New facts about life after death. Is there life after death - scientific evidence

Early 21st century - A study was published by Peter Fenwick of the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parin of Southampton Central Hospital. Researchers have received irrefutable evidence that human consciousness does not depend on the activity of the brain and does not cease to live when all processes in the brain have already stopped.

As part of the experiment, scientists studied the case histories and personally interviewed 63 cardiac patients who had experienced clinical death. It turned out that 56 who returned from the other world did not remember anything. They lost consciousness and came to their senses in a hospital room. But seven patients retained clear memories of the experience. Four claimed that they were seized with a sense of calm and joy, the passage of time accelerated, the feeling of their body did not disappear, their mood improved, even became elevated. Then a bright light appeared, as evidence of a transition to another world. A little later, mythical creatures appeared that looked like angels or saints. Patients were for some time in another world, and then returned to our reality.

Note that these people were not pious at all. For example, three said they did not attend church at all. Therefore, to explain this kind of messages by religious fanaticism will not work.

But sensational in the study of scientists was completely different. After carefully studying the medical records of patients, the doctors issued a verdict - the prevailing opinion about the termination of the brain due to oxygen deficiency is wrong. None of those who were in a state of clinical death recorded a significant decrease in the content of life-giving gas in the tissues of the central nervous system.

Another hypothesis was also erroneous: that vision could be caused by an irrational combination of medications used during resuscitation. Everything was done strictly according to the standard.

Sam Parina assures that he started the experiment as a skeptic, but now he is one hundred percent sure - "there is something here." “Respondents experienced their incredible states at a time when the brain was no longer functioning and therefore was not able to reproduce any memories.”

According to the British scientist, human consciousness is not a function of the brain. And if this is so, explains Peter Fenwick, "consciousness is quite capable of continuing its existence after the death of the physical body."

“When we conduct research on the brain,” wrote Sam Parina, “it is clearly seen that the brain cells in their structure, in principle, do not differ from the rest of the cells of the body. They also produce protein and other chemicals, but they are not capable of creating the subjective thoughts and images that we define as human consciousness. In the end, our brain is necessary for us only as a receiver-transducer. It works like a kind of “live TV”: at first it perceives the waves falling into it, and then it converts them into an image and sound, which form integral pictures.”

Later, in December 2001, three scientists from the Rijenstate Hospital (Holland), led by Pim Van Lommel, conducted the largest study to date of people who have experienced clinical death. The results were published in the article "Near-death experience of survivors" after cardiac arrest: a targeted study of a specially formed group in the Netherlands in the British medical journal The Lancet. The Dutch researchers came to similar conclusions as their British counterparts from Southampton.

Based on statistics obtained over a decade, researchers have found that visions are far from visited by all survivors of clinical death. Only 62 patients (18%) of 344 who underwent 509 resuscitations retained a clear memory of a near-death experience.

• During clinical death, more than half of the patients experienced positive emotions.
• Awareness of the fact of one's own death was noted in 50% of cases.
• In 32% there were meetings with dead people.
• 33% of those who died spoke about passing through the tunnel.
• Pictures of the alien landscape have seen almost as many reanimated.
• The out-of-body phenomenon (when a person looks at himself from the outside) was experienced by 24% of the respondents.
• A blinding flash of light recorded the same number of people brought back to life.
• In 13% of cases, the resuscitated observed pictures of their lives passing by in succession.
• Less than 10% of respondents spoke about the vision of the border between the world of the living and the dead.
• None of the survivors of clinical death reported fearful or unpleasant sensations.
• Particularly impressive is the fact that people who were blind from birth spoke about visual impressions, they literally repeated verbatim the narrations of the sighted.

It will be interesting to note that a little earlier, Dr. Ring from America made attempts to find out the content of the dying visions of those who were blind from birth. He, along with colleague Sharon Cooper, recorded the testimonies of 18 blind people who, for some reason, ended up in a state of “temporary death.”

According to the testimonies of those interviewed, the visions before death were the only way for them to understand what it meant to "see."

One of the reanimated Vicki Yumipeg survived "" in the hospital. Vicki looked down from somewhere at her body lying on the operating table, and at the team of doctors who carried out resuscitation. So for the first time she saw and understood what light is.

Blind from birth, Martin Marsh, who experienced similar death visions, remembered most of all the variety of colors of the world around him. Martin is sure that the post-mortem experience helped him understand how sighted people see the world.

But let's return to the research of scientists from Holland. They set a goal to determine exactly when people are visited by visions: during clinical death or during the period of brain activity. Van Lammel and his colleagues say they succeeded. The conclusion of the researchers is that visions are observed precisely during the “shutdown” of the central nervous system. As a result, it was shown that consciousness exists independently of the work of the brain.

Perhaps the most surprising Van Lammel considers the case recorded by one of his colleagues. The patient was taken to the intensive care unit. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. The brain died, the encephalogram gave out a straight line. It was decided to use intubation (insert a tube into the larynx and trachea for artificial ventilation and restore airway patency). The patient had a denture in his mouth. The doctor took it out and put it in a drawer. After an hour and a half, the patient's heartbeat resumed and blood pressure returned to normal. A week later, when the same doctor entered the ward, the resuscitated man told her, “You know where my prosthesis is! You pulled my teeth out and put them in the drawer of the trolley!" Upon careful questioning, it turned out that the operated person observed himself lying on the operating table from above. He described in detail the chamber and the actions of doctors at the time of his death. The man was very afraid that the doctors would stop resuscitating him, and he tried in every possible way to let them know that he was alive ...

Their confidence that consciousness can exist separately from the brain, Dutch scientists confirm the purity of the experiments. To exclude the possibility of the appearance of so-called false memories (cases when a person, having heard from others stories about visions at clinical death, suddenly “remembers” something that he himself did not experience), religious fanaticism and other similar cases, scientists carefully studied all the factors that capable of influencing the reports of victims.

All respondents were mentally healthy. They were men and women aged 26 to 92, with different levels of education, believers and non-believers in God. Some have heard of "post-mortem experiences" before, others have not.

The general conclusions of researchers from Holland are as follows:

• Post-mortem visions in a person appear during the suspension of the brain.
• They cannot be explained by a lack of oxygen in the cells of the central nervous system.
• The depth of "near-death experiences" is greatly influenced by a person's gender and age. Women tend to experience stronger sensations than men.
• Most of the resuscitated, who had a deeper "post-mortem experience", died within a month after resuscitation.
• The experience of dying of the blind from birth does not differ from the impressions of the sighted.

All of the above gives grounds to assert that at the moment scientists have come close to the scientific substantiation of the immortality of the soul.

It remains for us to do just a little to realize that death is only a transfer station on the border between two Worlds, and to overcome fear before its inevitability.

The question arises: where does the soul go after the death of a person?

“If you died after living an unrighteous life, then you will not go to hell, but will forever be on the earthly plane in the worst periods of mankind. If your life was impeccable, then in this case you will find yourself on Earth, but in an age where there is no place for violence and cruelty.

This is the opinion of the French psychotherapist Michel Lerier, author of the book "Eternity in a Past Life". He was convinced of this through numerous interviews and hypnotic sessions with people who had been in a state of clinical death.

Every person who is faced with the death of a loved one wonders if there is life after death? Now this issue is of particular relevance. If a few centuries ago the answer to this question was obvious to everyone, then now, after the period of atheism, its solution is more difficult. We cannot easily believe hundreds of generations of our ancestors, who, through personal experience, century after century, were convinced that a person has an immortal soul. We want facts. Moreover, the facts are scientific.

