Evidence for the afterlife. Life after death - stories from the Russian press. What is the afterlife - Paradise

A strange question: "Is there life after death? In general, where did a person get the concept of ""? After all, if we proceed from the theory of evolution, then man himself appeared on earth, and human life- it's just a series of certain interconnected chemical reactions ... When the reactions stop, life stops. But the question is: why is a person able to think or think about what he should not think about in principle? I have already given an example with fish. She swims in the water and she does not have a question: why is the water so wet? Water is its natural habitat, so it is absolutely normal for fish to have wet water. Now let's look at a person. If he has educated himself and gives life to himself, then, firstly, the concept of good and evil should not exist for him, because everything should be perceived as a natural habitat, and even more so a person should not distinguish that good is good, and evil is bad. Secondly, a self-sufficient person cannot, in principle, have thoughts about life after death, and even more so thoughts about it, because. death, it is a natural consequence of existence.

But, the fact is that a person distinguishes between good and evil, and is able to think about eternity. Question: how does he know about it? Who gave man a conscience so that he knows what is bad and what is good?

I like the story of Winnie the Pooh, when he came to visit a rabbit, put his head in a hole and asks: "Anyone there?" And the rabbit answers him, - "There is no one." Winnie the Pooh thought about it and said: "It's strange, because someone had to say" There is no one "."

Friends, if a person knows what is bad and what is good, then there must be Someone Who would have to tell him about it or put this program into him.

God gives through the Bible clear answers to these questions. The story of creation, which God told us through the Bible, tells us that initially God created man physically eternal. Those. Man is originally meant not for death, but for life. After people sinned and left God, they ceased to be eternal physically, but they still had the desire and desire for an endless life. That is why people dream of apples and pills that give eternal life... But death appeared as a consequence of sin. And now God in the Bible declares: “… people are supposed to die once, and then judgment» (Heb.9:27) There are two thoughts here:

1. Everyone must die.

2. After death there will be a mandatory judgment.

The second part speaks unambiguously about the continuation of life, otherwise how to judge someone who does not exist?

But this is not all that the Bible reveals to us. The Bible says that a person consists of several components. He was created in the likeness of God, and also, like God, has a tripartite nature. There are three components of a person: May the God of peace Himself sanctify you in all its fullness, and your spirit and soul and body in all its integrity may it be preserved without blemish at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ". (1 Thess. 5:23) There are three components:

1. The body is the center of world knowledge.

2. The soul is the center of self-consciousness.

3. Spirit is the center of God-knowledge.

God originally created all three components to be eternal, including the body. But the Bible shows the reason why man ceased to be eternal physically - this is sin. Until now, scientists are struggling with the problem of aging and cannot stop it. After all, the whole organism is constantly updated and theoretically can renew itself forever. It's just getting old for some reason. People dream that one day a way will be found to defeat old age, and then they will finally be able to live forever ... But this will never happen. Because death is not the cessation of chemical reactions. Death is the separation of the soul and spirit from the body. This is the whole point. You can make a person forever young, but he will still die, despite the fact that his body will be young, because the Bible says that "the wages of sin is death." Sin is the cause of aging and death, not the breaking of the genetic code. God controls life and death. And if He stops life, then no one can restore it except Him. “...Thus says the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one closes , closes and no one will open ." (Rev. 3:7)

With the body, everything is clear - it is mortal, but with other components - the spirit and souls, everything is different. They remain eternal, as they were originally created. That is why the human soul longs for eternity and wants to live forever.

The Bible says that the human soul is able to exist outside the body, and the body is only a means of communication with the physical world.

Those people who are looking for the secrets of eternal life are not looking for them there. The center of man is not in the brain or in any other physical organ. The center of a person is the soul, which is located in another dimension, inaccessible to the physical world. That is why Christ said: And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear the One Who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna". (Mat. 10:28). In fact, a person cannot be killed. You can only destroy its physical shell.

It turns out that the human brain is apparently a relay of signals to the spiritual world, as well as a receiver of information from there. How this happens, at what frequency and in what spectrum is unknown. For the most part, scientists study the structure of the brain as a center for storing information, and not as a receiver and transmitter of information to an external storage. Such scientists will never understand the principle of the functioning of the brain, because they look in the wrong place and give it the wrong functionality that it actually has.

It seems that the human brain is a window into another dimension. And if you find out how he transmits information to another dimension, then you can learn a lot of incredible things and discover new communication technologies ... But, these are just thoughts ... But this is not about that now.

The Bible says that when the time comes, a person leaves his body, as if disconnected, and exists outside the body, keeping in himself all the information received through the communication channels from the body. " And the dust will return to the earth as it was; and the spirit returned to God, who gave him". (Eccl. 12:7)

There is an interesting story that Jesus Christ told, it lifts the veil over the secret life after death:

« A certain man was rich, dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted splendidly every day. There was also a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate in scabs and desired to feed on the crumbs falling from the rich man's table, and the dogs, coming, licked his scabs. The beggar died and was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died, and they buried him. And in hell, being in torment, he raised his eyes in his bosom, and crying out, he said, Father Abraham! have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I suffer in this flame. But Abraham said: child! remember that you have already received your good in your life, and Lazarus - evil; now he is consoled here, and you suffer; and besides all this, a great chasm has been established between us and you, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can they pass from there to us. Then he said: So I ask you, father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers; let him testify to them that they also do not come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen. He said: No, Father Abraham, but if anyone from the dead comes to them, they will repent. Then [Abraham] said to him: If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then if someone rises from the dead, they will not believe." (Luke 16:19-31)

Jesus is a man who came from where we all have to go, and He tells how everything is arranged there. From his story we can draw the following conclusions:

1. Man after death continues to feel (And in hell, being in torment… , now he is comforted here, and you suffer)

2. Man after death can see (lifted up his eyes, saw Abraham and Lazarus afar off)

3. The person can communicate (and crying out he said...But Abraham said…)

4. Man after death recognizes other people : (I saw Abraham and Lazarus in the distance)

5. A person has a memory of the past: (recognizes people: I saw Abraham and Lazarus in the distance, Remembers living brothers and father: send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers; let him testify to them that they also do not come to this place of torment…)

