A Timeline of the Physiological Processes
It is difficult to generalize how people will respond to the subject of death because each of us is unique, but we generally feel uncomfortable at the thought of our own mortality. What often underlies this uneasiness, however, is thinking about the process of dying and the fear of a prolonged or painful death, rather than the state of being dead.
“Death is a cosmic joke. If you get the joke, when you fall on the other side, it will be wonderful. If you don’t get the joke, when you are here you fear the other side, and when the other side comes, you just don’t know what it is about. If death becomes a laughing matter in your life, life becomes an utterly effortless process – there is no need to restrain yourself in the process of life; you can live your life absolutely, totally.”
For ages, most of humanity has placed ‘life’ and ‘death’ at two ends of the existential spectrum – favoring one, fearing the other and continuously floundering between the two. Only when someone who has consciously traversed between both life and death offers to articulate some aspects of it, does humanity get a glimpse of what lies beyond the horizon of its normal perception.
Human being's life and death are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. It is only by embracing both that we can break the shackles of our self-made struggles and be set free.
Let us look at the various stages of death, and explores the significance of the various death rituals in the Indian way of life.
Questioner: I wanted to know, what is the importance of doing shraddh (rituals for the deceased)? Answer: In India, if someone close to you dies, you are supposed to sit and watch – no one leaves a dead body alone. If you keep the body for over two to three days, the hair will grow. If it was a man and he used to shave, you can see this from the facial hair. The nails will also grow. Therefore, in countries where they preserve the dead bodies for a longer time, the undertakers clip the nails and shave the beard. This is so because of the way life manifests. For the sake of understanding – there is fundamental life and physical life. Physical life energy, which is generally referred to as prana, has five basic manifestations. These are called samana, prana, udhana, apana, and vyana.
Somewhere between 48 to 64 minutes after someone is considered as dead, prana exits. Between six and twelve hours after, udhana exits. There are tantric processes through which we could revive the body before udhana exits. Once udhana has exited, it is practically impossible to revive the body. Then, somewhere between eight to eighteen hours, apana exits. Subsequently, vyana, which is the preservative nature of prana, will start exiting and may continue to do so for up to 11 to 14 days if it is a normal death – that is if someone died of old age, because life became feeble. For that period of time, certain processes will continue in the body; there will still be some element of life. If someone died in an accident, when the life within was still vibrant – unless the body is totally crushed – the reverberations of this life will continue somewhere between 48 and 90 days.
During that time, there are things you can do for that life. Your experience of death is that someone is gone, but the experience of that being is that he or she has exited the body. Once they have exited the body, you have no business with them anymore. You cannot recognize them anymore, and if they came back, you would be terrified. If people you love died and would pop up again, there would be terror – not love, because your relationship is with their body or with their conscious mind and emotion. Once someone dies, those two aspects are left behind.
The mind is just a bunch of information that has natural tendencies which find expression in a certain way. When someone dies, there is no more discernment, no more intellect. If you put one drop of pleasantness into their mind, this pleasantness will multiply a million fold. If you put one drop of unpleasantness, that unpleasantness will multiply a million fold. It is a little like with children – they go out to play until they are exhausted and cannot go on anymore, because they do not have the necessary discernment as to when it is time to stop.
After death, discernment is completely absent, even more than in a child. Then, whatever quality you put into the mind, it will multiply a million fold. This is what is being referred to as heaven and hell. If you go into a pleasant state of existence, it is called heaven. If you go into an unpleasant state of existence, it is called hell. These are not geographical locations - these are experiential realities that a life which has become disembodied is going through.
The reason why traditionally, we always said that if someone dies, you must burn the body within an hour-and-a-half or a maximum of four hours is because life tries to get back. This is also important for the living. If someone very dear to you died, your mind may start playing tricks, thinking that maybe a miracle will happen, maybe God will come and bring them back. It has never happened to anyone, but still the mind plays up because of the emotions that you have for that particular person. Similarly, the life that has exited the body also believes that it can still get back into the body.
