Meditating dead monks' bodies decompose more slowly than regular bodies

[Olga]

That has not worked out very well for you here.

Historically, the majority of your ideas have been so problematic that, even after weeks and months and scores or hundreds of posts, you've still not managed to explain them let alone make a case of them. You just abandon them; feigning boredom or a language barrier or bad internet connectivity, or some such.

Remember your "one particle everywhere in the universe" idea? (Or whatever it was? It made so little sense, I can't even describe it.)
Remember your "you will only see God when you decide what you want him to look like" gaff?

Maybe spend a little more than 40 minutes on your century-of-neurology-busting idea.

"what if", and "let's think about it" and "maybe this new unknown thing" and "I just know it's true" don't amount to much, even in the Philosophy forum. That would do better in Free Thoughts.

Так это же ваши проблемы, что вы не понимаете, а не мои. Ладно, расслабьтесь, Дэйв. Вот вам отрывок из интервью Святослава Медведева, академика РАН, нейробиолога, физика, который много лет возглавлял Институт изучения мозга.

" - В последнее время вы занимаетесь исследованием состояния "тукдам", или посмертной медитации, принятой среди монахов. Вы даже открыли два научных центра в тибетских монастырях на юге Индии. Расскажите, к каким выводам удалось прийти".

- Для меня наиболее впечатляющим явилось то, что в марте-апреле мы доказательно подтвердили явления "тукдам". (Буддистская медитация, в результате которой тело умершего остаётся нетленным, а сам он якобы продолжает посмертное бытие.) Присутствовали судмедэксперты из двух стран - наши и американские. Мы наблюдали за человеком, который в течении сорока дней находился в состоянии посмертной медитации. Было доказано, что это ничего общего не имеет с обычным разложением тела. То есть тело скончавшегося действительно не разлагается привычным образом. А ведь когда я только начинал заниматься этим явлением, то был твёрдо убеждён, что такого просто не может быть. Однако во время исследований понял, что всё реально. Но пока точно ответить на вопрос, что это за феномен, мы не можем.

 

[DaveC426913]

Well, it's your problem that you don't understand, not mine.

No, it's your problem. You raised it as an assertion; you have a responsibility to support it. You ahve not doens so.

Here's an excerpt from an interview with Svyatoslav Medvedev, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a neurobiologist, a physicist, who headed the Institute for Brain Research for many years.

" - Lately you have been researching the state of "tukdam", or posthumous meditation, accepted among monks. You have even opened two research centers in Tibetan monasteries in the south of India. Tell us what conclusions you have managed to come to."

- For me, the most impressive thing was that in March-April we conclusively confirmed the phenomenon of "tukdam". (Buddhist meditation, as a result of which the body of the deceased remains incorruptible, and he himself allegedly continues his posthumous existence.) Forensic experts from two countries were present - ours and the American. We observed a person who was in a state of posthumous meditation for forty days. It was proven that this has nothing in common with the usual decomposition of the body. That is, the body of the deceased really does not decompose in the usual way. But when I first began to study this phenomenon, I was firmly convinced that this simply could not be. However, during the research I realized that everything is real. But so far we cannot answer the question of what this phenomenon is.

There is no mention of free will in matter and no mention of souls. This appears to have nothing to do with the topic.


Another distraction.

Shouldn't you get busy writing your neurology-toppling thesis? It's been more than 40 minutes, or was that just one more of your empty boasts?

 

[Olga]

No, it's your problem. You raised it as an assertion; you have a responsibility to support it. You ahve not doens so.


There is no mention of free will in matter and no mention of souls. This appears to have nothing to do with the topic.


Another distraction.

Shouldn't you get busy writing your neurology-toppling thesis? It's been more than 40 minutes, or was that just one more of your empty boasts?

Почему не имеет? Ты же любишь ссылаться на авторитетов? Ну так и объясни, почему тела умерших при медитации монахов не разлагаются? Это научно задокументировано. Вообще, в этой статье много интересного, просто здесь долго писать не охота. Можешь прочесть её сам, если хочешь.

 

[DaveC426913]

Why doesn't it? You like to refer to authorities, don't you? Well, then explain why the bodies of monks who died during meditation do not decompose?

Again: what does it have to do with the thread topic?