These facts are confirmed by hundreds of thousands of eyewitnesses who experienced clinical death and left the body. Subsequently, they accurately described all the procedures that were performed on their body, and could retell what happened in the neighboring rooms and wards, even talked about who was wearing what clothes. All this confirms that the information is not stored in the brain, but outside it, otherwise, how could a person find out the information that was outside the walls of the operating room? And not only to learn, but also to remember. Scientists have no explanation for these facts, because for them a priori there is no life after death. Therefore, they try to either hush up these facts, or tell all sorts of nonsense, trying to explain such things. If we admit that there is life after death, then it means that we did not originate from a monkey, and everything is not so simple with a person. We have to admit that God created us, and the Bible is right! This means that you just need to close all institutions that study the origin of man from monkeys. This means that people will have to be told that there is a God and that everything the Bible says is true!

But, they will never do this, because it contradicts the existing world system, therefore they will fool people to the last, coming up with more and more crazy explanations of reality.

But the facts are clear: Life after death has been and always will be. And if this is so, then a sea of ​​questions arises: If there is life after death, then Who sent us here? And where do we return when life ends? What is the mission of man on earth, because for some reason we live this life in time on earth in order to return to eternity again? Scientists have no answer to this, but God does. I will try to cover these issues in more detail in future articles. Check back often and you can find a lot of interesting information about life after death. Write your thoughts in the comments, I'm interested in what you think on these issues.

Ever since the dawn of mankind, people have been trying to answer the question of the existence of life after death. Descriptions of the fact that the afterlife actually exists can be found not only in various religions, but also in eyewitness accounts.

In the article:

Is there life after death - Moritz Rawlings

Yeh, people have been arguing for a long time. Notorious skeptics are sure that there is nothing after death.

Moritz Rawlings

Believers believe that. Moritz Rawlings, a cardiologist and professor at the University of Tennessee, tried to collect evidence of this. He is known from the book "Beyond the Threshold of Death". It contains many facts describing the lives of patients who have experienced a clinical death.

One of the stories tells about a strange event at the time of resuscitation of a person who is in a state of clinical death. During the massage, which was supposed to make the heart work, the patient regained consciousness and began to beg the doctor not to stop.

The man in horror said that he was in hell and how they stop doing massage - he again finds himself in this terrible place. Rawlings writes, when the patient regained consciousness, he told what unthinkable torments he experienced. The patient expressed his willingness to endure anything in life, just not to return to such a place.
Rawlings began to record the stories that resuscitated patients told him. According to Rawlings, half of the near-death survivors say they've been to a charming place they don't want to leave. They returned reluctantly.

The other half insisted that the contemplated world is filled with monsters and torment. They had no desire to return.

But for skeptics, whether there is life after death is not a statement. It is believed that each individual subconsciously builds a vision of the afterlife, and during clinical death, the brain gives a picture of what it was prepared for.

Life after death - stories from the Russian press

You can find information about people who have experienced clinical death. The newspapers mentioned the story Galina Lagoda. The woman was in a terrible car accident. When she was brought to the clinic, she had brain damage, ruptured kidneys, lungs, multiple fractures, her heart stopped beating, and her blood pressure was at zero.

The patient claims she saw darkness, space. I found myself on a platform that was flooded with amazing light. In front of her stood a man dressed in white. I couldn't make out his face.

The man asked why the woman had come. It turned out she was tired. She was not left in this world, explaining that she had unfinished business.

Waking up, Galina asked her attending physician about the abdominal pain that bothered him. Returning to the "world", she became the owner of the gift, the woman treated people.

Wife Yuri Burkov told about an amazing event. He says that after an accident, the husband injured his back and received a serious head injury. Yuri's heart stopped beating, he was in a coma for a long time.

The husband was in the clinic, the woman lost her keys. When her husband woke up, he asked if she had found them. The wife was amazed, Yuri said, you need to look for the loss under the stairs.
Yuri admitted that at that time he was next to the deceased relatives and comrades.

Afterlife - Paradise

About the existence of another life, says the actress Sharon Stone. On May 27, 2004, on The Oprah Winfrey Show, a woman shared her story. Stone assures that she had an MRI, and for some time she was unconscious, she saw a room with white light.

Sharon Stone, Oprah Winfrey

The actress says that the condition is similar to fainting. It differed in that it was difficult to come to oneself. At that moment, she saw all the deceased relatives and friends.

She confirms the fact that with whom they were acquainted. The actress assures that she experienced grace, a feeling of joy, love and happiness - Paradise.

We managed to find interesting stories, they got publicity all over the world. Betty Maltz assured about the existence of Paradise.

The woman talks about the amazing area, beautiful green hills, rosaceous trees and shrubs. There was no sun in the sky, everything around was bright light.

The woman was followed by an angel, who took the form of a young man in long white robes. Beautiful music was heard, and in front of them was a silver palace. Outside the gate was a golden street.

The woman experienced that Jesus is standing, he invites her to enter. Betty thought she felt her father's prayers and returned to her body.

Journey to Hell - facts, stories, real cases

Not all testimonies of witnesses describe life after death happy.
15 year old Jennifer Perez claims that she has seen Hell.

The first thing that caught the girl's eye was a long snow-white wall. The center exit is locked. Not far away, a black door is still ajar.

An angel was nearby, he took the girl by the hand and led her to 2 doors, it was scary to look at her. Jennifer tried to run away, resisted, but it did not help. On the other side of the wall I saw darkness. The girl started to fall.

When she landed, she felt the heat, it enveloped her. Around were the souls of people, they were tormented by devils. Seeing all these unfortunates in agony, Jennifer stretched out her hands to and begged, asked for water, she was dying of thirst. Gabriel said about another chance, and the girl woke up.

The description of hell is found in the narrative Bill Wyss. The man talks about the heat in this place. A person begins to experience terrible weakness, impotence. Bill did not understand where he was, but he saw four demons nearby.