They tried to convince us from the school bench that there is no God, there is no immortal soul. At the same time, we were told that this is what science says. And we believed... Let's note that we believed that there is no immortal soul, we believed that science supposedly proved it, we believed that there is no God. None of us even tried to figure out what an impartial science says about the soul. We easily trusted certain authorities, without particularly going into the details of their worldview, objectivity, and their interpretation of scientific facts.

We feel that the soul of the deceased is eternal, that it is alive, but on the other hand, the old and inspired stereotypes that there is no soul drag us into the abyss of despair. This struggle within us is very difficult and very exhausting. We want the truth!

So let's look at the question of the existence of the soul through a real, non-ideological, objective science. We will hear the opinion of real researchers on this issue, we will personally evaluate the logical calculations. Not our belief in the existence or non-existence of the soul, but only knowledge can extinguish this internal conflict, preserve our strength, give confidence, look at the tragedy from a different, real point of view.

First of all, about what Consciousness is in general. People have thought about this issue throughout the history of mankind, but still cannot come to a final decision. We know only some properties, possibilities of consciousness. Consciousness is awareness of oneself, one's personality, it is a great analyzer of all our feelings, emotions, desires, plans. Consciousness is what distinguishes us, what obliges us to feel ourselves not as objects, but as individuals. In other words, Consciousness miraculously reveals our fundamental existence. Consciousness is our awareness of our "I", but at the same time Consciousness is a great mystery. Consciousness has no dimensions, no form, no color, no smell, no taste; it cannot be touched or turned in one's hands. Despite the fact that we know very little about consciousness, we absolutely know for certain that we have it.

One of the main questions of humanity is the question of the nature of this very Consciousness (soul, "I", ego). Materialism and idealism have diametrically opposed views on this issue. In the view of materialism, human Consciousness is a substratum of the brain, a product of matter, a product of biochemical processes, a special fusion of nerve cells. In the view of idealism, Consciousness is the ego, "I", spirit, soul - non-material, invisible spiritualizing the body, eternally existing, not dying energy. The subject always takes part in the acts of consciousness, which actually realizes everything.

If you are interested in purely religious ideas about the soul, then religion will not give any evidence of the existence of the soul. The doctrine of the soul is a dogma and is not subject to scientific proof.

There are absolutely no explanations, and even more evidence for materialists who believe that they are impartial researchers (however, this is far from being the case).

But what about the majority of people who are equally far from religion, from philosophy, and from science too, imagine this Consciousness, soul, “I”? Let's ask ourselves, what is "I"?

The first thing that comes to the mind of the majority is: “I am a man”, “I am a woman (man)”, “I am a businessman (turner, baker)”, “I am Tanya (Katya, Alexei)”, “I am a wife ( husband, daughter)” etc. These are, of course, funny answers. Your individual, unique "I" cannot be defined in general terms. There are a myriad of people in the world with the same characteristics, but they are not your “I”. Half of them are women (men), but they are also not “I”, people with the same professions seem to have their own, and not your “I”, the same can be said about wives (husbands), people of various professions, social status, nationalities, religions, and so on. No belonging to any group or group will explain to you what your individual “I” represents, because Consciousness is always personal. I am not qualities (qualities only belong to our “I”), because the qualities of the same person can change, but his “I” will remain unchanged.

Mental and physiological features

Some say that their "I" is their reflexes, their behavior, their individual ideas and addictions, their psychological characteristics and the like.

In fact, this is not possible with the core of the personality, which is called "I". For what reason? Because throughout life, behavior and ideas and addictions change, and even more so psychological features. It cannot be said that if earlier these features were different, then it was not my “I”. Understanding this, some make the following argument: "I am my individual body." It's already more interesting. Let's examine this assumption.

Everyone also knows from the school anatomy course that the cells of our body are gradually renewed throughout life. Old ones die and new ones are born. Some cells are completely renewed almost every day, but there are cells that go through their life cycle much longer. On average, every 5 years, all the cells of the body are renewed. If we consider the "I" ordinary as a set of human cells, then we get an absurdity. It turns out that if a person lives, for example, 70 years. During this time, at least 10 times a person will change all the cells in his body (that is, 10 generations). Could this mean that not one person lived his 70-year life, but 10 different people? Isn't that pretty stupid? We conclude that "I" cannot be a body, because the body is not continuous, but "I" is continuous.

This means that "I" can be neither the qualities of cells, nor their totality.

Materialism is accustomed to decomposing the entire multidimensional world into mechanical components, “checking harmony with algebra” (A.S. Pushkin). The most naive fallacy of militant materialism in relation to personality is the notion that personality is a collection of biological qualities. However, the combination of impersonal objects, even if they are atoms, even if they are neurons, cannot give rise to a personality and its core - “I”.

How is it possible for this most complex "I", feeling, capable of experiencing, love, the sum of specific cells of the body along with the ongoing biochemical and bioelectrical processes? How can these processes form the "I"???

Provided that if the nerve cells were our "I", then we would lose part of our "I" every day. With every dead cell, with every neuron, the "I" would get smaller and smaller. With the restoration of cells, it would increase in size.

Scientific studies conducted in various countries of the world prove that nerve cells, like all other cells of the human body, are capable of regeneration. Here is what the most serious international biological journal Nature writes: “Employees of the California Institute for Biological Research. Salk found that perfectly functional young cells are born in the brain of adult mammals, which function on a par with already existing neurons. Professor Frederick Gage and his colleagues also concluded that brain tissue is most rapidly updated in physically active animals.

This is also confirmed by the publication in one of the most authoritative, refereed biological journals - Science: “Over the past two years, scientists have established that nerve and brain cells are updated, like the rest in the human body. The body is capable of repairing nerve damage on its own,” says scientist Helen M. Blon.”

Thus, even with a complete change of all (including nerve) cells of the body, the “I” of a person remains the same, therefore, it does not belong to a continuously changing material body.

For some reason, it is now so difficult to prove what was obvious and understandable to the ancients. The Roman Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus, who lived back in the 3rd century, wrote: “It is absurd to assume that since none of the parts has life, then life can be created by their totality, .. besides, it is absolutely impossible for life to produce a heap of parts, and that the mind gave birth to that which is devoid of mind. If someone objects that this is not so, but in general, the soul is formed by atoms that have come together, i.e. indivisible into parts of a body, then it will be refuted by the fact that the atoms themselves only lie one next to the other, not forming a living whole, for unity and joint feeling cannot be obtained from bodies insensitive and incapable of unification; but the soul feels itself.

"I" is the unchanging core of the personality, which includes many variables, but is not itself variable.

The skeptic may make a last desperate argument: "Is it possible that 'I' is the brain?"

The tale that our Consciousness is the activity of the brain was heard by many at school. The notion that the brain is essentially a person with his “I” is extremely widespread. Most people think that it is the brain that receives information from the surrounding world, processes it and decides how to act in each specific case, they think that it is the brain that makes us alive, gives us personality. And the body is nothing more than a spacesuit that ensures the activity of the central nervous system.

But this story has nothing to do with science. The brain is now deeply studied. The chemical composition, sections of the brain, the connections of these sections with human functions have long been perfectly studied. The brain organization of perception, attention, memory, and speech has been studied. The functional blocks of the brain have been studied. A myriad of clinics and research centers have been studying the human brain for over a hundred years, for which costly, efficient equipment has been developed. But, having opened any textbooks, monographs, scientific journals on neurophysiology or neuropsychology, you will not find scientific data on the connection between the brain and Consciousness.

