Scientific evidence of the existence of life after death. In the lens is a flying soul

Ecology of knowledge: From school they tried to convince us that there is no God, there is no immortal soul. At the same time, we were told that science says so. And we believed... Let us note that we BELIEVED in the fact that there is no immortal soul, we BELIEVED in what science supposedly proved, we BELIEVED in the fact that there is no God. None of us has even tried to figure out what impartial science says about the soul.

Every person who has encountered the death of a loved one asks the question: is there life after death? Nowadays, this issue is of particular relevance. If several centuries ago the answer to this question was obvious to everyone, now, after a period of atheism, its solution is more difficult.

We cannot simply believe hundreds of generations of our ancestors, who, through personal experience, century after century, were convinced that man has an immortal soul. We want to have facts. Moreover, the facts are scientific. From school they tried to convince us that there is no God, there is no immortal soul. At the same time, we were told that science says so. And we believed... Let us note that we BELIEVED in the fact that there is no immortal soul, we BELIEVED in what science supposedly proved, we BELIEVED in the fact that there is no God. None of us has even tried to figure out what impartial science says about the soul. We simply trusted certain authorities, without particularly going into the details of their worldview, objectivity, and their interpretation of scientific facts.

And now, when the tragedy happened, there is a conflict within us:

We feel that the soul of the deceased is eternal, that it is alive, but on the other hand, the old stereotypes instilled in us that there is no soul drag us into the abyss of despair. This struggle within us is very difficult and very exhausting. We want the truth!

So let's look at the question of the existence of the soul through real, non-ideologized, objective science. Let's hear the opinions of real scientists on this issue and personally evaluate the logical calculations. It is not our FAITH in the existence or non-existence of the soul, but only KNOWLEDGE that can extinguish this internal conflict, preserve our strength, give confidence, and look at the tragedy from a different, real point of view.

The article will talk about Consciousness. We will analyze the question of Consciousness from the point of view of science: where is Consciousness located in our body and whether it can cease its life.

What is Consciousness?

First, about what Consciousness is in general. People have thought about this question throughout the history of mankind, but still cannot come to a final decision. We know only some of the properties and possibilities of consciousness. Consciousness is awareness of oneself, one’s personality, it is a great analyzer of all our feelings, emotions, desires, plans. Consciousness is what sets us apart, what makes us feel that we are not objects, but individuals. In other words, Consciousness miraculously reveals our fundamental existence. Consciousness is our awareness of our “I”, but at the same time Consciousness is a great mystery. Consciousness has no dimensions, no form, no color, no smell, no taste; it cannot be touched or turned in your hands. Even though we know very little about consciousness, we know with absolute certainty that we have it.

One of the main questions of humanity is the question of the nature of this very Consciousness (soul, “I”, ego). Materialism and idealism have diametrically opposed views on this issue. From the point of view of materialism, human Consciousness is the substrate of the brain, a product of matter, a product of biochemical processes, a special fusion of nerve cells. From the point of view of idealism, Consciousness is the ego, “I”, spirit, soul - an immaterial, invisible, eternally existing, non-dying energy that spiritualizes the body. Acts of consciousness always involve a subject who is actually aware of everything.

If you are interested in purely religious ideas about the soul, then religion will not provide any evidence of the existence of the soul. The doctrine of the soul is a dogma and is not subject to scientific proof.

There are absolutely no explanations, much less evidence, from materialists who believe that they are impartial scientists (although this is far from the case).

But how do most people, who are equally far from religion, from philosophy, and from science too, imagine this Consciousness, soul, “I”? Let's ask ourselves, what is “I”?

Gender, name, profession and other role functions

The first thing that comes to mind for most is: “I am a person”, “I am a woman (man)”, “I am a businessman (turner, baker)”, “I am Tanya (Katya, Alexey)”, “I am a wife ( husband, daughter)”, etc. These are certainly funny answers. Your individual, unique “I” cannot be defined in general terms. There are a huge number of people in the world with the same characteristics, but they are not your “I”. Half of them are women (men), but they are not “I” either, people with the same professions seem to have their own “I”, not yours, the same can be said about wives (husbands), people of different professions, social status, nationalities, religions, etc. No affiliation with any group will explain to you what your individual “I” represents, because Consciousness is always personal. I am not qualities (qualities only belong to our “I”), because the qualities of the same person can change, but his “I” will remain unchanged.

Mental and physiological characteristics

Some say that their “I” is their reflexes, their behavior, their individual ideas and preferences, their psychological characteristics, etc.

In fact, this cannot be the core of the personality, which is called “I.” Why? Because throughout life, behavior, ideas and preferences change, and even more so psychological characteristics. It cannot be said that if these features were different before, then it was not my “I”.

Realizing this, some people make the following argument: “I am my individual body.” This is already more interesting. Let's examine this assumption as well.

Everyone knows from the school anatomy course that the cells of our body are gradually renewed throughout life. Old ones die (apoptosis), and new ones are born. Some cells (the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract) are completely renewed almost every day, but there are cells that go through their life cycle much longer. On average, every 5 years all the cells of the body are renewed. If we consider the “I” to be a simple collection of human cells, then the result will be absurd. It turns out that if a person lives, for example, 70 years. During this time, at least 10 times a person will change all the cells in his body (i.e. 10 generations). Could this mean that not one person, but 10 different people lived their 70-year life? Isn't it quite stupid? We conclude that “I” cannot be a body, because the body is not permanent, but “I” is permanent.

This means that the “I” cannot be either the qualities of cells or their totality.

