Death is the only thing certain for all of us, yet we don’t know what happens after. Is Death final? And if not, does consciousness persist after death?
My grandfather once had the strangest dream. He found himself walking along the cobblestone streets of a town at twilight. The inhabitants emerged from every door, corner, and alley in total silence, carrying oil lanterns ahead of them to guide their steps. The gloomy streets quickly populated with feeble lights. Hundreds. Thousands. The crowd gathered at the town’s square, where they joined a line that, as my grandfather could see, extended beyond the horizon like a river of stars. Bewildered, without knowing what to do, my grandfather joined the line and marched along with the pilgrims to an uncertain destination.
After a long walk, a woman wearing a white robe approached my grandfather and stopped his advance. “Where is your lantern?” The woman asked with a soothing voice.
My grandfather stepped outside the line. “I don’t have one,” he said, shocked at the realization that from the thousands forming the line, he was the only one missing his lantern.
“That’s because it’s not your time yet,” the bright-eyed woman said with a comforting smile. “This is the pilgrimage of Death, but you are not ready yet.” My grandfather turned around in disbelief, refusing to accept that everyone around him was already dead. “You need to go back from where you came from, and in seven days, we will meet again.” The woman forewarned and my grandfather headed back, leaving behind the pilgrims and their lights. My grandfather walked without stopping until the night was so dark that he couldn’t see himself anymore.
My grandfather woke up before the roosters’ crowing, lying by the side of his wife, alive but feeling cold.
Later that day, dining at the table, my grandfather recounted the dream to his family. My grandmother, his sons, and her daughter—my mother—listened attentively to his story. “I’ve been informed that I’ll die in a week,” my grandfather informed, but no one took him seriously since he was not suffering from any ailment, and his family attributed this sudden revelation as a product of his dreams, far from reality.
But my grandfather took his dream so seriously that the following day, he started his preparations. He redacted his will and instructed his older sons about how to deal with things when he had gone. My grandmother grew worried about his behavior, but it was until my grandfather disappeared she panicked. She thought the worst, since he had never left home without letting her know, but back then, without access to technology, there was little to be done but wait.
After three days of absence, my grandfather finally returned home. His family welcomed him happily, but when confronted about his whereabouts, my grandfather’s sole explanation was that he had gone on a pilgrimage, preparing himself for his demise.
Days later, when the fateful day arrived, my grandfather rose earlier than usual for a weekend, and he asked his wife to prepare lunch earlier, since he wanted to go to sleep. After having his meal, my grandfather went to the bathroom to shave himself. My mother, who at that time was a teenager, found her father motionless with blade in hand, mid-shaving, beholding something through the window. She approached to understand what he was looking at so keenly.
“Isn’t beautiful?” My grandfather asked her daughter, his eyes fixed on the tree’s foliage.
“What?” my mother asked, puzzled.
“The birds… the singing,” he said, but my mother couldn’t hear or see a single bird.
After that, my mother left her father alone and when she returned, she found him unconscious on the floor, and he was already dead.
Amid their sorrow, his family had to admit that what my grandfather had said turned out to be true. And they had to embrace the possibility that maybe my grandfather had indeed visited the hereafter in what they thought “was just a dream,” and what he had witnessed in that place, wanted it or not, it waits for all of us.
As I grew up hearing my mother recounting the happenings of my grandfather’s passing, I could not prevent feeling allured by the enigma of Death, to the point that, now as a writer, I’ve explored the theme and the experiences of my grandfather in the hereafter in my fantasy novel series Vandella.
But what is more interesting to me is that every time I’m on the stage presenting my books and speaking about the experiences of my grandfather, there is always one of two people that approach me afterwards to confirm my grandfather’s experience and share with me their own Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). And listening to their experiences, I can’t but wonder if there is truly something beyond our biological deaths, and if these Near-Death Experiences could be the window to unravel the mystery of what happens when we die. And for that, we should first answer the question: are Near-Death Experiences real?
Are Near-Death Experiences Real?
Near-Death Experiences are profound personal experiences that take place on the brink or during clinical death before being resuscitated. Most of you should be familiar with the descriptions of the “tunnel of light”, the “review of one’s life”, meeting relatives or beings of light, and the out-of-body experiences, where the experiencer explores our physical world boundlessly. The problem to study this phenomenon is that Near-Death Experiences are “subjective” in nature, happening entirely in our brain, and highly unpredictable, considering that most of the times doctors and scientists are not present when these occur, so it’s difficult to apply a scientific rigor to anecdotal data.