The smell of sulfur and burning flesh hung in the air, huge monsters approached the man and began to tear apart the body. There was no blood, but with every touch he felt a terrible pain. Bill felt that the demons hate God and all of his creatures.

Imagine that you, right now, were given proof of life after death, how your reality can change ... Read and think. Enough information to think about.

In the article:

The point of view of religion on the afterlife

Life after death… Sounds like an oxymoron, death is the end of life. Mankind has been haunted by the idea that the biological death of the body is not the end of human existence. What remains after the death of the camp, different nations in different periods of history had their own views, which also had common features.

Representations of tribal peoples

We cannot say for sure what views our prehistoric ancestors held, anthropologists have collected a sufficient number of observations of the current tribes, whose lifestyle has changed since the Neolithic. It is worth drawing some conclusions. During the period of physical death, the soul of the deceased leaves the body and replenishes the host of the spirits of the ancestors.

There were also spirits of animals, trees, stones. Man was not fundamentally separated from the surrounding universe. There was no place for the eternal rest of the spirits - they continued to live in that harmony, watching the living, assisting them in their affairs and helping with advice through intermediary shamans.

The deceased ancestors provided help disinterestedly: the natives, who did not know commodity-money relations, did not tolerate them even in communication with the world of spirits - the latter were content with respect.

Christianity

Thanks to the missionary activity of its adherents, it has embraced the universe. The denominations agreed that after death a person goes either to Hell, where a loving God will punish him forever, or to Paradise, where there is constant happiness and grace. Christianity - an independent topic, you can learn more about the afterlife.

Judaism

Judaism, from which Christianity "grew" has no idea about life after death, the facts are not presented, because no one returned back.

The Pharisees interpreted the Old Testament that there is an afterlife and retribution, and the Sadducees, confident that everything ends with death. A quotation from the Bible "... a living dog is better than a dead lion" Ek. 9.4. The book of Ecclesiastes was written by a Sadducee who did not believe in an afterlife.

Islam

Judaism is one of the Abrahamic religions. Is there life after death, clearly defined - yes. Muslims go to Paradise, the rest together go to Hell. No appeals.

Hinduism

The world religion on earth tells a lot about the afterlife. According to beliefs, people after physical death go either to heavenly spheres, where life is better and longer than on Earth, or to hellish planets, where everything is worse.

One thing pleases: unlike Christianity, you can return to Earth from hellish spheres for exemplary behavior, and from heavenly ones you can fall again if something goes wrong for you. There is no eternal sentence for hellish torment.

Buddhism

Religion - from Hinduism. Buddhists believe that until you get enlightenment on earth and merge with the Absolute, the series of births and deaths is endless and is called "".

Life on earth is a continuous suffering, a person is overcome by his endless desires, and non-fulfillment makes him unhappy. Give up your cravings and you are free. It's right.

Mummies of Oriental monks

"Alive" 200-year-old mummy of a Tibetan monk from Ulaanbaatar

The phenomenon was discovered by scientists in southeast Asia, and today it is one of the evidence, indirectly, that a person is still alive after turning off all the functions of the camp.

The bodies of Eastern monks were not buried, but mummified. Not like the pharaohs in Egypt, but in natural conditions, they are created thanks to humid air with a positive temperature. For some time they still grow hair and nails. If in the corpse of an ordinary person this phenomenon is explained by the shrinkage of the shell and the visual lengthening of the nail plates, then in mummies they really grow back.

The energy-information field, which is measured by a thermometer, a thermal imager, a decimeter range receiver and other modern devices, these mummies have three or four times more than that of an average person. Scientists call this energy the noosphere, which allows the mummies to remain intact and maintain contact with the earth's information field.

Scientific evidence for life after death

If religious fanatics or just believers do not question what is written in the teachings, modern people with critical thinking doubt the truth of theories. When the hour of death approaches, a person is seized with a trembling fear of the unknown, and this prompts curiosity and a desire to find out what awaits us beyond the material world.

Scientists have found that death is a phenomenon characterized by a number of obvious factors:

• lack of heartbeat;
• cessation of any mental processes in the brain;
• stop bleeding and blood clotting;
• after a time after death, the body begins to stiffen and decompose, and a light, empty and dry shell remains from it.

Duncan McDougall

An American researcher named Duncan McDougall carried out an experiment at the beginning of the 20th century, where he found that the weight of the human body after death decreases by 21 grams. Calculations allowed him to conclude that the difference in mass - the weight of the soul leaves the body after death. The theory has been criticized, this is one of the works to find its evidence.

Researchers have found that the soul has a physical weight!

The idea of ​​what awaits us is surrounded by many myths and hoaxes that are created by charlatans posing as scientists. It is difficult to figure out where the truth or fiction is, confident theories can be questioned for lack of evidence.

Scientists continue to search and acquaint people with new research and experiments.

Ian Stevenson

Canadian-American biochemist and psychiatrist, author of "Twenty Cases of Alleged Reincarnations" Ian Stevenson conducted an experiment where he analyzed the stories of more than 2 thousand people who claimed to keep memories from past lives in their memory.

The biochemist expressed the theory that a person simultaneously exists on two levels of being - gross or physical, earthly, and subtle, that is, spiritual, non-material. Leaving the worn-out and unsuitable for further existence body, the soul goes in search of a new one. The end result of this journey is the birth of man on Earth.

Ian Stevenson

The researchers found out that every life lived leaves imprints in the form of moles, scars discovered after the birth of a child, physical and mental deformations. The theory is reminiscent of the Buddhist one: when dying, the soul reincarnates in another body, with already accumulated experience.

The psychiatrist worked with the subconscious of people: in the group they studied there were children who were born with defects. Introducing the wards into a trance state, he tried to get any information proving that the soul living in this body had found refuge earlier. One of the boys, in a state of hypnosis, told Stevenson that he had been hacked to death with an axe, dictated the approximate address of his past family. Arriving at the indicated place, the scientist found people, one of the members of whose house was really killed with an ax hit on the head. The wound was reflected on the new body in the form of a growth on the back of the head.

