Reviews of what people who have experienced clinical death tell. Eyewitness accounts of life after life

“It's not time for you yet,” he said, coming closer to me. And then darkness fell. I woke up the next day in intensive care. The doctors said that I had experienced clinical death. "

The "memories" of those who found themselves on the other side of reality are so similar that sometimes it seems that they were written as a carbon copy. Many believe that this is the most irrefutable proof of the existence of an afterlife.

Mind games

In fact, the similarity of the "memories" of people who have experienced clinical death has a completely scientific basis. Experts say that a person experiences all these experiences not at the moment of clinical death, but before it. The brain stops working almost immediately after cardiac arrest, which means that in a state of clinical death, a person simply cannot feel anything. Everything that supposedly happens to him - flying through the tunnel, talking with the afterlife - happens in the moment of agony, even before the heart stops.

But why are the memories so similar? The fact is that during clinical death, a number of certain factors affect the brain.

When the heart begins to beat intermittently, the brain experiences a lack of oxygen - hypoxia. Certain reactions are the answer to this.

When it seems to the “dead” that their soul is leaving the body and they supposedly see doctors trying to breathe life into them, experts explain it by rapid eye movement, similar to that which occurs when a person falls asleep. At this moment, reality is bizarrely intertwined with hallucinations. Religious people, as a rule, see God or dead relatives, for atheists - all life flashes before their eyes, sometimes even more terrible visions occur - it seems to people that Satan himself is him.

The feeling of sudden happiness and peace is the result of a sharp release of the hormone serotonin into the bloodstream, giving us a sense of joy and peace. For example, the German scientist Alexander Wutzler found that at the time of death in the human brain, the level of serotonin rises 3 times.

The dark corridor and the light at the end of it also have an explanation: due to a lack of oxygen, tunnel vision develops - the brain loses its ability to process signals from the edges of the retina, perceiving only an image from its center. When hypoxia progresses, there is a sensation of flight - this disrupts the work of the vestibular apparatus. Then clinical death itself sets in - this is the darkness into which all those who have "been" in the afterlife return.

Returned different

However, as compelling as scientific explanations are, the phenomenon of clinical death is still surrounded by mysteries. The fact is that many of those who had to go through such an experience have become completely different people.

For instance, american teen harry, who survived a coma and clinical death, lost all his friendliness and sense of humor. From the other world, he returned as an aggressive creature, with whom even his own parents could not get along. After Harry returned from the hospital, he had to be moved to a separate guest house so that his parents would be less visible to their son, whose outbursts of rage sometimes became dangerous to others.

A three-year-old girl, emerging from a five-day coma, immediately literally reached for a bottle. The child literally demanded alcoholic beverages from the parents. Moreover, the little girl began to steal and smoke cigarettes.

A strange story happened to mother of Heather Howland family from USA. The woman suffered a traumatic brain injury, cerebral hemorrhage and clinical death. Contrary to the doctors' forecasts, she not only survived, but practically recovered. The only consequence of the ordeal endured was Heather's uncontrollable craving for sexual intercourse. Prior to that, a faithful wife, Heather began to change partners like gloves, which eventually led to her divorce from her husband!

Scientists still cannot fully understand the reason for such metamorphoses. The most plausible explanation is that due to hypoxia, certain parts of the brain are damaged, which force people to perform actions that were not characteristic of them before.

However, not all of those who survived clinical death changed for the worse. Many, on the contrary, began to be more tolerant of others, learned to feel especially keenly the beauty of nature and appreciate life in all its manifestations. They say that they brought these traits with them from the underworld.

Light and tunnel is a fairly popular perception of death, but as Rachel Newver discovered, many other bizarre experiences can be found in the reports. In 2011, Mr. A, a 57-year-old social worker from England, was admitted to Southampton General Hospital after having a heart attack at work. The doctors were just injecting him with an inguinal catheter when his heart stopped. The brain stopped receiving oxygen, and Mr. A died.

Rachel Newver

Regardless, he remembers what happened next. The doctors used an automated external defibrillator to try to get the heart to work again. Mister, A heard a mechanical voice that said twice: "Discharge". Between these words, he raised his head and saw a strange woman who beckoned him to her from the corner of the room, under the ceiling. He joined her, leaving his body. “I felt that she knew me and that I could trust her, and I knew that she was there for some reason, but I didn’t know why,” Mr. A later recalled, “the next second I was beside her and looked down at himself, saw a nurse and another person with a bald head. "

The hospital records later confirmed Mr. A.'s descriptions. Mr. A.'s descriptions of the people in the room and those he had not seen before he passed out and their actions were also accurate. He described events that occurred within three minutes of his clinical death, which, according to our knowledge of biology, he should not have had the slightest idea.

The story of Mr. A, described in the journal Resuscitation, is one of many in which people share their near-death experiences. Until now, researchers have not assumed that when the heart stops beating and stops supplying blood to the brain, consciousness does not go out immediately. At this time, the person is actually dead - although as soon as we learn more about death, we begin to understand that in some cases death can be reversible. For many years, those who returned from this incomprehensible state shared their memories of this event. Doctors generally ignored these stories, believing them to be the fruit of hallucinations. Researchers are still reluctant to delve deeper into the study of clinical death, mainly because they have to study something that is beyond the reach of scientific research.

But Sam Parnia, a critical care physician and head of critical care research at New York University School of Medicine, along with colleagues from 17 institutions in the US and UK, wanted to end speculation about what people experience or not experience on their deathbed. This is possible, he believes, if we collect scientific data on the last minutes of life. Over the course of four years, he and his colleagues analyzed information from more than 2,000 cardiac arrest survivors.

Parnia and his colleagues were able to interview 101 of them. “The goal is to first try to understand their psychological experience of death,” Parnia says, “and then if there are people who claim to remember their experiences after death, we have to determine if this is true.”

Seven tastes of death

It turned out that Mr., And not the only patient who was able to remember something about his death. Nearly 50% of the study participants also remembered something, but unlike Mr. A and another woman, whose out-of-body adventures could be verified, the memories of other patients had nothing to do with real events that occurred at the time of their death.

Instead, they told fairytale or hallucinatory stories, which Parnia and his co-authors categorize under seven main themes. "Most of them were not consistent in describing what is called the near death experience," Parnia says. "The psychic experience of death seems to be much broader than previously thought."

These seven topics are:

• Fear
• Animals or Plants
• Bright light
• Violence and harassment
• Deja vu
• Family

Description of events after cardiac arrest

These mental experiences range from fear to bliss. There were those who reported feeling fear or persecution. “I had to go through the ceremony ... and they burned me at the ceremony,” said one patient, “there were four people with me, and depending on who lied and who told the truth, he died or came back to life… I saw men in coffins buried upright. " He also remembered how he was "dragged into the depths."

Others, however, experienced the opposite sensations, and 22% reported feelings of "peace and tranquility." Some saw living beings: "All plants, no flowers" or "Lions and tigers"; while others basked in bright light or reunited with family. Some of them reported a strong sense of déjà vu: "I knew what people were going to do before they did it." Heightened senses, distorted perceptions of the passage of time, and feelings of disconnection from the body were also among the sensations reported by near-death survivors.

