See also: Neural correlates of consciousness and disorders of consciousness
Death was once defined as the cessation of heartbeat (cardiac arrest) and of breathing, but the development of CPR and prompt defibrillation have rendered that definition inadequate because breathing and heartbeat can sometimes be restarted. Events which were causally linked to death in the past no longer kill in all circumstances; without a functioning heart or lungs, life can sometimes be sustained with a combination of life support devices, organ transplants and artificial pacemakers.
Today, where a definition of the moment of death is required, doctors and coroners usually turn to "brain death" or "biological death" to define a person as being dead; brain death being defined as the complete and irreversible loss of brain function (including involuntary activity necessary to sustain life).[18][19][20][21]
According to the current neuroscientific view, consciousness fails to survive brain death and ceases to exist.[22][23]
Research from neuroscience considers the NDE to be a hallucination caused by various neurological factors such as cerebral anoxia, hypercarbia, abnormal activity in the temporal lobes or brain damage, whilst some parapsychologists and NDE researchers have pointed to them as evidence for an afterlife and mind-body dualism.[29][30][31][32][33][34]
My Most Important Message
Neuro Science and Alzheimer’s Disease research strongly suggest that when the brain dies, awareness dies. I am convinced that further research will reinforce that notion. When there is no awareness there is no possibility of an afterlife. The existence of Heaven, Hell, an Intelligent Designer or any God becomes moot. My favorite statement is that if you wonder were your awareness or consciousness is going after you die, it is going to the same place where you were before you were born.
This realization that your life, as you experience it now, is the only chance you ever get, to perceive this grand and overwhelming Universe, is a life changer. Just think, if every human, regardless of politics, ideals or life style could be convinced of that, religious strife would disappear, no one could be recruited as a suicide bomber or willing to die in a useless war. Research money would stream to medical research to extend and improve the quality of life and the environment. There would be less incentive spend money on research to invent more powerful ways to kill. More money would be directed to try to colonize space for an ever expanding human kind. In conclusion, every one would value life much more than we do now and appreciate the lives of the people around us, no matter from what country we came or race we originated. This one notion, of this life, you now live, is the one time, only chance, you will ever get, must be spread until everyone is convinced. Let’s get going! What are you waiting for!