The materials of Professor Stevenson's work give many people reason to believe that the fact of reincarnation is indeed scientifically proven, that the feeling of "déjà vu" is a memory from a past life, thrown to us by the subconscious.

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky

K. E. Tsiolkovsky

The first attempt by Russian researchers to determine such a component of human life as the soul was the research of the famous scientist K. E. Tsiolkovsky.

According to the theory, absolute death in the universe cannot be by definition, and clots of energy, called the soul, consist of indivisible atoms endlessly wandering through the vast universe.

clinical death

Many consider the fact of clinical death to be modern evidence of life after death - a condition experienced by people, more often on the operating table. This topic was popularized in the 1970s by Dr. Raymond Moody, who published a book called Life After Death.

The descriptions of most of those interviewed agree:

• about 31% felt flying through the tunnel;
• 29% - saw a stellar landscape;
• 24% observed their own body in an unconscious state, lying on the couch, described the real actions of doctors at that moment;
• 23% of patients were fascinated by inviting bright light;
• 13% of people during clinical death watched, like a movie, episodes from life;
• another 8% saw the border of two worlds - the dead and the living, and some - their own deceased relatives.

Among the respondents were people who were blind from birth. And the testimony is similar to the stories of the sighted. Skeptics explain visions by oxygen starvation of the brain and fantasy.

Early 21st century - A study was published by Peter Fenwick of the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parin of Southampton Central Hospital. Researchers have received irrefutable evidence that human consciousness does not depend on the activity of the brain and does not cease to live when all processes in the brain have already stopped.

As part of the experiment, scientists studied the case histories and personally interviewed 63 cardiac patients who had experienced clinical death. It turned out that 56 who returned from the other world did not remember anything. They lost consciousness and came to their senses in a hospital room. But seven patients retained clear memories of the experience. Four claimed that they were seized with a sense of calm and joy, the passage of time accelerated, the feeling of their body did not disappear, their mood improved, even became elevated. Then a bright light appeared, as evidence of a transition to another world. A little later, mythical creatures appeared that looked like angels or saints. Patients were for some time in another world, and then returned to our reality.

Note that these people were not pious at all. For example, three said they did not attend church at all. Therefore, to explain this kind of messages by religious fanaticism will not work.

But sensational in the study of scientists was completely different. After carefully studying the medical records of patients, the doctors issued a verdict - the prevailing opinion about the termination of the brain due to oxygen deficiency is wrong. None of those who were in a state of clinical death recorded a significant decrease in the content of life-giving gas in the tissues of the central nervous system.

Another hypothesis was also erroneous: that vision could be caused by an irrational combination of medications used during resuscitation. Everything was done strictly according to the standard.

Sam Parina assures that he started the experiment as a skeptic, but now he is one hundred percent sure - "there is something here." “Respondents experienced their incredible states at a time when the brain was no longer functioning and therefore was not able to reproduce any memories.”

According to the British scientist, human consciousness is not a function of the brain. And if this is so, explains Peter Fenwick, "consciousness is quite capable of continuing its existence after the death of the physical body."

“When we conduct research on the brain,” wrote Sam Parina, “it is clearly seen that the brain cells in their structure, in principle, do not differ from the rest of the cells of the body. They also produce protein and other chemicals, but they are not capable of creating the subjective thoughts and images that we define as human consciousness. In the end, we need our brain only as a receiver-transducer. It works like a kind of “live TV”: at first it perceives the waves falling into it, and then it converts them into an image and sound, which form integral pictures.”

Later, in December 2001, three scientists from the Rijenstate Hospital (Holland), led by Pim Van Lommel, conducted the largest study to date of people who have experienced clinical death. The results were published in the article "Near-death experience of survivors" after cardiac arrest: a targeted study of a specially formed group in the Netherlands in the British medical journal The Lancet. The Dutch researchers came to similar conclusions as their British counterparts from Southampton.

Based on statistics obtained over a decade, researchers have found that visions are far from visited by all survivors of clinical death. Only 62 patients (18%) of 344 who underwent 509 resuscitations retained a clear memory of a near-death experience.

• During clinical death, more than half of the patients experienced positive emotions.
• Awareness of the fact of one's own death was noted in 50% of cases.
• In 32% there were meetings with dead people.
• 33% of those who died spoke about passing through the tunnel.
• Pictures of the alien landscape have seen almost as many reanimated.
• The out-of-body phenomenon (when a person looks at himself from the outside) was experienced by 24% of the respondents.
• A blinding flash of light recorded the same number of people brought back to life.
• In 13% of cases, the resuscitated observed pictures of their lives passing by in succession.
• Less than 10% of respondents spoke about the vision of the border between the world of the living and the dead.
• None of the survivors of clinical death reported fearful or unpleasant sensations.
• Particularly impressive is the fact that people who were blind from birth spoke about visual impressions, they literally repeated verbatim the narrations of the sighted.

It will be interesting to note that a little earlier, Dr. Ring from America made attempts to find out the content of the dying visions of those who were blind from birth. He, along with colleague Sharon Cooper, recorded the testimonies of 18 blind people who, for some reason, ended up in a state of “temporary death.”

According to the testimonies of those interviewed, the visions before death were the only way for them to understand what it meant to "see."

One of the reanimated Vicki Yumipeg survived "" in the hospital. Vicki looked down from somewhere at her body lying on the operating table, and at the team of doctors who carried out resuscitation. So for the first time she saw and understood what light is.

Blind from birth, Martin Marsh, who experienced similar death visions, remembered most of all the variety of colors of the world around him. Martin is sure that the post-mortem experience helped him understand how sighted people see the world.

But let's return to the research of scientists from Holland. They set a goal to determine exactly when people are visited by visions: during clinical death or during the period of brain activity. Van Lammel and his colleagues say they succeeded. The conclusion of the researchers is that visions are observed precisely during the “shutdown” of the central nervous system. As a result, it was shown that consciousness exists independently of the work of the brain.