For people far from this field of knowledge, this seems surprising. Actually, there is nothing surprising in this. No one has ever easily discovered the connection between the brain and the very center of our personality, our "I". Of course, materialistic researchers have always wanted this. Thousands of studies and millions of experiments were carried out, many billions of dollars were spent on this. The researchers' efforts did not go unnoticed. Thanks to these studies, the parts of the brain themselves were discovered and studied, their connection with physiological processes was established, a lot was done to understand neurophysiological processes and phenomena, but the most important thing was not done. It was not possible to find in the brain the place that is our "I". It was not even possible, despite the extremely active work in this direction, to make a serious assumption about how the brain is possibly connected with our Consciousness.

Where did the assumption that Consciousness resides in the brain come from? One of the first to put forward such an assumption in the middle of the 18th century was the famous electrophysiologist Dubois-Reymond (1818-1896). In his worldview, Dubois-Reymond was one of the brightest representatives of the mechanistic trend. In one of the letters to his friend, he wrote that “only physical and chemical laws operate in the body; if not everything can be explained with their help, then it is necessary, using physical and mathematical methods, either to find a way of their action, or to accept that there are new forces of matter, equal in value to physical and chemical forces.

But another outstanding physiologist Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig, who lived at the same time as Reymond, who headed the new Physiological Institute in Leipzig in 1869-1895, which became the world's largest center in the field of experimental physiology, did not agree with him. The founder of the scientific school, Ludwig, wrote that none of the existing theories of nervous activity, including the electrical theory of nerve currents by Dubois-Reymond, can say anything about how acts of sensation become possible due to the activity of nerves. Note that here we are not even talking about the most complex acts of consciousness, but about much more simple sensations. If there is no consciousness, then we cannot feel and feel anything.

Another prominent physiologist of the 19th century, the outstanding English neurophysiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, Nobel Prize winner, said that if it is not clear how the psyche appears from the activity of the brain, then, naturally, it is just as little clear how it can have any effect on the behavior of a living being, which is controlled by the nervous system.

As a result, Dubois-Reymond himself came to this conclusion: “As we are aware, we do not know and will never know. And no matter how deep we go into the jungle of intracerebral neurodynamics, we will not throw a bridge to the realm of consciousness.” Reymon came to a conclusion, disappointing for determinism, that it is impossible to explain Consciousness by material causes. He admitted "that here the human mind comes up against a 'world riddle' which it can never solve."

Professor of Moscow University, philosopher A.I. Vvedensky in 1914 formulated the law of "the absence of objective signs of animation." The meaning of this law is that the role of the psyche in the system of material processes of regulation of behavior is completely elusive and there is no conceivable bridge between the activity of the brain and the area of ​​mental or spiritual phenomena, including Consciousness.

Leading experts in neurophysiology, Nobel Prize winners David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel recognized that in order to be able to assert the connection between the brain and Consciousness, it is necessary to understand what reads and decodes information that comes from the senses. The researchers acknowledged that this could not be done.

There is an interesting and convincing proof of the lack of connection between Consciousness and the work of the brain, understandable even to people who are far from science. Here it is:

Let's assume that "I" is the result of the work of the brain. As neurophysiologists probably know, a person can live even with one hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, he will have Consciousness. A person who lives only with the right hemisphere of the brain undoubtedly has an "I" (Consciousness). Accordingly, we can conclude that the "I" is not located in the left, absent, hemisphere. A person with a single functioning left hemisphere also has a "I", therefore "I" is not located in the right hemisphere, which this person does not have. Consciousness remains regardless of which hemisphere is removed. This means that a person does not have a brain area responsible for Consciousness, neither in the left nor in the right hemisphere of the brain. We have to conclude that the presence of consciousness in a person is not associated with certain areas of the brain.

Professor, MD Voyno-Yasenetsky describes: “In a young wounded man, I opened a huge abscess (about 50 cubic cm, pus), which, of course, destroyed the entire left frontal lobe, and I did not observe any mental defects after this operation. I can say the same about another patient operated on for a huge cyst of the meninges. With a wide opening of the skull, I was surprised to see that almost the entire right half of it was empty, and the entire left hemisphere of the brain was compressed, almost impossible to distinguish it.

In 1940, Dr. Augustine Iturricha made a sensational announcement at the Anthropological Society in Sucre, Bolivia. He and Dr. Ortiz studied the medical history of a 14-year-old boy, a patient from Dr. Ortiz's clinic, for a long time. The teenager was there with a diagnosis of brain tumor. The young man retained Consciousness until his death, complained only of a headache. When, after his death, a pathoanatomical autopsy was performed, the doctors were amazed: the entire brain mass was completely separated from the internal cavity of the cranium. A large abscess captured the cerebellum and part of the brain. It remained absolutely incomprehensible how the thinking of the sick boy was preserved.

The fact that consciousness exists independently of the brain is also confirmed by relatively recent studies by Dutch physiologists led by Pim van Lommel. The results of a large-scale experiment were published in the most authoritative English biological journal The Lancet. “Consciousness exists even after the brain has ceased to function. In other words, Consciousness “lives” by itself, completely by itself. As for the brain, it is not a thinking matter at all, but an organ, like any other, that performs strictly defined functions. It is highly possible that thinking matter, even in principle, does not exist, said the head of the study, the famous scientist Pim van Lommel.

Another argument accessible to the understanding of non-specialists is given by Professor V.F. Voyno-Yasenetsky: “In the wars of ants that do not have a brain, deliberateness is clearly revealed, and therefore rationality, which is no different from human”4. This is indeed an amazing fact. Ants solve rather difficult tasks of survival, building housing, providing food for themselves, that is, they have a certain intelligence, but they do not have a brain at all. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Neurophysiology does not stand still, but is one of the most dynamically developing sciences. The methods and scale of research speak of the success of the study of the brain. Functions, parts of the brain are being studied, its composition is being clarified in more detail. Despite the titanic work on the study of the brain, world science in our time is also far from understanding what creativity, thinking, memory are and what is their connection with the brain itself. Having come to the understanding that there is no Consciousness inside the body, science draws natural conclusions about the non-material nature of consciousness.

Academician P.K. Anokhin: “None of the “mental” operations that we attribute to the “mind” have so far been directly linked to any part of the brain. If, in principle, we cannot understand how exactly the psychic appears as a result of the activity of the brain, then isn’t it more logical to think that the psyche is not essentially a function of the brain at all, but is a manifestation of some other, non-material spiritual forces?

At the end of the 20th century, the creator of quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize winner E. Schrödinger wrote that the nature of the connection of some physical processes with subjective events (which include Consciousness) lies "away from science and beyond human understanding."

The largest modern neurophysiologist, Nobel Prize winner in medicine J. Eccles developed the idea that it is impossible to determine the origin of mental phenomena based on the analysis of brain activity, and this fact is simply possibly interpreted in the sense that the psyche is not a function of the brain at all. According to Eccles, neither physiology nor the theory of evolution can shed light on the origin and nature of consciousness, which is completely alien to all material processes in the universe. The spiritual world of a person and the world of physical realities, including the activity of the brain, are absolutely independent independent worlds that only interact and to some extent influence each other. He is echoed by such massive specialists as Carl Lashley (an American scientist, director of the primate biology laboratory in Orange Park (Florida), who studied the mechanisms of the brain) and Edward Tolman, doctor of Harvard University.