If you want to stop the drama, the first thing is to set fire to the body within one-and-a-half hours. Or to be sure the person is dead, they have stretched it to four hours. But the body should be taken away as quickly as possible. In agriculture communities, they used to bury, because they wanted their forefathers’ bodies, which are a piece of soil, to go back to the soil that had nourished them. Today, you buy your food from the store, and do not know where it comes from. Therefore, burial is not advisable anymore. In earlier times, when they buried in their own land, they always put salt and turmeric on the dead body so that it quickly dissipates into the soil. Cremation is good because it closes the chapter. You will see that when there is a death in the family, people will be crying and wailing, but the moment cremation happens, they will become quiet, because suddenly, the truth has sunk in that it is over. This does not only go for the living but also for the disembodied being who has just exited the body. As long as the body is there, he or she is also under the illusion that he can get back.
Christians believe that after dying, spirits are sent to heaven or hell depending on their Earthly behaviour.
Depending on which strand of the religion you ask, sinners are sent to hell either for eternity or until they have repented their actions. Those who have lived their lives according to Christian principles will be sent to heaven.
Catholics believe in the idea of purgatory, a place between heaven and hell where sinners first go to repent for their wrong-doings.
WILL WE EVER BE ABLE TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE?
Many religions believe in the idea of an afterlife.
It is difficult to generalize how people will respond to the subject of death because each of us is unique, but we generally feel uncomfortable at the thought of our own mortality. What often underlies this uneasiness, however, is thinking about the process of dying and the fear of a prolonged or painful death, rather than the state of being dead.
Ironically, despite spending a lifetime walking around in the same body and doing our best to care for it, few seem to wonder what happens to their physical remains right after death occurs. Here is a timeline of the processes involved, assuming the deceased remains undisturbed, including the transition from primary flaccidity to secondary flaccidity.
At the Moment of Death
At the Moment of Death
We often think of the moment of death as that time at which the heartbeat and breathing stop. We are learning, however, that death isn't instant. Our brains are now thought to continue to "work" for 10 minutes or so after we die, meaning that our brains may, in some way, be aware of our death. The research, however, is only very preliminary.
In the hospital setting, there are a few requirements doctors use to define death. These include the absence of a pulse, the absence of breathing, the absence of reflexes, and the absence of pupillary constriction in response to a bright light. In an emergency setting, paramedics look for the 5 signs of irreversible death to determine when resuscitation not possible.
The definition of brain death includes the absence of brainstem reflexes, the inability to breathe without a ventilator, and neurologic unresponsiveness. The diagnosis is used to declare a legal death, such as before an organ donation.
After death is confirmed, the timeline of physical processes is as follows:
At Hour 1
At the moment of death, all of the muscles in the body relax, a state called primary flaccidity. Eyelids lose their tension, the eyes' pupils dilate, the jaw might fall open, and the body's joints and limbs are flexible. With the loss of tension in the muscles, the skin will sag, which can cause prominent joints and bones in the body, such as the jaw or hips, to become pronounced.
The human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times during the average human lifespan, circulating about 5.6 liters (6 quarts) of blood through the circulatory system.
Within minutes of the heart-stopping, a process called pallor mortis causes the usually pinkish tone of a Caucasian person to grow pale as blood drains from the smaller veins in the skin.
Within minutes of the heart-stopping, a process called pallor mortis causes the usually pinkish tone of a Caucasian person to grow pale as blood drains from the smaller veins in the skin.
At the same time, the body begins to cool from its normal temperature of 37° Celsius (98.6° Fahrenheit) until reaching the ambient temperature around it. Known as algor mortis or the "death chill," the decrease in body temperature follows a somewhat linear progression: two degrees Celsius in the first hour; one degree each hour thereafter.
At Hours 2 to 6
The expected decrease in body temperature during algor mortis can help forensic scientists approximate the time of death, assuming the body hasn't completely cooled or been exposed to extreme environmental temperatures.
As muscles relax, sphincter tone diminishes, and urine and feces will pass.
At Hours 2 to 6
Because the heart no longer pumps blood, gravity begins to pull it to the areas of the body closest to the ground (pooling), a process called livor mortis. If the body remains undisturbed long enough (several hours), the parts of the body nearest the ground can develop a reddish-purple discoloration (resembling a bruise) from the accumulating blood. Embalmers sometimes refer to this as the "postmortem stain."
Beginning approximately in the third hour after death, chemical changes within the body's cells cause all of the muscles to begin stiffening. Known as rigor mortis.
