Inside life after death - scientist explains what actually happens when you die

A world-renowned doctor has revealed what actually happens when you die — and it is not as scary as you might fear. Dr. Sam Parnia, director of critical care and resuscitation research at NYU Langone School of Medicine in New York City, says the process is “peaceful” and “pleasant.”

Calling the process of dying “very comfortable” the doctor says people who have experienced near-death experiences sometimes describe encounters with deceased family but insists the sensation is not evidence of the afterlife. For centuries, death has been seen as a final, inescapable moment when the heart stops and the brain ceases to function, but what we actually feel is unknown.

The doctor who has helped save countless patients described to Oz Talk what happens to our brain when we are about to die and shed a light on what happens to us.

He said: “Death is a process, it is not a black and white moment.

“The final result is we have a deduction of oxygen that gets inside the brain when we are about to die and that causes our brain circuits to shut down and we become unconscious to the outside world.

“When the heart stops, all life processes go out because there is no blood getting to the brain, to the kidneys, and liver and we become lifeless and motionless and that is the time that doctors use to give us a time of death."

The doctor added that the process is not to be feared and is infact "peaceful".

He said: “When we die, that experience is not unpleasant for the vast majority of people.

“For those of us who die naturally, even if we were in pain before we die, the process of death becomes very comfortable, it is very blissful, peaceful.

“People describe a sensation of a bright, warm, welcoming light that draws people towards it.

“They describe a sensation of experiencing their deceased relatives, almost as if they have come to welcome them. They often say that they didn’t want to come back (to life) in many cases, it is so comfortable and it is like a magnet that draws them that they don’t want to come back."