With his colleague Wilder Penfield, the founder of modern neurosurgery, who performed over 10,000 brain surgeries, Eccles wrote the book The Mystery of Man. In it, the authors explicitly state that "there is no doubt that a person is controlled by SOMETHING outside his body." “I can confirm experimentally,” writes Eccles, “that the workings of the mind cannot possibly be explained by the functioning of the brain. Consciousness exists independently of it from the outside.

According to Eccles' deep conviction, consciousness is not possible as a subject of scientific research. In his opinion, the emergence of consciousness, as well as the emergence of life, is the highest religious mystery. In his report, the Nobel laureate relied on the conclusions of the book "Personality and the Brain", written together with the American philosopher and sociologist Karl Popper.

Wilder Penfield, as a result of many years of studying the activity of the brain, also came to the conclusion that “the energy of the mind has differences from the energy of brain neural impulses”6.

Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Russian Federation, Director of the Research Institute of the Brain (RAMS RF), world-famous neurophysiologist, professor, MD Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva: “The hypothesis that the human brain only perceives thoughts from somewhere outside, I first heard from the mouth of the Nobel laureate, Professor John Eccles. Of course, at the time it seemed absurd to me. But then research conducted at our St. Petersburg Research Institute of the Brain confirmed that we cannot explain the mechanics of the creative process. The brain can generate only the simplest thoughts, such as how to turn the pages of a book you are reading or stir the sugar in a glass. And the creative process is a manifestation of the latest quality. As a believer, I admit the participation of the Almighty in the management of the thought process.

Science is gradually coming to the conclusion that the brain is not the source of thought and consciousness, but at most its relay.

Professor S. Grof says this about it: “Imagine that your TV has broken down and you called a TV technician who, by twisting various knobs, set it up. It doesn’t occur to you that all these stations are sitting in this box.”

Also in 1956, the outstanding largest scientist-surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor V.F. Voyno-Yasenetsky believed that our brain is not only not connected with Consciousness, but is not even capable of thinking on its own, since the mental process is taken out of it. In his book, Valentin Feliksovich claims that “the brain is not an organ of thought, feelings”, and that “The Spirit goes beyond the brain, determining its activity, and our entire being, when the brain works as a transmitter, receiving signals and transmitting them to the organs of the body” 7.

The same conclusions were reached by English scientists Peter Fenwick from the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parnia from Southampton Central Clinic. They examined patients who came back to life after cardiac arrest, and found that some of them certainly recounted the contents of the conversations that the medical staff had while they were in a state of clinical death. Others gave an accurate description of the events that occurred in a given time period. Sam Parnia argues that the brain, like any other organ of the human body, is made up of cells and is incapable of thinking. However, it can work as a device that detects thoughts, that is, as an antenna, with the help of which it becomes possible to receive a signal from the outside. The researchers suggested that during clinical death, the Consciousness, acting independently of the brain, uses it as a screen. Like a television receiver, which first receives the waves falling into it, and then converts them into sound and image.

If we turn off the radio, this does not mean that the radio station stops broadcasting. Those. after the death of the physical body, Consciousness continues to live.

The fact of the continuation of the life of Consciousness after the death of the body is also confirmed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of the Human Brain, Professor N.P. Bekhterev in his book “The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life”. In addition to the discussion of purely scientific issues, in this book the author also cites his personal experience of encountering posthumous phenomena.

Natalya Bekhtereva, talking about a meeting with the Bulgarian clairvoyant Vanga Dimitrova, speaks very precisely about this in one of her interviews: “The example of Vanga absolutely convinced me that there is a phenomenon of contact with the dead,” and also a quote from her book: “ I can't believe what I've heard and seen myself. A scientist does not have the right to reject facts just because they do not fit into a dogma, worldview.

The first consistent description of afterlife based on scientific observations was given by the Swedish scientist and naturalist Emmanuel Swedenborg. After that, this problem was seriously studied by the famous psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler Ross, the no less famous psychiatrist Raymond Moody, conscientious researchers, academicians Oliver Lodge, William Crookes, Alfred Wallace, Alexander Butlerov, Professor Friedrich Myers, American pediatrician Melvin Morse. Among the serious and systematic scholars of the question of dying, one should mention the professor of medicine at Emory University and the staff doctor at the Veterans Hospital in Atlanta, Dr. Michael Sabom, the systematic study of the psychiatrist Kenneth Ring, the MD Moritz Roolings, was also very valuable. , our contemporary, thanatopsychologist A.A. Nalchadzhyan. The well-known Soviet scientist, a prominent specialist in the field of thermodynamic processes, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus Albert Veinik worked a lot on understanding this problem from the point of view of physics. A significant contribution to the study of near-death experiences was made by the world-famous American psychologist of Czech origin, the founder of the transpersonal school of psychology, Dr. Stanislav Grof.

The variety of facts accumulated by science indisputably proves that after physical death, each of the living now inherits a different reality, preserving their Consciousness.

Despite the limitations of our ability to cognize this reality with the help of material means, today there are a number of its characteristics obtained through experiments and observations of researchers investigating this problem.

These characteristics were listed by A.V. Mikheev, a researcher at the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University in his report at the international symposium "Life after death: from faith to knowledge" which was held on April 8-9, 2005 in St. Petersburg:

1. There is a so-called “subtle body”, which is the carrier of self-consciousness, memory, emotions and the “inner life” of a person. This body exists ... after physical death, being for the duration of the existence of the physical body its "parallel component", providing the above processes. The physical body is only an intermediary for their manifestation on the physical (terrestrial) level.

2. The life of an individual does not end with the current earthly death. Survival after death is a natural law for a person.

3. The next reality is divided into a large number of levels, differing in the frequency characteristics of their components.

4. The destination of a person during the posthumous transition is determined by his tuning to a certain level, which is the total result of his thoughts, feelings and actions during his life on Earth. Just as the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a chemical substance depends on its composition, a person's posthumous destination is definitely determined by the "composite characteristic" of his inner life.

5. The concepts of "Heaven and Hell" reflect two polarities, possible posthumous states.

6. In addition to similar polar states, there are a number of intermediate ones. The selection of an adequate state is automatically determined by the mental-emotional "pattern" formed by a person during earthly life. That is why bad emotions, violence, the desire for destruction and fanaticism, no matter how they are justified outwardly, in this respect are extremely destructive for the future fate of a person. This is a solid rationale for personal responsibility and adherence to ethical principles.

All of the above arguments are surprisingly accurate with the religious knowledge of all traditional religions. This is an occasion to cast aside doubts and decide. Is not it?

Imagine that you, right now, were given proof of life after death, how your reality can change ... Read and think. Enough information to think about.

In the article:

The point of view of religion on the afterlife

Life after death… Sounds like an oxymoron, death is the end of life. Mankind has been haunted by the idea that the biological death of the body is not the end of human existence. What remains after the death of the camp, different nations in different periods of history had their own views, which also had common features.

Representations of tribal peoples

We cannot say for sure what views our prehistoric ancestors held, anthropologists have collected a sufficient number of observations of the current tribes, whose lifestyle has changed since the Neolithic. It is worth drawing some conclusions. During the period of physical death, the soul of the deceased leaves the body and replenishes the host of the spirits of the ancestors.

