call; "the little death?"
eather way if you can float off out of your body when dead, why not when your asleep?
this is always asuming that your psychic energy maintains its coheshion after death and does not do what all other forms of energy does and just disapates.
the whole life after death thing is just another quest for imortality, personaly i'm just looking forward to sweet oblivion.

[Mulder]

The problem, I suspect, is that consciousness is interpreted differently by scientists and the 'other crowd'. It is obviously a brain function in science. To others it is something with undefined boundaries, location and qualities.

The trouble is, by using the same word for two different things, confusion results.

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

It's actually worse than that. It's almost impossible to die while concious, because you're body starts shutting down before you actually die. Virtually everyone will die while unconcious. If your conciousness survives bodily death, how does it know if you're actually going to die or if you're just falling unconcious? Does it hang around to check or something?

Co-incidentally I was listening to a Quackcast podcast this morning on the way to work which was discussing NDE and the fallacy that people who have NDEs are clinically dead. I learnt a lot from it on the way the body behaves once the heart stops beating, I recommend it (and the series).

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

The problem, I suspect, is that consciousness is interpreted differently by scientists and the 'other crowd'. It is obviously a brain function in science. To others it is something with undefined boundaries, location and qualities.

The trouble is, by using the same word for two different things, confusion results.

Ask 100 woos what consiousness means, you'll get a 100 different answers. A sure sign none of them know what they are talking about.

[dashwood]

also the is no difinitive way to diagnose death, some doctors say at brain death, some when the heart stops and some will admit they just don't know. there is even a condition in which death is pronounced and the person comes back to life a few minuets or houres later. there are many accounts of scrach marks on the inside of coffin lids and bloody fingernails on courpses after exhumation.
oh god, i'm turning into a woo...

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

I'm not sure the heart stopping is an accurate measure. CPR can be used to sustain a flow of blood to the brain after the heart stops. The window of effectiveness is not huge, but measured in minutes as opposed to seconds.

[Cuddles]

also the is no difinitive way to diagnose death, some doctors say at brain death, some when the heart stops and some will admit they just don't know. there is even a condition in which death is pronounced and the person comes back to life a few minuets or houres later. there are many accounts of scrach marks on the inside of coffin lids and bloody fingernails on courpses after exhumation.
oh god, i'm turning into a woo...

Brain death is the only sensible way to classify death. As FarSide says, you can easily keep blood flowing for a short time, and for much longer in hospital. When it comes down to it, people can live with entirely artificial heats, or ones from other people, or even other species.

The problem isn't defining what counts as death, the problem is actually measuring it. Even with much better equipment these days, it is still not possible to see low level activity in the brain, certainly not with common equipment like ECGs. Possibly the biggest problem is that most of the time, no-one even looks at the brain. If someone appears to have no pulse and no breath, they won't be rushed to a hospital to get a brain scan, they'll just be certified as dead. If they have a condition that just makes them appear dead, or if someone just makes a mistake, they can end up appearing to come back to life.