What happens to a person during the moments before death?

Question

I mean in a life or death situation psychologically and physiologically?

Answer 1

I'm an ICU nurse and hospice volunteer. I have seen a lot of people right before they died. Physiologically depends on why they are dying...is traumatic, chronic disease, cancer? Somewhat different experiences, however most of them don't want to eat or drink, and hearing is the last to go.
However in my experiences with Hospice psychologically is very similar amoung my patients. They appear as if they are not in the room...like there are no walls. Some have reported seeing & talking to deceased loved ones. Also, they don't like being covered with sheets, kind of like they want to get up and leave but then they are dying and their body is shutting down so they are too weak to move.
Some of my patients were very quiet and confused but then shortly before they died they seemed to be more alert and talkative. A lot of my patients became very happy right before they died and reported a strong sense of peace & joy.
I had one 84 y.o. patient who came in the ER after falling and hitting her head at home. She was bleeding in her brain and was dying. She was experiencing a lot of hallucinations and kept insisting other people were in the room with us. She even scared me at one point by telling me a man was behind me as I was assessing her. She thought she was at a train station and she said her husband (who died 10 yrs before) was sitting next to her and that they were getting ready to get on the train.
She died later that night due to her injuries...she didn't realize she was dying at the time, nobody told her. She ended up going into shock.
The MDs blamed the hallucinations on the injury to the hemorrhage in the brain, but I have had patients that had no head injury and reported the same experiences.

I can't prove this but I know this from my experiences that death of the body releases the soul and the journey begins

Answer 2

Last Moments Before Death

Answer 3

Two things are interesting here: 1) some people seem to be very edgy about this topic and 2) others genuinely would like to know more.

I can understand both, but I prefer 2), and I don't agree with the person who said "who cares?". Obviously some dying people have more time than others to prepare themselves, but I feel certain that even people involved in an accident or some other type of sudden death have a couple of seconds to realize that they are dying Knowing what I know about the complexity of our brains, I think that's enough time for them to go into a different, more intensive kind of consciousness, which probably involves some of the things mentioned above, such as flashbacks or seeing important people in their lives. This may possibly happen in the context of religious or other beliefs that they have, but in any case it is made possible by a tremendous burst of imagination after the release of endorphines and other hormones.

Most important of all: 1) because our survival instinct trumps everything else, we will be sure to steer our imagination in a POSITIVE way (i.e. we will create a HEAVENLY state, not a hellish one), and 2) IT IS NOT LOGICALLY POSSIBLE TO BE CONSCIOUS OF ANYTHING BEYOND THE ACTUAL SHUTDOWN OF YOUR BRAIN; THEREFORE, THIS NEW STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS WILL BE, FROM YOUR OWN INDIVIDUAL POINT OF VIEW, WITHOUT AN ENDING--AN ETERNAL, VIRTUAL WORLD THAT YOU CREATE IN THAT FINAL STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS. If people could bring themselves to realize this, then they would have a different attitude toward death and a different attitude toward life while they're still alive. So YES, it's important to think about what happens when you die--ALL IMPORTANT.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What happens to a person during the moments before death?
I mean in a life or death situation psychologically and physiologically?

Answer 5

Current theories suggest mass ammounts of DMT (a hallucinogen) is released into the brain rapidly and you trip out basically, like a super excited dream state.

However, there is no direct evidence for this.

That and, how you die would depend on this.


If your body is blown up obviously you arn't going to experience a trip. I would say this would only happen ina slow painless death.

In other cases it is likely you would experience nothing.

Answer 6

I’m not sure about moments before death, but I will say this: from my own observations of family members and friends who have passed-away. I believe (My own opinion) that they had a premonition that death is near. My sister passed-away recently due to compications from having gall bladder surgery. We were quite close, and I noticed weeks before her death that she acted very strangely, almost mystical- like in a sense. And that was not in her character to act in such a way. I know this may sound stupid, but I wonder sometimes if the spirit doesn’t begin to leave the body days/weeks before the person actually dies. But who knows, it’s just a thought. Thanks

Answer 7

From what I hear they get flashbacks of their life. I watched this interesting documentary about that once. There was this one lady who was dead and then "came back to life". She said that right before she "died", she experienced traveling down some kind of purple tube and getting flashbacks of her life. The experts say that this happened because of our spinal cord or something, that after we die our soul or spirit travels down the spinal cord and revisits all the events of our lives. I watched this a long time ago though so I don't remember all the details and I don't know if it's completely true.

Answer 8

All these are related to just DEFINITE Death.
------------------------
-shock
-bleeding
-accelerated heartrate.
-life flashing before eyes.
-"did I leave the oven on?"
-need arrises to make peace with god or express their love one last time.
-cold feeling
-heightened brain electical output
-dialation of the pupils
-immune system shuts off.
-peace washes over the person.

A combo of or all of these things

if death by trash orcar compactor then you flatten out.
if by fire, a person gets rather hot.
if by large explosion, the person disintergrates and vaporises.
if by M50 Bullet, the person will liquify around the bullet entry site and the rest of them will be broken into a few peices.
if by freezing, the person drops dramatically in temperature.
if by jumping into a vat of liquid steel at a refinery, the person Actually Vaporises and turns to Slag AS They Die Instantly.

Answer 9

It depends what kind of death you're talking about... if in a car accident, maybe the person was driving... or was sitting in a doctor's office and take the last breath and gone... with not pain... etc...

Answer 10

As you know.. much would depend on whether the person knows he is about to die or is it an auto accident and death is instantaneous? In reality, no one really knows what goes thru the mind of a person who knows they are about to die.. In all probability, there are vague or sometimes vivid flashbacks to childhood.. to your parents.. perhaps to your beloved pets. There are possibly thoughts of how I could have done better