But here the particularly erudite give a counter-argument: “Okay, with bones and muscles it’s clear, this really cannot be the “I”, but there are nerve cells! And they are alone for the rest of their lives. Maybe “I” is the sum of nerve cells?”

Let's think about this question together...

Does consciousness consist of nerve cells?

Materialism is accustomed to decomposing the entire multidimensional world into mechanical components, “testing harmony with algebra” (A.S. Pushkin). The most naive misconception of militant materialism regarding personality is the idea that personality is a set of biological qualities. However, the combination of impersonal objects, be they even atoms or neurons, cannot give rise to a personality and its core - the “I”.

How can this most complex “I”, feeling, capable of experiences, love, be simply the sum of specific cells of the body along with the ongoing biochemical and bioelectric processes? How can these processes shape the “I”???

Provided that nerve cells constituted our “I”, then we would lose part of our “I” every day. With each dead cell, with each neuron, the “I” would become smaller and smaller. With cell restoration, it would increase in size.

Scientific studies conducted in different countries of the world prove that nerve cells, like all other cells of the human body, are capable of regeneration (restoration). Here is what the most serious biological international journal Nature writes: “Employees of the Californian Institute for Biological Research named after. Salk discovered that in the brains of adult mammals, fully functional young cells are born that function on par with existing neurons. Professor Frederick Gage and his colleagues also concluded that brain tissue renews itself most rapidly in physically active animals." 1

This is confirmed by a publication in another authoritative, peer-reviewed biological journal - Science: “Over the past two years, researchers have found that nerve and brain cells are renewed, like others in the human body. The body is capable of repairing disorders related to the nervous tract itself, says scientist Helen M. Blon.”

Thus, even with a complete change of all (including nerve) cells of the body, the “I” of a person remains the same, therefore, it does not belong to the constantly changing material body.

For some reason, in our time it is so difficult to prove what was obvious and understandable to the ancients. The Roman Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus, who lived in the 3rd century, wrote: “It is absurd to assume that, since none of the parts has life, then life can be created by their totality... moreover, it is completely impossible that life is produced by a heap of parts, and that the mind was generated by that which is devoid of mind. If anyone objects that this is not so, but that in fact the soul is formed by atoms coming together, that is, bodies indivisible into parts, then he will be refuted by the fact that the atoms themselves only lie one next to the other, not forming a living whole, for unity and joint feeling cannot be obtained from bodies that are insensitive and incapable of unification; but the soul feels itself” 2.

The “I” is the unchanging core of personality, which includes many variables, but is not itself variable.

A skeptic can put forward a last desperate argument: “Maybe “I” is the brain?”

Is Consciousness a product of brain activity? What does science say?

Many people heard the fairy tale that our Consciousness is the activity of the brain back in school. The idea that the brain is essentially a person with his “I” is extremely widespread. Most people think that it is the brain that perceives information from the world around us, processes it and decides how to act in each specific case; they think that it is the brain that makes us alive and gives us personality. And the body is nothing more than a spacesuit that ensures the activity of the central nervous system.

But this tale has nothing to do with science. The brain is now being studied in depth. The chemical composition, parts of the brain, and the connections of these parts with human functions have been well studied for a long time. The brain organization of perception, attention, memory, and speech has been studied. Functional blocks of the brain have been studied. A huge number of clinics and research centers have been studying the human brain for more than a hundred years, for which expensive, effective equipment has been developed. But, opening any textbooks, monographs, scientific journals on neurophysiology or neuropsychology, you will not find scientific data about the connection of the brain with Consciousness.

For people far from this area of knowledge, this seems surprising. In fact, there is nothing surprising about this. It’s just that no one has ever discovered the connection between the brain and the very center of our personality, our “I”. Of course, material scientists have always wanted this. Thousands of studies and millions of experiments have been conducted, many billions of dollars have been spent on this. The efforts of scientists were not in vain. Thanks to these studies, the parts of the brain themselves were discovered and studied, their connection with physiological processes was established, a lot was done to understand neurophysiological processes and phenomena, but the most important thing was not achieved. It was not possible to find the place in the brain that is our “I”. It was not possible even, despite extremely active work in this direction, to make a serious assumption about how the brain can be connected with our Consciousness.

Where did the assumption come from that Consciousness is in the brain? This assumption was put forward in the mid-18th century by the famous electrophysiologist Dubois-Reymond (1818-1896). In his worldview, Dubois-Reymond was one of the brightest representatives of the mechanistic movement. In one of his letters to a friend, he wrote that “exclusively physicochemical laws operate in the body; if not everything can be explained with their help, then it is necessary, using physical and mathematical methods, either to find a way of their action, or to accept that there are new forces of matter, equal in value to physical and chemical forces” 3.

But another outstanding physiologist, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (Ludwig, 1816-1895), who lived at the same time with Reymon, who headed the new Physiological Institute in Leipzig in 1869-1895, which became the world's largest center in the field of experimental physiology, did not agree with him. The founder of the scientific school, Ludwig wrote that none of the existing theories of nervous activity, including the electrical theory of nerve currents by Dubois-Reymond, can say anything about how, as a result of the activity of nerves, acts of sensation become possible. Let us note that here we are not even talking about the most complex acts of consciousness, but about much simpler sensations. If there is no consciousness, then we cannot feel or experience anything.

Another major physiologist of the 19th century, the outstanding English neurophysiologist Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, Nobel Prize laureate, said that if it is not clear how the psyche arises from the activity of the brain, then, naturally, it is equally unclear how it can have any influence on the behavior of a living creature, which is controlled through the nervous system.