It's another distraction. You've got bigger things to concentrate on.

It is scientifically documented.

So are UFO accounts. Documented doesn't mean 'shown to be true', it simply means observations were written down. (For example was it independently verified by another team in their own experimental setup? Because that's how science works.)

But again, this is a distraction. So far, an irrelevant one.

In general, there is a lot of interesting stuff in this article, I just don't feel like writing for long here. You can read it yourself if you want.

I have asked how it is relevant.

You - once again, true to form - don't answer. Every time you do this, it hurts your credibility.

 

[Olga]

Again: what does it have to do with the thread topic?

It's another distraction. You've got bigger things to concentrate on.


So are UFO accounts. Documented doesn't mean 'shown to be true', it simply means observations were written down. (For example was it independently verified by another team in their own experimental setup? Because that's how science works.)

But again, this is a distraction. So far, an irrelevant one.



I have asked how it is relevant.

You - once again, true to form - don't answer. Every time you do this, it hurts your credibility.

Это имеет прямое отношение к этому разговору. И ещё, вы невнимательно читали: присутствовали российские и американские учёные.

Мозг может отдавать команды телу даже после смерти? Или это делает кто то другой?

 

[TheVat]

Well, then explain why the bodies of monks who died during meditation do not decompose?

Explanation follows solid evidence. So far, you have offered hearsay. How do we know they were dead, rather than in some catatonic state which mimicks death?
Corpses that don't rot is an extraordinary claim which requires extraordinary evidence. Were autopsies done? Were biopsies taken while the bodies were seeming to not rot, with tissue analysis to confirm lack of decomposition? If people fast for a week or more and the rooms are cold, then decomposition can happen much more slowly than usual. Use of enteric antibiotics before death can also greatly slow decay of internal organs and bloating.

 

[Olga]

Explanation follows solid evidence. So far, you have offered hearsay. How do we know they were dead, rather than in some catatonic state which mimicks death?
Corpses that don't rot is an extraordinary claim which requires extraordinary evidence. Were autopsies done? Were biopsies taken while the bodies were seeming to not rot, with tissue analysis to confirm lack of decomposition? If people fast for a week or more and the rooms are cold, then decomposition can happen much more slowly than usual. Use of enteric antibiotics before death can also greatly slow decay of internal organs and bloating.

Теват, вы невнимательно читали. Во первых, это говорил академик от официальной науки, а не просто какой-нибудь доктор наук. Во вторых, там так же работала группа американских учёных. И это было официально пдтверждено, как необъяснимый феномен. Там не один год работали, несколько научных центров на территории Индии специально были созданы для этих целей. Деньги были правительствами выделены.

 

[James R]

This thread gives me the impression that Russia still has a very long way to catch up with the West when it comes to recognising pseudo-scientific "research" findings for what they are.

Still, it can't be entirely a bad thing if the Russian government is wasting its money funding charlatan pseudoscientists who are trying to "prove" that Tibetan monks have magical powers that they can even use after they are dead. Better spending money on that nonsense than on new drones for attacking Ukraine, I suppose. The Russian people, in general, do not benefit, of course. But such is life in Russia at the moment.

 

[Olga]

Джеймс, вы сейчас свою безграмотность во всей красе показали. Академик Святослав Медведев является известным нейробиологом, и признанным во всём мире авторитетом в области исследований мозга. И кроме того, в этих исследованиях принимала участие так же группа американских учёных под руководством профессора Ричарда Дэвидсона. Почитайте его статьи на эту тему, они есть в рецензируемых журналах. Можете почитать статью об этом на сайте центра Дэвидсона, она есть там в открытом доступе.

 

[TheVat]

I found this, from the University of Wisconsin, which seemed to suggest further research on how meditative states pre-mortem could affect the human microbiome so as to slow decomposition. It didn't really suggest anything supernatural about it, and the effect may relate to my earlier comment on how dietary practices can affect the gut microbiota which in turn could affect the pace of decomp. There seems to be critically important data missing from the study this article describes, due to cultural barriers that disallow perimortem contact. So far, it's really just an anomaly which needs much further examination.

