Death happens to us all, so it is obvious to want to know what you are experiencing when your heart stops beating.
Do you see a bright light or dead lovers? Are you confronted with everything you wish you had done differently? Is peaceful or scary?
There is a saying that flashes your life before your eyes, it is a phenomena called ‘Life Recall’.
You will often hear people who have had a brush with death, say that their entire lives are played in their mind – and it appears that scientists have proven that something like that could happen very well if you die.
Neuroscientists actually captured someone’s brain activity while they died, and discovered that their brain waves were similar at the time of death to those who happen when we dream, remind and meditate.
Is it only us, or is that strange reassuring? If we have viewed your morbid curiosity, read on for more information about what happens when you die.
How does Life Recall work?
The study, published in the Frontiers in aging neuroscience In 2023 it discovered that our brains could remain active and coordinated during and even after the ‘transition to death’, responding to the change with a ‘programmed’ end.
This finding came after an 87-year-old patient developed epilepsy and an EEG was used to detect the attacks so that they could treat the patient.
While they registered brain activity, the patient had a heart attack and died, which means that the activity of a dying brain was first registered.
Dr. Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, the US, who led the study, explained to Frontiers that she saw the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating and saw neurological differences.
“We saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations, so-called gamma oscillations, but also in others such as Delta, Theta, Alpha and Beta Oscillations,” he said.
Oscillations is a nice term for brain waves and all the aforementioned types of brain waves, Bar Delta, are associated with dreams, memories and information processing – that amount to flashbacks.
Delta -brain waves are associated with deep sleep are certain states of consciousness.
“The brain can play a final recall of important events in life just before we die, similar to those reported in near-death experiences,” Dr. speculated. Zemmar.
“These findings challenge our understanding of when exactly life ends and generate important subsequent questions, such as those with regard to the timing of organ donation.”
However, it is important to remember that this study had only one patient who had also suffered attacks and swelling, but Zemmar is hopeful that these knowledge have lost or losing loved ones.
“Although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to let us rest, their brains can repeat some of the nicest moments they have experienced in their lives,” he said.
Visioning
But it is not only at the point of death that we see things, we also experience visioning as part of the dying process.
It is one of the six death bed symptoms described by Hospice nurse Julie McFadden, 41, who is located in LA and spends its time on managing palliative care.
“Visioning is wild,” says Julie. It is not about hallucinations and psychosis, or seeing things because of mental disorders. “It happens with many people, it is always reassuring and the person is almost always alert and oriented,” she explains.
“People always say:” Oh, it’s the medication or the lack of oxygen “or” they are just confused “, but … most people who are visioning are none of those things.
“It usually happens a few weeks before death, they can have a normal conversation with their families and say they see their dead father in the corner smiling and tells that he is coming to get them quickly and don’t worry.”
The best thing you can do as a family member who witnesses your loved one who experiences visioning is, according to the nurse ‘just going with it’.
She says that people usually experience about a month away from death.
The death range
Sometimes visioning goes hand in hand with what is called ‘The Death Reach’.
“This is when a person is in bed and he reaches in the air, almost as if he sees someone or reaching someone to hug him or shake his hand,” Julie explains.
This can also be for a longer period. Once again healthcare professionals do not know why this happens, but it is normal.
Although nothing is completely understood yet, it is clear that our brains work in mysterious ways when our time comes to continue. Now at least you have a bit of an idea about what you can expect.
What happens to your body after you die, according to a packer
Lianna Champ, 59, the first female Undertaker and Embalmer from the UK, has made her life of dead bodies since she saw her first at the age of 15. We engaged her to lead ourselves through everything that happens, between the time of death and the funeral.
“As soon as the heart stops beating the energy of the body,” she says Metro. ‘It is our energy and blood flow that keeps us warm, so the body starts to cool and it goes through a period of processes and changes, which we know as decomposition.
‘Rigor Mortis starts within a few hours after death. It is a chemical reaction caused by a lack of oxygen and biochemical changes in the body after someone died. This ensures that the muscles stiffen and contract. ‘
Lianna says that people wrongly believe that if you try to move limbs or fingers during Rigor Mortis, you will break the bones, but this is not true.
She says, “If someone’s hand would be stiff and you would gently bow their fingers, you would break down the rigor mortis because it doesn’t take, it breaks itself naturally after about 48 hours.”
Do you want to learn more about the balm process? Read here.
This article was first published on 15 June 2025.
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