Why The Life Flashes Before Our Eyes When We Are Close To Death?

in life •  7 years ago  (edited)

Why The Life Flashes Before Our Eyes When We Are Close To Death?

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Premonition or Normal Brain Activity?

You must have seen in many movies the moment when some character is close to death and his or her life appears to "flash" before the eyes. It is not just a Hollywood fantasy but the real phenomenon that has happened to many people.
According to studies it appears that this experience is related to how we process the information when we are about to experience life threatening situation. For example, when a policeman suddenly orders everyone to abandon a building, moments before the the bomb explodes, it is not because he or she had a gift of premonition. Although it may look as some sort of sixth sense, it is really about the way we access our memories and make use of our past experiences. Our memories record much more information than we are consciously aware of, so when we are under danger, the brain suddenly brings up all those recorded experiences and tries to apply them to that situation. This cognitive process is necessary for our survival.

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Life Review Experience

But what happens when we encounter a dangerous scenario that we have never experienced before? Like slipping off the tall cliff or being in the train accident. Under such circumstances, our brain instantly browses through all our memories but is not able to find the relevant information. In desperate attempt to find any clues, it releases all the subconsciously recorded memories giving us the impression of life flashing before our eyes. This phenomenon is called Life Review Experience or LRE and can be instantaneous or last up to few seconds. According to the studies, those sudden flashbacks are never chronological like in the movies but always random or simultaneous. They appear timeless and spaceless and often have profound impact on how people later see their lives. Scientists say that this may be related to the fact that the areas in the brain that store memories are the last ones to be affected by oxygen and blood loss when we suddenly suffer from severe injuries.


-logic


References:

"Why Life Should Flash Before One's Eyes: Episodic Memory and a Hypothesis Arising From the Recognition-Primed Decision Model", 2006.

"The life review experience: Qualitative and quantitative characteristics.", 2016.





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Very interesting does that have anything to do with our pineal gland realeasing all of its DMT.. like when we dream?

I think that this part if the brain and substance may be responsible for illusion of OBE.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Meanwhile, other scientists are trying to keep an open mind and investigate what is really going on, possibly beyond the paradigm of "just brain chemicals." Remember: nobody knows.

I've had an NDE, but of the type that can't be put on a cinema screen, so isn't spoken about much. I'll write about it (them, actually) if anybody is interested.

Thanks, upvoted!

Thanks for the comment and upvote.

Follow me for interesting and sarcastic memes

I love all things life after death, unconscious, pineal gland, and NDE's. Thanks for sharing. I resteemed.

Thank you for reading flexifriday!

Thank you for resteeming!

This subject is very interesting, and has given rise to many scientific investigations. thanks for sharing. I follow you.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

Thanks for reading and following

very interesting! upvoted and followed!

Thanks Ilana.

I do not believe it is only episodic memory. Science has not understood psychic phenomena fully. I like looking at the parapsychology research. Nice post!

Parapsychology is pseudoscience. Just because science cannot explain something yet does not mean it has to have supernatural origin. Anyway, majority of parapsychology is utter nonsense without any evidence. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The burden of proof rests on the person claiming extraordinary. They need to prove it exists, not other way around - ask others to prove that it does not.
Millions of people for hundreds of years also believed that Earth is in the centre of universe or flat disc. It did not make it so.

We could be here a long time. Parapsychology is not pseudoscience. I have heard your aguement before. We all have our own opinions and experiences. Parapsych is not about supernatural. Is the study of consciousness supernatural. Science is embedded in the material universe. I have experienced many things that science is yet to explain. Indeed science believed that he brain was not plastic but years later they found it actually is. The book by Rupert Sheldrake is very interesting - Science Set Free. Nothing is static everything is in motion and therefore dynamic and yet we come to the world with a static interpretation.

Parapsychology is pseudoscience. There is no scientific evidence. Just because someone believes that something is supernatural, because they cannot explain it (or science yet cannot) does not mean it has to be automatically supernatural. It is common error in logical reasoning.

earth isn't a flat disk but a hemispherical plane . Just cause were taught we live on a globe doesnt mean thats true.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I do not see the point of your comment. Who said that the Earth is flat... Who said that the Earth is a globe.
Please, go back and read the comment. This time with understanding.

Quite fascinating this idea about the brain browsing through all your memories in search of something that might save your life. I don't know why but this reminds me of all those frustrating moments when you're searching for something on your computer and get the "cannot find file" message.

Yeah haha, I get that when browse my music folders sometimes ughh

In my NDE my life didn't flash before my eyes. I was commercial diving in 12 feet of water when my line air unattached itself from my mask. besides surviving all i could think about is the last things I said to the people I love, If I was leaving on good terms with them and would they really know how much I did love them. I didn't have to search my memories for a relative situation though i just had to remember my training for emergency accent. I've heard other people say that's what they thought of to when they thought they might die.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

I do not see the point of your comment. So you did not have life review experience near death. And so what?
Neither did I have during my diving accident when got hyperventilation on depth of 20m during underwater rescue course.
Nowhere in this article is written that this phenomenon happens every time.
Please, go back and read the comment. This time with understanding.
Also nowhere it is written that "you have to search" memories. This brain activity phenomenon (which does not happen often) is automatic, spontaneous and with no control. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it does not.
Your comment is pointless.

I am aware my comment was pointless i
I did have a near death experience that i was sharing but at the time when i wrote that i let a personal matter effect my writing and instead of sharing and collaborating i took to trolling and for that i am sorry. I had my head firmly up where the sun dont shine. This is what i should have wrote: There is another experience that some peolple go through that i have had and I have heard other people talk about and that us thinking of what terms are you leaving the people you care about. Was the last things you said good or bad. Again sorry for trolling out.

Hey. Thanks for the comment. That's not a problem. We all have times when we start saying or writing things that we normally would not.
Thanks for sharing your experience.