Scientists Document Slowed Postmortem Decomposition Linked with Meditative State

A pioneering study into what occurs to the body after death is quietly unfolding in Tibetan monastic communities in India. A group of monastics, scientists, medical professionals and forensic experts are working together to explore a rare postmortem meditative state known as tukdam in these...

centerhealthyminds.org

 

[TheVat]

And in addition, a group of American scientists led by Professor Richard Davidson also took part in these studies. Read his articles on this topic, they are in peer-reviewed journals.

If I understand forum rules, it is your obligation to post these peer reviewed papers.

 

[Olga]

If I understand forum rules, it is your obligation to post these peer reviewed papers.

Я этого не знала. На форумах нейробиологов есть эти ссылки, я там их нашла.

 

[C C]

Джеймс, вы сейчас свою безграмотность во всей красе показали. Академик Святослав Медведев является известным нейробиологом, и признанным во всём мире авторитетом в области исследований мозга. И кроме того, в этих исследованиях принимала участие так же группа американских учёных под руководством профессора Ричарда Дэвидсона. Почитайте его статьи на эту тему, они есть в рецензируемых журналах. Можете почитать статью об этом на сайте центра Дэвидсона, она есть там в открытом доступе.

Mummification -- whether deliberately or naturally achieved by the environmental conditions, usually entails a limit to decomposition. When actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead long after the fact back in February, Arakawa was already in stages of partial preservation.

And published paper status doesn't mean much in this era of predatory and junk journals and lowering of standards. Items related to other cultures can get entry via decoloniality impulses and other Western-guilt generating avenues. The secular ethics outputted by the critical theory school of thought can undermine the reasoning of peer reviewers, scientists, and institute administrations in ways that Christian pseudoscience never could. Since the latter religion was a past cohort of European global oppression. (We can't value ancient wisdom over scientific fact)

• Tukdam
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tukdam
  
  In the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, tukdam is a meditative state said to occur after clinical death in which the body reportedly shows minimal signs of decomposition, retaining a lifelike appearance for days or even weeks. Practitioners are believed by Buddhists to be in a profound state of meditation, merging their consciousness with the Clear Light, a fundamental concept in Tibetan Buddhism signifying the primordial nature of mind and reality. Buddhist tradition considers that tukdam is available to all people, but only the expert practitioners of meditation, when dying, can recognize it and use it for spiritual purposes.
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  Sokushinbutsu
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu
  
  Sokushinbutsu is a type of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Although mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, especially in Southeast Asia where monks are mummified after dying of natural causes, it is only in Japan that monks are believed to have induced their own death by starvation.
  
  There is a common suggestion that Shingon school founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric practices he learned. During the 20th century, Japanese scholars found very little evidence of self-starvation of sokushinbutsu. They rather concluded that mummification took place after the demise of the monk practising this kind of asceticism, as seen in Southeast Asian lands.
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  Delayed decompositional changes in indoor settings among Tibetan monastic communities in India: A case report
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910724000197?via=ihub
  
  • We report on two cases where the recognition and documentation of deviations from the anticipated expected rate and pattern of decomposition have been noted.
  
  • This study documents the forensic significance of both intrinsic and extrinsic taphonomic variables that may contribute to differential and attenuated decomposition based on collaborative research among US, Russian, Tibetan, and Indian researchers.
  
  • Our methods include the use of Munsell Color system cards for formal scoring of skin color changes that can be instructive to other forensic teams seeking a similar instrument.
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity After Clinical Declaration of Death Among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in Apparent Tukdam, a Putative Postmortem Meditation State
  https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599190/full
  
  ABSTRACT: Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and, more specifically, to investigate the possibility of brain activity following the cessation of cardiac and respiratory function.
  
  Under the direction of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research was conducted in India on a postmortem meditative state cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For all healthy baseline (HB) and postmortem (PM) subjects presented here, we collected resting state electroencephalographic data, mismatch negativity (MMN), and auditory brainstem response (ABR).
  
  In this study, we present HB data to demonstrate the feasibility of a sparse electrode EEG configuration to capture well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions. While living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases.

 

[Olga]

I found this, from the University of Wisconsin, which seemed to suggest further research on how meditative states pre-mortem could affect the human microbiome so as to slow decomposition. It didn't really suggest anything supernatural about it, and the effect may relate to my earlier comment on how dietary practices can affect the gut microbiota which in turn could affect the pace of decomp. There seems to be critically important data missing from the study this article describes, due to cultural barriers that disallow perimortem contact. So far, it's really just an anomaly which needs much further examination.

