I've always wanted to know when "death" actually occured after someone has recieved suffiecient bodily damage to kill them. For instance, a man jumping off a 100 hundred story building. People would say that he died instantly upon impact on the ground but a what exact instance? I would assume that once his head hit the ground the first thing that would happen (we're talking milliseconds) would be unconsciouness because his brain matter would be decorating the pavement. But what happens in the picoseconds it takes to transist from unconsciouness to death? If we had a machine that could reconstruct living tissue and we pieced this guy back together 20 years later would his first thought be (which would probably be aaaahhhhh!) the same thing it was before he hit the pavement? I guess i'm asking at what point does the soul leave the body? What are the features of death? I might be asking this in the wrong forum but i'd appreciate any insightful input.
I've heard (from an MD) that such people die before they hit the ground, from heart attack. This leads me to believe that no case is uniform, and the answer to your q isnt really so simple.
There's a number of definitions of death. For instance, clinical death is something like 6 minutes after your heart stops beating, but people can pull out of this. I think the reason why there's no common definition of death is that there's no common definition of life in the first place.
Well i'm thinking a case where the person's death was caused by impact. The impact killed them them but when did they die?
They died instantly. Impact trauma will tear neurons apart (specially the longer ones transporting information from the senses), blood vessels will burst, bone will fracture and rip through every thing. Depending on the type of impact the last light that entered the eye may never have made its way to the back of the brain and into consciousness. Our brains do not run in picoseconds conscious steps. Information from the world has to travel via neurons and can require lots of micro seconds to process. The top speed of an axon, 120meters per second (over 400KMPH). The fastest transmission speeds are obtained by axons that have a myelin sheath (fatty covering). The long sensory nerves that connect the brain through the spinal cord to different parts of the body are examples of myelinated neurons. The slowest speed of nerves is about 0.5mps (almost 2KMPH) Nerves must reset before they can fire again. One thousand signals per second is around the number of time a nerve can fire a second. Max speed of sky divers (head first with slick suits) 400KMPH. Slowest speed in a funky 80's suit about 200KMPH.
Yes. The man has to be clinically dead first, and it is possible that some of his organs are able to function at that point. There are cases when the heart doesnt work but the brain still does and v. v.; same for other organs.
but not all of his unique cells are dead. anyhoo...maybe you are technically dead, when you can't reproduce (anymore).
Death There is no such thing as 'death.' What we call death is merely a 'transition' from one state to the other. The body is mortal, but the spirit is immortal. Our body is nothing but an 'Earth suit.' We need to wear it while we travel though these environs. But just like any set of clothes, the Earth suit wears out. (Again my point about us humans self-destructing). Our mind-spirit never dies. Who we are in spirit (our knowledge and memory) is transmitted through the ages (cellular memory). Don't we still have 'memories' from when we were cavepersons? (Is this politically correct?). When a wooly mammoth is coming at us, do the we just stand there like numnuts, or do we run? Yeah, maybe we didn't run fast enough, and maybe the archeologists who dug up our Neanderthal bones found a mammoth tusk up our ancient patootie, but we still have that cellular memory today! How many times have you seen someone go out into a street and then run back before their stupid ass got run over? That's cellular memory, folks.
..I'm an athiest..but.. when I left the door at twelve grand, sometimes you felt you left a trail of thought as you fell...maybe ..just maybe you left a trail of existance as you augered in.
I'd say when the brain stops receiving/sending electrical impulses; when the heart stops beating then oxygen stops being sent around the body and eventually the different areas of the body die. With a head injury I'd say the actual damage (apart from in this instance destroying the brain), could also destroy the part responsible for pumping the heart. It's a bit of a morbid curiosity Mrhero54, but valid nonetheless.
People are nothing but bags of meat ....We are memories and thoughts ..nothing more...death accurs when brain death accurs.
like alot of things, I've spent alot of time thinking about this (I have time, because I have no life Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ) for your example, I would say the following: 1)the man is "dead" as soon as his body is too far damaged to be revived or to heal. So each time a new treatment is invented the actual point at which this occurs changes. 300 years ago, as soon as the skull factured, and part of the bone were in the brain, then he was most likely in the "dead" catagory. The person is no longer going to be able to live as that person. Today, however, that moment is more likely farther along, at some point where a certain amount of brain tissue has been too damaged to survive intact. 2) the man's body is dead as soon as the organs stop working in combined unison with each other, so about a second after the brain goes splat. At that point, the body as a whole entity is no longer functional. 3)the individual organs are dead once they are far along enough that they can't be saved for transplantation. see number 1 above 4) the cells are dead once they can't be revived through medical help. again, see number one. if a spirit exsists, then number 1 may change, as the destruction of the body should simply release the "person" into the spiritual form. This is all my opinion, of course. any other opinions? anyone want to make an adjustment to the above? any assistence in refining is welcomed. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! edit: oops, forgot one 5)the effects which the man has created in the world will live long after the man dies. The death of his effects is almost immpossible to say for certain, but I'd guess there would be two major stages: 1)when people have all forgotten who is was who created the effect in question 2)when the effects have been truely overwritten by others to the point where no one remembers them, and no one has ever been directly effected by them. through chains of cause and effect, though, the actions taken by the guy will change the world subtly for the rest of time. edit2: spelling
Some guy a few hundred years ago did an experiment with criminals on death row. They were all sentenced to death by guilitine (sp?) so he asked them to try to continue blinking their eyes for as long as they could. Some continued to blink for up to a minute after their heads were cut off! They only stopped when their brain ran out of oxygen. Creepy shit. Also I think I read somewhere that it has been scientifically measured that at the instant of death all bodies lose a tiny amount of weight. The soul leaving the body? I believe all of our souls are immortal and theres no such thing as spiritual death, only physical death. Death is just a change of state of being. Just my opinion. :m:
The point of death occurs at the point from which the person cannot be brought back to what we know as life. This depends on the state of medical expertise. A hundred years ago, if a persons heart wasn't beating, that person was pronounced dead. By that yardstick, I was dead for 40 mins. But they restarted my heart and I lived. Brain dead? Maybe someone will find a way to restart the brain. Then that criterion (brain activity) will no longer be relevant. Perhaps in future, only when a person has been reduced to ens component atoms, that person is considered dead.
Death is the point at which a critical proportion of neural networks within the brain are irretrievably damaged.
Death....... Death in the physical world happens when your brain activity stops completly, not your heart. We are talking physically here I hope. There are some that believe that we never really die for we continue onto another plane or level of existance. That is a BELIEF not a FACT.That cannot be proven whatsoever and I don't believe it at all. This is the only time we exist after we are done living we no longer exist, spirit wise or heaven wise. We don't reincarnate either. So enjoy this life, for it's the only one you'll ever have, unless you believe otherwise but you won't find me for I don't believe therefor won't be wherever your going.
