What is proved just before 30 seconds of our heartbeat stops! Did we compile our memory book for last reflash? Need for Happy Hour in Institutions. Read this interesting perspective.

Dear Friends and Students

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience Journal published an interesting article on near-death experience (NDE) of an 87-year-old Canadian man! Scientists captured unique data on the activity in the brain at the very end of his life. “During the 30 seconds before and after the man's heart stopped, his brain waves were remarkably similar to those seen during dreaming, memory recall and meditation, suggesting that people may actually see their life "flash before their eyes" when they die”.

This is the first scientific evidence! The researchers recorded around 900 seconds of brain activity leading up to and immediately after the patient's death. Just before and after the heart stopped working, researchers saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations (brain waves). Brain might be recalling all the important events as similar waves are observed during recall during normal circumstances.

5000 years back Lord Krishna mentioned this in the Bhagavad-gītā 8th Chapter and also suggested to remember HIM as NDE to nullify all our bad memories- “anta-kāle ca mām eva,smaran muktvā kalevaram, yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ, yāti nāsty atra saṁśayaḥ”- whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me at once attains My nature.

 

If we just quote this, a few communities discount and argue for scientific evidence. Why might Lord Krishna have said this? If we sum-up our life events and flash them, it contains both good and bad. I am sure in this age, bitter events exceed sweeter! True. We are living in an age of deceit and untruth. We all pretend to be good but a lot of malice is engulfed in our consciousness.

 

In 2014, there was an interesting article published in BBC- “Why bad news dominates the headlines”. Researchers made an experiment with invited participants. The goal is to track the eyeball movement. The volunteers were first asked to select some stories to read from a news website so that a camera could make some baseline eye-tracking measures. It was surprising to see,” Participants often chose stories with a negative tone – corruption, set-backs, hypocrisy and so on – rather than neutral or positive stories”

 

People respond quicker to negative words! We cannot blame anyone as there is natural attraction to the bad NEWS due to the hunger springing from the darkness within.

 

Infact many educational institutions are introducing a concept called “Happy Hour” to address this issue. Students are given an opportunity to hear some inspiring stories, or recite poetry, narrate jokes, etc. In 2011, we started "Inspire to Innovative Storytelling Movement", with the same mission. However, it is not going at the pace we anticipated. Probably the reasons are evident!

 

The last reading in our life is Near-death experience (NDE). It is an opportunity for all of us to develop a book for our NDE reading! The choice of the book, content and stories are all ours!

 

Reflash is scientifically proven! Let’s develop our book now, we never know when those last 30 seconds will arrive in our life!!!

 

Ravi Saripalle