Perhaps the most surprising Van Lammel considers the case recorded by one of his colleagues. The patient was taken to the intensive care unit. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. The brain died, the encephalogram gave out a straight line. It was decided to use intubation (insert a tube into the larynx and trachea for artificial ventilation and restore airway patency). The patient had a denture in his mouth. The doctor took it out and put it in a drawer. After an hour and a half, the patient's heartbeat resumed and blood pressure returned to normal. A week later, when the same doctor entered the ward, the resuscitated man told her, “You know where my prosthesis is! You pulled my teeth out and put them in the drawer of the trolley!" Upon careful questioning, it turned out that the operated person observed himself lying on the operating table from above. He described in detail the chamber and the actions of doctors at the time of his death. The man was very afraid that the doctors would stop resuscitating him, and he tried in every possible way to let them know that he was alive ...

Their confidence that consciousness can exist separately from the brain, Dutch scientists confirm the purity of the experiments. To exclude the possibility of the appearance of so-called false memories (cases when a person, having heard from others stories about visions at clinical death, suddenly “remembers” something that he himself did not experience), religious fanaticism and other similar cases, scientists carefully studied all the factors that capable of influencing the reports of victims.

All respondents were mentally healthy. They were men and women aged 26 to 92, with different levels of education, believers and non-believers in God. Some have heard of "post-mortem experiences" before, others have not.

The general conclusions of researchers from Holland are as follows:

• Post-mortem visions in a person appear during the suspension of the brain.
• They cannot be explained by a lack of oxygen in the cells of the central nervous system.
• The depth of "near-death experiences" is greatly influenced by a person's gender and age. Women tend to experience stronger sensations than men.
• Most of the resuscitated, who had a deeper "post-mortem experience", died within a month after resuscitation.
• The experience of dying of the blind from birth does not differ from the impressions of the sighted.

All of the above gives grounds to assert that at the moment scientists have come close to the scientific substantiation of the immortality of the soul.

It remains for us to do just a little to realize that death is only a transfer station on the border between two Worlds, and to overcome fear before its inevitability.

The question arises: where does the soul go after the death of a person?

“If you died after living an unrighteous life, then you will not go to hell, but will forever be on the earthly plane in the worst periods of mankind. If your life was impeccable, then in this case you will find yourself on Earth, but in an age where there is no place for violence and cruelty.

This is the opinion of the French psychotherapist Michel Lerier, author of the book "Eternity in a Past Life". He was convinced of this through numerous interviews and hypnotic sessions with people who had been in a state of clinical death.

Every person who is faced with the death of a loved one wonders if there is life after death? Now this issue is of particular relevance. If a few centuries ago the answer to this question was obvious to everyone, then now, after the period of atheism, its solution is more difficult. We cannot easily believe hundreds of generations of our ancestors, who, through personal experience, century after century, were convinced that a person has an immortal soul. We want facts. Moreover, the facts are scientific.

They tried to convince us from the school bench that there is no God, there is no immortal soul. At the same time, we were told that this is what science says. And we believed... Let's note that we believed that there is no immortal soul, we believed that science supposedly proved it, we believed that there is no God. None of us even tried to figure out what an impartial science says about the soul. We easily trusted certain authorities, without particularly going into the details of their worldview, objectivity, and their interpretation of scientific facts.

We feel that the soul of the deceased is eternal, that it is alive, but on the other hand, the old and inspired stereotypes that there is no soul drag us into the abyss of despair. This struggle within us is very difficult and very exhausting. We want the truth!

So let's look at the question of the existence of the soul through a real, non-ideological, objective science. We will hear the opinion of real researchers on this issue, we will personally evaluate the logical calculations. Not our belief in the existence or non-existence of the soul, but only knowledge can extinguish this internal conflict, preserve our strength, give confidence, look at the tragedy from a different, real point of view.

First of all, about what Consciousness is in general. People have thought about this issue throughout the history of mankind, but still cannot come to a final decision. We know only some properties, possibilities of consciousness. Consciousness is awareness of oneself, one's personality, it is a great analyzer of all our feelings, emotions, desires, plans. Consciousness is what distinguishes us, what obliges us to feel ourselves not as objects, but as individuals. In other words, Consciousness miraculously reveals our fundamental existence. Consciousness is our awareness of our "I", but at the same time Consciousness is a great mystery. Consciousness has no dimensions, no form, no color, no smell, no taste; it cannot be touched or turned in one's hands. Despite the fact that we know very little about consciousness, we absolutely know for sure that we have it.

One of the main questions of humanity is the question of the nature of this very Consciousness (soul, "I", ego). Materialism and idealism have diametrically opposed views on this issue. In the view of materialism, human Consciousness is a substratum of the brain, a product of matter, a product of biochemical processes, a special fusion of nerve cells. In the view of idealism, Consciousness is the ego, "I", spirit, soul - non-material, invisible spiritualizing the body, eternally existing, not dying energy. The subject always takes part in the acts of consciousness, which actually realizes everything.

If you are interested in purely religious ideas about the soul, then religion will not give any evidence of the existence of the soul. The doctrine of the soul is a dogma and is not subject to scientific proof.

There are absolutely no explanations, and even more evidence for materialists who believe that they are impartial researchers (however, this is far from being the case).

But what about the majority of people who are equally far from religion, from philosophy, and from science too, imagine this Consciousness, soul, “I”? Let's ask ourselves, what is "I"?

The first thing that comes to the mind of the majority is: “I am a man”, “I am a woman (man)”, “I am a businessman (turner, baker)”, “I am Tanya (Katya, Alexei)”, “I am a wife ( husband, daughter)” etc. These are, of course, funny answers. One's individual, unique "I" cannot be defined in general terms. There are a myriad of people in the world with the same characteristics, but they are not your “I”. Half of them are women (men), but they are also not “I”, people with the same professions seem to have their own, and not your “I”, the same can be said about wives (husbands), people of various professions, social status, nationalities, religions, and so on. No belonging to any group or group will explain to you what your individual “I” represents, because Consciousness is always personal. I am not qualities (qualities only belong to our “I”), because the qualities of the same person can change, but his “I” will remain unchanged.

Mental and physiological features

Some say that their "I" is their reflexes, their behavior, their individual ideas and addictions, their psychological characteristics and the like.