As a result, Dubois-Reymond himself came to the following conclusion: “As we are aware, we do not know and will never know. And no matter how much we delve into the jungle of intracerebral neurodynamics, we will not build a bridge to the kingdom of consciousness.” Raymon came to the conclusion, disappointing for determinism, that it is impossible to explain Consciousness by material causes. He admitted “that here the human mind comes across a “world riddle” that it will never be able to solve” 4.

Professor at Moscow University, philosopher A.I. Vvedensky in 1914 formulated the law of “the absence of objective signs of animation.” The meaning of this law is that the role of the psyche in the system of material processes of behavior regulation is absolutely elusive and there is no conceivable bridge between the activity of the brain and the area of mental or spiritual phenomena, including Consciousness.

The leading experts in neurophysiology, Nobel Prize laureates David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel recognized that in order to establish a connection between the brain and Consciousness, it is necessary to understand what reads and decodes the information that comes from the senses. Scientists have recognized that this is impossible to do.

There is interesting and convincing evidence of the absence of a connection between Consciousness and the functioning of the brain, understandable even to people far from science. Here it is:

Let us assume that the “I” (Consciousness) is the result of the work of the brain. As neurophysiologists know for sure, a person can live even with one hemisphere of the brain. At the same time, he will have Consciousness. A person who lives only with the right hemisphere of the brain certainly has an “I” (Consciousness). Accordingly, we can conclude that the “I” is not in the left, absent, hemisphere. A person with only a functioning left hemisphere also has an “I”, therefore the “I” is not located in the right hemisphere, which is absent in this person. Consciousness remains regardless of which hemisphere is removed. This means that a person does not have an area of the brain responsible for Consciousness, neither in the left nor in the right hemisphere of the brain. We have to conclude that the presence of consciousness in humans is not associated with certain areas of the brain.

Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences Voino-Yasenetsky describes: “I opened a huge abscess (about 50 cubic cm of pus) in a young wounded man, which undoubtedly destroyed the entire left frontal lobe, and I did not observe any mental defects after this operation. I can say the same about another patient who was operated on for a huge cyst of the meninges. Upon wide opening of the skull, I was surprised to see that almost the entire right half of it was empty, and the entire left hemisphere of the brain was compressed, almost to the point of being impossible to distinguish.”6

In 1940, Dr. Augustin Iturricha made a sensational statement at the Anthropological Society in Sucre (Bolivia). He and Dr. Ortiz spent a long time studying the medical history of a 14-year-old boy, a patient at Dr. Ortiz's clinic. The teenager was there with a diagnosis of a brain tumor. The young man retained Consciousness until his death, complaining only of a headache. When a pathological autopsy was performed after his death, the doctors were amazed: the entire brain mass was completely separated from the internal cavity of the skull. A large abscess has taken over the cerebellum and part of the brain. It remains completely unclear how the sick boy’s thinking was preserved.

The fact that consciousness exists independently of the brain is also confirmed by studies conducted recently by Dutch physiologists under the leadership of Pim van Lommel. The results of a large-scale experiment were published in the most authoritative English biological journal, The Lancet. “Consciousness exists even after the brain has ceased to function. In other words, Consciousness “lives” on its own, absolutely independently. As for the brain, it is not thinking matter at all, but an organ, like any other, performing strictly defined functions. It may very well be that thinking matter, even in principle, does not exist, said the leader of the study, the famous scientist Pim van Lommel” 7.

Another argument that is understandable to non-specialists is given by Professor V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky: “In the wars of ants who do not have a brain, intentionality is clearly revealed, and therefore intelligence, no different from humans.” 8. This is truly an amazing fact. Ants solve quite complex problems of survival, building housing, providing themselves with food, i.e. have a certain intelligence, but have no brain at all. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Neurophysiology does not stand still, but is one of the most dynamically developing sciences. The success of studying the brain is evidenced by the methods and scale of research. Functions and areas of the brain are being studied, and its composition is being clarified in more and more detail. Despite the titanic work on studying the brain, world science today is still far from understanding what creativity, thinking, memory are and what their connection is with the brain itself.

What is the nature of Consciousness?

Having come to the understanding that Consciousness does not exist inside the body, science draws natural conclusions about the immaterial nature of consciousness.

Academician P.K. Anokhin: “None of the “mental” operations that we attribute to the “mind” have so far been able to be directly associated with any part of the brain. If we, in principle, cannot understand how exactly the psyche arises as a result of the activity of the brain, then isn’t it more logical to think that the psyche is not, in its essence, a function of the brain, but represents the manifestation of some other - immaterial spiritual forces? 9

At the end of the 20th century, the creator of quantum mechanics, Nobel Prize laureate E. Schrödinger wrote that the nature of the connection between some physical processes and subjective events (which include Consciousness) lies “aside from science and beyond human understanding.”

The greatest modern neurophysiologist, Nobel Prize winner in medicine, J. Eccles, developed the idea that based on the analysis of brain activity it is impossible to find out the origin of mental phenomena, and this fact can easily be interpreted in the sense that the psyche is not a function of the brain at all. According to Eccles, neither physiology nor the theory of evolution can shed light on the origin and nature of consciousness, which is absolutely alien to all material processes in the Universe. The spiritual world of man and the world of physical realities, including brain activity, are completely independent independent worlds that only interact and to some extent influence each other. He is echoed by such prominent specialists as Karl Lashley (an American scientist, director of the laboratory of primate biology in Orange Park (Florida), who studied the mechanisms of brain function) and Harvard University doctor Edward Tolman.