“It’s clear that people experience something while they’re dead,” Parnia says, and argues that people actually prefer to interpret these experiences depending on their environment and existing beliefs. Someone who has lived in India may come back from the dead and say that he saw Krishna, while someone in the US Midwest may experience the same but claim to have seen God. “If in the Midwest a father says to a child:“ When we die, you will see Jesus, and he will be full of love and compassion, ”then the child, of course, will see this,” says Parnia, “and when he returns from the other world, he will say:“ Oh Daddy, you're right, I definitely saw Jesus! “It would be fair to admit that this is indeed the case. You don't know what God is. I don't know what God is. Well, besides the fact that this is a man with a white beard, as he is usually portrayed. "

“All these things — soul, heaven and hell — I have no idea what they mean, and there are probably thousands and thousands of interpretations based on where you were born and what surrounds you,” he continues. "It is important to move from the realm of religious teachings to objectivity."

Common cases

Until now, the team of scientists has not identified any patterns in the memories of those who returned from the other world. There is no explanation as to why some people experience fear while others report euphoria. Parnia also points out that an increasing number of people are experiencing clinical death. For many people, memories are almost certainly caused by cerebral edema that occurs after cardiac arrest, or strong sedatives given to patients in hospitals. Even if people clearly do not remember their death, this, however, can affect them on a subconscious level. Some stop fearing death and become altruistic about people, while others develop PTSD.

Parnia and his colleagues are already planning further studies to try to resolve some of these questions. They also hope that their work will help broaden traditional concepts of death. They think that death should be viewed as a subject of research - just like any other object or phenomenon. “Anyone with an objective mindset would agree that further research in this area is needed,” Parnia says, “and we have the tools and technology. It's time to do it. "

IS DOCTOR MODE RIGHT?

“I once had a heart attack. I suddenly discovered that I was in a black vacuum, and I realized that I had left my physical body. I knew I was dying, and I thought, “God, I would not live like this if I knew what would happen now. Please help me". And immediately I began to come out of this blackness and saw something pale gray, and I continued to move, slide in this space. Then I saw a gray tunnel and headed towards it. It seemed to me that I was not moving towards him as fast as I would like, because I realized that moving closer, I could see something through him. I saw people behind this tunnel. They looked the same as on the ground. There I saw something that could be mistaken for mood pictures. Everything was permeated with an amazing light: life-giving, golden yellow, warm and soft, completely unlike the light that we see on earth. As I approached, I felt that I was going through a tunnel. It was an amazing, joyful feeling. There are simply no words in human language to describe this. Only my time to cross this fog has probably not come yet. Right in front of me I saw my uncle Karl, who had died many years ago. He was blocking my way, say: “Go back, your work on earth is not finished yet. Come back now. " I didn't want to go, but I had no choice, so I returned to my body. And again I felt this terrible pain in my chest and heard my little son crying and shouting: “God, return mommy!”.

“I saw them lifting my body and pulling it out of the car, then I felt like I was being dragged through some limited space, something like a funnel. It was dark and black, and I was moving quickly through this funnel back to my body. When I was “poured in” back, it seemed to me that this “infusion” began from the head, as if I entered from the head. I didn’t feel that I could somehow reason about it, I didn’t even have time to think. Before that, I was a few yards from my body, and all events suddenly took a reverse course. I didn’t even have time to figure out what was the matter, I was “pouring” into my body ”.

“I was taken to the hospital in critical condition. They said that I would not survive, they invited my relatives, because I should die soon. My family came in and surrounded my bed. At the moment when the doctor decided that I was dead, my relatives became distant to me, as if they began to move away from me. It really looked as if I was not moving away from them, but they began to move further and further away from me. It was getting darker, and yet I saw them. Then I lost consciousness and did not see what was happening in the ward. I was in a narrow Y-shaped tunnel, like the curved back of this chair. This tunnel was shaped like my body. My arms and legs seemed to be folded at the seams. I began to enter this tunnel, moving forward. It was as dark as it ever gets. I moved down through it. Then I looked ahead and saw a beautiful polished door without any handles. I saw a very bright light from under the edges of the door. Its rays came out in such a way that it was clear that everyone there, outside the door, was very happy. These rays were moving and rotating all the time. It seemed that there, outside the door, everyone was terribly busy. Then I was brought back, and so quickly that it took my breath away. "

“I heard how the doctors said that I was dead. And then I felt how I began to fall or, as it were, swim through some kind of blackness, some kind of enclosed space. Words cannot describe it. Everything was very black, and only in the distance could I see this light. Very, very bright light, but not much at first. It got bigger as I got closer to it. I tried to get closer to this light, because I felt that it was something higher. I tried to get there. It wasn't scary. It was more or less pleasant ... "

“I got up and went to another room to pour something to drink, and at that very moment, as I was later told, I had a perforation of appendicitis, I felt severe weakness and fell. Then everything seemed to float strongly, and I felt the vibration of my being, tearing out of my body, and heard beautiful music. I hovered around the room and then through the door I was transported to the veranda. And there it seemed to me that some kind of cloud began to gather around me through the pink fog. And then I floated past through the partition, as if it were not there at all, towards the transparent clear light.

He was beautiful, so shiny, so radiant, but he did not blind me at all. It was an unearthly light. I really did not see anyone in this light, and yet there was a special individuality in it ... It was the light of absolute understanding and perfect love. In my mind I heard: "Do you love me?" It was not said in the form of a specific question, but I think that the meaning can be expressed like this: "If you really love me, come back and finish what you started in your life." And all this time I felt surrounded by overwhelming love and compassion. "

The phenomenon of posthumous visions in people who were in a state of clinical death, no one denies. However, Moody, as a conscientious researcher, considers other explanations of OBC, dividing them into three types: supernatural, natural (scientific) and psychological. I have already spoken about the supernatural. As scientific, Moody offers pharmacological, physiological and neurological explanations. Let's consider them in order.

* Moody, however, is forced to make a reservation that his patients, who had the experience of OBC, described their experiences in words that are only analogies or metaphors. Due to the different nature of the “other world”, these sensations cannot be adequately conveyed.

STORIES OF PEOPLE WHO WERE IN HELL

Most often, after clinical death, people remember something pleasant: extraterrestrial light, communication with benevolent creatures, a feeling of happiness.

But, sometimes there are stories that describe a terrible place, full of suffering and despair, i.e. hell.

Oregon's assistant engineer Thomas Welch stumbled and fell from a height, hitting the rung of the scaffold, into the water while working on a future sawmill. Several people saw this, and a search was immediately organized. After about an hour, he was found and brought back to life. But Thomas's soul during this period of time was far from the place of the tragedy. Falling from the footbridge, he unexpectedly found himself at a huge fiery ocean.