With rigor mortis, the first muscles affected will be the eyelids, jaw, and neck. Over the next several hours, rigor mortis will spread into the face and down through the chest, abdomen, arms, and legs until it finally reaches the fingers and toes.
Interestingly, the old custom of placing coins on the eyelids of the deceased might have originated from the desire to keep the eyes shut since rigor mortis affects them soonest. Also, it is not unusual for infants and young children who die to not display rigor mortis, possibly due to their smaller muscle mass.
At Hours 7 to 12
Maximum muscle stiffness throughout the body occurs after roughly 12 hours due to rigor mortis, although this will be affected by the decedent's age, physical condition, gender, the air temperature, and other factors.
At this point, the limbs of the deceased are difficult to move or manipulate. The knees and elbows will be slightly flexed, and fingers or toes can appear unusually crooked.
At Hour 12 and Beyond
After reaching a state of maximum rigor mortis, the muscles will begin to loosen due to continued chemical changes within the cells and internal tissue decay. The process, known as known as secondary flaccidity, occurs over a period of one to three days and is influenced by external conditions such as temperature. (Cold slows down the process.)
During secondary flaccidity, the skin will begin to shrink, creating the illusion that hair and nails are growing. Rigor mortis will then dissipate in the opposite direction—from the fingers and toes to the face—over a period of up to 48 hours.
Once secondary flaccidity is complete, all of the muscles of the body will again be relaxed.
Summary
Starting at the moment of death, physical changes begin to take place in the body. The classic "rigor mortis" or stiffening of the body (from which the term "stiffs" derives) begins around three hours after death and is maximal at around 12 hours after death. Beginning at around the 12-hour mark, the body again becomes more flaccid as it was at the time of death.
Some people do not want to think about the changes in the body after death, whereas others wish to know. Everyone is different, and it is a very personal decision. For those who wish to know, however, we are learning that the bodily changes leading up to death, and after death, aren't simply random decomposition. Our bodies are actually designed to shut down and die at some time in a programmed manner.
Life and Death
in one breath
For ages, most of humanity has placed ‘life’ and ‘death’ at two ends of the existential spectrum – favoring one, fearing the other and continuously floundering between the two. Only when someone who has consciously traversed between both life and death offers to articulate some aspects of it, does humanity get a glimpse of what lies beyond the horizon of its normal perception.
Human being's life and death are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. It is only by embracing both that we can break the shackles of our self-made struggles and be set free.
Let us look at the various stages of death, and explores the significance of the various death rituals in the Indian way of life.
Questioner: I wanted to know, what is the importance of doing shraddh (rituals for the deceased)? Answer: In India, if someone close to you dies, you are supposed to sit and watch – no one leaves a dead body alone. If you keep the body for over two to three days, the hair will grow. If it was a man and he used to shave, you can see this from the facial hair. The nails will also grow. Therefore, in countries where they preserve the dead bodies for a longer time, the undertakers clip the nails and shave the beard. This is so because of the way life manifests. For the sake of understanding – there is fundamental life and physical life. Physical life energy, which is generally referred to as prana, has five basic manifestations. These are called samana, prana, udhana, apana, and vyana.
The Stages of Death
Within 21 to 24 minutes from the moment when a doctor would declare a person as dead, samana starts exiting. Samana is in charge of maintaining the temperature in the body. The first thing that happens after death is, the body starts cooling down. The traditional way of checking whether someone is dead or alive is to feel the nose – they would not check the eyeballs and other parameters. If the nose has gone cold, they concluded that he is dead.Somewhere between 48 to 64 minutes after someone is considered as dead, prana exits. Between six and twelve hours after, udhana exits. There are tantric processes through which we could revive the body before udhana exits. Once udhana has exited, it is practically impossible to revive the body. Then, somewhere between eight to eighteen hours, apana exits. Subsequently, vyana, which is the preservative nature of prana, will start exiting and may continue to do so for up to 11 to 14 days if it is a normal death – that is if someone died of old age, because life became feeble. For that period of time, certain processes will continue in the body; there will still be some element of life. If someone died in an accident, when the life within was still vibrant – unless the body is totally crushed – the reverberations of this life will continue somewhere between 48 and 90 days.
After death, discernment is completely absent, even more than in a child. Then, whatever quality you put into the mind, it will multiply a million fold.