With his colleague, the founder of modern neurosurgery, Wilder Penfield, who performed over 10,000 brain operations, Eccles wrote the book “The Mystery of Man.” 10 In it, the authors explicitly state that “there is no doubt that man is controlled by SOMETHING outside of himself.” bodies." “I can confirm experimentally,” writes Eccles, “that the workings of consciousness cannot be explained by the functioning of the brain. Consciousness exists independently of it from the outside.”

Eccles is deeply convinced that consciousness cannot be the subject of scientific research. In his opinion, the emergence of consciousness, just like the emergence of life, is the highest religious mystery. In his report, the Nobel laureate relied on the conclusions of the book “Personality and the Brain,” written jointly with the American philosopher and sociologist Karl Popper.

Wilder Penfield, after many years of studying brain activity, also came to the conclusion that “the energy of the mind is different from the energy of the brain’s neural impulses” 11.

Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Russian Federation, director of the Brain Research Institute (RAMS of the Russian Federation), world-renowned neurophysiologist, professor, doctor of medical sciences. Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva: “I first heard the hypothesis that the human brain only perceives thoughts from somewhere outside from the lips of Nobel laureate, Professor John Eccles. Of course, at the time it seemed absurd to me. But then research conducted at our St. Petersburg Brain Research Institute confirmed: we cannot explain the mechanics of the creative process. The brain can generate only the simplest thoughts, such as turning the pages of a book you are reading or stirring sugar in a glass. And the creative process is the manifestation of a completely new quality. As a believer, I allow the participation of the Almighty in controlling the thought process" 12.

Science is gradually coming to the conclusion that the brain is not a source of thought and consciousness, but at most a relay of them.

Professor S. Grof talks about it this way: “imagine that your TV is broken and you call a TV technician, who, after turning various knobs, tunes it up. It doesn’t occur to you that all these stations are sitting in this box” 13.

Back in 1956, the outstanding leading scientist-surgeon, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky believed that our brain is not only not connected with Consciousness, but is not even capable of thinking independently, since the mental process is taken outside its boundaries. In his book, Valentin Feliksovich argues that “the brain is not an organ of thought and feelings,” and that “The Spirit acts beyond the brain, determining its activity, and our entire existence, when the brain works as a transmitter, receiving signals and transmitting them to the organs of the body.” 14.

English researchers Peter Fenwick from the London Institute of Psychiatry and Sam Parnia from Southampton Central Clinic came to the same conclusions. They examined patients who had come back to life after cardiac arrest and found that some of them accurately recounted the content of conversations that medical staff had while they were in a state of clinical death. Others gave an accurate description of the events that occurred during this time period. Sam Parnia argues that the brain, like any other organ of the human body, is composed of cells and is not capable of thinking. However, it can work as a thought detecting device, i.e. like an antenna, with the help of which it becomes possible to receive a signal from the outside. Scientists have suggested that during clinical death, Consciousness operating independently of the brain uses it as a screen. Like a television receiver, which first receives the waves entering it, and then converts them into sound and image.

If we turn off the radio, this does not mean that the radio station stops broadcasting. That is, after the death of the physical body, Consciousness continues to live.

The fact of the continuation of the life of Consciousness after the death of the body is confirmed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of the Research Institute of the Human Brain, Professor N.P. Bekhterev in her book “The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life.” In addition to discussing purely scientific issues, in this book the author also cites his personal experience of encountering posthumous phenomena.

Natalya Bekhtereva, talking about her meeting with the Bulgarian clairvoyant Vanga Dimitrova, speaks quite definitely about this in one of her interviews: “Vanga’s example absolutely convinced me that there is a phenomenon of contact with the dead,” and another quote from her book: “ I can’t help but believe what I heard and saw myself. A scientist does not have the right to reject facts (if he is a scientist!) just because they do not fit into dogma or worldview” 12.

The first consistent description of afterlife, based on scientific observations, was given by the Swedish scientist and naturalist Emmanuel Swedenborg. Then this problem was seriously studied by the famous psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler Ross, the equally famous psychiatrist Raymond Moody, conscientious academicians Oliver Lodge15,16, William Crooks17, Alfred Wallace, Alexander Butlerov, Professor Friedrich Myers18, and the American pediatrician Melvin Morse. Among the serious and systematic researchers of the issue of dying, Dr. Michael Sabom, a professor of medicine at Emory University and a staff physician at the Veterans Hospital in Atlanta, should be mentioned; the systematic research of psychiatrist Kenneth Ring, who studied this problem, was also studied by the doctor of medicine and resuscitator Moritz Rawlings. , our contemporary, thanatopsychologist A.A. Nalchadzhyan. The famous Soviet scientist, a leading specialist in the field of thermodynamic processes, and corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Belarus, Albert Veinik, worked a lot to understand this problem from the point of view of physics. A significant contribution to the study of near-death experiences was made by the world famous American psychologist of Czech origin, founder of the transpersonal school of psychology, Dr. Stanislav Grof.

The variety of facts accumulated by science undeniably proves that after physical death, each of those living today inherits a different reality, preserving their Consciousness.

Despite the limitations of our ability to understand this reality using material means, today there are a number of its characteristics obtained through experiments and observations of scientists studying this problem.