In fact, this is not possible with the core of the personality, which is called "I". For what reason? Because throughout life, behavior and ideas and addictions change, and even more so psychological characteristics. It cannot be said that if earlier these features were different, then it was not my “I”. Understanding this, some make the following argument: "I am my individual body." It's already more interesting. Let's examine this assumption.

Everyone also knows from the school anatomy course that the cells of our body are gradually renewed throughout life. Old ones die and new ones are born. Some cells are completely renewed almost every day, but there are cells that go through their life cycle much longer. On average, every 5 years, all the cells of the body are renewed. If we consider the "I" ordinary as a set of human cells, then we get an absurdity. It turns out that if a person lives, for example, 70 years. During this time, at least 10 times a person will change all the cells in his body (that is, 10 generations). Could this mean that not one person lived his 70-year life, but 10 different people? Isn't that pretty stupid? We conclude that "I" cannot be a body, because the body is not continuous, but "I" is continuous.

This means that "I" can be neither the qualities of cells, nor their totality.

Materialism is accustomed to decomposing the entire multidimensional world into mechanical components, “checking harmony with algebra” (A.S. Pushkin). The most naive fallacy of militant materialism in relation to personality is the notion that personality is a collection of biological qualities. However, the combination of impersonal objects, even if they are atoms, even if they are neurons, cannot give rise to a personality and its core - “I”.

How is it possible for this most complex "I", feeling, capable of experiencing, love, the sum of specific cells of the body along with the ongoing biochemical and bioelectrical processes? How can these processes form the "I"???

Provided that if the nerve cells were our "I", then we would lose part of our "I" every day. With every dead cell, with every neuron, the "I" would get smaller and smaller. With the restoration of cells, it would increase in size.

Scientific studies conducted in various countries of the world prove that nerve cells, like all other cells of the human body, are capable of regeneration. Here is what the most serious international biological journal Nature writes: “Employees of the California Institute for Biological Research. Salk found that perfectly functional young cells are born in the brain of adult mammals, which function on a par with already existing neurons. Professor Frederick Gage and his colleagues also concluded that brain tissue is most rapidly updated in physically active animals.

This is also confirmed by the publication in one of the most authoritative, refereed biological journals - Science: “Over the past two years, scientists have established that nerve and brain cells are updated, like the rest in the human body. The body is capable of repairing nerve damage on its own,” says scientist Helen M. Blon.”

Thus, even with a complete change of all (including nerve) cells of the body, the “I” of a person remains the same, therefore, it does not belong to a continuously changing material body.

For some reason, it is now so difficult to prove what was obvious and understandable to the ancients. The Roman Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus, who lived back in the 3rd century, wrote: “It is absurd to assume that since none of the parts has life, then life can be created by their totality, .. besides, it is absolutely impossible for life to produce a heap of parts, and that the mind gave birth to that which is devoid of mind. If someone objects that this is not so, but in general, the soul is formed by atoms that have come together, i.e. indivisible into parts of a body, then it will be refuted by the fact that the atoms themselves only lie one next to the other, not forming a living whole, for unity and joint feeling cannot be obtained from bodies insensitive and incapable of unification; but the soul feels itself.

"I" is the unchanging core of the personality, which includes many variables, but is not itself variable.

The skeptic may make a last desperate argument: "Is it possible that 'I' is the brain?"

The tale that our Consciousness is the activity of the brain was heard by many at school. The notion that the brain is essentially a person with his “I” is extremely widespread. Most people think that it is the brain that receives information from the surrounding world, processes it and decides how to act in each specific case, they think that it is the brain that makes us alive, gives us personality. And the body is nothing more than a spacesuit that ensures the activity of the central nervous system.

But this story has nothing to do with science. The brain is now deeply studied. The chemical composition, sections of the brain, the connections of these sections with human functions have long been perfectly studied. The brain organization of perception, attention, memory, and speech has been studied. The functional blocks of the brain have been studied. A myriad of clinics and research centers have been studying the human brain for over a hundred years, for which costly, efficient equipment has been developed. But, having opened any textbooks, monographs, scientific journals on neurophysiology or neuropsychology, you will not find scientific data on the connection between the brain and Consciousness.

For people far from this field of knowledge, this seems surprising. Actually, there is nothing surprising in this. No one has ever easily discovered the connection between the brain and the very center of our personality, our "I". Of course, materialistic researchers have always wanted this. Thousands of studies and millions of experiments were carried out, many billions of dollars were spent on this. The researchers' efforts did not go unnoticed. Thanks to these studies, the parts of the brain themselves were discovered and studied, their connection with physiological processes was established, a lot was done to understand neurophysiological processes and phenomena, but the most important thing was not done. It was not possible to find in the brain the place that is our "I". It was not even possible, despite the extremely active work in this direction, to make a serious assumption about how the brain is possibly connected with our Consciousness.

Where did the assumption that Consciousness resides in the brain come from? One of the first to put forward such an assumption in the middle of the 18th century was the famous electrophysiologist Dubois-Reymond (1818-1896). In his worldview, Dubois-Reymond was one of the brightest representatives of the mechanistic trend. In one of the letters to his friend, he wrote that “only physical and chemical laws operate in the body; if not everything can be explained with their help, then it is necessary, using physical and mathematical methods, either to find a way of their action, or to accept that there are new forces of matter, equal in value to physical and chemical forces.

But another outstanding physiologist Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig, who lived at the same time as Reymond, who headed the new Physiological Institute in Leipzig in 1869-1895, which became the world's largest center in the field of experimental physiology, did not agree with him. The founder of the scientific school, Ludwig, wrote that none of the existing theories of nervous activity, including the electrical theory of nerve currents by Dubois-Reymond, can say anything about how acts of sensation become possible due to the activity of nerves. Note that here we are not even talking about the most complex acts of consciousness, but about much more simple sensations. If there is no consciousness, then we cannot feel and feel anything.