This sight amazed him, inspired horror and respect. A lake of fire stretched around him and took up the whole space, it boiled and rumbled. There was no one in it, and Thomas himself watched him from the side. But, around, not in the lake itself, but next to it, there were quite a lot of people. Thomas even recognized one of those present, although he did not speak to him. They once studied together, but he died as a child from cancer. The people around were in some kind of thoughtfulness, as if they were confused, puzzled by the spectacle of a terrible lake of fire, next to which they found themselves. Thomas himself realized that together with them he ended up in a prison, from which there is no way out. He thought that if he knew in advance about the existence of such a place, he would try during his lifetime to do everything in his power not to return here. As soon as these thoughts flashed through his head, an Angel appeared in front of him. Thomas was delighted, because he believed that he would help him get out of there, but did not dare to ask for help. He walked by, not paying attention to him, but before leaving, turned and looked at him. After that, Thomas's soul was returned to his body. He heard the voices of people who were nearby, and then he was able to open his eyes and speak.
This incident was described in Moritz S. Roolings' book Beyond Death. There you can also read a few more stories about how souls ended up in Hell during clinical death.

Another patient developed severe pain due to inflammation of the pancreas. He was given medications, but they did not help much, he lost consciousness. At that moment, he began to leave through a long tunnel, wondering that he did not touch his feet, moving as if floating in space. This place was very much like a dungeon or cave filled with eerie sounds and smells of decay. He forgot part of what he saw, but villains emerged in his memory, whose appearance was only half human. They spoke their own language and mimicked each other. In despair, the dying man shouted: "Save me!" Immediately a man in white clothes appeared and looked at him. He felt an indication that he had to live differently. This person did not remember anything else. Perhaps consciousness did not want to keep in memory all the horrors that he saw there.

Kenneth E. Hagin, who became a priest after a near-death experience, described his visions and experiences in My Testimony.

April 21, 1933 his heart stopped beating, and his soul separated from his body. She began to descend lower and lower, until the light of the earth completely disappeared. At the very end, he found himself in pitch darkness, absolute blackness, where he could not even make out a hand raised to his eyes. The further he descended, the hotter and sultry the space around him became. Then he found himself before the road to the underworld, where the lights of Hell were visible. A fiery sphere with white ridges approached him, which began to attract him to itself. The soul did not want to go, but could not resist, because attracted like iron to a magnet. Kenneth was bathed in heat. He found himself at the bottom of the pit. There was a creature next to him. At first, he did not pay attention to him, mesmerized by the picture of Hell stretched out in front of him, but this creature put a hand between his elbow and shoulder to guide him into hell itself. At this time, a voice rang out. The future priest did not understand the words, but he felt its strength and power. At that moment, his companion loosened his grip, and some force pulled him up. He found himself in his room and slipped into his body the same way he left - through his mouth. The grandmother, with whom he spoke, woke up, admitted that she considered him already dead.

There are descriptions of Hell in Orthodox books as well. One man, suffering from an illness, prayed to God that he would deliver him from suffering. An angel sent by him offered the sufferer, instead of one year on earth, to spend 3 hours in hell in order to cleanse his soul. He agreed. But, as it turned out, in vain. It was the most disgusting place that can be imagined. Everywhere there was closeness, darkness, spirits of malice soared, cries of sinners were heard, there was nothing but suffering. The patient's soul experienced inexpressible fear and anguish, but no one responded to his cries for help except a hellish echo and gurgle of flame. It seemed to him that he was there for eternity, although the Angel who visited him explained that only an hour had passed. The sufferer begged to be taken away from this terrible place, and was released, after which he patiently endured his illness.

The pictures of Hell are scary and unattractive, but they give a reason to think about a lot, to reconsider your attitude to life, to your desires and goals.

THE STORY OF A FOUR-YEAR-OLD BOY

This amazing real mystical story happened seven years ago. On a family vacation in Colorado. A four-year-old toddler, Colton Burpo, has a burst appendix. As the doctors said, peritonitis began and the child's condition was critical. The operation was very difficult, even the doctors did not strongly believe in a successful outcome.

His parents Todd and Sonya were very worried about their son. It was their only child, a year before the birth of Corlton, Sonya had a miscarriage, then the doctors told her heartbroken mother that it was a girl. Some time after the operation, waking up, the son told them an amazing, real story full of mysticism.

In his story, he told why the angel is dreaming. At first, he watched for a while, as if from the side of praying parents, and then found himself in an incredibly beautiful place. The first person he met there was his unborn sister. She explained to him that this amazing place is called Paradise, that she has no name, since her parents did not give it to her. The boy then revealed that he had met his great-grandfather, who had died more than 30 years before Corlton was born. The grandfather was young, and not the same as the boy remembered in the photographs of the last years of his life.

The child talked about the incredibly beautiful streets of gold. There is never night, and the sky plays with all the colors of the rainbow. Each inhabitant has an incredible glow overhead and they dress in long white robes with colorful ribbons. He was also struck by the gates of Paradise, they were made of pure gold with many precious stones inserted into the gates in the form of a mosaic.

Currently, Corleton lives with his parents in the small town of Imperial, Nebraska. The boy is completely healthy and goes to a local school. He is already 11 years old, but as he says that everything that he saw during the operation is still in front of his eyes today.

Parents wrote and published a book about this real mystical story of what happened to their son. The book sold out in large numbers. It has been published in Great Britain as well. These are the sometimes seemingly fantastic cases that happen to people. This happens when it seems that the person has already crossed the line from which there is no return. But they come back to life, which perplexes both physicians and scientific materialists.

BILL WISS. 23 MINUTES IN HELL

… We were on our way to the meeting. Suddenly a blow, a bright light. I remember that I found myself in a cell with stone walls and bars on the doors. If you imagine an ordinary prison cell, that's where I ended up. But in this cell I was not alone, there were four other creatures with me.

At first I did not understand who these creatures were, then I realized and saw that they were demons. I also remember when I got there, there was no physical strength in me, I was powerless. There was such weakness and powerlessness, as if I had absolutely no muscles at all. I also remember that there was a terrible heat in this cell.
The body looked like my real one, only a little different. The demons tore at my flesh, but when they did, no blood emanated from my body, there was no liquid, but I felt pain. I remember that they grabbed me and threw me against the wall, and after that all my bones seemed to break. And when I was experiencing this, I thought that I should die now, should die after all these injuries and from this heat. I wondered how it happened that I was still alive.

There was also the smell of sulfur and burning flesh. At that time I had not yet seen anyone who would burn in my presence, but I knew this smell, it was the familiar smell of burning flesh and sulfur.
The demons I saw there and who tortured me, they were about 12-13 feet tall, about four meters, and in their appearance they looked like reptiles.
I know, because I saw what came from them, the level of intelligence, consideration they had was zero. I also noticed that they had no mercy at the time when they hurt me and I was tormented, they did not show any mercy. But their strength, physical strength, was somewhere a thousand times greater than the strength of an ordinary person, therefore the person who was there could not fight with them and resist them.

When the demons continued to torture me, I tried to get rid of them, I tried to crawl out of my cell. I looked in one direction, but there was impenetrable darkness, and there I heard millions of human screams. These were very loud screams. And I also had this knowledge that there are many such prison cells as mine and there were like pits in a burning fire. And when I looked in the other direction, I could see tongues of fire emanating from the earth, which, as it were, even illuminated the sky. And there I saw such a pit or lake of fire, which was maybe three miles wide. And when these tongues of fire ascended, they illuminated, so that I could see what was happening around me. There the air was completely stench and smoke. The landscape of this area, the landscape was all brown and dark, there was no greenery there. There was not a drop of moisture or water anywhere around me in that place, and I had such a strong thirst that I wanted at least a drop of water. It would have been precious for me to get at least a drop of water from someone, but that was not the case.
I know that I was there for a very short time, but then it seemed to me that I was there for eternity. And there I especially understood the meaning of the word "eternity".

