Our lives may actually flash before our eyes as we die, claim scientists

Brain wave scans of dying 87-year-old man lend fuel to ‘life recall’ theory

Ever heard people recalling near-death experiences say they saw their life flash before their eyes when it happened? Well, studies show they may actually have been onto something. While what happens after we die remains very much an open question, one many have been attempting to answer for centuries, we may have just gotten some clarity on what happens while we are dying. 

According to the Daily Mail, doctors recently recorded the brain waves of an 87-year-old man as he suffered from a heart attack. While the electroencephalography (EEG) was being conducted to treat his seizures, the man passed away while hooked to the machine. The doctors at Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia, where the incident took place, claim that this is the first time a dying patient’s brain waves have been recorded.  

As per the data obtained from the EEG, the dying patient’s rhythmic brain wave patterns were similar to those occurring during memory retrieval, as well as meditation and dreaming. This lends support to the “life recall” theory, which claims that dying people relive the memory of their entire life in a matter of seconds. 

Dr Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon part of the team treating the unnamed patient, shared, “We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating.”

He added, “Just before and after the heart stopped working, we saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations, so-called gamma oscillations, but also in others such as delta, theta, alpha and beta oscillations.”

“Through generating oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events just before we die, similar to the ones reported in near-death experiences,” explained Zemmar. 

Elaborating on how this adds weight to people’s claims of seeing their lives flash before their eyes, Zemmar added, “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.” 

However, he stressed the results could not be treated as conclusive proof of the “life recall” theory because they were conducted on a patient with significant brain-related complications such as swelling. 

The study has been published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, with Zemmar sharing, “These findings challenge our understanding of when exactly life ends and generate important subsequent questions, such as those related to the timing of organ donation.”