Scientists Document Slowed Postmortem Decomposition Linked with Meditative State

A pioneering study into what occurs to the body after death is quietly unfolding in Tibetan monastic communities in India. A group of monastics, scientists, medical professionals and forensic experts are working together to explore a rare postmortem meditative state known as tukdam in these...

centerhealthyminds.org

Это если я не ошибаюсь статья 2021 года. Наши учёные выкладывали результаты даже за 2025 год. Там работали патологоанатомы, и ничего особенного они не обнаружили, если не считать того, что через несколько недель тело начинает разлагаться не так, как обычно разлагаются тела, а настолько быстро, буквально за считанные часы, что иногда тело едва успевают запаковать в резиновый мешок. Не забывайте ещё и о том, что это Индия, где любое мясо уже через несколько часов кишит насекомыми, а там тело даже не деревенеет. Оно остаётся как будто спящим, но активность мозга при этом отсутствует, и кровообращения тоже нет. Сам Медведев писал о том, что поехал туда для того, чтобы разоблачить миф, а столкнулся с необъяснимым феноменом. Я смотрела интервью с ним, там ещё более интересные вещи сейчас начали исследовать, связанные с тантрическими практиками. Далай лама оказался большой любитель науки, поэтому и пригласил самых известных в этой области учёных для того, чтобы они объяснили ему эти явления с научной точки зрения. Но оказалось, что наука пока не может этого сделать. Сами монахи же считают, что это связано с тем, что тонкое тело (душа) ещё не покидает тело в этот период, поэтому оно и не разлагается.

 

[Olga]

Mummification -- whether deliberately or naturally achieved by the environmental conditions, usually entails a limit to decomposition. When actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead long after the fact back in February, Arakawa was already in stages of partial preservation.

And published papers don't mean much in this era of predatory and junk journals and lowering of standards. Items related to other cultures can get entry via decoloniality impulses and other Western-guilt generating avenues. The ethics outputted by the critical theory school of thought can undermine the reasoning of peer reviewers, scientists, and institute administrations in ways that Christian pseudoscience never could. Since the latter religion was a past cohort of European global oppression. (We can't value ancient wisdom over scientific fact)

• Tukdam
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tukdam
  
  In the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, tukdam is a meditative state said to occur after clinical death in which the body reportedly shows minimal signs of decomposition, retaining a lifelike appearance for days or even weeks. Practitioners are believed by Buddhists to be in a profound state of meditation, merging their consciousness with the Clear Light, a fundamental concept in Tibetan Buddhism signifying the primordial nature of mind and reality. Buddhist tradition considers that tukdam is available to all people, but only the expert practitioners of meditation, when dying, can recognize it and use it for spiritual purposes.
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  Sokushinbutsu
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu
  
  Sokushinbutsu is a type of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Although mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, especially in Southeast Asia where monks are mummified after dying of natural causes, it is only in Japan that monks are believed to have induced their own death by starvation.
  
  There is a common suggestion that Shingon school founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric practices he learned. During the 20th century, Japanese scholars found very little evidence of self-starvation of sokushinbutsu. They rather concluded that mummification took place after the demise of the monk practising this kind of asceticism, as seen in Southeast Asian lands.
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  Delayed decompositional changes in indoor settings among Tibetan monastic communities in India: A case report
  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910724000197?via=ihub
  
  • We report on two cases where the recognition and documentation of deviations from the anticipated expected rate and pattern of decomposition have been noted.
  
  • This study documents the forensic significance of both intrinsic and extrinsic taphonomic variables that may contribute to differential and attenuated decomposition based on collaborative research among US, Russian, Tibetan, and Indian researchers.
  
  • Our methods include the use of Munsell Color system cards for formal scoring of skin color changes that can be instructive to other forensic teams seeking a similar instrument.
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity After Clinical Declaration of Death Among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in Apparent Tukdam, a Putative Postmortem Meditation State
  https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599190/full
  
  ABSTRACT: Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and, more specifically, to investigate the possibility of brain activity following the cessation of cardiac and respiratory function.
  