In his book “After”, American psychiatrist and near-death experiences researcher, Bruce Greyson encapsulates decades of research of the phenomenon, and sheds light on some of the most common assumptions and misconceptions surrounding these experiences. I’ve summarized the conclusions in the following points:
Mind continues functioning independently from the brain. In other words, Near-Death Experiences are not produced by the brain like dreams, considering that brain activity decreases after within six to seven seconds of the heart stopping and after ten to twenty seconds, the electroencephalogram (EGG) goes flat, indicating no activity in the cerebral cortex, responsible for thoughts, perceptions, memory and language.
Near-Death Experiences are not dreams. It has been demonstrated that Near-Death Experiences occur in people under general anaesthesia, which suppresses REM brain activity (Or Rapid Eye Movement) where vivid dreams occur. Furthermore, measurements of REM brain activity in people who’ve had Near-Death Experiences show that it’s actually lower than in other people.
Near-Death Experiences are not produced by a lack of oxygen in the brain. It was theorized that an oxygen-deprived brain could produce the hallucinations associated to these experiences, however contrary to the expectation, Near-Death Experiences are associated either with increased oxygen levels, or with levels the same as those of non-experiencers.
Near-Death Experiences are not triggered by the physical stimulation of a certain part of the brain. Many scientists have cited pioneering work of the neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield as evidence that abnormal electrical activity in the temporal lobe can cause out-of-body experiences associated to the Near-Death Experiences. However, Neuroscientist Mario Beauregard found that there was no one part of the brain that was associated with the memories of the Near-Death Experiences. Rather, several parts of the brain became active when the NDEs were remembered.
Near-Death Experiences are not produced by a mental disease. Evidence suggests that Near-Death Experiences are not associated with mental illness. People with mental illness have Near-Death Experiences no more or less often than do people in the general population. In the case of people experiencing Near-Death Experiences, these are remembered vividly for decades after the event and are often remembered as “realer than real”, contrary to people with mental illness usually realize that their visions were unreal. Memories of an episode of mental illness fade over time. Additionally, patients who are given medications in fact report fewer Near-Death Experiences than do patients who don’t get any medication.
Psychedelic drugs don’t produce Near-Death Experiences. Near-Death Experiences are similar to some unusual experiences associated with psychedelic drug use, most often those associated with the anaesthetic ketamine and with DMT (dimethyltryptamine), a chemical that is found in nature and can produce euphoria and visions. However other common effects in ketamine don’t appear in Near-Death Experiences. Ketamine is viewed as “just another door” to NDEs and not actually producing them. Contrary to Near-Death Experiences, people under the influence of psychedelic drugs like LSD and psilocybin have shown that the elaborate mystical experiences associated with these drugs are accompanied by decreased brain activity. These drugs decrease brain activity, particularly in the prefrontal cortex and sharply decrease the kind of synchronized electrical activity in the brain that is typically seen with complex thinking reducing the brain’s ability to filter the mind and permit access to mystical experiences.
After discussing these conclusions about the biology of dying and what happens in the brain during those moments, we can agree that according to science, Near-Death Experiences seem not to be caused by brain activity, but regardless of it. Reinforcing the belief that our mind, our consciousness, can function separate from the brain, and not as a byproduct of it, as previously thought. Could this be the confirmation that there is something beyond life?
Up until this point, we have discussed the science behind the “subjective” part of the experience, however, how can we confirm that what is expressed by the experiencers can be regarded as true?
For that I want to focus on the “out-of-body” experiences.
During the Near-Death Experiences, people report abandoning their body and having enhanced senses like vision or hearing, what allows them to witness happenings around them that their body, technically should be incapable of capturing, considering the state of brain activity. Experiencers report hearing discussions of doctors or seeing details in the operating room, or even situations involving relatives in adjacent rooms, which could be put to the test, right? The study conducted reviewed 93 reports of out-of-body perceptions during Near-Death Experiences and found that 92 percent were verified by outside sources as completely accurate, while 6 percent contained some error, and only 1 percent was completely wrong.
So, we are speaking of an almost 99% of accuracy on the happenings described by the Dear-Death Experiencers, and this information capturing and transferring to a clinically-death brain is impossible to justify without acknowledging the existence of a fully conscious incorporeal entity which can operate independent from the brain. Could this be confirmation of the existence of the soul?
Unfortunately, we don’t have enough evidence to scientifically prove its existence yet, but if we continue the thought experiment, if the soul exist, does our consciousness will be preserved after the death of our body? And if so, where souls go? Is there a hereafter as described by my grandfather? A heaven? A hell perhaps?
According to the research of psychiatrist Bruce Greyson, experiencers of Near-Death Experiences reported having physical-like sensations, comparable to seeing and hearing, and that we still have emotions. They mentioned that we will still be able to watch loved ones who are still alive and may be able to communicate and interact with them.