Another prominent physiologist of the 19th century, the outstanding English neurophysiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, Nobel Prize winner, said that if it is not clear how the psyche appears from the activity of the brain, then, naturally, it is just as little clear how it can have any effect on the behavior of a living being, which is controlled by the nervous system.

As a result, Dubois-Reymond himself came to this conclusion: “As we are aware, we do not know and will never know. And no matter how deep we go into the jungle of intracerebral neurodynamics, we will not throw a bridge to the realm of consciousness.” Reymon came to a conclusion, disappointing for determinism, that it is impossible to explain Consciousness by material causes. He admitted "that here the human mind comes up against a 'world riddle' which it can never solve."

Professor of Moscow University, philosopher A.I. Vvedensky in 1914 formulated the law of "the absence of objective signs of animation." The meaning of this law is that the role of the psyche in the system of material processes of regulation of behavior is completely elusive and there is no conceivable bridge between the activity of the brain and the area of ​​mental or spiritual phenomena, including Consciousness.

Leading experts in neurophysiology, Nobel Prize winners David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel recognized that in order to be able to assert the connection between the brain and Consciousness, it is necessary to understand what reads and decodes information that comes from the senses. The researchers acknowledged that this could not be done.

There is an interesting and convincing proof of the lack of connection between Consciousness and the work of the brain, understandable even to people who are far from science. Here it is:

Let's assume that "I" is the result of the work of the brain. As neurophysiologists probably know, a person can live even with one hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, he will have Consciousness. A person who lives only with the right hemisphere of the brain undoubtedly has an "I" (Consciousness). Accordingly, we can conclude that the "I" is not located in the left, absent, hemisphere. A person with a single functioning left hemisphere also has a "I", therefore "I" is not located in the right hemisphere, which this person does not have. Consciousness remains regardless of which hemisphere is removed. This means that a person does not have a brain area responsible for Consciousness, neither in the left nor in the right hemisphere of the brain. We have to conclude that the presence of consciousness in a person is not associated with certain areas of the brain.

Professor, MD Voyno-Yasenetsky describes: “In a young wounded man, I opened a huge abscess (about 50 cubic cm, pus), which, of course, destroyed the entire left frontal lobe, and I did not observe any mental defects after this operation. I can say the same about another patient operated on for a huge cyst of the meninges. With a wide opening of the skull, I was surprised to see that almost the entire right half of it was empty, and the entire left hemisphere of the brain was compressed, almost impossible to distinguish it.

In 1940, Dr. Augustine Iturricha made a sensational announcement at the Anthropological Society in Sucre, Bolivia. He and Dr. Ortiz studied the medical history of a 14-year-old boy, a patient from Dr. Ortiz's clinic, for a long time. The teenager was there with a diagnosis of brain tumor. The young man retained Consciousness until his death, complained only of a headache. When, after his death, a pathoanatomical autopsy was performed, the doctors were amazed: the entire brain mass was completely separated from the internal cavity of the cranium. A large abscess captured the cerebellum and part of the brain. It remained absolutely incomprehensible how the thinking of the sick boy was preserved.

The fact that consciousness exists independently of the brain is also confirmed by studies carried out relatively recently by Dutch physiologists under the direction of Pim van Lommel. The results of a large-scale experiment were published in the most authoritative English biological journal The Lancet. “Consciousness exists even after the brain has ceased to function. In other words, Consciousness “lives” by itself, completely by itself. As for the brain, it is not a thinking matter at all, but an organ, like any other, that performs strictly defined functions. It is highly possible that thinking matter, even in principle, does not exist, said the head of the study, the famous scientist Pim van Lommel.

Another argument accessible to the understanding of non-specialists is given by Professor V.F. Voyno-Yasenetsky: “In the wars of ants that do not have a brain, deliberateness is clearly revealed, and therefore rationality, which is no different from human”4. This is indeed an amazing fact. Ants solve rather difficult tasks of survival, building housing, providing food for themselves, that is, they have a certain intelligence, but they do not have a brain at all. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Neurophysiology does not stand still, but is one of the most dynamically developing sciences. The methods and scale of research speak of the success of the study of the brain. Functions, parts of the brain are being studied, its composition is being clarified in more detail. Despite the titanic work on the study of the brain, world science in our time is also far from understanding what creativity, thinking, memory are and what is their connection with the brain itself. Having come to the understanding that there is no Consciousness inside the body, science draws natural conclusions about the non-material nature of consciousness.

Academician P.K. Anokhin: “None of the “mental” operations that we attribute to the “mind” have so far been directly linked to any part of the brain. If, in principle, we cannot understand how exactly the psychic appears as a result of the activity of the brain, then isn’t it more logical to think that the psyche is not essentially a function of the brain at all, but is a manifestation of some other, non-material spiritual forces?

At the end of the 20th century, the creator of quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize winner E. Schrödinger wrote that the nature of the connection of some physical processes with subjective events (which include Consciousness) lies "away from science and beyond human understanding."

The largest modern neurophysiologist, Nobel Prize winner in medicine J. Eccles developed the idea that it is impossible to determine the origin of mental phenomena based on the analysis of brain activity, and this fact is simply possibly interpreted in the sense that the psyche is not a function of the brain at all. According to Eccles, neither physiology nor the theory of evolution can shed light on the origin and nature of consciousness, which is completely alien to all material processes in the universe. The spiritual world of a person and the world of physical realities, including the activity of the brain, are absolutely independent independent worlds that only interact and to some extent influence each other. He is echoed by such massive specialists as Carl Lashley (an American scientist, director of the primate biology laboratory in Orange Park (Florida), who studied the mechanisms of the brain) and Edward Tolman, doctor of Harvard University.

With his colleague Wilder Penfield, the founder of modern neurosurgery, who performed over 10,000 brain surgeries, Eccles wrote the book The Mystery of Man. In it, the authors explicitly state that "there is no doubt that a person is controlled by SOMETHING outside his body." “I can confirm experimentally,” writes Eccles, “that the workings of the mind cannot possibly be explained by the functioning of the brain. Consciousness exists independently of it from the outside.