  Under the direction of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research was conducted in India on a postmortem meditative state cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For all healthy baseline (HB) and postmortem (PM) subjects presented here, we collected resting state electroencephalographic data, mismatch negativity (MMN), and auditory brainstem response (ABR).
  
  In this study, we present HB data to demonstrate the feasibility of a sparse electrode EEG configuration to capture well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions. While living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases.

Спасибо, что нашли эту статью. Попробуйте найти интервью с академиком, оно более позднее, и там он подробнее расказывает об этих исследованиях. Только оно на русском языке.

 

[TheVat]

This is an article from 2021, if I'm not mistaken. Our scientists even published results for 2025. Pathologists worked there, and they didn't find anything special, except that after a few weeks the body begins to decompose not the way bodies usually decompose, but so quickly, literally in a matter of hours, that sometimes they barely have time to pack the body in a rubber bag. Don't forget that this is India, where any meat is teeming with insects after a few hours, and there the body doesn't even stiffen

The article is dated November 15, 2024. And it does indicate some interesting anomalies, I do not disagree with that. But there is a lot missing from the research data, so far, so it is too soon to draw any conclusions. Also, the Tibetan monasteries in India are NOT in humid lowlands - they're in the Himalayan range up north where you find very dry and cold air, fewer insects, and more rapid dessication of corpses. We also need pre-mortem data on what food and water is consumed by the dying monk. People who refuse both food and water will decay more slowly, and their corpses are more dehydrated at the time of death. Good science means looking at all these causal factors and understanding what role they play.

 

[Olga]

The article is dated November 15, 2024. And it does indicate some interesting anomalies, I do not disagree with that. But there is a lot missing from the research data, so far, so it is too soon to draw any conclusions. Also, the Tibetan monasteries in India are NOT in humid lowlands - they're in the Himalayan range up north where you find very dry and cold air, fewer insects, and more rapid dessication of corpses. We also need pre-mortem data on what food and water is consumed by the dying monk. People who refuse both food and water will decay more slowly, and their corpses are more dehydrated at the time of death. Good science means looking at all these causal factors and understanding what role they play.

Это Медведев в интервью рассказывал, что там, где они проводили исследования, а жто были разные монастыри, мясо разлагалось за несколько часов. И ещё, они исследовали более 70 случаев, а американцы упоминают два. Поэтому у наших учёных было больше материалов для исследования.

 

[C C]

It was Medvedev in an interview that he said that where they conducted research, and the WTO there were different monasteries, the meat decomposed in a few hours. And yet, they investigated more than 70 cases, and the Americans mention two. Therefore, our scientists had more materials for research. ..... Это Медведев в интервью рассказывал, что там, где они проводили исследования, а жто были разные монастыри, мясо разлагалось за несколько часов. И ещё, они исследовали более 70 случаев, а американцы упоминают два. Поэтому у наших учёных было больше материалов для исследования.

I still can't find a link to a paper in even this article about Svyatoslav Medvedev's research.

A Scientific Investigation of Meditation by Russian Neuroscientists
https://www.dalailama.com/news/2021...tion-of-meditation-by-russian-neuroscientists

Prof Svyatoslav Medvedev of the Russian Academy of Sciences and founder of the Institute of the Human Brain, St Petersburg summarized what his team have done so far. They have established research laboratories in the Tibetan settlements in Bylakuppe and Mundgod. They have examined 104 monks in meditation and were recently able to observe a monk who was in ‘thukdam’ for 37 days at Gyutö Monastery. They invited a forensic physician to examine the physical body at various stages after death. They have demonstrated that the body of a person in ‘thukdam’ is in a quite different state from the body of someone undergoing the ordinary process of death. This is their first scientific evidence.

EDIT (added):

Russian inquiry into a post-death Buddhist meditative practice
https://tibet.net/an-inquiry-into-a-post-death-buddhist-meditative-practice/

EXCERPT: Six Russian scientists are closely observing a Tibetan monk in deep meditative state. The scientists from Moscow State University and St Petersburg-based Institute of Human Brain are here to study thukdam, a post-death meditative state practised by highly realized Buddhist masters.

Buddhist scholars and Russian scientists have been working together for a little over a year to understand thukdam better, and last month, they spent a fortnight together investigating altered states of consciousness at the Talhun Russian Science Centre at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.

