How long is 12 minutes?

I understand that when a person dies all brain activity ceases. That's why they're dead. Doctors check brain activity to determine if a person should be disconnected from life support.

i thought that might come up, but then what do consider dead? Scientifically dead would be complete stop of brain activity as you say, but to the dying person, they would be 'dead' before their brain stopped.
Wouldnt you lose all self control, and consciousness at the point of your death? and then between your heart stopping and your brain stopping, regardless of how long 12 minutes or 12 seconds... could that make such a theory possible?

When your heart stops the flow of blood to the brain also ceases. Thus your brain stops functioning within a couple of minutes. There have been instances in which a person declared dead has been brought back to life. Many people have reported having vivid recollections of seeing themselves as floating and witnessing the life-savinging going on below them during these episodes.

a couple of minutes... still time to dream, no?

I think it would probably be more like, when you are very, very tired or anaesthetised, and you are slipping into unconsciousness .

You'd usually have to go through the 4 stages of sleep to get to REM stage ( where you dream). 12 minutes probably wouldn't be long enough to do that.

Also, most psychologists who study sleep now say that time spent in dreams is approximate to the time spent in waking life ( that is, 12 minutes in this case). You just miss out on all the boring bits (and perhaps it's more interesting ) so it seems much more intense + longer.

If you want that type of experience, I suggest you use drugs. But only when you are in university. As chef from South Park says " there's a time and place for everything, and it's called college".

As I recall, badly, from my last first aid instructor's class, there are about six different definitions of death.

One is biological - the heart stops as well as breathing.
Clinical - brain activity stops.

There are others, which at this point I don't recall. Each is dependant upon some other measure of biological and neurological activity.

I would point out that it is the purpose of CPR to bring someone back from biological death by externaly massaging the heart, called chest compressions.

As I'm typing I'm remembering more. I think there is a stage where CPR won't work, but a defibrilator will, and that is a different definition of death.

Hope this adds to the confusion.

Kelly

I was thinking about that when they decapitated those couple guys.

I read that one time a guy was decapitated and when the axman picked up the head, the head winked at him.

There were numerous notations about the severed heads during the French Revolution and the reign of Madame Guillotine, where the lips continued to move, as if in prayer, for some time after the beheading.

This merely says that death, under those circumstances is not instantaneous if it is defined based upon brain waves.

Kelly

Have you guys ever heard the expression " running around like a chook (chicken) with its head cut of". They do actually run around. Trust me. Like all good country girls, I know these things.

I have also heard those stories about the decapitated folks, Kelly and NickFun.

I've already given my opinion on this matter, but thought that you'd like to knowabout the chickens. In decapitation, you wouldn't lose consciousness (and complete brain functioning) until you lost sufficient blood or the blood was insufficiently oxygenated. The cranial nerves ( which supply the facial movement and sense) are situated in the primitive regions of the brain, they don't originate in the spine, so it seems self-evident that they would still work if the head was still moving.

When you're having a colonoscopy done, that 12 minutes feels like 12 hours. LOL

This is an easy one... The "dreams" people have about near-death blah blah is due to the brain suffocating. You can find alllllll sorts of info on this in medical boards. Basically, once the heart stops and/or forwhatever reason teh brain begins to lose oxygen, some brain cells die (of course). Some cells will fire off randomly which can trigger white spots in the vision. This is where the "bright white light from heaven" thing comes from. Your optical nerve is dying and going crazy. It's a hallucination brough on by misfired synapses. I seem to remember reading that this can also triggern entire memories. So, of course, when someone does manage to pull through, they will retain some of the images.

The moving heads is due to similar circumstances. The nerve fibers that carry electrical impulses to the muscles can fire at random, contracting some, releasing others. This can give the appearence of life. It is also possible to retain slight consciousness until all the blood has vacated the skull, depending on the sever point.
There is a famous chicken, although i cannot remember his name, that was beheaded. He lived on for 3 more years. He died not too long ago. Apparently, the owner cut rather high and missed the stem and lower portion of the brain. This left the rooster's motor functions in tact. It still scratched and walked. They fed it liquids directly into the exposed esophogus until it died. YUCK!

CI! What are you doing back on A2K?

Nick, How can you ask me that question? I'm here to read all your posts, because they entertain me!

Not many on a2k can beat your wit.