Life After Death: RNA, Brain Cells Still Active After a Person's Death, Studies Reveal
Two separate studies have revealed that not everything about a person dies even is he is already declared clinically dead.
A team of scientists examined 36 different types of tissue from 540 corpses, and it was revealed that the RNA continues to transcribe the DNA's instructions even after a person has been declared dead. According to lead researcher Roderic Guigó, they discovered that some genes are activated upon death, and it can simply mean that there is still a certain level of activity as far as RNA transcription is concerned.
Despite the discovery, though, science still cannot offer a concrete explanation, and the results of the research can only be based on guesses.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"I would guess that one of the major changes is due to the cessation of flow of blood, therefore I would say probably the main environmental change is hypoxia, the lack of oxygen, but I don't have the proof for this,"Guigó said.
Apart from discovery of Guigó's team, a separate study has also revealed that a person's brain cells may continue to function even days after a person has died. While this is not to be interpreted that a person is still alive or his brain is still functional, the results of the study challenge the common notion that everything about a person dies along with the death of his body.
"Actually, the cells are much more resilient to the heart stopping—to the person dying—than we used to understand," Dr. Sam Parnia, director of critical care and resuscitation research at New York University Langone Medical Center, explains to Newsweek.
Taking into account people who have had NDE (near-death experience) and claimed to have experience bright lights, benevolent guiding figures, relief from physical pain, and a deeply felt sensation of peace or those who have witnessed seeing their bodies in operating tables, it is believed that a person's consciousness continues to exist even just for a while after his death.
"I'm saying we have a consciousness that makes up who we are—our selves, thoughts, feelings, emotions—and that entity, it seems, does not become annihilated just because we've crossed the threshold of death; it appears to keep functioning and not dissipate. How long it lingers, we can't say," Dr. Parnia said.