Thukdam is meditative practice in which realized Tibetan Buddhist masters die in a consciously controlled manner. Though they are declared clinically dead, their bodies remain fresh for days or weeks without any signs of decomposition, putrefaction or skin discolouration. It is described as an invocation of the subtle consciousness. Thukdam is a Tibetan word with “thuk” meaning mind and “dam” standing for samadhi or the meditative state.

The team is looking into two aspects of thukdam. “The first is the scientific aspect to find out how they can stabilize and control the human mind with thukdam being the key factor,” said professor Svyatoslav Medvedev, who is leading the delegation of scientists from Russia. Meditation is an altered state of mind and the scientists are studying the brains of monks who are in a deep meditative stage.

EDIT (added):

An "S.V. Medvedev" is on this paper, but it contains next to nothing about decomposition. Only the abstract and intro are accessible, though.

Traditional Buddhist meditations reduce mismatch negativity in experienced monk-practitioners

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167876022002124

_

 

[Olga]

I still can't find a link to a paper in even this article about Svyatoslav Medvedev's research.

A Scientific Investigation of Meditation by Russian Neuroscientists
https://www.dalailama.com/news/2021...tion-of-meditation-by-russian-neuroscientists

Prof Svyatoslav Medvedev of the Russian Academy of Sciences and founder of the Institute of the Human Brain, St Petersburg summarized what his team have done so far. They have established research laboratories in the Tibetan settlements in Bylakuppe and Mundgod. They have examined 104 monks in meditation and were recently able to observe a monk who was in ‘thukdam’ for 37 days at Gyutö Monastery. They invited a forensic physician to examine the physical body at various stages after death. They have demonstrated that the body of a person in ‘thukdam’ is in a quite different state from the body of someone undergoing the ordinary process of death. This is their first scientific evidence.

EDIT (added):

Russian inquiry into a post-death Buddhist meditative practice
https://tibet.net/an-inquiry-into-a-post-death-buddhist-meditative-practice/

EXCERPT: Six Russian scientists are closely observing a Tibetan monk in deep meditative state. The scientists from Moscow State University and St Petersburg-based Institute of Human Brain are here to study thukdam, a post-death meditative state practised by highly realized Buddhist masters.

Buddhist scholars and Russian scientists have been working together for a little over a year to understand thukdam better, and last month, they spent a fortnight together investigating altered states of consciousness at the Talhun Russian Science Centre at Tashi Lhunpo Monastery.

Thukdam is meditative practice in which realized Tibetan Buddhist masters die in a consciously controlled manner. Though they are declared clinically dead, their bodies remain fresh for days or weeks without any signs of decomposition, putrefaction or skin discolouration. It is described as an invocation of the subtle consciousness. Thukdam is a Tibetan word with “thuk” meaning mind and “dam” standing for samadhi or the meditative state.

The team is looking into two aspects of thukdam. “The first is the scientific aspect to find out how they can stabilize and control the human mind with thukdam being the key factor,” said professor Svyatoslav Medvedev, who is leading the delegation of scientists from Russia. Meditation is an altered state of mind and the scientists are studying the brains of monks who are in a deep meditative stage.

EDIT (added):

An "S.V. Medvedev" is on this paper, but it contains next to nothing about decomposition. Only the abstract and intro are accessible, though.

Traditional Buddhist meditations reduce mismatch negativity in experienced monk-practitioners

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167876022002124

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Возможно, нужно использовать поисковую систему Яндекс , а не Гугл?

 

[C C]

Perhaps you need to use the Yandex search engine, not Google? .... Возможно, нужно использовать поисковую систему Яндекс , а не Гугл?

When Medvedev's name appears at the forefront of a paper, the text is usually in Russian. Which is why the Charolais herd went to look for grass on the other side of the hill to begin with.

In contrast to when Medvedev's name appears last, like on a Tawni Tidwell paper. But that's just more material already referenced by Richard Davidson's "Center for Healthy Minds", that she belongs to. It's the very same 2024 study that the article posted by The Vat revolves around.

Delayed decompositional changes in indoor settings among Tibetan monastic communities in India: A case report
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665910724000197?via=ihub
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