科學對死後世界的10種解釋(上)

What happens to you after you die? That is one of life's biggest questions. For millennia, humans have been trying to solve that problem through a variety of different ways. From philosophy to science, the question of life and death has pervaded a significant amount of important work either directly or indirectly.

人死後將會經歷什麼？那是有關生命的一大難題。數千年來，人類已嘗試用各種各樣的方法來解答這個難題。有關生命與死亡的問題已經直接或間接地在哲學和科學領域中充當重要的角色。

Unfortunately, there are no answers to the question of life after death. Even after all of this time, scientists are only beginning to fully understand the process of death itself. Old tropes talk of the moment of death as though it is a singular point in time or the period at the end of the sentence of life. But, just as life is a complicated series of processes and events, death cannot be broken down to a split second when life ends. From studies surrounding consciousness to tales of near death experiences, humans have been exploring these concepts for centuries. Recently, new breakthroughs in resuscitation science have some information about what happens to a person in the first few minutes after they die. This research is of hallmark importance; however, not all of it can be proven to be objective fact. Much of what life after death means comes down to the kind of life you describe. Life, as a biological process, will end. Cells die and are immediately broken down. That much about death is clear. But things like behaviors, traits and likenesses live on through our offspring. Whether it is by genes or by learned behaviors, some part of many people lives on through their children long after they die. Science cannot explain the phenomenon of life after death as it presently stands, but here are ten ways that it can try:

可惜的是，現在還沒法解釋死後的生命世界。甚至這麼長時間以來，科學家們纔剛開始全面瞭解死亡本身的過程。一些古老的比喻將死亡的那一刻比作時間中的一個奇異點，亦或是生命長河的最後時刻。但是，生命是一系列複雜的過程和大事件，當其結束時，死亡也不可能被分解成一剎那。從圍繞意識的研究到瀕死經歷的故事，人類已經對這些概念探索了好幾個世紀。最近，復甦科學有了新突破，揭示了在人死後最初幾分鐘內將會發生的事情。這項研究非常重要；但還無法證明所有的成果都是客觀事實。死後的生活意味着什麼，這很大程度上歸結於你所描繪的生活。生命這一生化過程終將結束。細胞死後立即被分解。這些都確定無疑。但行爲、特性以及長相等會通過我們的後代延綿下去。無論是通過基因還是習得行爲，很多人死後會在某種程度上通過他們的子女繼續活下去。就目前來說，科學尚無法解釋死後的生命現象，但有以下10個方面可以進行嘗試：

h Is Not an Event

10.死亡並不是一件大事

The moment that your heart beats for the last time or the moment you take your last breath is not the moment of your death. Death continues to be a mysterious process for those with a career in science, and for those who ponder their own mortality.

心臟最後一次跳動或者吸入最後一口氣，這都不代表你的死期已到。對那些科學研究者以及那些思索着自己死亡大事的人而言，死亡一向就是一個神祕的過程。

The fact that death is not a fleeting moment is demonstrated by the rare confusion that some people face regarding whether or not a person is really dead. Most people have heard the stories about someone who was declared dead but seemed to magically wake up at their funeral. Despite so many medical advancements and technologies, people still make mistakes about who is dead and who is not. A 91 year old Polish woman recently scared the life out of some morticians after she woke up in a morgue 11 hours after being declared dead. The mortician discovered that there was movement in the body bag and when it was opened, the poor woman was not only alive but quite healthy. A similar situation happened in Kenya in 2014. A young man was declared to be dead after he ingested insecticide. Although the doctors had tried to save him, they believed that the cause was lost. But only 15 hours after being sent to the morgue, he woke up and frightened the technicians who were working near and around him. Of course, some of these mistakes are the result of human error. After all, American coroners are not required to have medical degrees, and some conditions and medications do mimic death in a convincing manner. Mistaking the living for the dead is a rare thing in modern society. It happens so rarely that if a mistake is made, the news makes headlines around the world. Whether the mistake is made by an elected official or a trained medical professional, it opens up a necessary discussion about how complicated the processes of death and dying really are.

人們偶爾會困惑，不知道某個人是否已經死亡，這證明死亡並不是一個短暫的時刻。絕大多數人都聽聞過被宣佈死亡的人竟在他們的葬禮中奇蹟般甦醒的故事。儘管有了這麼多先進的醫藥和技術，人們仍然會在斷定誰死誰生的問題上犯錯。有個91歲的波蘭婦女在被宣佈死亡11個小時後，竟在太平間醒來，這可把一些入殮者嚇得要死。有個入殮師發現裝屍袋有動靜，就在此時，袋子打開，那個可憐的婦女不但還活着，而且還相當健康。2014年，肯尼亞也有類似的情況發生。一名年輕男子攝入殺蟲劑後被宣佈身亡。儘管醫生們已竭盡全力搶救他，但最終還是認定男子已經死亡。但就在被送去太平間的15個小時後，他醒了過來，嚇壞了在一旁的工作人員。當然，有些錯誤是因爲人爲失誤。畢竟美國的驗屍官不一定要有醫學學位，而且一些特殊狀況和藥物會造成令人信服的假死現象。誤把活人當死人這一現象在當代社會已極爲罕見。正因爲它如此罕見，因此一旦出現，它將成爲全世界的頭條新聞。無論是一位民選官員還是一位訓練有素的藥劑師，當他們犯下這種錯誤時，都會激起一場有關死亡過程的複雜性和如何斷定真正死亡的討論。

