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Keniichi
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04 Jan 2013, 2:25 am

How does one scientifically explain people coming back from the dead? (As in they've been declared dead, but have come back alive and told of their "adventure" in Heaven or Hell).


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MCalavera
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04 Jan 2013, 5:02 am

They weren't completely dead yet. The brain was still working.



TallyMan
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04 Jan 2013, 5:12 am

When the brain and in particular the visual cortex of the brain is starved of oxygen, it gives rise to hallucinations, tunnels of light etc.


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04 Jan 2013, 2:08 pm

Their subconsciousness processing and translating the shutdown of its physical systems into something vaguely understandable to what is left of the conscious mind. Perhaps not unlike dreams though obviously a different mechanism


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ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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04 Jan 2013, 2:25 pm

They can only be dead a very short while and even then they can have some brain damage because the tissue requires oxygen to function. Otherwise, it is dead tissue that does not and brain damage results. Life after death is an example of the brain tissue being deprived from oxygen a very short time only to have oxygen return so it can continue on.



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04 Jan 2013, 2:44 pm

MCalavera wrote:
They weren't completely dead yet. The brain was still working.

I spoke to a doctor once who routinely performed emergency CPR at a hospital in Denmark.

His view was that a patient with no heartbeat was dead, and resuscitating him or her was the equivalent of bringing someone back to life.

This may be a psychological defence mechanism, however.

CPR has a low success rate, and if you are going to perform CPR on several patients every week (or even every day), it is perhaps better for your psyche to consider that you brought one out of 15 patients back from the dead rather than 14 out of 15 patients died in your hands.



androbot2084
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04 Jan 2013, 7:12 pm

Can cloning bring someone back from the dead?



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04 Jan 2013, 7:19 pm

androbot2084 wrote:
Can cloning bring someone back from the dead?


Only if it is someone really, really unwise to bring back obviously


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thomas81
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04 Jan 2013, 7:20 pm

my understanding is that 'death' is the permanent cessation of all biological activity in the body.

Its an abstract one to wrestle with but i'm sure theres a 'point of no return' beyond which CPR simply doesn't work.


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thomas81
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04 Jan 2013, 7:21 pm

androbot2084 wrote:
Can cloning bring someone back from the dead?

it wouldnt be the same person. Just a different person with a duplicated body.


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androbot2084
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04 Jan 2013, 7:24 pm

What if the old spirit was able to possess the new body?



MCalavera
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05 Jan 2013, 2:16 am

GGPViper wrote:
MCalavera wrote:
They weren't completely dead yet. The brain was still working.

I spoke to a doctor once who routinely performed emergency CPR at a hospital in Denmark.

His view was that a patient with no heartbeat was dead, and resuscitating him or her was the equivalent of bringing someone back to life.

This may be a psychological defence mechanism, however.

CPR has a low success rate, and if you are going to perform CPR on several patients every week (or even every day), it is perhaps better for your psyche to consider that you brought one out of 15 patients back from the dead rather than 14 out of 15 patients died in your hands.


What some doctors may think for the sake of their own psyche should not logically change the likelihood that it's all in the head rather than that there's actually an afterlife after death.



ruveyn
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05 Jan 2013, 8:50 am

Keniichi wrote:
How does one scientifically explain people coming back from the dead? (As in they've been declared dead, but have come back alive and told of their "adventure" in Heaven or Hell).


They never were dead. Just calling something dead is not necessarily being dead. We have incomplete and imperfect means of detecting life functions in a body injured or stricken with disease.

At the cellular level, life does not cease with "death" It takes a period of time for all the cells in a dead person's body to suffer cellular death.

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05 Jan 2013, 8:52 am

ruveyn wrote:
Keniichi wrote:
How does one scientifically explain people coming back from the dead? (As in they've been declared dead, but have come back alive and told of their "adventure" in Heaven or Hell).


They never were dead. Just calling something dead is not necessarily being dead. We have incomplete and imperfect means of detecting life functions in a body injured or stricken with disease.

At the cellular level, life does not cease with "death" It takes a period of time for all the cells in a dead person's body to suffer cellular death.

In any case it means that the body can no longer be restored to biological function in ambient conditions. But notice that this is technology dependent. There was a time when death meant the heart stopped. But we can restore heartbeat these days with fancy equipment. 100 years ago we could not do that. You have seen the cliche scene in moves where the doctors feels for a pulse that is not there and he sadly shakes his head. "He's dead, Jim".

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