According to Eccles' deep conviction, consciousness is not possible as a subject of scientific research. In his opinion, the emergence of consciousness, as well as the emergence of life, is the highest religious mystery. In his report, the Nobel laureate relied on the conclusions of the book "Personality and the Brain", written together with the American philosopher and sociologist Karl Popper.

Wilder Penfield, as a result of many years of studying the activity of the brain, also came to the conclusion that “the energy of the mind has differences from the energy of brain neural impulses”6.

Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Russian Federation, Director of the Research Institute of the Brain (RAMS RF), world-famous neurophysiologist, professor, MD Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva: “The hypothesis that the human brain only perceives thoughts from somewhere outside, I first heard from the mouth of the Nobel laureate, Professor John Eccles. Of course, at the time it seemed absurd to me. But then research conducted at our St. Petersburg Research Institute of the Brain confirmed that we cannot explain the mechanics of the creative process. The brain can generate only the simplest thoughts, such as how to turn the pages of a book you are reading or stir the sugar in a glass. And the creative process is a manifestation of the latest quality. As a believer, I admit the participation of the Almighty in the management of the thought process.

Science is gradually coming to the conclusion that the brain is not the source of thought and consciousness, but at most its relay.

Professor S. Grof says this about it: “Imagine that your TV has broken down and you called a TV technician who, by twisting various knobs, set it up. It doesn’t occur to you that all these stations are sitting in this box.”

Also in 1956, the outstanding largest scientist-surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor V.F. Voyno-Yasenetsky believed that our brain is not only not connected with Consciousness, but is not even capable of thinking on its own, since the mental process is taken out of it. In his book, Valentin Feliksovich claims that “the brain is not an organ of thought, feelings”, and that “The Spirit goes beyond the brain, determining its activity, and our entire being, when the brain works as a transmitter, receiving signals and transmitting them to the organs of the body” 7.

The same conclusions were reached by English scientists Peter Fenwick from the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parnia from Southampton Central Clinic. They examined patients who came back to life after cardiac arrest, and found that some of them certainly recounted the contents of the conversations that the medical staff had while they were in a state of clinical death. Others gave an accurate description of the events that occurred in a given time period. Sam Parnia argues that the brain, like any other organ of the human body, is made up of cells and is incapable of thinking. However, it can work as a device that detects thoughts, that is, as an antenna, with the help of which it becomes possible to receive a signal from the outside. The researchers suggested that during clinical death, the Consciousness, acting independently of the brain, uses it as a screen. Like a television receiver, which first receives the waves falling into it, and then converts them into sound and image.

If we turn off the radio, this does not mean that the radio station stops broadcasting. Those. after the death of the physical body, Consciousness continues to live.

The fact of the continuation of the life of Consciousness after the death of the body is also confirmed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of the Human Brain, Professor N.P. Bekhterev in his book “The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life”. In addition to the discussion of purely scientific issues, in this book the author also cites his personal experience of encountering posthumous phenomena.

Natalya Bekhtereva, talking about a meeting with the Bulgarian clairvoyant Vanga Dimitrova, speaks very precisely about this in one of her interviews: “The example of Vanga absolutely convinced me that there is a phenomenon of contact with the dead,” and also a quote from her book: “ I can't believe what I've heard and seen myself. A scientist does not have the right to reject facts just because they do not fit into a dogma, worldview.

The first consistent description of afterlife based on scientific observations was given by the Swedish scientist and naturalist Emmanuel Swedenborg. After that, this problem was seriously studied by the famous psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler Ross, the no less famous psychiatrist Raymond Moody, conscientious researchers, academicians Oliver Lodge, William Crookes, Alfred Wallace, Alexander Butlerov, Professor Friedrich Myers, American pediatrician Melvin Morse. Among the serious and systematic scholars of the question of dying, one should mention the professor of medicine at Emory University and the staff doctor at the Veterans Hospital in Atlanta, Dr. Michael Sabom, the systematic study of the psychiatrist Kenneth Ring, the MD Moritz Roolings, was also very valuable. , our contemporary, thanatopsychologist A.A. Nalchadzhyan. The well-known Soviet scientist, a prominent specialist in the field of thermodynamic processes, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus Albert Veinik worked a lot on understanding this problem from the point of view of physics. A significant contribution to the study of near-death experiences was made by the world-famous American psychologist of Czech origin, the founder of the transpersonal school of psychology, Dr. Stanislav Grof.

The variety of facts accumulated by science indisputably proves that after physical death, each of the living now inherits a different reality, preserving their Consciousness.

Despite the limitations of our ability to cognize this reality with the help of material means, today there are a number of its characteristics obtained through experiments and observations of researchers investigating this problem.

These characteristics were listed by A.V. Mikheev, a researcher at the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University in his report at the international symposium "Life after death: from faith to knowledge" which was held on April 8-9, 2005 in St. Petersburg:

1. There is a so-called “subtle body”, which is the carrier of self-consciousness, memory, emotions and the “inner life” of a person. This body exists ... after physical death, being for the duration of the existence of the physical body its "parallel component", providing the above processes. The physical body is only an intermediary for their manifestation on the physical (terrestrial) level.

2. The life of an individual does not end with the current earthly death. Survival after death is a natural law for a person.

3. The next reality is divided into a large number of levels, differing in the frequency characteristics of their components.

4. The destination of a person during the posthumous transition is determined by his tuning to a certain level, which is the total result of his thoughts, feelings and actions during his life on Earth. Just as the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a chemical substance depends on its composition, a person's posthumous destination is definitely determined by the "composite characteristic" of his inner life.

5. The concepts of "Heaven and Hell" reflect two polarities, possible posthumous states.

6. In addition to similar polar states, there are a number of intermediate ones. The selection of an adequate state is automatically determined by the mental-emotional "pattern" formed by a person during earthly life. That is why bad emotions, violence, the desire for destruction and fanaticism, no matter how they are justified outwardly, in this respect are extremely destructive for the future fate of a person. This is a solid rationale for personal responsibility and adherence to ethical principles.

All of the above arguments are surprisingly accurate with the religious knowledge of all traditional religions. This is an occasion to cast aside doubts and decide. Is not it?