These characteristics were listed by A.V. Mikheev, a researcher at the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University in his report at the international symposium “Life after death: from faith to knowledge”, which took place on April 8-9, 2005 in St. Petersburg:

"1. There is a so-called “subtle body”, which is the carrier of self-awareness, memory, emotions and the “inner life” of a person. This body exists... after physical death, being, for the duration of the existence of the physical body, its “parallel component”, providing the above processes. The physical body is only an intermediary for their manifestation on the physical (earthly) level.

2. The life of an individual does not end with current earthly death. Survival after death is a natural law for humans.

3. The next reality is divided into a large number of levels, differing in the frequency characteristics of their components.

4. A person’s destination during the posthumous transition is determined by his attunement to a certain level, which is the total result of his thoughts, feelings and actions during life on Earth. Just as the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a chemical substance depends on its composition, so too a person's posthumous destination is determined by the "composite characteristic" of his inner life.

5. The concepts of “Heaven and Hell” reflect two polarities of possible posthumous states.

6. In addition to such polar states, there are a number of intermediate ones. The choice of an adequate state is automatically determined by the mental and emotional “pattern” formed by a person during earthly life. That is why negative emotions, violence, the desire for destruction and fanaticism, no matter how they are justified externally, in this regard are extremely destructive for the future fate of a person. This provides a strong foundation for personal responsibility and adherence to ethical principles."19

All the above arguments are simply amazingly consistent with the religious knowledge of all traditional religions. This is a reason to cast aside doubts and make up your mind. Isn't it true?

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3. Du Bois-Reymond E. Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur allgemeinen Muskel- und Nervenphysik. Bd. 1.

Leipzig: Veit & Co., 1875. P. 102

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5. Kobozev N.I. Research in the field of thermodynamics of information and thinking processes. M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 1971. P. 85.

6, Voino-Yasenetsky V. F. Spirit, soul and body. CJSC "Brovary Printing House", 2002. P. 43.

7. Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands; Dr Pirn van Lommel MD, Ruud van Wees PhD, Vincent Meyers PhD, Ingrid Elfferich PhD // The Lancet. Dec 2001 2001. Vol 358. No 9298 P. 2039-2045.

8. Voino-Yasenetsky V. F. Spirit, soul and body. CJSC "Brovary Printing House", 2002 P. 36.

9/ Anokhin P.K. Systemic mechanisms of higher nervous activity. Selected works. Moscow, 1979, p. 455.

10. Eccles J. The human mystery.

Berlin: Springer 1979. P. 176.

11. Penfield W. The mystery of the mind.

Princeton, 1975. pp. 25-27

12..I was blessed to study “Through the Looking Glass”. Interview with N.P. Bekhtereva newspaper “Volzhskaya Pravda”, March 19, 2005.

13. Grof S. Holotropic consciousness. Three levels of human consciousness and their influence on our lives. M.: AST; Ganga, 2002. P. 267.

14. Voino-Yasenetsky V. F. Spirit, soul and body. CJSC "Brovary Printing House", 2002 P.45.

15. Lodge O. Raymond or life and death.

London 1916

16. Lodge O. The survival of man.

London 1911

17. Crookes W. Researches in the phenomena of spiritualism.

London, year 1926 P. 24

18. Myers. Human personality and its survival of bodily death.

London, year 1sted.1903 P. 68

19. Mikheev A. V. Life after death: from faith to knowledge

Journal "Consciousness and Physical Reality", No. 6, 2005 and in the abstracts of the international symposium "Noospheric innovations in culture, education, science, technology, healthcare", April 8 - 9, 2005, St. Petersburg.

Human nature will never be able to come to terms with the fact that immortality is impossible. Moreover, the immortality of the soul is an indisputable fact for many. And more recently, scientists have discovered evidence that physical death is not the absolute end of human existence and that there is still something beyond the boundaries of life.

One can imagine how such a discovery delighted people. After all, death, like birth, is the most mysterious and unknown state of a person. There are a lot of questions associated with them. For example, why a person is born and starts life from scratch, why he dies, etc.

A person throughout his entire adult life has been trying to deceive fate in order to prolong his existence in this world. Humanity is trying to calculate the formula for immortality in order to understand whether the words “death” and “end” are synonymous.

However, recent research has brought science and religion into one: death is not the end. After all, only beyond life can a person discover a new form of being. Moreover, scientists are sure that every person can remember his past life. And this means that death is not the end, and there, beyond the line, there is another life. Unknown to humanity, but life.

However, if the transmigration of souls exists, it means that a person must remember not only all his previous lives, but also deaths, while not everyone can survive this experience.

The phenomenon of the transfer of consciousness from one physical shell to another has been exciting the minds of mankind for many centuries. The first mentions of reincarnation are found in the Vedas - the oldest sacred scriptures of Hinduism.

According to the Vedas, any living being resides in two material bodies - the gross and the subtle. And they function only due to the presence of the soul in them. When the gross body finally wears out and becomes unusable, the soul leaves it in another - the subtle body. This is death. And when the soul finds a new physical body that is suitable for its mentality, the miracle of birth occurs.

The transition from one body to another, moreover, the transfer of the same physical defects from one life to another, was described in detail by the famous psychiatrist Ian Stevenson. He began studying the mysterious experience of reincarnation back in the sixties of the last century. Stevenson analyzed more than two thousand cases of unique reincarnation in different parts of the planet. While conducting research, the scientist came to a sensational conclusion. It turns out that those who have survived reincarnation will have the same defects in their new incarnations as they had in their previous life. These could be scars or moles, stuttering or another defect.

