At Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the victory of life over death. Jews and Muslims both believe in the resurrection. For Hindus and Buddhists, the primary focus is on liberation from the cycle of rebirth.
In the grief of losing a loved one – due to illness, old age, violence or accident – believers often find hope that death is not the end. They find solace in ideas about the afterlife, which are not only found in today's world religions.
Among early gatherers and hunters, Egyptians, Vikings, and many other cultures, survivors often said goodbye to the deceased with burial rituals and grave goods, thus opening the way for them to the afterlife.
How is death defined?
Biologically speaking, the human body can function for a maximum of about 120 years. What is crucial, however, is the average life expectancy, which has increased significantly over time thanks to better living conditions, hygiene and medicine.
For most people, it is not death itself that we fear, but ignorance about what happens during and after death.
Medically speaking, there are different types of death: in the so-called "clinical death" the cardiovascular system fails, the pulse and breathing stop, the organs no longer receive oxygen and nutrients. In clinical death, resuscitation with the help of artificial respiration and heart massage is possible - and is often successful.
In so-called "brain death", this is no longer the case, because the cerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem have ceased to function. Although there may still be active cells in the deep layers of the brain in brain death, "consciousness" has already been lost. People with brain death can be kept alive for a long time with the help of a machine. Some patients with brain death even react to external stimuli, for example during surgery. However, from a medical point of view, these are only reflexes of the spinal cord, not the feeling of pain.
What happens to a dead body?
Our organs can function for some time without oxygen and nutrients. Only gradually does cell division completely cease, and then the cells die. When too many cells die, the organs can no longer regenerate.
The brain reacts the fastest – its cells begin to die after just three to five minutes. The heart can last up to half an hour. As soon as the blood stops circulating, it flows downwards, creating so-called "death spots", which can indicate to forensic experts the cause and place of death.
After two hours, the body becomes rigid, as adenosine triphosphate is no longer produced. Without this energy carrier in the cells, the muscles stiffen. After a few days, this rigidity subsides again.
The digestive system dies after only two to three days, and the bacteria in it accelerate the decomposition of the body. However, pathogens in the body can remain dangerous for a long time - hepatitis pathogens, for example, survive for several days, while tuberculosis bacteria can persist for years. In total, the decomposition process of the human body takes about 30 years.
What do near-death experiences teach us?
From a scientific point of view, near-death experiences occur in the time between clinical death and resuscitation. This is an area of intense interest not only in science, but also in religion and esotericism, although descriptions of these experiences can vary greatly depending on cultural and regional settings.
Many who have survived near-death have no memory of the event. Others report a rush of memories, separation from the body, landscapes, or a bright light (at the end of a tunnel). Some have described a feeling of great happiness, while others have experienced fear or panic.
Near-death experiences appear to occur more frequently when resuscitation has been particularly prolonged and oxygen supply to the brain has been disrupted for a prolonged period. This reduced oxygen supply to the brain most affects the temporal and parietal lobes of the brain, as well as the angular gyrus – a brain region located between them. However, it remains unclear whether this is where near-death experiences originate.
Do we have a soul?
Although death is an integral part of life, we do not want to accept it as an inevitable end. "Soul" most often refers to the immaterial, separate from the body, immortal essence of a person. In many religions, the soul is what makes a person who they are.
Belief in an immortal soul is deeply rooted in our dualistic way of thinking, which divides the world into two opposing categories: good and evil, right and wrong, body and soul. Philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, or Descartes considered the body and soul to be separate entities.
Scientific findings indicate that all mental processes are related to brain function. Therefore, our entire "mental life" can be explained by neurons, chemical transmitters of information, and brain networks.
But is our being – our soul – really made up only of measurable brain activity, biochemical processes and socio-cultural influences? Or is our "mental life" shaped by the extremely complex interdependence of body, mind and environment?
The existence of the soul or such interdependence cannot be proven scientifically. And where the domain of empirical science ends, faith begins.
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