BOB JONES. JOURNEY TO HEAVEN

It happened on the 7th of August 1975.
My son and daughter-in-law brought me home and put me to bed. An unbearable pain fell on my body in all the insides. Heavy bleeding from the mouth began. The pain grew stronger and stronger and suddenly, in an instant, everything stopped. I saw that my body was separating from me. Rather, I separated from the body, not really understanding what was happening, and headed towards the light emanating from the entrance to the unusual corridor-tunnel. This light drew in me, and I flew along this corridor filled with light. And suddenly, it dawned on me - I was dead. An Angel in white was flying next to me.

We went out with the Angel from the tunnel-corridor into the space of a completely different world. There was a sky resembling an earthly one, but its color was indescribably lively, blue-gold color, constantly changing its tints. I saw many people like me who left the Earth. We gathered together, and in a single stream, moved somewhere, and where - only the angels who accompanied us knew. After a while, we approached the border dividing space. The border was unusual and resembled the shell of a soap bubble - transparent and very thin. Passing through it was accompanied by a strange sound resembling a pop. The shell seemed to break through, throwing each of us into another dimension and instantly slamming behind each one.
Having passed through this border, I saw that we were moving towards a distant, luminous point. As we approached, our hearts sank with the splendor emanating from the heavenly settlement. It was one of the cities of the Kingdom of Heaven. The angels slowly began to build our moving line to the gates of the city.

In front of the gate, the Angels divided the queue into two - left and right. The left one was huge. If we compare them in percentage terms, then there were 98% of people on the left, and only 2% on the right. The closer we got to the gate, the more vividly the inner essence of each was manifested. If a person was selfish, aspired to power, enslaving others, it was evident. It was possible to distinguish between bank employees cheating depositors, musicians, computer scientists, businessmen, etc. I felt uneasy.

I thought: "What if something is wrong with me?" And furtively looked at his angels. They told me that I would return to Earth to tell about what I saw. And they added that few would believe me.

THE STORY OF BORIS PILIPCHUK

Surprisingly, our contemporary policeman Boris Pilipchuk, who survived clinical death, also spoke about the shining gates and the palace of gold and silver in paradise:

“Behind the fiery gates, I saw a cube shining in gold. He was huge. "

The shock from the bliss experienced in paradise was so great that after the resurrection Boris Pilipchuk completely changed his life. He quit drinking and smoking. His wife did not recognize him as a former spouse:

“He was often rude, but now Boris is always gentle and affectionate. I believed that it was him only after he told me about cases that only the two of us knew about. But at first it was scary to sleep with a man who had returned from the other world, as if with a dead man. The ice melted only after a miracle happened, he named the exact date of birth of our unborn child, day and hour. I gave birth exactly at the time he named. "

WANG AND GOD

The extraordinary abilities of the Bulgarian clairvoyant from Petrich at one time shocked the whole world. It was attended by heads of powers, famous actors, people of art, politicians, psychics and the common people. Every day, Wanga received many people who went to her for help, sometimes a visit to her was the last consolation for them. Grandma Wang not only predicted, but was also a healer, healed with herbs. In her selfless help to people, Wanga denied herself rest and treatment, even when she was already well over eighty. After all, hundreds of sufferers gathered every day near her house, sometimes coming to her for thousands of kilometers. Vanga could not refuse….

Grandma Vanga always said that her gift was from God, since he took her eyesight, but gave something else in return. According to her, it was impossible to somehow study her gift, or explain logically, because God himself gave her knowledge and guided her destiny. And God has his own logic, which differs from the human one.

Vanga saw God... According to her, they look completely different from what is commonly believed. She described it as a ball of fire woven of light that was painful to look at. Vanga warned about the need to lead a righteous life in order to see firsthand a new, joyful life after the second coming. She perceived God as a supreme being, consisting of love and light, she thanks him for her extraordinary destiny and the sent down gift of foresight. Vanga trusts in God until the last day of his life, praying for the health of relatives and friends and for the future of all mankind.

Here are some of her words:

“Be kinder so as not to suffer more, a person is born for good deeds. The bad ones do not go unpunished. "

“My gift is from God. He deprived me of my sight, but gave me other eyes with which I see the world - both visible and invisible ... "

"How many books have been written, but no one will give a final answer if they do not understand and recognize that there is a spiritual world (heaven) and a physical (earth) and a supreme force, call it whatever you want, which created us."

JENNIFER REZ. HELL IS REALITY

My name is Jennifer Perez and I am 15 years old. I was visiting friends, we drank something. I felt uneasy, I lost consciousness. Suddenly I felt my spirit leave my body. I saw my body lying on the bed. When I turned around, I saw two people. They said, “Come with us,” and grabbed my arms. And they told me that I was meant to go to Hell
The angel came over and took my arm. Then we started to fall down at a very high speed. As we fell, it got hotter and hotter. When we stopped, I opened my eyes and saw that I was standing on a high road. I started looking around and saw people tormented by demons.

There was a girl there, she suffered a lot, the demon mocked her. This demon cut off her head and stabbed her everywhere with his spear. He did not care where, in the eyes, in the body, in the legs, in the hands. Then he put his head back on the body and continued to stab her. She sobbed with cries of agony. Her body was dying and rebuilding again, endless death throes.

Then I saw another demon, this demon tortured a young man of 21-23 years old. This man had a chain around his neck. He stood near the fire pit. The demon stabbed him with his long spear. Then he grabbed him by the hair and with the help of a chain threw the guy into a pit of fire. After, the demon pulled him out of the fire and continued to stab him with a spear. This went on constantly, without end.

I turned around and looked at my Angel, he was looking up. I thought he didn't want to watch other people tortured. He looked down at me and said, "You have one more chance." We were again transported to the gate.

I was shown the Earth on something like a screen. They also showed me the future. People will find out the truth. You should check how you live and ask yourself the question: "Am I ready for this moment?" He showed me this, but told me not to tell anyone, but to wait and watch the approach of this moment. I warn you that the coming is near!

JOHN RYNOLDZ. FORTY EIGHT HOURS IN HELL

During 1887 and 1888, the horse thief prisoner Georgy Lennox worked in a coal mine. One day a roof collapsed on him and completely buried him. Suddenly there was complete darkness, then, as it were, a large iron door swung open and I stepped through the opening. The thought that pierced me was - I am dead and am in another world.

Soon I was greeted by a creature that is completely impossible to describe. I can only give a faint outline of this terrible phenomenon. It resembled to some extent a person, but it was much larger than any person I have ever seen. He was about 3 meters tall, had huge wings on his back, black as coal, which I mined, and completely naked. In his hands he held a spear, the handle of which was probably 15 feet long. His eyes burned like balls of fire. The teeth were like pearls and one and a half centimeters long. The nose, if you can call it that, is very large, wide and flat. Hair, coarse, coarse, and long, hung along massive shoulders. I saw him in a flash of light and trembled like an aspen leaf. He raised his spear as if he wanted to pierce me. In his terrible voice, which, it seems to me, can be heard even now, he offered to follow him, saying that he was sent to accompany me ...

