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> “Something we may learn from this research is: although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us to rest, their brains may be replaying

> “Something we may learn from this research is: although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us to rest, their brains may be replaying some of the nicest moments they experienced in their lives.” Note to self: die in a way that keeps my brain intact for a few seconds after death.

dkural 5y ago
One my fears is that as I am dying my brain will get stuck in a subjective time loop, in essence, the last 30 seconds will subjectively stretch out to a thousand years... but with only a handful of repeating feelings and sensations. What if due to other physical discomfort, your memories replayed are those of regret or other unpleasant sensations? (similar to a "bad trip").
- kingkawn 5y ago
  Don’t worry, even if there is a period of bad trip it will be dwarfed by the subjectively infinite relaxation into oblivion
  - konart 5y ago
    Except you will never know because you are not the observer of this oblivion unlike that of a bad trip.
    - kingkawn 5y ago
      You are until you aren’t
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- datavirtue 5y ago
  I have always wondered if our last DMT moments were perceived as timeless. People imagine darkness but seem to forget that our minds reconstruct all of reality in real time. So you could conceivably live another life in your last moments.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  Not too likely. Did you ever experience a moment subjectivity stretched a thousand years? If no, why do you think there is a special mechanics for the event of system shutdown? If anything, any sensation or thought requires energy. Experiencing 1000x or 100000x more sensations in the same space of time takes 1000x/100000x amount of energy, and it's not like your dying organism has hidden last reservoir of energy to power your brain activity. Did I comfort you?
  - benibela 5y ago
    That reminds me of a old comment on Reddit. The poster wrote that he got assaulted by a football player, fell on the ground, and somehow hurt his head. Then he met a girl, they got married after two years and then had a child. Another two years later they had another child. He also had a great job, and bought a house, where he lived with his wife and family for like 10 years. One day he was sitting on the couch, looked at a lamp, and noticed that the lamp did not look right. The perspective was off. He stared at the lamp for three days. Then he realized that is not a real lamp. Nothing was real. Then he woke up, still laying on the ground where he had hurt his head 15 minutes ago.
  - bumby 5y ago
    I think the distinction is the subjective perception that time has stretched out a thousand years. It's not that time has literally dilated, just that our "normal" perception of time has changed. Perceived time dilation occurs under certain drugs (to include those endogenous to the human body) and the OP thought has been something that has occurred to me (and others) as well. IIRC, the movie American Beauty suggests it in the last scenes.
    - Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
      Subjective perception still requires energy to percept. Thus, to perceive time dilation your brain needs more energy to process it, but there is no a source of such energy.
      - bumby 5y ago
giantg2 5y ago
They're just theorizing here. Generally that would be something to say to console someone, just like "They're in a better place". It could be just as likely that if the person had strong memories of traumatic experiences, they could be remembering them.
- awb 5y ago
  Yeah, it sounds like the researcher is looking at this data through the lens of consoling surviving family members. > “As a neurosurgeon, I deal with loss at times. It is indescribably difficult to deliver the news of death to distraught family members,” he said.
- xwdv 5y ago
  It seems likely to me it depends on the person dying. If you always saw yourself as a victim, if you wallowed in the trauma and abuse that life gave you, then your final moments are likely spent remembering all that trauma and how shitty and unfair your life was, and convincing yourself you’re better off dead and gone far away from this world. A crude way to die.
  - wing-_-nuts 5y ago
    Whatever the truth, this is a pretty unempathetic view of trauma. People don't wallow in it, some simply don't escape it.
hatchnyc 5y ago
I am afraid that the last few minutes of life will be like a confusing and disoriented nightmare. That has always seemed to me to be the most likely scenario as your brain is shutting down.
- awb 5y ago
  Have you ever been knocked out or disoriented? It's mostly confusing. Death could be like that too. A flood of signals you're unfamiliar with and a lack of signals you're used to having. It probably depends on how much warning you have and your willingness / readiness to pass as well. Kind of like if you're really tired and can't wait to fall asleep vs. scared and trying to keep yourself awake.
  - goldenkey 5y ago
    Reading your comment gives me such an unsettling feeling. You nailed it. I think death is the ultimate form of discomfort. Our bodies refuse to let us die peacefully under most circumstances. They fight with every last breath and every last heartbeat, to keep going. And all the usual signals of comfort are gone, with one just left bare before the universe. Think motion sickness + nausea + all the other terrible feelings combined, and you cannot just give in, you just have to endure until you're gone. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGuXaFyU5lY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGuXaFyU5lY
- tayo42 5y ago
  If its like psychedelics I don't think it would be. Which i think the initial parts could be similar since they decrease blood flow to the brain, seems the same as dieing? IME there is nothing to fear, fear (emotions in general) is a higher level concept and those seem to be the first thing fall apart. Thoughts about thoughts, self identity, are made up to make living and thinking easier. my guess is you slowly transition to simple machine with sense inputs and outputs until it all shuts down.
- anotherman554 5y ago
  Interestingly there are two David Lynch movies (Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive) that can be interpreted as just that: someone's disorienting nightmare as they are dying.
awb 5y ago
> discovered rhythmic brain wave patterns around the time of death that are similar to those occurring during dreaming, memory recall, and meditation There are other possibilities besides memory recall. It sounds a little bit like falling asleep, where there might be some thoughts, some stillness (meditation) and some dreaming.
wrycoder 5y ago
> nicest moments Some people are optimists.

