When We Die by Kenneth J. Doka

Author:Kenneth J. Doka
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: death;dying;end of life;experiences;at the end of life;kenneth doka;kenneth j doka;kenneth j. doka;end of our lives;what happens at death;what happens when we die;near-death experiences;near death experience;near death experiences;nde;CVR01272020
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.
Published: 2020-09-16T16:32:13+00:00

How Can We Account for Terminal Lucidity?

The short answer is that we cannot. Dr. Jesse Bering, an Associate Professor of Science Communication at the University of Otago in New Zealand, describes himself as a “radical rationalist” and a “neo-Darwinist materialist.” He writes that he has to “quarantine,” as I did for so long, the few experiences he has had that did not fit in with his scientific-rationale perspective. One of these experiences was when his mother regained lucidity from what was described by the hospice team as an irreversible coma for a few precious moments prior to her death. As he writes:

I remain a skeptic. Still, I really don’t know how my mother managed those five minutes of perfect communication with me when, ostensibly, all of her cognitive functions were already lost. Was it her immortal soul? One last firestorm in her dying brain?

Honestly, I’m just glad it happened.126

Dr. Bering’s skepticism is clearly justified. The human body is a system. All the parts—all the organs and different systems—relate to and affect one another. When the circulatory or respiratory systems begin to fail, the brain is deprived of oxygen. If there are problems in the kidneys or liver, toxic processes cloud mental awareness. As the body begins the inevitable decline in the dying process, cognitive functioning should naturally suffer as well. In such a case, how can someone so close to death demonstrate enhanced cognitive functions—especially in cases where it was not present before?

The truth is that, at present, terminal lucidity cannot be explained. There is no medical or scientific reason that it occurs. However, a number of people have offered explanations of how this sudden return—or even new development—can happen.

Some of these arguments are disease-specific. For example, two physicians, Michael Nahm and Bruce Greyson, note that some early studies suggest that in certain conditions, high fevers in the dying person might induce terminal lucidity. They describe research in the 1800s and early 1900s that seem to support such a perspective.127 As with many medical discoveries, this began by accident. A physician encountered a patient who, after she developed erysipelas, a serious streptococcal infection of the upper layer of the skin characterized by swelling and blisters as well as high fevers, showed remission of her psychosis (caused by syphilis). The Austrian physician, Dr. Wagner-Jauregg, was so impressed with the recovery that he injected patients with other bacteria to cause fevers such as tuberculin and malaria-infected blood in the hopes that the induced fever could kill the bacteria responsible for syphilis—winning a Nobel Prize for his work in 1927. However, his work was later abandoned as around 15 percent of his patients died from the treatment.128

Another theory focuses on patients where the loss of mental capacity is caused by meningitis or other conditions that cause the swelling of the brain. Here, it is suggested that in the dying process, in some cases, the brain may shrink—relieving intracranial pressure, thus leading to a return of some mental functions.129

The lack of a clear medical explanation has resulted in a continued debate about mind/brain dualism.

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