... I saw a lake of fire. The fiery sulfur lake stretched out in front of me as far as the eye could see. Large waves of fire were like sea waves during a violent storm. People were lifted high on the crests of the waves and then promptly thrown down into the depths of the terrible fiery hell. Finding themselves for a moment on the crest of the waves of fire, they uttered heartbreaking screams. This vast underworld was again and again resounded by the groaning of the abandoned souls.

Soon I turned my gaze to the door through which I entered a few minutes ago, and read these terrible words: “This is your death. Eternity never ends. " I felt like something began to pull me back and I opened my eyes while in the prison hospital.

CLINICAL DEATH

The case, which will be discussed further, is also not something special, except for the moment that the protagonist, Tatyana Vanicheva, contrived to reasonably take advantage of her disembodied state and looked twice at the clock lying on her nightstand: at the moment of leaving body and at the time of return. Interesting: at least half an hour passed between these events. Moreover, the resuscitators took up her body just after this period. Well, for half an hour in the astral world, the woman managed to see and experience very curious things.

She sent her story in 1997 to the editorial office of one of the Rostov newspapers, of course, knowing nothing about the research of Professor Spivak.

“It was on November 3, 1986 at 4:15 pm. I was in the hospital. But since it was not the first time she gave birth and practically did not scream, the medical staff rarely approached me. I was alone in the prenatal ward and lay on the bed. Nearby, on the nightstand, on the opposite edge from me, lay my watch. This moment is very important: it was the watch that gave me proof that everything that happened to me was not delirium and not a dream.

Feeling the beginning of labor, I call the midwife, but she does not come. And then, with my last cry, I gave birth and ... died. That is, only after a few minutes I realized that I was dead, but so far there was only a short-term loss of consciousness. I woke up and found myself standing by the bed. I looked at the bed, and I was lying on it myself! She shook her head, felt herself with her hands: no, here I am! Standing alive and normal! Who is lying?

It became uncomfortable. I feel even the hair on my head is moving. She mechanically smoothed them with her hand. At that moment I looked at the clock: 16.15. So I'm dead? This explains the fact that I am standing and lying on the bed at the same time. What about my child? I stepped from the bedside table and did not feel the floor, and I’m barefoot! I ran my hand over my body - after all, I was completely naked, the shirt remained on the one on the bed! Is it really me? F-fu, disgusting! Is this fat carcass me? Once again I ran my hands over the body: a strong, slender body, as in my youth, about fifteen years old. She remembered that she wanted to look at the child, bent down ... God, freak! My baby is ugly! Lord, why? And then I feel that I am being pulled somewhere. I began to look for a way out of the room and flew out of the hospital. I'm flying! Everything up and up. Now the sky has turned black, now space is - I'm flying! It flew for a long time. There are billions of stars around - how beautiful! I feel, approaching ... where, why? Do not know. And then there was a light. Warm, lively, infinitely dear. An incredibly blissful feeling spread through my body - I'm at home! Finally I'm home!

But then the light grew a little cold, and a voice rang out. He was strict: "Where are you going?" I feel that it is impossible to speak loudly here, and I quietly answer: "Home ..."

It became cold and dark all around. I'm flying back. I don't know where exactly, I was moving as if by a thread. Although I didn’t see her. She returned to the family home. I stand by the bed. I look at myself again. What a disgusting body! How I do not want to return to it. But you can't argue with the voice. We must return. And then it occurred to me that I (that is, the one on the bed) needed help - she died!

I went to the staff room, feeling quite real. And there I was faced with the fact that they did not see me and did not hear me! I hustle the midwife, the nurse, but my hands go through them. I scream, but they do not hear! What to do? There is also a child, he will die without help! Let the freak, but this is my child! I have to help him!

Came out. I hear the midwife says: “Is there something Vanicheva stopped talking, should I go and have a look? Has she given birth? She's always not like people. I’ll go and see ”.

The midwife got up and ran into the ward. And before returning to my body, I automatically looked at the clock: 4:40 pm. And - returned. True, not right away. I also looked at how scared the midwife was, how she ran after the doctor and how they began to inject me. I hear: “Lord, she died! There is no pulse, no pressure ... Oh, what to do? "

All right, I have to go. I came close to my head, instant loss of consciousness - and so I lay on the bed and open my eyes. "Well, not good this time, huh?" - I ask. In response, a relieved sigh of the midwife: "Ugh, how you scared us, Tanya."

For a while, I thought that everything told here was just a dream to me. But no matter how I tried to see the clock on the nightstand from the bed, it didn't work. If she got out of bed and sat down, she would certainly crush the child. And he is still alive and well.

I also asked the doctor, could I have delirium? She replied that this only happens with childbirth fever, but as long as I gave birth, I never had a fever. I know one thing for sure, that it all happened! Few people believed me whom I told. I even visited a psychiatrist: everything is in order with my psyche ”.

MARVIN FORD. I STARTED INTO THE SKY

Marvin Ford was in the hospital after a serious heart attack. He experienced clinical death. … I saw such a dazzling sight, which I had never seen and could not even imagine in my entire life! The beauty, grandeur, splendor of that city was breathtaking! The golden color and rays of light that emanated from this city were dazzling to the eyes. Not for my eyes. My spirit saw it.

I saw the walls of jasper! The walls were completely transparent because the light from inside that city was so bright that absolutely nothing could withstand it. And I saw precious and semi-precious stones in the foundations of these walls. The Pearl Gate looks like it is at least 1,500 kilometers in diameter.
And I saw, from wall to wall, streets, millions of kilometers of streets of solid gold. Not paved with gold, as one poet wrote, but those streets are solid gold, completely and absolutely transparent. Oh, what splendor and beauty, and the rays of light that emanated from those streets!

And I saw, on each side of the streets of gold, mansions. I saw huge mansions and I saw small houses, I saw mansions of all sizes in between. And as a builder, I am interested in building and I am good at buildings. And I examined everything in this city, even more than the city itself, to find out what these mansions are built from. And you know what? I could not find! They were all completed ...

MY WAY TO SALVATION LAYED THROUGH HELL

... I ended up in a hell of a hell. There was absolute darkness and silence all around. What was most painful was the lack of time. But the suffering was absolutely real. Only me, suffering and eternity. And now a chill runs through the body at the memory of this horror. Here he shouted for help. Then he returned to reality.

But after five minutes I completely forgot about it. I wanted to inject again. Now this seems very strange to me. My life began to crumble. I lost everything I had: home, job, family, friends. Everything around fell apart like a house of cards. All those values ​​that I was guided by have lost their significance. My life has become like a series of nightmares. Whatever I did, it got me in big trouble at best.