There were also spirits of animals, trees, stones. Man was not fundamentally separated from the surrounding universe. There was no place for the eternal rest of the spirits - they continued to live in that harmony, watching the living, assisting them in their affairs and helping with advice through intermediary shamans.

The deceased ancestors provided help disinterestedly: the natives, who did not know commodity-money relations, did not tolerate them even in communication with the world of spirits - the latter were content with respect.

Christianity

Thanks to the missionary activity of its adherents, it has embraced the universe. The denominations agreed that after death a person goes either to Hell, where a loving God will punish him forever, or to Paradise, where there is constant happiness and grace. Christianity - an independent topic, you can learn more about the afterlife.

Judaism

Judaism, from which Christianity "grew" has no idea about life after death, the facts are not presented, because no one returned back.

The Pharisees interpreted the Old Testament that there is an afterlife and retribution, and the Sadducees, confident that everything ends with death. A quotation from the Bible "... a living dog is better than a dead lion" Ek. 9.4. The book of Ecclesiastes was written by a Sadducee who did not believe in an afterlife.

Islam

Judaism is one of the Abrahamic religions. Is there life after death, clearly defined - yes. Muslims go to Paradise, the rest together go to Hell. No appeals.

Hinduism

The world religion on earth tells a lot about the afterlife. According to beliefs, people after physical death go either to heavenly spheres, where life is better and longer than on Earth, or to hellish planets, where everything is worse.

One thing pleases: unlike Christianity, you can return to Earth from hellish spheres for exemplary behavior, and from heavenly ones you can fall again if something goes wrong for you. There is no eternal sentence for hellish torment.

Buddhism

Religion - from Hinduism. Buddhists believe that until you get enlightenment on earth and merge with the Absolute, the series of births and deaths is endless and is called "".

Life on earth is a continuous suffering, a person is overcome by his endless desires, and non-fulfillment makes him unhappy. Give up your cravings and you are free. It's right.

Mummies of Oriental monks

"Alive" 200-year-old mummy of a Tibetan monk from Ulaanbaatar

The phenomenon was discovered by scientists in southeast Asia, and today it is one of the evidence, indirectly, that a person is still alive after turning off all the functions of the camp.

The bodies of Eastern monks were not buried, but mummified. Not like the pharaohs in Egypt, but in natural conditions, they are created thanks to humid air with a positive temperature. For some time they still grow hair and nails. If in the corpse of an ordinary person this phenomenon is explained by the shrinkage of the shell and the visual lengthening of the nail plates, then in mummies they really grow back.

The energy-information field, which is measured by a thermometer, a thermal imager, a decimeter range receiver and other modern devices, these mummies have three or four times more than that of an average person. Scientists call this energy the noosphere, which allows the mummies to remain intact and maintain contact with the earth's information field.

Scientific evidence for life after death

If religious fanatics or just believers do not question what is written in the teachings, modern people with critical thinking doubt the truth of theories. When the hour of death approaches, a person is seized with a trembling fear of the unknown, and this prompts curiosity and a desire to find out what awaits us beyond the material world.

Scientists have found that death is a phenomenon characterized by a number of obvious factors:

• lack of heartbeat;
• cessation of any mental processes in the brain;
• stop bleeding and blood clotting;
• after a time after death, the body begins to stiffen and decompose, and a light, empty and dry shell remains from it.

Duncan McDougall

An American researcher named Duncan McDougall carried out an experiment at the beginning of the 20th century, where he found that the weight of the human body after death decreases by 21 grams. Calculations allowed him to conclude that the difference in mass - the weight of the soul leaves the body after death. The theory has been criticized, this is one of the works to find its evidence.

Researchers have found that the soul has a physical weight!

The idea of ​​what awaits us is surrounded by many myths and hoaxes that are created by charlatans posing as scientists. It is difficult to figure out where the truth or fiction is, confident theories can be questioned for lack of evidence.

Scientists continue to search and acquaint people with new research and experiments.

Ian Stevenson

Canadian-American biochemist and psychiatrist, author of "Twenty Cases of Alleged Reincarnations" Ian Stevenson conducted an experiment where he analyzed the stories of more than 2 thousand people who claimed to keep memories from past lives in their memory.

The biochemist expressed the theory that a person simultaneously exists on two levels of being - gross or physical, earthly, and subtle, that is, spiritual, non-material. Leaving the worn-out and unsuitable for further existence body, the soul goes in search of a new one. The end result of this journey is the birth of man on Earth.

Ian Stevenson

The researchers found out that every life lived leaves imprints in the form of moles, scars discovered after the birth of a child, physical and mental deformations. The theory is reminiscent of the Buddhist one: when dying, the soul reincarnates in another body, with already accumulated experience.

The psychiatrist worked with the subconscious of people: in the group they studied there were children who were born with defects. Introducing the wards into a trance state, he tried to get any information proving that the soul living in this body had found refuge earlier. One of the boys, in a state of hypnosis, told Stevenson that he had been hacked to death with an axe, dictated the approximate address of his past family. Arriving at the indicated place, the scientist found people, one of the members of whose house was really killed with an ax hit on the head. The wound was reflected on the new body in the form of a growth on the back of the head.

The materials of Professor Stevenson's work give many people reason to believe that the fact of reincarnation is indeed scientifically proven, that the feeling of "déjà vu" is a memory from a past life, thrown to us by the subconscious.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky

K. E. Tsiolkovsky

The first attempt by Russian researchers to determine such a component of human life as the soul was the research of the famous scientist K. E. Tsiolkovsky.

According to the theory, there can be no absolute death in the universe by definition, and clots of energy, called the soul, consist of indivisible atoms endlessly wandering through the vast Universe.

clinical death

Many consider the fact of clinical death to be modern evidence of life after death - a condition experienced by people, more often on the operating table. This topic was popularized in the 1970s by Dr. Raymond Moody, who published a book called Life After Death.

The descriptions of most of those interviewed agree:

• about 31% felt flying through the tunnel;
• 29% - saw a stellar landscape;
• 24% observed their own body in an unconscious state, lying on the couch, described the real actions of doctors at that moment;
• 23% of patients were fascinated by inviting bright light;
• 13% of people during clinical death watched, like a movie, episodes from life;
• another 8% saw the border of two worlds - the dead and the living, and some - their own dead relatives.

Among the respondents were people who were blind from birth. And the testimony is similar to the stories of the sighted. Skeptics explain visions by oxygen starvation of the brain and fantasy.

The stories of patients who survived the experience of near-death experience cause an ambiguous reaction in people. Some such cases inspire optimism and faith in the immortality of the soul. Others try to explain mystical visions rationally, reducing them to hallucinations. What actually happens to the human consciousness for five minutes, when resuscitators conjure over the body?

In this article

eyewitness stories

Not all scientists are convinced that after the death of the physical body, our existence completely ceases. More and more often there are researchers who want to prove (perhaps primarily to themselves) that after bodily death, human consciousness continues to live. The first serious research on this topic was carried out in the 70s of the XX century by Raymond Moody, author of the book "Life after death". But even now the field of near-death experiences is of considerable interest to scientists and physicians.

Renowned cardiologist Moritz Roolings

The professor in his book "Beyond the Threshold of Death" raised questions about the work of consciousness at the moment of clinical death. As a renowned specialist in the field of cardiology, Roolings systematized many stories of patients who experienced temporary cardiac arrest.