dkural 5y ago

One my fears is that as I am dying my brain will get stuck in a subjective time loop, in essence, the last 30 seconds will subjectively stretch out to a thousand years... but with only a handful of repeating feelings and sensations. What if due to other physical discomfort, your memories replayed are those of regret or other unpleasant sensations? (similar to a "bad trip").

kingkawn 5y ago
Don’t worry, even if there is a period of bad trip it will be dwarfed by the subjectively infinite relaxation into oblivion
- konart 5y ago
  Except you will never know because you are not the observer of this oblivion unlike that of a bad trip.
  - kingkawn 5y ago
    You are until you aren’t
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
datavirtue 5y ago
I have always wondered if our last DMT moments were perceived as timeless. People imagine darkness but seem to forget that our minds reconstruct all of reality in real time. So you could conceivably live another life in your last moments.
Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
Not too likely. Did you ever experience a moment subjectivity stretched a thousand years? If no, why do you think there is a special mechanics for the event of system shutdown? If anything, any sensation or thought requires energy. Experiencing 1000x or 100000x more sensations in the same space of time takes 1000x/100000x amount of energy, and it's not like your dying organism has hidden last reservoir of energy to power your brain activity. Did I comfort you?
- benibela 5y ago
  That reminds me of a old comment on Reddit. The poster wrote that he got assaulted by a football player, fell on the ground, and somehow hurt his head. Then he met a girl, they got married after two years and then had a child. Another two years later they had another child. He also had a great job, and bought a house, where he lived with his wife and family for like 10 years. One day he was sitting on the couch, looked at a lamp, and noticed that the lamp did not look right. The perspective was off. He stared at the lamp for three days. Then he realized that is not a real lamp. Nothing was real. Then he woke up, still laying on the ground where he had hurt his head 15 minutes ago.
- bumby 5y ago
  I think the distinction is the subjective perception that time has stretched out a thousand years. It's not that time has literally dilated, just that our "normal" perception of time has changed. Perceived time dilation occurs under certain drugs (to include those endogenous to the human body) and the OP thought has been something that has occurred to me (and others) as well. IIRC, the movie American Beauty suggests it in the last scenes.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
    Subjective perception still requires energy to percept. Thus, to perceive time dilation your brain needs more energy to process it, but there is no a source of such energy.
    - bumby 5y ago

giantg2 5y ago

They're just theorizing here. Generally that would be something to say to console someone, just like "They're in a better place". It could be just as likely that if the person had strong memories of traumatic experiences, they could be remembering them.

awb 5y ago
Yeah, it sounds like the researcher is looking at this data through the lens of consoling surviving family members. > “As a neurosurgeon, I deal with loss at times. It is indescribably difficult to deliver the news of death to distraught family members,” he said.
xwdv 5y ago
It seems likely to me it depends on the person dying. If you always saw yourself as a victim, if you wallowed in the trauma and abuse that life gave you, then your final moments are likely spent remembering all that trauma and how shitty and unfair your life was, and convincing yourself you’re better off dead and gone far away from this world. A crude way to die.
- wing-_-nuts 5y ago
  Whatever the truth, this is a pretty unempathetic view of trauma. People don't wallow in it, some simply don't escape it.

hatchnyc 5y ago

I am afraid that the last few minutes of life will be like a confusing and disoriented nightmare. That has always seemed to me to be the most likely scenario as your brain is shutting down.

awb 5y ago
Have you ever been knocked out or disoriented? It's mostly confusing. Death could be like that too. A flood of signals you're unfamiliar with and a lack of signals you're used to having. It probably depends on how much warning you have and your willingness / readiness to pass as well. Kind of like if you're really tired and can't wait to fall asleep vs. scared and trying to keep yourself awake.
- goldenkey 5y ago
  Reading your comment gives me such an unsettling feeling. You nailed it. I think death is the ultimate form of discomfort. Our bodies refuse to let us die peacefully under most circumstances. They fight with every last breath and every last heartbeat, to keep going. And all the usual signals of comfort are gone, with one just left bare before the universe. Think motion sickness + nausea + all the other terrible feelings combined, and you cannot just give in, you just have to endure until you're gone. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGuXaFyU5lY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGuXaFyU5lY
tayo42 5y ago
If its like psychedelics I don't think it would be. Which i think the initial parts could be similar since they decrease blood flow to the brain, seems the same as dieing? IME there is nothing to fear, fear (emotions in general) is a higher level concept and those seem to be the first thing fall apart. Thoughts about thoughts, self identity, are made up to make living and thinking easier. my guess is you slowly transition to simple machine with sense inputs and outputs until it all shuts down.
anotherman554 5y ago
Interestingly there are two David Lynch movies (Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive) that can be interpreted as just that: someone's disorienting nightmare as they are dying.

awb 5y ago

> discovered rhythmic brain wave patterns around the time of death that are similar to those occurring during dreaming, memory recall, and meditation There are other possibilities besides memory recall. It sounds a little bit like falling asleep, where there might be some thoughts, some stillness (meditation) and some dreaming.

wrycoder 5y ago

> nicest moments Some people are optimists.