Brain Cannot Function When the Heart Stops Beating

9.心臟不跳動，大腦便停止運轉

Dying is not an instantaneous process. Although it was thought to be a simple process in which a person stops breathing oxygen and supporting brain function, it is much more complex than this. Dying does not just happen. It is something that happens over an entire lifetime. The final process itself is something that happens over several hours and some doctors believe that it is reversible.

死亡不是一個瞬時過程。儘管人們把它看做一個簡單的過程，即人停止吸氧供大腦運轉，而實際上，它比這過程還複雜得多。死亡不是一下子就發生的。它貫穿於生命體的一生。其最後進程發生在幾小時內，而且醫生們相信那是可逆的。

Scientists know very little about what happens when a person dies. This is partly because it is such a complex question and partly because few researchers actually participate in discussions surrounding the subject. Many of the hard sciences like chemistry have supported the idea that there is only one objective in reality and anything that is subjective is not considered to be a fact. As a result, scientists veer away from the subject of life after death, despite its existential value. What science does know is that the brain needs oxygen to function; it relies on the heart and the cardiovascular system to take in oxygen, filter it and pass it to the brain. Once the heart stops beating, the brain dies very quickly. In fact, it takes only 20 to 30 seconds for the brain to stop all function after the heart has stops beating. It only begins function again if the heart can be restarted.

科學家們對人死時所發生的一切知之甚少。其中部分原因是死亡本身就是一個複雜的問題，還有部分原因是很少有研究者參與到該課題的討論中。很多硬科學如化學已經證實，客觀實際只有一個，任何主觀事物均不被當作事實。因此，儘管人類的死後世界這一課題本身存在着價值，但科學家們還是遠離這個課題。科學家們所知道的是，大腦需要氧氣來維持正常的運轉，它依靠心臟和心血管系統來吸收氧氣，過濾後輸送給大腦。心臟一旦停止跳動，大腦很快就會死亡。實際上，心臟停止跳動後，大腦只需20到30秒的時間就會停止所有功能。只有心臟再次跳動，大腦才能再次運轉。

People Have Awareness Even After They Are Clinically Dead

8.有些人即使臨牀上證實死亡但他依然有意識

A recent study in resuscitation medicine surveyed 360 people who were able to be revived after suffering from cardiac arrest. These 360 people were found out of a group 2,000 patients from hospitals in America, Britain and Austria.

最近一個關於復甦醫學的研究調查了360個在心搏停止後又甦醒過來的患者。這360人從美國、英國和奧地利的醫院中的2000名患者中挑選出來。

Out of these 360 people, only around 100 were well enough to be interviewed. Out of this group, around 40 percent said that they had a kind of "awareness" even though their heart had stopped beating and their brains had stopped functioning. Of course, some scientists chalk this up to post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychiatric issues. However, one case in particular stood out among the crowd. One of these 360 people could describe the exact events that followed his death. He told the researchers that while he was clinically dead, he kept hearing the beeping of a machine. The beeps went every three minutes and he heard two beeps from the machine. The exact detail with which he could describe the events that followed his death lead doctors to believe that his brain did not fully shut down, even though his heart stopped for several minutes. Dr. Sam Parnia of the State University of New York at Stony Brook was the lead author of the study that published this miraculous case. Dr. Parnia suggested that man's experience was paradoxical, but that it opened up new possibilities in medicine. He believes that it is possible that more people continue to have awareness after death. He believes that the majority of patients lose memory of consciousness as a result of the trauma or of the sedatives involved in reviving them.

這360人中僅有100人左右恢復到可以接受採訪的程度。接受採訪的人中，有40％的人，說盡管他們的心臟已經停跳且大腦已經失去功能，但他們仍然有一些意識。當然有些科學家將其歸因於創傷後精神失調或是其他心理因素。然而，有一個特別的例子很引人注目。360名患者中有一人可以確切地說出在他"死後"發生的事情。他告訴研究者，當他被診斷爲醫學死亡後，他還能聽到一個機器發出的"嗶嗶"聲。"嗶嗶"聲每隔3分鐘響一次，他聽到了2次。他可以描述出死後所發生事件的確切細節，因此醫生們認爲，在他的心臟停跳數分鐘後，他的大腦仍沒有死亡。紐約州立大學石溪分校的山姆·帕尼爾博士(Dr. Sam Parnia) 是這項堪稱奇蹟的研究的主要負責人。帕尼爾博士說，人的經驗相互矛盾，但這爲醫藥領域展開了新的可能性。他相信，其實有更多人在死亡之後依然有意識。他認爲大部分患者由於精神創傷或者在復甦過程中使用了鎮靜劑，因此忘記了他們在死亡後仍然有知覺。