Afterword by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)

One day, Moritz Rawlings, bringing a patient back to life, gave him a chest massage. The man regained consciousness for a moment and asked not to stop. The doctor was surprised, since heart massage is a rather painful procedure. It was evident that the patient was experiencing genuine fear. "I'm in hell!" - the man shouted and begged to continue the massage, fearing that his heart would stop and he would have to return to that terrible place.

Resuscitation ended in success, and the man told what horrors he had to see during cardiac arrest. The torments he experienced completely changed his worldview, and he decided to turn to religion. The patient never wanted to go to hell again and was ready to radically change his lifestyle.

This episode prompted the professor to start writing down the stories of the patients he wrested from the clutches of death. According to the observations of Rawlings, about 50% of the interviewed patients visited during clinical death in a beautiful piece of paradise, from which they did not want to return to the real world at all.

The experience of the other half is completely opposite. Their near-death images were associated with torment and pain. The space where the souls ended up was inhabited by terrible creatures. These cruel creatures literally tormented sinners, forcing them to experience incredible suffering. After returning to life, such patients had one desire - to do everything possible so that they never go to hell again.

Stories from the Russian press

Newspapers have repeatedly addressed the topic of out-of-body experiences of people who have gone through clinical death. Among the many stories, one can note the case associated with Galina Lagoda, who became the victim of a car accident.

It was a miracle that the woman did not die on the spot. Doctors diagnosed numerous fractures, tissue rupture in the kidneys and lungs. The brain was injured, the heart stopped and the pressure dropped to zero.

According to Galina's memoirs, the emptiness of boundless space first appeared before her eyes. After some time, she found herself standing on a platform filled with unearthly light. The woman saw a man in white clothes that radiated radiance. Apparently, because of the bright light, the face of this creature was impossible to see.

The man asked what brought her here. To this, Galina said that she was very tired and would like to rest. The man listened to the answer with understanding and allowed her to stay here for a while, and then ordered her to go back, because there are many things waiting for her in the world of the living.

When Galina Lagoda regained consciousness, she had an amazing gift. While examining her fractures, she suddenly asked the orthopedic doctor about his stomach. The doctor was dumbfounded by the question, because he was really worried about the pain in his stomach.

Now Galina is a healer of people, because she can see diseases and brings healing. After returning from the other world, she is calm about death and believes in the eternal existence of the soul.

Another incident occurred with reserve major Yuri Burkov. He himself does not like these memories, and journalists learned the story from his wife Lyudmila. Falling from a great height, Yuri seriously injured his spine. He was taken to the hospital unconscious with a head injury. In addition, Yuri's heart stopped, and the body went into a coma.

The wife was deeply affected by these events. Having received stress, she lost her keys. And when Yuri came to his senses, he asked Lyudmila if she had found them, after which he advised him to look under the stairs.

Yuri admitted to his wife that during a coma he flew in the form of a small cloud and could be next to her. He also spoke about another world where he met with his dead parents and brother. There he realized that people do not die, but simply live in a different form.

Reborn. Documentary film about Galina Lagoda and other famous people who survived clinical death:

Opinion of skeptics

There will always be people who do not accept such stories as an argument for the existence of an afterlife. All these pictures of heaven and hell, according to skeptics, are produced by a fading brain. And the specific content depends on the information that religion, parents, and the media gave during their lifetime.

Utilitarian explanation

Consider the point of view of a person who does not believe in an afterlife. This is a Russian resuscitator Nikolai Gubin. Being a practicing doctor, Nikolai is firmly convinced that the patient's visions during clinical death are nothing but the consequences of toxic psychosis. The images associated with leaving the body, the view of the tunnel, are a kind of dream, a hallucination, which is caused by oxygen starvation of the visual part of the brain. The field of view narrows sharply, giving the impression of a limited space in the form of a tunnel.

Russian doctor Nikolai Gubin believes that all visions of people at the time of clinical death are hallucinations of a fading brain.

Gubin also tried to explain why, at the moment of dying, a person's whole life passes before the eyes of a person. The resuscitator believes that the memory of a different period is stored in different parts of the brain. First, cells with fresh memories fail, at the very end - with memories of early childhood. The process of restoring memory cells takes place in the reverse order: first, early memory is returned, and then later. This creates the illusion of a chronological movie.

Another explanation

Psychologist Pyell Watson has his own theory about what people see when their body dies. He strongly believes that the end and the beginning of life are interconnected. In a sense, death closes the ring of life, connecting with birth.

What Watson means is that the birth of a person is an experience of which he hardly remembers. However, this memory is stored in his subconscious and activated at the time of death. The tunnel that the dying person sees is the birth canal through which the fetus came out of the mother's womb. The psychologist believes that this is a rather difficult experience for the psyche of an infant. In fact, this is our first encounter with death.

The psychologist says that no one knows exactly how a newborn perceives the process of birth. Perhaps these experiences are similar to the different phases of dying. Tunnel, light - it's just echoes. These impressions simply resurrect in the mind of the dying person, of course, colored by personal experience and beliefs.

Interesting cases and evidence of eternal life

There are many stories that baffle modern scientists. Perhaps they cannot be considered unequivocal proof of an afterlife. However, it cannot be ignored either, because these cases are documented and require serious research.

imperishable buddhist monks

Doctors ascertain the fact of death on the basis of the cessation of respiratory function and heart function. They call this condition clinical death. It is believed that if the body is not resuscitated within five minutes, then irreversible changes occur in the brain and medicine is powerless here.

However, there is such a phenomenon in the Buddhist tradition. A highly spiritual monk can, entering a state of deep meditation, stop breathing and the work of the heart. Such monks retired to caves and there, in the lotus position, they entered a special state. Legends claim that they can return to life, but such cases are unknown to official science.

The body of Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov remained incorruptible after 75 years.

Nevertheless, in the East there are such imperishable monks, whose withered bodies exist for decades without being subjected to the processes of destruction. At the same time, their nails and hair grow, and the biofield is higher in power than that of an ordinary living person. Such monks were found on Koh Samui in Thailand, China, Tibet.

In 1927, the Buryat lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov passed away. He gathered his disciples, took the lotus position and ordered them to read a prayer for the dead. Leaving for nirvana, he promised that his body would be preserved after 75 years. All life processes stopped, after which the lama was buried in a cedar cube without changing position.

After 75 years, the sarcophagus was brought to the surface and placed in the Ivolginsky datsan. As Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov predicted, his body remained incorrupt.

Forgotten tennis shoe

In one of the US hospitals there was a case with a young immigrant from South America named Maria.

During the exit from the body, Maria noticed a tennis shoe forgotten by someone.

During clinical death, the woman experienced an exit from the physical body and flew a little along the hospital corridors. During her out-of-body journey, she noticed a tennis shoe lying on the stairs.

Upon returning to the real world, Maria asked the nurse to check if there was a lost shoe on that staircase. And it turned out that Maria's story turned out to be true, although the patient had never been in that place.

Polka dot dress and broken cup

Another fantastic case occurred with a Russian woman who had a cardiac arrest during a surgical operation. Doctors managed to bring the patient back to life.

Later, the woman told the doctor what she experienced during clinical death. Coming out of the body, the woman saw herself on the operating table. The thought came to her mind that she might die here, but she didn’t even have time to say goodbye to her family. This thought mobilized the patient to rush to her home.