I once tried to commit a scam to get a large amount of money. And everything seemed to have ended well, but my accomplices decided to do without me. Under a far-fetched pretext, they lured me to Rostov and tried to kill me. Some kind of poison was poured into my vodka. According to the doctors, it was a “cardiotoxic substance”.
I vaguely remember how it all happened. Clinical death occurred suddenly. And again hell. Or, at least, its threshold. I felt tied to the table, like those in the morgue, and some terrible demonic creature was preparing to open me, fingering clinking instruments. I screamed and struggled, but to no avail. I was brought back again ... I survived ...

DESCRIPTION OF PARADISE

Paradise is a wonderful place filled with light, pleasant smells, where the soul soars and enjoys.

People who have experienced clinical death also have visions of paradise.

So, Betty Maltz spoke about her visions after clinical death. She traveled up a green hill, walked on grass of an unusually bright green color. It was surrounded by colorful flowers, trees and shrubs, and, although the sun was not visible, the whole space was flooded with bright light. She was accompanied by a tall man in wide clothes, most likely an angel. Together they walked to a silvery structure that looked like a palace. The melodic singing of a harmonious choir of voices was heard all around. A gate about 4 meters high appeared in front of them, made of a single pearl leaf. The angel touched them and they opened. Inside, a golden street was visible with a ceiling made of something shiny, reminiscent of either glass or water. A bright yellow light blinded inside. She was invited to enter, but then the woman remembered her father. The gates slammed shut and she began to walk down the hill, just seeing the sunrise over the jeweled wall in goodbye.

John Myers' book Voices at the Edge of Eternity describes the feelings of a woman who also traveled to heaven. As soon as her soul left her body, she found herself in a place filled with light. She believed that all earthly joys were incomparable with what she experienced there. Her soul reveled in beauty, constantly felt the presence of harmony, joy, sympathy, she herself wanted to merge, to become a part of this beauty. Around her were trees, simultaneously covered with fruits and fragrant flowers, and she herself dreamed of frolicking with a crowd of children in an apple orchard.

The doctor from Virginia, George Ritchie, admired the pictures of paradise for only a few moments. He saw a radiant city in which everything shone: houses, streets, walls, and the inhabitants of this world were also woven of light.

In the book of R. Moody "Reflections on Life After Life" there is a whole chapter called "Cities of Light". It also tells about people who have visited these fabulous places.

One survivor of cardiac arrest flew through the tunnel and into a bright light, beautiful, golden, emanating from a source unknown to him. He was everywhere, occupying the entire surrounding space.
Then the music sounded, and it seemed to him that he was among the trees, streams, mountains. But, it turned out that he was mistaken, there was nothing like that, but there was a feeling of the presence of people. He did not see them, he just knew that they were near. At the same time, he was filled with a sense of the perfection of the world, felt satisfaction and love, he himself became a particle of this love.

A woman who experienced clinical death at that very moment left her body. She stood by the bed and saw herself from the side, felt the nurse pass through her, heading for an oxygen mask. Then she swam up, found herself in a tunnel, and came out into the shining light. She found herself in a wonderful place filled with bright colors, indescribable and not like earthly ones. The entire space was filled with brilliant light. There were many happy people in it, some of whom also glowed. In the distance was a city, with buildings, fountains, sparkling water ... It was filled with light. There were also happy people, wonderful music played.

Colton Barpo, a four-year-old boy, was between life and death. To save him, an urgent operation was needed, in the success of which the doctors themselves were not sure. But, the boy survived, and, besides this, he spoke about his amazing journey to paradise. His description of this place is similar to the stories of other eyewitnesses: streets of gold, many shades of color, etc. But, most surprisingly, Colton was able to prove the veracity of what he saw. He said that he had met a sister in heaven who was very much like him. She began to hug her brother, saying that she was very glad to meet with a member of her family, told that she missed her parents. When the boy asked her name, she said that they did not have time to give it to her. As it turned out, a year before the birth of the boy, his mother had a miscarriage, i.e. little sister really could have been born. However, Colton himself did not know about this. The boy also met his great-grandfather in Paradise, who died 30 years before his birth. After this meeting, he recognized him in a photograph, where he was depicted as a young man. According to the boy's stories, the inhabitants of Paradise forgot what old age is, and lived in it forever young. Colton's father, Pastor Todd Barpo, wrote a book about everything his son had gone through, and it became a bestseller, Heaven Really Is.

People who visited Paradise were amazed not only by its unearthly beauty, but also by their feelings: a sense of serenity, universal love and harmony. Perhaps this is the key moment of heavenly bliss. The ability to love, to give love to others is rewarded even on earth, and in heaven, souls are immersed in this world of light and love in order to stay in it forever.

EXPERIENCE OF CLINICAL DEATH BY SHERON STONE

On The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 27, 2004, actress Sharon Stone shared her near-death experiences with the public.

“I saw a lot of white light,” Stone said. This happened after she had an MRI. She was unconscious during the session, and when she woke up, she told the doctors that she had experienced clinical death.

“It's like fainting, only you can't recover for longer,” she says. Stone suffered a stroke in 2001.

Her out-of-body experience began with a flash of white light.

“I saw a lot of white light and my friends who had already died, they spoke to me. My grandmother came up to me and told me to trust the doctors, and then I came back into my body, ”said the actress.

However, this experience did not surprise Sharon, she felt "an incredible sense of well-being" and described her condition as wonderful: "It is very close and very safe ... a feeling of love, tenderness and happiness, and there is nothing to be afraid of."

JOURNEY TO HELL

Each person who has survived a short journey to the next world has his own story, his own experience. Many researchers were often surprised at how similar the pictures described by people in different parts of the world are, independent of their lifestyle, education, religious views. But, sometimes there, beyond the edge, a person falls into reality, more like a terrible fairy tale, which we call hell.

What is the classic description of hell?

You can read about him in Acts of Thomas, where everything is presented in an accessible and simple language. The story is told on behalf of a sinful woman who visited this place of darkness and told in detail about everything she saw.

She, accompanied by a terrible creature in stained clothes, found herself in an area with many abysses, from where deadly vapors rose.

Looking into one of the pits, she saw a flame that swirled like a whirlwind. Souls were spinning in it, colliding with each other, emitting screams and noise. They could not get out of this whirlwind. In this place, those who on earth entered into illegal relations with each other were punished.

Those who abandoned their spouses to unite with others were tormented in the second abyss, in the mud, among the worms.

Elsewhere there was a gathering of souls suspended from different parts of the body. As the guide explained, each punishment corresponded to a sin: those who were hung by their tongues were in life slanderers, liars, foul language; the shameless and loitering were hung by the hair; by the hands of thieves and those who did not come to the aid of those in need, but preferred to take all material goods for themselves; by the legs they hung up those who lived dissolutely, walked in bad ways, not caring about other people.

Then the woman was taken to a cave filled with a stench, from where the captives tried to escape at least for a second in order to take a breath of fresh air, but were stopped. The guards tried to send the soul of this traveler to carry out punishment, but the accompanying creature did not allow her to do this, because he was not ordered to leave her in hell.

The woman managed to get out, after which she decided to change her life so as not to be there again.