Incredibly, the scientist’s conclusions can only mean one thing: after death, everyone is destined to be born again, but in a different time. Moreover, a third of the children Stevenson studied had birth defects. Thus, a boy with a rough growth on the back of his head, under hypnosis, remembered that in a past life he was hacked to death with an ax. Stevenson found a family where a man who had been killed with an ax actually once lived. And the nature of his wound was like a pattern for a scar on the boy’s head.

Another child, who seemed to have been born with chopped off fingers, said that he was injured during field work. And again there were people who confirmed to Stevenson that one day a man died in a field from loss of blood when his fingers got caught in a threshing machine.

Thanks to the research of Professor Stevenson, supporters of the theory of transmigration of souls consider reincarnation to be a scientifically proven fact. Moreover, they claim that almost every person is able to view their past lives even in their sleep.

And the state of déjà vu, when suddenly there is a feeling that somewhere this has already happened to a person, may well be a flash of memory of previous lives.

The first scientific explanation that life does not end with the physical death of a person was given by Tsiolkovsky. He argued that absolute death is impossible because the Universe is alive. And Tsiolkovsky described the souls that left their corruptible bodies as indivisible atoms wandering throughout the Universe. This was the first scientific theory about the immortality of the soul, according to which the death of the physical body does not mean the complete disappearance of the consciousness of the deceased person.

But for modern science, belief in the immortality of the soul alone is, of course, not enough. Humanity still does not agree that physical death is invincible, and is strenuously looking for weapons against it.

Proof of life after death for some scientists is the unique experiment of cryonics, where the human body is frozen and kept in liquid nitrogen until techniques are found to restore any damaged cells and tissues in the body. And recent research by scientists proves that such technologies have already been found, although only a small part of these developments is publicly available. The results of the main studies are kept confidential. One could only dream of such technologies ten years ago.

Today, science can already freeze a person in order to revive him at the right moment, creates a controlled model of a robot-Avatar, but he still has no idea how to resettle a soul. This means that at one point humanity may face a huge problem - the creation of soulless machines that will never be able to replace humans.

Therefore, today, scientists are sure, cryonics is the only method for the revival of the human race.

In Russia, only three people used it. They are frozen and awaiting the future, eighteen more have signed a contract for cryopreservation after death.

Scientists began to think that the death of a living organism can be prevented by freezing several centuries ago. The first scientific experiments on freezing animals were carried out back in the seventeenth century, but only three hundred years later, in 1962, the American physicist Robert Ettinger finally promised people what they had dreamed of throughout human history - immortality.

The professor proposed freezing people immediately after death and storing them in this state until science finds a way to resurrect the dead. Then the frozen ones can be thawed and revived. According to scientists, a person will retain absolutely everything, it will still be the same person who was before death. And the same thing will happen to his soul that happens to it in the hospital when the patient is resuscitated.

All that remains is to decide what age to enter in the new citizen’s passport. After all, resurrection can occur either after twenty or after a hundred or two hundred years.

The famous geneticist Gennady Berdyshev suggests that the development of such technologies will take another fifty years. But the scientist has no doubt that immortality is a reality.

Today Gennady Berdyshev has built a pyramid at his dacha, an exact copy of the Egyptian one, but from logs, in which he is going to lose his years. According to Berdyshev, the pyramid is a unique hospital where time stops. Its proportions are strictly calculated according to the ancient formula. Gennady Dmitrievich assures: it is enough to spend fifteen minutes a day inside such a pyramid, and the years will begin to count down.

But the pyramid is not the only ingredient in this eminent scientist’s recipe for longevity. He knows, if not everything, then almost everything about the secrets of youth. Back in 1977, he became one of the initiators of the opening of the Institute of Juvenology in Moscow. Gennady Dmitrievich led a group of Korean doctors who rejuvenated Kim Il Sung. He was even able to extend the life of the Korean leader to ninety-two years.

Just a few centuries ago, life expectancy on Earth, for example in Europe, did not exceed forty years. Modern man lives on average sixty to seventy years, but even this time is catastrophically short. And recently, the opinions of scientists converge: the biological program for a person is to live at least one hundred and twenty years. In this case, it turns out that humanity simply does not live to see its true old age.

Some experts are confident that the processes occurring in the body at the age of seventy are premature old age. Russian scientists were the first in the world to develop a unique medicine that prolongs life to one hundred and ten or one hundred and twenty years, which means it cures old age. The peptide bioregulators contained in the medicine restore damaged areas of cells, and a person’s biological age increases.

As reincarnation psychologists and therapists say, a person’s lived life is connected with his death. For example, a person who does not believe in God and leads a completely “earthly” life, which means he is afraid of death, for the most part does not realize that he is dying, and after death he finds himself in a “gray space.”

At the same time, the soul retains the memory of all its past incarnations. And this experience leaves its mark on a new life. And training on memories from past lives helps to understand the causes of failures, problems and illnesses that people often cannot cope with on their own. Experts say that after seeing their mistakes in past lives, people in their present lives begin to be more conscious of their decisions.

Visions from a past life prove that there is a huge information field in the Universe. After all, the law of conservation of energy says that nothing in life disappears anywhere or appears from nothing, but only passes from one state to another.

This means that after death, each of us turns into something like a clot of energy, carrying all the information about past incarnations, which is then again embodied in a new form of life.

And it is quite possible that someday we will be born in another time and in another space. And remembering your past life is useful not only to remember past problems, but also to think about your purpose.

Death is still stronger than life, but under the pressure of scientific developments its defenses are weakening. And who knows, the time may come when death will open the way for us to another - eternal life.