le May Have Different Levels of Consciousness After They Die

7.人們在死亡後可能依然存在不同程度的知覺

In the same study, Dr. Parnia noted that out of the 360 patients in the study, many of these patients recalled dramatically different experiences of their time after death. Out of all of the patients interviewed, 39 percent said that they had distinct feelings of consciousness but that they were unable to describe anything that happened to them or around them during the period when they were clinically dead.

在同一個試驗中，帕尼爾博士提到，在參與試驗的360名患者中，很多人所回憶的死後經歷迥然不同。接受採訪的患者中，39％的人說他們在醫學死亡後仍有清晰的意識，但是卻不能描述在這個過程中他們身上及周圍發生的一切。

About 46 percent of all of the patients interviewed said that they had some recollection of their near death experience; however, these memories do not fit in with the general knowledge about near-death experiences. Only 9 percent of the patients interviewed actually experienced the bright lights that are most commonly associated with a near death experience. Many of the people with memories remembered feeling scared and persecuted while they were dead. But people's experiences varied widely. Some people felt joyful while others described being enveloped a bright light. Some believed they had encountered a kind of mystical or mythical being. Only 13 percent of the people with these recollections felt as though they had been separated from their body. The variety of experiences that patients in this study reported suggests that if there is life after death, or in this case, brain function after death, then this experience is vastly different for everyone. There have been several reports in the media over the years of people who have come back from the edge at the last moment and claimed to have their lives flash before them. Some claim that they were taken in by a warm, brilliant light. While many of these reports are written off as hallucinations at best and outright lies at the worst, this new study provides some scientific merit to the experiences humans have encountered for years.

有大約46％的受訪者說他們對瀕死時發生的事有一些印象，然而這些記憶卻與我們所知道的關於瀕死體驗的常識不符。只有9％的受訪者真正體驗到了通常與瀕死聯繫在一起的亮光。大部分患者記得自己在"死後"感受到恐懼和糾結。但是人們的體驗完全不同。有些人覺得十分快樂，有的人說他們被一道光亮籠罩，有些人堅信他們遇到了神話裏的情形或是神話中的生物。只有13％的人覺得他們的靈魂和肉體好像分開了。在這次試驗中，不同病人的不同反饋表明，如果死後依然有生命，或者在這個試驗中，我們可以說死後大腦依然能夠運行，那麼這種經歷在不同的人身上則完全不同。近幾年來，媒體報道了不少從垂死邊緣被搶救回來的病人，這些病人都稱自己的人生像幻燈片一樣在自己眼前一一呈現。有些人說他們被一道溫暖明亮的光線吸入。這些報道頂多被輕率地當作是幻覺，最壞的情況下人們會簡單地認爲這是謊言。但這項研究爲人們已經經歷多年的現象提供了科學視角。

ciousness Cannot Be Proven by Science

6.意識不能被科學證明

Unfortunately, even after at least 2,000 years of trying to understand human consciousness, no one seems to have any real answers. The topic was first documented as being considered by the Greeks and thinkers around the world have been infatuated with the subject for years. Consciousness cannot be proven. People can't even think about their own consciousness. The main problem, so far, with the perception of consciousness is that people cannot even think of the questions to find the answers to. Philosophers, psychoanalysts, doctors and learned people from all walks of life have made thousands of attempts to discover what it means to be conscious and how a person is conscious. Almost all people assume that we are conscious, but no one can prove it. As a result, proving or disproving the reports given by the patients in Dr. Parnia's study is impossible. Are they making them up? Are they merely tricks the brain plays to cover up the trauma? It remains impossible to tell. As for the man who accurately described the scene after his death, that alone can finally justify further investigations into the problems of life and death.

在至少2000年的人類意識探索中，不幸的是，沒有人能找到這個問題的確切答案。這個話題首次被希臘人記錄，世界各地的思想家多年致力於研究這一問題。意識不能被證明。人們甚至不能思考自己的意識。到目前爲止，隨着對意識的認知，最主要的問題是，人們甚至不能通過思考這個問題來找尋答案。哲學家、心理分析學家、醫生和各行各業的博學之士盡其努力發掘意識的本質，瞭解人類怎樣擁有意識。幾乎所有人都認爲我們是有意識的，但是無人能證實這一點。因此，不可能論證或反證帕爾尼博士的研究報告。這是他們編造的嗎？還是大腦爲掩蓋創傷所玩的把戲？我們無從分辨。至於那些能夠準確描述死後場景的人，也僅僅證明了生死問題還有待進一步研究。

審校：趙倩 來源：前十網