Reading these and similar stories, you involuntarily begin to think that they look like a fairy tale. The punishments are too harsh, the pictures are implausible, the content is frightening. However, there are more modern and reliable sources from which we can learn that not everything described above is a figment of the imagination of religious fanatics, and there is a place full of horror and suffering. Moritz S. Roolings, MD, was not as sure of an afterlife as most of his colleagues. But one case in practice made him take more seriously the experiences of people who have experienced clinical death, and later even reconsider his views on life.

One of his patients with heart disease felt worse during testing, fell to the floor, and the devices at that moment showed complete cardiac arrest. The doctor, together with his assistants, did everything to revive the man, but the results were short-lived. As soon as the doctor interrupted the manual chest massage, breathing stopped and the heart stopped beating. But, in between, when his rhythm was restored, this man shouted that he was in hell and asked the doctor not to stop and bring him back to life. His face was distorted by a terrible grimace, horror was written on his face, his pupils were dilated, and he himself was drenched in sweat and trembling. The man asked the doctor to get him out of this terrible place. Later, the doctor, impressed by everything he saw, decided to talk with this man to find out all the details of what he saw in hell. After his clinical death, the man became a believer, although before that he had rarely been to church.

This is not the only time in Rawlings' practice that his patient ends up in the underworld. He also talks about a girl who decided to kill herself because of a bad report card and minor fights with her parents. The doctors did their best to revive her. In those moments when consciousness returned to her, she asked her mother to protect her from someone who was hurting her. At first everyone thought she was talking about doctors, but the girl said something else: “them, those demons in hell ... They didn't want to leave me ... They wanted me ... I couldn't return ... It was so awful!” ... later she became a missionary ...

Very often, those who have been between life and death talk about unusual encounters, about flights to unknown distances, but rarely does anyone describe their short-term death full of torment, suffering and fear. But, as it turned out, many could have similar memories if the caring subconscious did not hide them as deeply as possible, so as not to poison their lives with thoughts of torment, or, for some other reason, unknown to us.

DON PIPER'S CLINICAL DEATH STORY

Piper had an accident on January 18, 1989. They pronounced him dead. After 1.5 hours, Piper returned to life. During this time, he managed to make an unforgettable journey to the next world.

At the moment of death, Piper felt that he was flying through a long dark tunnel. Suddenly he was enveloped in a very bright light that defies description. He recalled that joy vibrated in him. Looking around, he noticed a very beautiful gate to the city and a group of people in front of them. It turned out that all these people are his acquaintances who died during his lifetime. They were very happy to meet, smiled. There were a lot of them, and they were very happy. This whole picture was filled with the brightest colors, warm light and delighted with beauty, unprecedented sensations. Piper felt that everyone loved him, he absorbed this love, enjoying what was happening. The people around him were beautiful, without wrinkles and signs of aging, they looked the same as he remembered them during his lifetime.

The gates of Paradise sparkled brighter than the light that surrounded them. Everything there literally shone in such a way that human speech is not able to convey it. The whole group went forward. There was also a bright light outside the gate. The radiance that was in the beginning, emanating from the greeters, gradually began to pale in comparison with this light. The further they moved, the more light became. Then there was music, very pleasant and beautiful, which did not stop. She filled his soul and heart. Piper felt that he had returned home, he did not want to leave this place.

Above the entire group appeared the gates of the city, huge, but with a small entrance. They were mother-of-pearl, iridescent, glowing and shimmering. Behind them was a city with cobbled streets of solid gold. The greeters went to the gate and called Piper with them. But, unexpectedly, he left this place filled with peace and joy, and found himself on Earth.

After his miraculous return to life, Don Piper was bedridden and underwent 34 operations. He talks about all this in more detail in his book "90 Minutes in Heaven." His courage and perseverance helped many to believe in their own strength and with humility and gratitude to accept all the trials that so often fall to the lot of an ordinary person.

CLINICAL DEATH STORIES

What could be more mysterious than death?

Nobody knows what lurks there, outside of life. However, from time to time there are testimonies of people who have been in a state of clinical death and talk about extraordinary visions: tunnels, bright light, meetings with angels, deceased relatives, etc.
I read a lot about clinical death, and even once watched a program where people who survived it spoke. Each of them told very convincing stories, how he came to the afterlife, what happened there and all that ... Personally, I believe in clinical death, it really exists, and scientists scientifically confirm this. They explain this phenomenon by the fact that a person is completely immersed in his subconscious and sees things that he sometimes really wants to see, or is transferred to a time that he remembers very much. That is, a person is really in a state when all organs of the body fail, but the brain is in working order and a picture of real events appears before the person's eyes. But, after a while, this picture disappears gradually, and the organs resume their work again, and the brain is in a state of inhibition for some time, this can last for several minutes, several hours, days, and sometimes a person never comes to his senses at all. clinical death ... But at the same time, the memory of a person is fully preserved! And there is also such a statement that a coma is also a kind of clinical death.
What do people see at the time of clinical death?

Various visions are known: light, tunnel, faces of deceased relatives ... How to explain this?

What happens to a person after clinical death? The stories of patients who have experienced clinical death are very often indicative of the existence of God.

Someone appears before the Lord, someone before Satan. People who for a moment meet with God, having regained consciousness, radically change their lives.

Testimonies of God: what happens to people who have experienced clinical death

• Some of the stories only confirm scientific facts. People who have experienced clinical death are faced with a similar set of visions that have a scientific explanation.
• Cardiac arrest is followed by clinical brain death. The pictures that patients see occur in the last minutes before clinical death, during the agony of the body.

• The uniformity of visions is influenced by influence of several factors. Unstable work of the heart causes oxygen starvation of the brain. This condition leads to a characteristic reaction of the body.
• Hallucinations in which the patient appears to be near death leaves his physical body, are explained by accelerated eye movement. Reality is mixed with hallucinations, there is a mirror image of some pictures.
• A person's stay in a certain space - moving along narrow corridors, flying in the air, arise due to the heightened work of tunnel vision in the last minutes of life. Flights are also associated with weakening of the vestibular apparatus.
• According to research, in the moment of death in the body, the serotonin level increases sharply. This result gives a person an unlimited sense of peace and tranquility. The onset of clinical death plunges the patient into darkness.

Believe in God or scientific explanations - the decision is yours. The stories of survivors will help to understand what clinical death is.

“Man is mortal, but his main problem is that he is mortal suddenly,” these words, put into Woland's mouth by Bulgakov, perfectly describe the feelings of most people. Probably, there is no person who is not afraid of death. But along with the big death there is a small death - clinical. What is it, why people who have experienced clinical death often see divine light and is it not a delayed path to heaven - in the material of the site.

Clinical death from a medical point of view

The problems of studying clinical death as a borderline state between life and death remain one of the most important in modern medicine. The solution to many of its secrets is also difficult because many people who have experienced clinical death do not fully recover, and more than half of patients with a similar condition cannot be reanimated, and they die really - biologically.

So, clinical death is a condition accompanied by cardiac arrest, or asystole (a condition in which different parts of the heart stop contracting first, and then cardiac arrest occurs), respiratory arrest and deep, or transcendental, cerebral coma. Everything is clear with the first two points, but about whom it is worth explaining in more detail. Usually doctors in Russia use the so-called Glasgow scale. A 15-point system is used to assess the reaction of opening the eyes, as well as motor and speech reactions. 15 points on this scale correspond to clear consciousness, and the minimum point - 3, when the brain does not respond to any kind of external influence, corresponds to an outrageous coma.