Is death the final point in a person’s life or does his “I” continue to exist despite the death of the body? People have been asking themselves this question for thousands of years, and although almost all religions answer it positively, many now would like to have scientific confirmation of the so-called life after life.

It is difficult for many to accept without evidence the statement about the immortality of the soul. The recent decades of immoderate propaganda of materialism are taking their toll, and every now and then you remember that our consciousness is only a product of biochemical processes occurring in the brain, and with the death of the latter, the human “I” disappears without a trace. That is why I really want to receive evidence from scientists about the eternal life of our soul.

However, have you ever wondered what this evidence might be? Some intricate formula or demonstration of a session of communication with the soul of some deceased celebrity? The formula will be incomprehensible and unconvincing, and the session will raise certain doubts, because we have already once observed the sensational “revival of a dead man”...

Probably, only when each of us can buy a certain device, use it to contact the other world and talk to our long-dead grandmother, will we finally believe in the reality of the immortality of the soul.

Well, for now we will be content with what we have today on this issue. Let's start with the authoritative opinions of various celebrities. Let us remember the student of Socrates the great philosopher Plato, which is around 387 BC. e. founded his own school in Athens.

He said: “The soul of man is immortal. All her hopes and aspirations are transferred to another world. A true sage wishes death as the beginning of a new life.” In his opinion, death was the separation of the incorporeal part (soul) of a person from his physical part (body).

Famous German poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe spoke quite definitely on this topic: “When I think about death, I am completely calm, because I am firmly convinced that our spirit is a being whose nature remains indestructible and which will act continuously and forever.”

Portrait of J. W. Goethe

A Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy asserted: “Only those who have never seriously thought about death do not believe in the immortality of the soul.”

FROM SWEDENBORG TO ACADEMICIAN SAKHAROV

We could go on for a long time listing various celebrities who believe in the immortality of the soul and citing their statements on this topic, but it’s time to turn to scientists and find out their opinion.

One of the first scientists to take up the issue of the immortality of the soul was a Swedish researcher, philosopher and mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg. He was born in 1688, graduated from the university, wrote about 150 essays in various scientific fields (mining, mathematics, astronomy, crystallography, etc.), and made several important technical inventions.

According to the scientist, who has the gift of clairvoyance, he has been researching other dimensions for more than twenty years and has repeatedly talked with people after their death.

Emmanuel Swedenborg

He wrote: “After the spirit is separated from the body (which happens when a person dies), it continues to live, remaining the same person. In order that I might be convinced of this, I was allowed to speak with practically everyone whom I knew in physical life—with some for a few hours, with others for months, with some for several years; and all this was subordinated to one single purpose: so that I could be convinced that life continues after death, and be a witness to this.”

It is curious that already at that time many laughed at such statements of the scientist. The following fact is documented.

Once the Queen of Sweden, with an ironic smile, told Swedenborg that by talking with her late brother, he would immediately win her favor.

Only one week has passed; Having met the queen, Swedenborg whispered something in her ear. The royal person changed her face, and then said to the courtiers: “Only the Lord God and my brother could know what he just told me.”

I admit that few have heard of this Swedish scientist, but the founder of astronautics K. E. Tsiolkovsky Everyone probably knows. So, Konstantin Eduardovich also believed that with the physical death of a person, his life does not end. In his opinion, the souls that left dead bodies were indivisible atoms wandering across the expanses of the Universe.

And the academician A. D. Sakharov wrote: “I cannot imagine the Universe and Human life without some meaningful beginning, without a source of spiritual “warmth” lying outside of matter and its laws.”

IS THE SOUL IMMORTAL OR NOT?

American theoretical physicist Robert Lanza also spoke in favor of the existence
life after death and even tried to prove it with the help of quantum physics. I won’t go into the details of his experiment with light; in my opinion, it’s hard to call it convincing evidence.

Let us dwell on the original views of the scientist. According to the physicist, death cannot be considered the final end of life; in fact, it is rather the transition of our “I” to another, parallel world. Lanza also believes that it is our “consciousness that gives meaning to the world.” He says, “In fact, everything you see does not exist without your consciousness.”

Let's leave the physicists alone and turn to the doctors, what do they say? Relatively recently, headlines flashed in the media: “There is life after death!”, “Scientists have proven the existence of life after death,” etc. What caused such optimism among journalists?

They considered the hypothesis put forward by the American anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff from the University of Arizona. The scientist is convinced that the human soul consists “of the fabric of the Universe itself” and has a more fundamental structure than that of neurons.

“I think consciousness has always existed in the Universe. Possibly since the Big Bang,” says Hameroff, noting that there is a high probability of the eternal existence of the soul. “When the heart stops beating and blood stops flowing through the vessels,” the scientist explains, “the microtubes lose their quantum state. However, the quantum information contained in them is not destroyed. It cannot be destroyed, so it spreads and scatters throughout the Universe. If a patient survives in intensive care, he talks about the “white light” and may even see how he “comes out” of his body. If it dies, then quantum information exists outside the body for an indefinite time. She is the soul."

As we can see, this is still only a hypothesis and it is, perhaps, far from proving life after death. True, its author claims that no one can yet refute this hypothesis. It should be noted that there are much more facts and studies in favor of life after death than are given in this material; let us recall, for example, the research of Dr. Raymond Moody.

In conclusion, I would like to remember the wonderful scientist, Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Professor N. P. Bekhtereva(1924-2008), who for a long time headed the Research Institute of the Human Brain. In her book “The Magic of the Brain and the Labyrinths of Life,” Natalya Petrovna spoke about her personal experience of observing post-mortem phenomena.