There were her little daughter, her mother and a neighbor who came to visit and brought her daughter a dress with polka dots. They sat and drank tea. Someone dropped and broke the cup. To this, the neighbor remarked that it was for good luck.

Later, the doctor spoke to the patient's mother. And in fact, on the day of the operation, a neighbor came to visit, and she brought a dress with polka dots. And the cup broke too. As it turned out, fortunately, because the patient was on the mend.

Napoleon's signature

This story may be a legend. She looks too fantastic. It happened in France in 1821. Napoleon died in exile on Saint Helena. The French throne was occupied by Louis XVIII.

The news of the death of Bonaparte made the king think. That night he could not sleep at all. Candles dimly lit the bedroom. On the table lay the marriage contract of Marshal Auguste Marmont. The document was supposed to be signed by Napoleon, but the former emperor did not have time to do this because of the military turmoil.

Exactly at midnight the city clock struck and the bedroom door opened. Bonaparte himself stood on the threshold. He walked proudly across the room, sat down at the table and took a pen in his hand. From surprise, the new king lost his senses. And when he came to his senses in the morning, he was surprised to find Napoleon's signature on the document. The authenticity of the handwriting was confirmed by experts.

Return from another world

Based on the stories of returned patients, one can get an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhat happens at the moment of dying.

Researcher Raymond Moody systematized the experiences of people in the stage of clinical death. He managed to highlight the following general points:

1. Stopping the physiological functions of the body. At the same time, the patient even hears the doctor stating the fact that the heart and breathing are turned off.
2. Review of the entire life lived.
3. Buzzing sounds that increase in volume.
4. Out of the body, a journey through a long tunnel, at the end of which light is visible.
5. Arriving at a place filled with radiant light.
6. Serenity, extraordinary peace of mind.
7. Meeting with people who have passed away. As a rule, these are relatives or close friends.
8. A meeting with a being from whom light and love emanates. Perhaps this is the guardian angel of man.
9. A pronounced unwillingness to return to one's physical body.

In this video, Sergey Sklyar talks about returning from the next world:

The secret of the dark and light worlds

Those who happened to visit the zone of Light returned to the real world in a state of goodness and peace. They no longer worry about the fear of death. Those who saw the Dark Worlds were struck by terrible pictures and for a long time cannot forget the horror and pain that they had to experience.

These cases suggest that religious beliefs about the afterlife coincide with the experience of patients who have been beyond death. At the top is paradise, or the Kingdom of Heaven. Hell, or Hell, awaits the soul below.

What is heaven like

The famous American actress Sharon Stone was convinced by personal experience of the existence of paradise. She shared her experiences during the Oprah Winfrey TV show on May 27, 2004. After the magnetic resonance imaging procedure, Stone lost consciousness for several minutes. According to her, this condition resembled fainting.

During this period, she found herself in a space with a soft white light. There she was met by people who were no longer alive: deceased relatives, friends, good acquaintances. The actress realized that these are kindred spirits who are glad to see her in that world.

Sharon Stone is absolutely sure that she managed to visit paradise for a short time, the feeling of love, happiness, grace and pure joy was so great.

An interesting experience is Betty Maltz, who, based on her experiences, wrote the book “I Saw Eternity”. The place where she ended up during clinical death had a fabulous beauty. Gorgeous green hills rose there, wonderful trees and flowers grew.

Betty found herself in an amazingly beautiful place.

The sky in that world did not show the sun, but the whole area was filled with radiant divine light. Walking beside Betty was a tall young man dressed in loose white clothes. Betty realized it was an angel. Then they came to a tall silver building from which came beautiful melodious voices. They repeated the word "Jesus".

When the angel opened the gate, a bright light flooded Betty, which is difficult to describe in words. And then the woman realized that this light that brings love is Jesus. Then Betty remembered her father, who had prayed for her return. She turned back and walked down the hill, and soon woke up in her human body.

Journey to hell - facts, stories, real cases

The exit from the body does not always carry the human soul into the space of Divine light and love. Some describe their experience in a very negative way.

The abyss behind the white wall

Jennifer Perez was 15 years old when she had a chance to visit hell. There was an endless wall of sterile white. The wall was very high, there was a door in it. Jennifer tried to open it, but to no avail. Soon the girl saw another door, it was black, and the lock was open. But even the sight of this door caused inexplicable horror.

The angel Gabriel appeared nearby. He gripped her wrist tightly and led her to the black door. Jennifer begged to let her go, tried to break free, but to no avail. Darkness awaited them outside the door. The girl began to fall rapidly.

After surviving the horror of the fall, she barely came to her senses. An unbearable heat reigned here, from which it was painfully thirsty. Around the devils in every possible way mocked human souls. Jennifer turned to Gabriel with a plea for water. The angel looked at her intently and suddenly announced that she was given another chance. After these words, the girl's soul returned to the body.

hellish hell

Bill Wyss also describes hell as a real hell where the disembodied soul suffers from the heat. There is a feeling of wild weakness and complete impotence. According to Bill, he did not immediately realize where his soul had gone. But when four terrible demons approached, everything became clear to the man. The air smelled of gray and burnt skin.

Many describe hell as a realm of sizzling fire.

The demons began to torment the man with their claws. It was strange that no blood flowed from the wounds, but the pain was monstrous. Bill somehow understood how these monsters felt. They exuded hatred of God and all of God's creatures.

Bill also remembered that in hell he was tormented by unbearable thirst. However, there was no one to ask for water. Bill lost all hope of deliverance, but the nightmare suddenly ended and Bill woke up in a hospital room. But his stay in hellish inferno was firmly remembered by him.

fiery hell

Among the people who managed to return to this world after clinical death was Thomas Welch from Oregon. He was an assistant engineer at a sawmill. During construction work, Thomas stumbled and fell from the bridge into the river, while hitting his head and losing consciousness. While they were looking for him, Welch experienced a strange vision.

Before him stretched a vast ocean of fire. The spectacle was impressive, from him emanated a power that inspires horror and amazement. There was no one in this burning element, Thomas himself was standing on the shore, where many people had gathered. Among them, Welch recognized his school friend, who died of cancer in childhood.

Those assembled were in a state of stupor. They did not seem to understand why they were in this frightening place. Then it dawned on Thomas that he, along with the others, was placed in a special prison from which it was impossible to get out, because fire was spreading around everywhere.

Out of desperation, Thomas Welch thought about his past life, wrong deeds and mistakes. Involuntarily he turned to God with a prayer for salvation. And then he saw Jesus Christ walking by. Welch hesitated to ask for help, but Jesus seemed to sense it and turned around. It was this look that caused Thomas to wake up in his physical body. Nearby were working sawmills who rescued him from the river.

When the heart stops

Pastor Kenneth Hagin of Texas became a minister through a near-death experience on April 21, 1933. Then he was less than 16 years old, and he suffered from congenital heart disease.

On this day, Kenneth's heart stopped and his soul flew out of his body. But her path lay not to heaven, but in the opposite direction. Kenneth was sinking into the abyss. There was total darkness all around. As he moved down, Kenneth began to feel the heat, which, apparently, came from hell. Then he was on the road. A shapeless mass of flames was advancing on him. She seemed to draw her soul into her.

The heat covered Kenneth with his head, and he found himself in a hole. At this time, the teenager clearly heard the voice of God. Yes, the voice of the Creator himself sounded in hell! It spread throughout space, shaking it like the wind shakes the leaves. Kenneth focused on this sound, and suddenly some force pulled him out of the darkness and began to lift him up. Soon he woke up in his bed and saw his grandmother, who was very happy, because she no longer hoped to see him alive. After that, Kenneth decided to devote his life to the service of God.

