Death, Near and After

The older I become. The greater is my interest in this issue of Death, Near, and Thereafter. Not long ago, I read a piece on what they called after-death experiences. The trouble is that they defined “after-death” as a period after a person’s heart had stopped beating. That was their definition of “death”—the heart had stopped beating. Now to be fair, should the heart cease, never to return, death seems a likely event. Yet, I think of death slightly differently. However necessary is the heart, which causes blood to flow throughout the body, it is the brain that for me defines Life and Death. That is, should the brain cease to function, that event signals Death.  I am not informed or perhaps intelligent enough to know whether the brain might cease, but other organs, the heart say, could continue. I assume they work together as integrated mechanisms. I take it the brain needs routine flow of blood which brings oxygen, keeping the brain operational.

I understand that some people actually have had their hearts cease for some time, but then they come back. Often they report on their thoughts during that time of heart cessation, sometimes referred to as a death or after-death experience, using the heart as the defining point of life or death.  So, there are many “after-death” tales told by folks who underwent this awful experience.

Now we seem to have two kinds of “after-death” experiences. The first is that relatively brief stage where the person’s heart ceases to operate, but then comes back around and begins beating anew. During that shaky period, the brain may continue operating, even if it ceases what we might call “normal” operation. And those folks might or might not remember anything during the heart shut-down stage.  I think that many people experience thoughts during this heart shutdown, which signals to me that the brain has never completely shut down, and so, technically, the person is not “dead”, regardless of the heart malfunction.

See, I regard brain-death as the real definition of “death”. Should the brain literally cease operating, the person is (in my limited viewpoint) technically dead. And if the brain does not recover and begin operating again, the person will become permanently dead.  That makes me wonder whether there has ever been a case in which a person’s heart stopped, causing the brain to cease, and then the heart began beating again, but the brain would not begin operating? But then, I guess, how would one know the brain was not operating? Oh via electronic monitoring, huh?  Apparently, once the heart ceases to flood the body with blood, carrying oxygen, the lack of blood flow may begin causing problems, damage to various parts of the body. So, restoring blood flow as quickly as possible is key to a healthy restart of the body’s various functions.  But the real key is restoring blood flow to the brain, because the brain is the key to life.

But now we come to perhaps the main point—once the brain ceases to operate permanently, we enter that state known as “death”.  That is the period in which the person loses all awareness of life, and the rest of the body’s organs begin deteriorating.  Remember, the brain, is what defines LIFE in my view. So, without any brain, there is no LIFE.  But now we encounter this other strange phenomenon. Remember, there is no brain, ergo no awareness of anything. And that is perhaps the awful truth. Being DEAD, means you no longer are aware of anything. And, because you have no brain, you do not even know that simple fact. YOU are now gone. But, excuse me, not, you are not “GONE”.  You simple no longer exist. You, that physical entity, remains in place, but now that physical entity is as a piece of wood from a tree, a branch perhaps. 

See we adopt this fairy tale of humans taking a trip, after that brain cessation. Yeah, we move on up into the hills of heavenly clouds, so we can look down and observe our earthly friends and relatives.  But have we any evidence of such a conversion? Hmmm, well no. To my knowledge, there has never been any evidence of a person returning to life with an awareness of having looked down from the heavenly regions of outer space. So far as we know, once the brain ceases, and we cease living, there is nothing further that occurs. And we do not know that, because we no longer exist.

But because that phenomenon is so disturbing, we humans created an entire after-life existence called Heaven, oh and Hell (for the naughty amongst us).  And we created God(s) that rule over that place called Heaven (oh and let’s not forget Satan ruling over his Hell).  

Now, I have always wondered about this amazing place we invented. Just think; it gave rise to actual humans who theoretically act as the Earthly representatives of the Gods above (I guess Satan has no Earthly Buds representing him).  So, popes, priests, nuns, et al were all invented by relatively ignorant humans to provide a control system on Earth for the humans who continue to reside here as living, breathing creatures. Now, however ignorant were those folks who invented that Earthly representative system known as RELIGION, I have to admit its ultimate cleverness. I mean they invented an entire global employment system that had its own financial system (humans give them money so that they can live in peace) and a very large measure of control over those humans who continue remaining alive.  See, they retain the power to bless you, or to threaten you with that Hell place. In olden times, they could do you even more damage.

But think of it. Even now, in the 21^st Century, humans all over the globe pay respect and obeisance to the religious hierarchy of the world, as those folks continue to pretend that they KNOW God and KNOW what happens to you after you die. That afterlife thingie, you know.

Now, suppose (however unlikely) the world of humans slowly began to understand the actual likelihood of NO AFTERLIFE. That is, you die because your brain ceases operation and then it is over. NOTHING FOLLOWS. NOTHING.  If we were to actually and finally, understand that simple fact, would we simply walk away from Organized Religion?  There really would be no point any longer. And then, what would we do, having understood that simple fact of Life and Death?  Morality itself would need to be re-examined, because it would no longer have any relationship to the likelihood of an afterlife, good or bad. If we decided to be good to other humans, that decision would have to be based on simply making us feel better about ourselves. So many concepts would have to be re-examined because we would need to decide how to live based on what was good for us, while we are here. Now surely that would cause some humans to act badly to other humans (think Donald Trump) just because it might enhance their own power over other humans.  But I wonder whether we earthlings might decide to treat people well. Just because we might all like to be treated well. Who knows? I suppose there might be a slow movement of human thinking and acting in one direction or another—either towards Peace and Love and Decency, or towards the opposite. I suppose we need to think hard about that shift. Which way are humans inclined if there are no Gods and no afterlife of any kind? Hmmm, think hard and long on that proposition, folks. Our World awaits your decision.