In one of her interviews, she was not afraid to admit: “Vanga’s example absolutely convinced me that there is a phenomenon of contact with the dead.”

Scientists who turn a blind eye to obvious facts, avoiding “slippery” topics, should be reminded of the following words of this outstanding woman: “A scientist has no right to reject facts (if he is a scientist!) just because they do not fit into dogma or worldview.”

Human nature will never be able to accept the fact that immortality is impossible. Moreover, the immortality of the soul is an indisputable fact for many. And more recently, scientists have discovered evidence that physical death is not the absolute end of human existence and that there is still something beyond the boundaries of life.

Scientists have found evidence that there is life after death

However, if the transmigration of souls exists, it means that a person must remember not only all his previous lives, but also deaths, while not everyone can survive this experience.

And the state of déjà vu, when suddenly there is a feeling that somewhere this has already happened to a person, may well be a flash of memory of previous lives.

Therefore, today, scientists are sure, cryonics is the only method for the revival of the human race.

In Russia, only three people used it. They are frozen and awaiting the future, eighteen more have signed a contract for cryopreservation after death.

All that remains is to decide what age to enter in the new citizen’s passport. After all, resurrection can occur either after twenty or after a hundred or two hundred years.

The famous geneticist Gennady Berdyshev suggests that the development of such technologies will take another fifty years. But the scientist has no doubt that immortality is a reality.

This means that after death, each of us turns into something like a clot of energy, carrying all the information about past incarnations, which is then again embodied in a new form of life.

Incredible facts

Scientists have evidence of the existence of life after death.

They discovered that consciousness can continue after death.

Although this topic is viewed with great skepticism, there are testimonies from people who have had this experience that will make you think about it.

Although these conclusions are not definitive, you may begin to doubt that death is, in fact, the end of everything.

Is there life after death?

1. Consciousness continues after death

Dr. Sam Parnia, a professor who has studied near-death experiences and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, believes that a person's consciousness can survive brain death when there is no blood flow to the brain and there is no electrical activity.

Since 2008, he has collected extensive evidence of near-death experiences that occurred when a person's brain was no more active than a loaf of bread.

Judging by the visions conscious awareness lasted up to three minutes after the heart stopped, although the brain usually shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart stops.

2. Out-of-body experience

You may have heard people talk about the feeling of separation from your own body, and they seemed like a fantasy to you. American singer Pam Reynolds spoke about her out-of-body experience during brain surgery, which she experienced at the age of 35.

She was placed in an induced coma, her body was cooled to 15 degrees Celsius, and her brain was virtually deprived of blood supply. In addition, her eyes were closed and headphones were inserted into her ears, which muffled the sounds.

Floating above your body she was able to observe her own operation. The description was very clear. She heard someone say: " Her arteries are too small"and the song was playing in the background" Hotel California"by The Eagles.

The doctors themselves were shocked by all the details that Pam told about her experience.

3. Meeting with the dead

One of the classic examples of near-death experiences is meeting deceased relatives on the other side.

Researcher Bruce Grayson(Bruce Grayson) believes that what we see when we are in a state of clinical death is not just vivid hallucinations. In 2013, he published a study in which he indicated that the number of patients who met deceased relatives far exceeded the number of those who met living people.

Moreover, there have been several cases where people have encountered a dead relative on the other side without knowing that the person had died.

Life after death: facts

4. Borderline Reality

Internationally recognized Belgian neurologist Stephen Laureys(Steven Laureys) does not believe in life after death. He believes that all near-death experiences can be explained through physical phenomena.

Laureys and his team expected that near-death experiences would be similar to dreams or hallucinations and would fade from memory over time.

However, he discovered that Memories of clinical death remain fresh and vivid regardless of the passage of time and sometimes even overshadow memories of real events.

5. Similarity

In one study, researchers asked 344 patients who had experienced cardiac arrest to describe their experiences in the week following resuscitation.

Of all the people surveyed, 18% could hardly remember their experience, and 8-12 % gave a classic example of near-death experiences. This means that from 28 to 41 people, not related to each other, from different hospitals recalled almost the same experience.

6. Personality changes

Dutch explorer Pim van Lommel(Pim van Lommel) studied the memories of people who experienced clinical death.

According to the results, many people have lost the fear of death, become happier, more positive and more sociable. Almost everyone spoke of near-death experiences as a positive experience that further impacted their lives over time.

Life after death: evidence

7. First-hand memories

American neurosurgeon Eben Alexander spent 7 days in a coma in 2008, which changed his mind about near-death experiences. He stated that he saw something that was difficult to believe.

He said that he saw light and a melody emanating from there, he saw something similar to a portal into a magnificent reality, filled with waterfalls of indescribable colors and millions of butterflies flying across this scene. However, his brain was switched off during these visions to such an extent that he should not have had any glimpses of consciousness.

Many have questioned Dr. Eben's words, but if he is telling the truth, perhaps his experiences and those of others should not be ignored.

8. Visions of the Blind

They interviewed 31 blind people who had experienced clinical death or out-of-body experiences. Moreover, 14 of them were blind from birth.

However, they all described visual image s during your experiences, be it a tunnel of light, deceased relatives, or observing your body from above.

9. Quantum physics

According to the professor Robert Lanza(Robert Lanza) all possibilities in the universe happen at the same time. But when the “observer” decides to look, all these possibilities come down to one, which happens in our world.