The mind is just a bunch of information that has natural tendencies which find expression in a certain way. When someone dies, there is no more discernment, no more intellect. If you put one drop of pleasantness into their mind, this pleasantness will multiply a million fold. If you put one drop of unpleasantness, that unpleasantness will multiply a million fold. It is a little like with children – they go out to play until they are exhausted and cannot go on anymore, because they do not have the necessary discernment as to when it is time to stop.
After death, discernment is completely absent, even more than in a child. Then, whatever quality you put into the mind, it will multiply a million fold. This is what is being referred to as heaven and hell. If you go into a pleasant state of existence, it is called heaven. If you go into an unpleasant state of existence, it is called hell. These are not geographical locations - these are experiential realities that a life which has become disembodied is going through.
Death Rituals
How well or how ridiculously it is done today is a different matter, but there is a whole science of what to do at different steps. One of the first things people traditionally do if someone dies is, they will tie the big toes of the dead body together. This is very important because it will tighten up the muladhara in such a way that the body cannot be invaded by that life once again. A life that has not lived with the awareness that “this body is not me” will try to enter through any orifice of the body, particularly through the muladhara. The muladhara is where life generates, and it is always the last point of warmth when the body is cooling down.The reason why traditionally, we always said that if someone dies, you must burn the body within an hour-and-a-half or a maximum of four hours is because life tries to get back. This is also important for the living. If someone very dear to you died, your mind may start playing tricks, thinking that maybe a miracle will happen, maybe God will come and bring them back. It has never happened to anyone, but still the mind plays up because of the emotions that you have for that particular person. Similarly, the life that has exited the body also believes that it can still get back into the body.
There are many rituals to see that you can somehow put a drop of sweetness into such a non-discerning mind.
If you want to stop the drama, the first thing is to set fire to the body within one-and-a-half hours. Or to be sure the person is dead, they have stretched it to four hours. But the body should be taken away as quickly as possible. In agriculture communities, they used to bury, because they wanted their forefathers’ bodies, which are a piece of soil, to go back to the soil that had nourished them. Today, you buy your food from the store, and do not know where it comes from. Therefore, burial is not advisable anymore. In earlier times, when they buried in their own land, they always put salt and turmeric on the dead body so that it quickly dissipates into the soil. Cremation is good because it closes the chapter. You will see that when there is a death in the family, people will be crying and wailing, but the moment cremation happens, they will become quiet, because suddenly, the truth has sunk in that it is over. This does not only go for the living but also for the disembodied being who has just exited the body. As long as the body is there, he or she is also under the illusion that he can get back.
Is there life after death? What do Christians, Muslims and other religions believe?
Without any scientific evidence of an afterlife, many religions offer their own explanation as to what happens after death.Christians believe that after dying, spirits are sent to heaven or hell depending on their Earthly behaviour.
Depending on which strand of the religion you ask, sinners are sent to hell either for eternity or until they have repented their actions. Those who have lived their lives according to Christian principles will be sent to heaven.
Catholics believe in the idea of purgatory, a place between heaven and hell where sinners first go to repent for their wrong-doings.
WILL WE EVER BE ABLE TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE?
The Islamic faith teaches that Allah will raise the dead on "The Last Day” – a date known only to him. On this day, he will judge all souls and send them to either paradise or hell.
Muslims believe that until then, the dead remain in their graves, where they will be sent visions of their fate.
According to Buddhists, spirits are reincarnated into new bodies until they achieve enlightenment. Upon doing so, they will exit the mortal coil and reach Nirvana – an "incomprehensible, indescribable, inconceivable and unutterable” place.
Muslims believe that until then, the dead remain in their graves, where they will be sent visions of their fate.
According to Buddhists, spirits are reincarnated into new bodies until they achieve enlightenment. Upon doing so, they will exit the mortal coil and reach Nirvana – an "incomprehensible, indescribable, inconceivable and unutterable” place.
Unlike most religions, the concept of an afterlife isn’t central to Judaism, instead it focuses on actions made in life.
There are some mentions of an afterlife in the religion, but not one divided into heaven and hell.
The Torah talks of an afterlife called Sheol – a shadowy place down in the centre of the Earth, where all souls go to without judgement.
There are some mentions of an afterlife in the religion, but not one divided into heaven and hell.
The Torah talks of an afterlife called Sheol – a shadowy place down in the centre of the Earth, where all souls go to without judgement.
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