And this communication channel between our plane existence and this “spectral” world where our defunct loved ones reside, it puzzled me, not only because it has been claimed by believers and practitioners of the paranormal, but also because I still have a second story to share with you.
Can we communicate with the dead?
Decades after my grandfather’s death, when his children were older, and I, the youngest of his grandchildren was already a teenager, my grandfather appeared in “dreams” to his second son. And as my uncle recounted it, the purpose of the visit was to announce that my grandfather would “come to take them with him.” My grandfather provided a list to my uncle detailing the order in which each of them would die, but without a specific date.
When my uncle shared his “dream” with his siblings (four brothers and one sister), all took it lightly, despite their previous experience with my grandfather’s unusual death. But intrigued, they dared to ask who would be the first to die. My uncle responded that the first would be the youngest son (with his sister, my mother, being the youngest). I remember that my mother scoffed, claiming that my uncle “was the one who had the least intention of dying”, considering he was the healthiest of all.
Yet they dared to ask who would follow, to which my uncle responded that it would be the oldest.
We could argue that in a certain way we all receive a death sentence the day we are born, but my uncle must have sensed something in the reaction of his siblings, because he refused to provide the rest of the list.
A few years later, the youngest of my uncles suffered an accident with a horse, causing him an instantaneous death, thus setting in motion the “reaping” of souls announced by my grandfather. This was followed by the passing of my oldest uncle due to a complication of diabetes, just as it was written.
My mother and her surviving siblings approached my uncle with the intention of knowing the rest of the list, but he refused to provide it without giving a reason.
In May 2022, my mother was hospitalized for a case of peritonitis resulting from diverticula. Despite being attended promptly, she suffered a severe case of sepsis, an infection which kept her in the hospital for weeks with a discouraging prognosis. Given her critical situation, my brother and I anticipated the worst.
As if by a miracle, the infection subsided, and my mother survived. She was discharged and returned home accompanied by nurses to continue her recovery. During the following weeks her relatives were attentive about her condition, everyone but her brother who had received the list.
My uncle finally called months later. I was sitting by my mother’s side, and I could hear my uncle’s voice through the receiver. After a brief greeting, my mother reproached to him, his lack of interest in her health condition, considering “she was on the brink of dying,” and the fact that if she had died, he would haven’t been able to speak to his sister ever again.
To which my uncle responded in a calm voice, “I knew you wouldn’t die, and that I could talk to you again.”
“How were you so sure?” My mother argued.
But my uncle remained silent, until my mother changed the topic of the conversation.
A few months after that conversation, my uncle passed away. And amid mourning for her brother, my mother understood that my uncle was sure that she would survive her disease regardless of how critical the situation was, simply because it was written on the list that it was him, and not my mother, who was the next to die.
I’ve heard similar stories of communicating with the dead, not only from relatives and close ones, but also from strangers that approach me after my presentations, that it’s hard for me to disregard these happenings as mere dreams or wild guessing because of the confirmation of the information shared. So, we can explore the idea that consciousness is persevered after death, at least a portion of it in some cases, to enable these iterations. And it raises questions about the relationship between dreams and death, with the former working as a window to that metaphysical plane. We could argue that during our sleep, the disconnection of the prefrontal cortex controlling the logic aspect of the brain and the thalamus that acts as gatekeeper blocking the sensory information from reaching the cortex, allows more primitive parts of the brain like Amygdala in charge or regulating emotions and the hippocampus of storing our memories, to take over. And maybe, by not being overshadowed by logic, a “sixth sense” buried within our brain, enables this type of nonsensory communication to take place.
I know that this information flow coming from the future poses a challenge of causing loop paradox, also called bootstrap paradox. In how information coming from the future can alter the past to a degree in which the original future can’t longer exist. But something that’s interesting about the study of psychiatrist Bruce Greyson is that most of the experiencers of Near-Death Experiences reports “to be outside the flow of time”. That everything seemed to be happening at once, or they seemed to move forward and backward in time. And this makes me think that maybe if the soul is released from the cage of flesh, is no longer bound by the constraints of gravity in the space-time continuum of the universe, and once dead, we break the locality, and delve into the quantum realm in which information exchanged between particles seems capable of flowing forward and backwards in time.
In a previous video I debated if our consciousness is the product of our life experiences tied to our biological body or if what we consider our “soul” is an unchangeable essence we received at birth. But regardless of what we believe, the research we reviewed today, points to the fact that consciousness can exist without the brain at least is some manner, and that after death, we can experience some sort of existence, even if brief, like ripples fading in this pond that we call life.
M. Ch. Landa
