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Identifying What Death Is

DEATH has long been viewed by many as simply a change from one form of life to another. Such viewpoint holds that at death the soul is liberated from the body and continues living elsewhere. But is this really what happens?

Later we will see, but first let us examine some things that have been learned about death. Death does not occur all at once; it is a process that has been separated into two classifications.

Clinical Death

“A person whose heart and lungs stop working may be considered clinically dead,” explains The World Book Encyclopedia. Yet thousands of persons today who were at one time clinically dead are now alive and healthy. As a result of a heart attack, of drowning or of electrocution their heart and lungs ceased to function. But persons present at the time knew how to reverse the dying process. How?

The person applied cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, and successfully revived the victim.a If a person’s heartbeat and breathing have stopped for more than about four to six minutes, it is generally too late to restore him to meaningful life. By that time his brain has usually been damaged due to being deprived of oxygen for too long. How, then, you may ask, is it possible for people clinically dead for hours sometimes to be restored to good health?

The rapid dropping of their body temperature at the time of “death” is responsible. Dr. Brian Pickering, who revived Jean Jawbone (mentioned in the previous article), explains: “She is a very lucky woman. The extreme cold had the effect of freezing the brain and preventing any damage to it.” Persons who have drowned in very cold water have also been successfully revived after being “dead” for quite a long time.

Insights into Death?

Walking around in good health today are literally thousands of persons who were once clinically dead. Has their experience given them insights into death? Do they remember anything about it?

Many say that they do. Doctors have interviewed quite a few of such persons, and a number of recent books are based on the stories that they have told. Newspapers have reported the findings under attention-grabbing headlines. For example, on January 6, 1979, one headline in the Toronto Star said:

“There is life after death and it may be hell, says MD

Book reports experiences of people who have ‘died’”

The National Observer carried the headline:

“Back From Death?

A Few Who’ve Been There Say They Found Signs of Life Beyond”

Similarly, the Atlanta Constitution proclaimed:

“Life After Life

People Who Have ‘Clinically’ Died Describe a Sensation of the Soul Leaving the Body”

Many of the stories told are gripping and astounding. Heart specialist Dr. Maurice Rawlings, of the Diagnostic Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, has resuscitated hundreds of patients. Often, he says, patients describe vivid experiences upon being revived. Almost all of them tell of enjoying very pleasant, blissful things. But not all. In one instance a 48-year-old mail carrier “dropped dead” while running on a treadmill in his office. Rawlings resuscitated him again and again, explaining:

“Each time he regained heartbeat and respiration, the patient screamed, ‘I am in hell!’ He was terrified, and pleaded with me to help him. . . .

“This patient had a grotesque grimace expressing sheer horror. His pupils were dilated and he was perspiring and trembling—he looked as if his hair was on end.

“He said: ‘Don’t you understand? I am in hell. Each time you quit massaging my chest I go back to hell. Don’t let me go back to hell!’”

Experiences such as this one have convinced Dr. Rawlings that there is life after death. And a number of other medical men and investigators have reached the same conclusion as a result of the stories that they have heard “dead” persons tell. Thus the New York Post carried the headline:

“Science begins to believe that there is life after life”

Why the Stories Are Believed

The fact is that stories told by revived patients at times are indeed remarkable, baffling. Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, one of the chief investigators of so-called after-death experiences, tells about a 12-year-old girl who, ‘in crossing the threshold into the life beyond,’ was met by an older brother, whom she described in detail. But, as the doctor explained, the brother had died three months before the girl was born, and her parents had never told her about this brother.

Dr. Raymond A. Moody, who also has interviewed many such patients, says that while “dead” one girl went out of her body and into another room in the hospital. There she found her sister crying, and saying: “Oh, Kathy, please don’t die.” Later, when Kathy told her sister exactly what she had said and where she had been when she said it, her sister was amazed.

‘Aren’t such experiences proof that something leaves the body at death to continue life elsewhere?’ some will ask. Dr. Moody claims: “There is no normal way for these people to have guessed what was going on in the room while they were ‘dead.’” He says: “If Mr. Jones tells you his spirit was hovering about the ceiling and proceeds to describe who was in the room when and what went on, it seems as if one has no alternative but to believe him.”

Yet, is there really no alternative explanation? Is it accurate to say that these revived people were truly dead? Does the stoppage of breathing and heartbeat mean that actual death follows immediately?

Biological Death

No, it does not. As noted earlier, death does not occur all at once. The World Book Encyclopedia explains: “The individual cells of the body continue to live for several minutes [after clinical death]. The person may be revived if the heart and lungs start working again and give the cells the oxygen they need.” But what if the vital oxygen is not provided soon enough?

This encyclopedia continues: “The brain cells—which are most sensitive to a lack of oxygen—begin to die. The person is soon dead beyond any possibility of revival. Gradually, other cells of the body also die. The last ones to perish are the bone, hair, and skin cells, which may continue to grow for several hours.”

So those persons who reportedly were restored to life were not actually dead. They had not experienced complete, or biological, death. Their heartbeat and breathing had simply stopped temporarily.

Why is it, then, that so many persons who have been revived tell such amazing experiences? Isn’t it possible that, in their state of clinical death, they could be receiving a preview of what awaits them in a future life? Does death open the door to a life beyond?

[Footnotes]