After cessation of breathing and cardiac activity, a person does not die immediately. Consciousness is turned off almost instantly, because the brain does not receive oxygen and oxygen starvation sets in. But nevertheless, in a short period of time, from three to six minutes, he can still be saved. Approximately three minutes after the cessation of respiration, cell death begins in the cerebral cortex, the so-called decortication. The cerebral cortex is responsible for higher nervous activity and, after decortication, resuscitation measures can be successful, but a person can be doomed to a vegetative existence.

A few minutes later, cells from other parts of the brain begin to die - in the thalamus, hippocampus, cerebral hemispheres. A condition in which all parts of the brain have lost functional neurons is called decerebration and actually corresponds to the concept of biological death. That is, the revival of people after decerebration is, in principle, possible, but a person will be doomed to the end of his life for a long time to be on artificial ventilation and other maintenance procedures.

The fact is that the vital (vital - site) centers are located in the medulla oblongata, which regulates breathing, heartbeat, cardiovascular tone, as well as unconditioned reflexes like sneezing. With oxygen starvation, the medulla oblongata, which is actually an extension of the spinal cord, dies in one of the last parts of the brain. However, despite the fact that the vital centers may not be damaged, by that time decortication has already begun, making it impossible to return to normal life.

Other human organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys can go much longer without oxygen. Therefore, one should not be surprised at a transplant, for example, of a kidney taken from a patient with an already dead brain. Despite brain death, the kidneys remain in working order for some time. And the muscles and cells of the intestine live without oxygen for six hours.

Currently, methods have been developed that allow increasing the duration of clinical death up to two hours. This effect is achieved with the help of hypothermia, that is, artificial cooling of the body.

As a rule (unless, of course, the case does not take place in a clinic under the supervision of doctors), it is rather difficult to determine exactly when the cardiac arrest occurred. According to the current regulations, doctors are required to carry out resuscitation measures: heart massage, artificial respiration within 30 minutes from the beginning. If during this time it was not possible to reanimate the patient, then biological death is stated.

However, there are several signs of biological death that appear within 10-15 minutes after brain death. First, Beloglazov's symptom appears (when pressing on the eyeball, the pupil becomes similar to a cat's), and then the cornea of ​​the eyes dries out. In the presence of these symptoms, resuscitation is not performed.

How many people safely survive clinical death

It may seem that most people who find themselves in a state of clinical death will get out of it safely. However, this is not the case, only three to four percent of patients can be resuscitated, after which they return to normal life and do not suffer from any mental disorders or loss of body functions.

Another six to seven percent of patients, being resuscitated, nevertheless do not fully recover, suffer from various brain lesions. The vast majority of patients die.

This sad statistics is largely due to two reasons. The first of them - clinical death can occur not under the supervision of doctors, but, for example, in the country, from where it is at least half an hour's drive to the nearest hospital. In this case, doctors will come when it will no longer be possible to save a person. Sometimes it is impossible to carry out timely defibrillation when ventricular fibrillation occurs.

The second reason remains the nature of the body's lesions during clinical death. When it comes to massive blood loss, resuscitation measures are almost always unsuccessful. The same applies to critical myocardial damage during a heart attack.

For example, if more than 40 percent of the myocardium is affected as a result of blockage of one of the coronary arteries, a fatal outcome is inevitable, because the body cannot live without heart muscles, no matter what resuscitation measures are taken.

Thus, it is possible to increase the survival rate in case of clinical death mainly by equipping crowded areas with defibrillators, as well as by organizing flying ambulance teams in hard-to-reach areas.

Clinical death for patients

If clinical death for doctors is an urgent condition in which it is necessary to urgently resort to resuscitation measures, then for patients it often seems to be a road to the bright world. Many people who have experienced clinical death told that they saw the light at the end of the tunnel, someone met with their long-dead relatives, others looked at the earth from a bird's eye view.

"I had a light (yes, I know how it sounds), and I kind of saw everything from the outside. It was bliss, or something. No pain for the first time in so much time. someone else's life and now I just slip back into my own skin, my life is the only one in which I feel comfortable. She squeezes a little, but it’s a pleasant tightness, like a frayed pair of jeans that you have been wearing for years, ”says Lydia, one of the patients who clinical death.

It is this feature of clinical death, its ability to evoke vivid images, is still the subject of numerous disputes. From a purely scientific point of view, what is happening is described quite simply: brain hypoxia occurs, which leads to hallucinations in the actual absence of consciousness. What kind of images a person has in this state is a strictly individual question. The mechanism of the onset of hallucinations has not yet been fully elucidated.

The endorphin theory was very popular at one time. According to her, much of what people feel at near death can be attributed to the release of endorphins due to extreme stress. Since endorphins are responsible for receiving pleasure, and in particular even for orgasm, it is easy to guess that many people who have experienced clinical death, after it, considered ordinary life only a burdensome routine. However, in recent years, this theory has been debunked because researchers have found no evidence that endorphins are released during clinical death.

There is also a religious point of view. As, however, and in any cases that are inexplicable from the standpoint of modern science. Many people (among them there are scientists) are inclined to believe that after death a person goes to heaven or hell, and the hallucinations seen by those who survived clinical death are only proof that hell or heaven exists, like the afterlife in general. It is extremely difficult to assess these views in any way.

Nevertheless, not all people experienced paradise bliss at clinical death.

"I suffered clinical death twice in less than one month. I did not see anything. When they returned, I realized that I was nowhere, in nothingness. I had nothing there. , together with my soul. Now death does not bother me very much, but I enjoy life ", - accountant Andrey cites his experience.

In general, studies have shown that at the time of human death, the body loses insignificantly in weight (literally a few grams). The adherents of religions hastened to assure humanity that at this moment the soul is separated from the human body. However, the scientific approach says that the weight of the human body changes due to the chemical processes taking place in the brain at the time of death.

Doctor's opinion

Current standards dictate resuscitation within 30 minutes after the last heartbeat. Resuscitation is terminated upon death of the human brain, namely at registration on the EEG. I personally have once successfully resuscitated a patient whose heart has stopped. In my opinion, the stories of people who have experienced clinical death, in most cases, are myth or fiction. I have never heard such stories from patients of our hospital. Likewise, there were no such stories from colleagues.

Moreover, people tend to call clinical death completely different conditions. Perhaps the people who allegedly suffered it did not actually die, they just had a syncope, that is, fainting.

The main cause that leads to clinical death (as well as, in fact, to death in general) are cardiovascular diseases. Generally speaking, such statistics are not kept, but one must clearly understand that clinical death occurs first, and then biological. Since the first place in mortality in Russia is occupied by diseases of the heart and blood vessels, it is logical to assume that they most often lead to clinical death.

Dmitry Eletskov

anesthesiologist-resuscitator, Volgograd

One way or another, the phenomenon of near-death experiences deserves careful study. And scientists have a rather difficult time, because in addition to the fact that it is necessary to establish which chemical processes in the brain lead to the appearance of certain hallucinations, it is also necessary to distinguish truth from fiction.