Scientists reveal what really happens after you die

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People may be conscious for several hours after they have died, a study has claimed.

Evidence has been found that consciousness may persist long after the heart has stopped pumping and the brain has stopped sending electrical impulses.

It has long been known that the brain can send signals for a few seconds after death, but emerging research suggests people are alert to what is happening around them while they are biologically dead.

The study presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Phoenix claims death is not an “instantaneous event” but instead “unfolds as a process”, and the brain declines over hours instead of stopping abruptly.

Anna Fowler, a researcher at Arizona State University, analysed more than 20 studies on people’s near-death experiences, as well as studies conducted in animals on what happens in the brain after death.

Some human patients who have experienced “complete circulatory standstill” – when the heart stops beating – were later able to recall what was happening around them while their heart was still.

“Death, once believed to be a final and immediate boundary, reveals itself instead as a process – a shifting landscape where consciousness, biology and meaning persist longer than we once imagined,” Ms Fowler writes in her study.

“Consciousness may not vanish the moment the brain falls silent. Cells may not die the moment the heart stops.

“This research proposes that death is not the sudden extinguishing of life, but the beginning of a transformation, one that medicine, philosophy and ethics must now approach with deeper humility and renewed clarity.”

The work has implications for the ethics of organ donation, Ms Fowler warns, as around one in three organ donations occur after the heart has stopped. It is ideal to take organs within minutes of the heart ceasing to operate and a person is declared dead.

This is done to ensure the organs are fresh and not damaged for their transplantation into a patient in need, but Ms Fowler says that in these cases a donor may still be conscious while their organs are harvested.

Speaking to reporters at the conference, she said she believes there have been instances of organs being harvested while the donor is still conscious.

‘There are stages of death’

“What does happen when we die? Nobody really knows,” she added. “I really want people to think and consider what it means to truly die.”

Ms Fowler wants the definition of death in the US, which was set out in the 1980s, to be updated to reflect that death is not a singular event.

“It should be considered in phases,” she said. “If you have cancer, you could have stage three cancer, stage two cancer. Well, there are stages of death.

She added: “Emerging evidence suggests that elements of consciousness may briefly exist beyond the measurable activity of the brain and that death, long considered absolute, is instead a negotiable condition.

“These findings invite a redefinition of death as a gradual, interruptible process, one that science may increasingly learn not just to delay but to challenge outright.”