Conclusion

So, according to the stories of eyewitnesses, after the death of a person, both paradise and the abyss of hell can wait. You can believe in it or not. One conclusion definitely suggests itself - a person will have to answer for his actions. Even if there is no hell and heaven, there are human memories. And it is better if after the death of a person from life, a good memory of him will be preserved.

A little about the author:

Evgeny Tukubaev The right words and your faith are the keys to success in a perfect ritual. I will provide you with the information, but its implementation directly depends on you. But do not worry, a little practice and you will succeed!

There is something in common that unites the searches of people of all times and views. It is an insurmountable psychological difficulty to believe that there is no life after death. Man is not an animal! There is life! And this is not just an assumption or an unfounded belief. There are a huge number of facts that indicate that, it turns out, the life of an individual continues beyond the threshold of earthly existence. We find amazing evidence wherever there are literary sources left. And for all of them, at least one fact was undeniable: a person lives after death. Personality is indestructible!

Remarkable in this respect is a book published in Russia shortly before the revolution, in 1910. It, I would say, leaves no doubt about the reality of what is reported there; Its author K. Ikskul describes what happened to him. And it is named in a special way - "Incredible for many, but a true incident." The main thing in it is a simple description of what happens in the borderline situation, which we call - between life and death. Ikskul, describing the moment of his clinical death, said that at first he felt heaviness, some kind of pressure, and then he suddenly felt free. But, having seen his body separately from himself and starting to guess that his body was dead, he did not lose awareness of himself as a person. “In our concepts, the word “death” is inseparably linked with the idea of ​​some kind of destruction, the cessation of life, how could I think that I had died when I did not lose self-consciousness for a single minute, when I felt myself just as alive, hearing everything who sees, is conscious, is able to move, think, speak?

In other cases, sometimes things happen that are extremely difficult for the soul. One of the resuscitated (better to say, not even resuscitated - this man came out of a state of clinical death without medical assistance) said that he heard and saw how relatives, as soon as his heart stopped, began to argue, quarrel, swear because of the inheritance. No one paid any attention to the deceased himself, did not even talk about him - it turns out that no one needed him anymore (as if the deceased is a thing worthy only to be thrown away as unnecessary), all attention was paid to money and things. You can imagine what the "joy" of all those who had already divided his considerable inheritance was when this man came back to life. And what was it like for him now to communicate with his “loving” relatives.

But that's not the point. The important thing is that in all cases the consciousness of the deceased did not stop! Body functions stop. And consciousness, it turns out, not only does not die, but, on the contrary, acquires a special distinctness and clarity.

There are many facts about such a posthumous state. There is now a lot of literature on this issue. For example, Dr. Moody's book Life After Life. In America, it came out in huge circulation - 2 million copies were sold literally in the first year or two. With such a speed, few books diverge. It was a kind of sensation, the book was perceived as a revelation. Although there were always enough such facts, they were simply not known and not noticed. They were treated as hallucinations, manifestations of a person's mental abnormality. Here the doctor, the specialist, surrounded by his colleagues, speaks about the facts, and only the facts as such. In addition, he is a person, in general, quite far from religious views.

Henri Bergson, a famous French philosopher of the late 19th century, said that the human brain is somewhat reminiscent of a telephone exchange that does not generate information, but only transmits it. Information comes from somewhere and is transmitted somewhere. The brain is only a transmission mechanism, and not the source of human consciousness. Today, a huge body of scientifically reliable facts fully confirms this idea of ​​Bergson.

Take at least an interesting book by Moritz Roolings "Beyond the threshold of death" (St. Petersburg, 1994). This is a well-known cardiologist, a professor at the University of Tennessee, who himself, personally, many times brought back to life people who were in a state of clinical death. The book is replete with lots of facts. Interestingly, Rawlings himself used to be a person indifferent to religion, but after one incident in 1977 (this book begins with him), he began to look at the problem of man, soul, death, eternal life and God in a completely different way. What this medic describes really makes you think seriously.

Rawlings tells how he began the resuscitation of a patient who was in a state of clinical death, using the usual mechanical actions in such cases, that is, by massage, he tried to make his heart work. He had many such cases throughout his practice. But what did he face this time? And faced, as he says, for the first time. His patient, as soon as consciousness returned to him for a few moments, begged: “Doctor, do not stop! Don't stop!" The doctor asked what scared him. "You do not understand? I'm in hell! When you stop doing massage, I end up in hell! Don't let me go back there!" came the answer. And so it was repeated several times. At the same time, his face expressed panic horror, he trembled and sweated with fear.

Rawlings writes that he himself is a strong man and in his practice it happened more than once when, so to speak, working hard, sometimes even broke the ribs of the patient. Therefore, when he came to his senses, he usually begged: “Doctor, stop tormenting my chest! I'm in pain! Doctor, stop!" Here the doctor heard something completely unusual: “Don't stop! I'm in hell!" Rawlings writes that when this man finally finally came to his senses, he told him what terrible suffering he endured there. The patient was ready to endure here, on earth, anything, if only not to return there again. There was hell! Later, when the cardiologist began a serious study of what was happening with the resuscitated, began to ask his colleagues about it, it turned out that there were many such cases in medical practice. Since then, he began to record the stories of resuscitated patients. Not everyone revealed themselves. But those who were frank were more than enough to make sure that death means only the death of the body, but not of the person.

In this book, Roolings, in particular, reports that about half of the people who return to life say that where they have just been is very good, even wonderful, they do not want to return from there - they usually returned reluctantly and even with grief. But about the same number of reanimated people say that it is terrible there, that they saw fiery lakes there, terrible monsters, experienced incredible, hardest experiences and torments. And, as Roolings writes, "the number of encounters with hell is rapidly increasing."

In this latter case, people experience fear and shock. “I remember being out of breath,” said one patient. “Then I separated from the body and entered the gloomy room. In one of the windows I saw the ugly muzzle of a giant, around which the imps fussed. He signaled me to come. It was dark outside, but I could make out the moaning people all around. We moved through the cave. I cried. Then the giant released me. The doctor thought that I dreamed of this because of the drugs, but I never used them.

Or here is another piece of evidence: “I was running very fast through the tunnel. Gloomy sounds, the smell of decay, demihumans speaking in an unfamiliar language. Not a glimmer of light. I shouted, "Save me!" A figure appeared in a brilliant robe, I felt in her eyes: “Live differently!”

But the facts concerning the rescued suicides are especially curious. Almost all of them, says Dr. Rawlings (he knows no exceptions), experienced severe torment there. Moreover, these torments were associated with both mental, emotional, and visual experiences. It was the worst suffering. Monsters appeared before the unfortunate, from the mere sight of which the soul shuddered, and there was nowhere to go, it was impossible to close your eyes, you cannot close your ears. There was no way out of this terrible state!

When one poisoned girl was brought back to life, she begged: “Mom, help, drive them away! These demons in hell won't let go, I can't go back, it's terrible!”

Rawlings also cites another very important fact: most of his patients who experienced spiritual anguish in near-death experiences (at least many of those who shared such experiences) decisively changed their moral life. Some, he says, did not dare to say anything, but, although they were silent, it was clear from their subsequent lives that they had experienced something terrible.

From the book "The Posthumous Life of the Soul"