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Mar 11 12 tweets 10 min read Read on X
This woman found something in 'Dying Human Brain' that makes no sense. Her breakthrough research reveals that a dying brain generates 'Gamma Waves,' suggesting it may remain active in a meaningful way even during death.

For several years, Neuroscientist Jimo Borjigin had been surprised to realize how little we know about what happens to the brain when we die, even though dying is a natural part of life.

About ten years ago, she accidentally discovered this while conducting experiments on rats. She and her team were monitoring brain chemicals after surgery when two rats unexpectedly died, allowing her to observe the brain's activity during death.

She wondered if one of the rats had hallucinations because its brain released a large amount of serotonin—a chemical linked to mood and hallucinations. This made her curious, so she started researching the topic, only to find that very little was known about how the brain behaves when dying.

Since then, as a professor at the University of Michigan, she has dedicated herself to studying this process. What she discovered challenged common beliefs.Image
For a long time, doctors have declared people "clinically dead" when their heart stops beating. The focus has always been on the heart, not the brain. Since the brain needs oxygen to function, it was assumed that when the heart stops pumping blood, the brain simply shuts down.

However, Dr. Borjigin's research showed something different.

In a 2013 study, her team found that after a rat’s heart stopped, brain chemicals spiked dramatically:

-Serotonin increased 60 times;
-Dopamine (the "feel-good" chemical) rose 40–60 times;
-Norepinephrine (which makes a person alert) increased 100 times.

These levels were much higher than when the animal was alive.

In 2015, they studied more dying rats and found that in every case, the brain became highly active instead of shutting down.Image
Dr. Borjigin described her study as the first to examine what happens to the neurophysiological state of the dying brain.

“It will form the foundation for future human studies investigating mental experiences occurring in the dying brain, including seeing light during cardiac arrest,” she said.

In 2022, scientists in the U.S. studied what happens in the brain after death. They used a machine called an EEG to monitor the brain activity of an 87-year-old man who had epilepsy. When he died from a heart attack, they continued recording his brain waves for 15 minutes.

[frontiersin.org/journals/aging…]

They noticed a rise in gamma waves, which are brain signals linked to memory, emotions, and perception. This suggests that the brain may still be active for a short time after death.

The researchers said this was the first time brain activity during the moment of death had been continuously recorded. They found that some brain signals decreased, while gamma waves became stronger after the brain’s overall activity slowed down.
Patient One

Dr. Jimo Borjigin found a 24-year-old dying pregnant woman’s brain revealed a breakthrough discovery in consciousness. After she was taken off oxygen, her brain became very active. Parts of her brain that had been quiet while she was on life support suddenly started to buzz with strong electrical signals known as ‘Gamma waves’.

Patient One was 24 years old and pregnant with her third child when she was taken off life support in 2014. She became one of the most intriguing scientific subjects in recent history. At the time Borjigin began her research into Patient One, the scientific understanding of death had reached an impasse.

Dr. Borjigin, together with several colleagues, took the first close look at the record of electrical activity in the brain of Patient One after she was taken off life support. What they discovered – in results reported for the first time last year – was almost entirely unexpected, and has the potential to rewrite our understanding of death.

“I believe what we found is only the tip of a vast iceberg,” said Dr. Borjigin.

theguardian.com/society/2024/a…Image
A few years earlier, doctors found out Patient One had a heart condition that made her heartbeat irregular.

During her first two pregnancies, she had seizures and fainted. Four weeks into her third pregnancy, she collapsed at home. Her mother called 911, but by the time the ambulance arrived, she had been unconscious for more than 10 minutes, and her heart had stopped.

She was first taken to a hospital that couldn’t help her, so she was transferred to the University of Michigan. There, doctors had to use a defibrillator three times to restart her heart. They put her on a ventilator and a pacemaker and moved her to intensive care to check her brain activity. She didn’t react to anything, and her brain was very swollen. After three days in a coma, her family decided to remove life support.

The passage then suggests that dying might be a more mysterious process than scientists previously thought. Some people believe strange things happen after death, but new research hints that these unusual experiences may actually occur while someone is still dying. This is what researcher Dr. Borjigin discovered when studying Patient One’s case.
When Patient One was taken off oxygen, her brain suddenly became very active. Parts of her brain that were quiet before started showing strong signals called gamma waves, especially in areas linked to consciousness. Some signals lasted over six minutes, and in some areas, the activity was 11 to 12 times stronger than before.

Dr. Borjigin explained that as she was dying, her brain went into overdrive. For about two minutes, her brain waves became highly synchronized, a state linked to focus and memory. This pattern slowed briefly, then became active again for over four minutes, paused for a minute, and then surged a third time.

During this time, different parts of her brain started communicating with each other, especially right after oxygen was cut off. The strongest communication lasted almost four minutes, with another burst happening more than five minutes after life support was removed.

The areas responsible for awareness and memory were active, as well as the parts linked to empathy. Even as she neared death, her brain still showed signs of activity, almost as if it was holding on to something like life.

Scientists had seen brain waves in dying patients before, but nothing as detailed or complex as what happened with Patient One.Image
When Patient One was dying, certain parts of her brain were still active and connected, which suggests she might have had a strong near-death experience. This could mean she felt like she was outside her body, saw bright lights, felt peaceful or happy, and reflected on her life.

However, since she didn’t survive, no one can say for sure if these brain signals actually created real experiences. Some experts argue that her brain activity doesn’t explain near-death experiences because her heart didn’t completely stop. But this idea isn’t proven, since near-death experiences might still happen even if the heart is still beating a little.

Another patient, a 77-year-old woman called Patient Three, also showed brain activity while dying. This challenges the belief that the brain stops working almost immediately after death. In fact, the brain might become very active when the heart stops. As researcher Borjigin put it, dying might be more "alive" than we ever thought.
Dr. Borjigin believes that understanding the dying brain is one of the “holy grails” of neuroscience. “The brain is so resilient, the heart is so resilient, that it takes years of abuse to kill them,” she pointed out. “Why then, without oxygen, can a perfectly healthy person die within 30 minutes, irreversibly?” Although most people would take that result for granted, Borjigin thinks that, on a physical level, it actually makes little sense.
This isn’t the first time they have evidence of brain activity during death, especially in the area that is associated with memory.

Scientists accidentally captured unique brain data from an elderly man who died suddenly during a routine test. Just before and after his heart stopped, his brain waves were similar to those seen during dreaming, remembering, and meditating. This suggests that people may really experience their life “flashing before their eyes” when they die.

Some people who have had near-death experiences have reported seeing their memories replayed. However, this is the first scientific evidence that this “flash” might actually happen. Since this is just one case, it’s hard to know how common it is or exactly what the experience feels like.

The discovery was made in 2016, when scientists were studying the brain activity of an 87-year-old man with epilepsy. While performing a brain test (EEG) to understand his seizures, the man suffered a heart attack and died. This unexpected death led to the first-ever recording of a dying brain.

[livescience.com/first-ever-sca…]The image below shows the first-ever scan of a dying human brain when an elderly patient suddenly died while he was being scanned.
In her study, published in 2023, Dr. Borjigin & her team studied four patients who were in a coma and on life support. When life support was removed, two of them showed a surge in brain activity as they passed away.

This brain activity wasn’t random. Their brains produced gamma waves, which are usually linked to consciousness. These signals appeared in key brain areas related to consciousness, suggesting that the brain might remain active in a meaningful way even during death.

[pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…]

The study does not suggest that people in a coma suddenly wake up just before they die. Instead, it shows that the brain becomes very active right before death, which might explain why some people report seeing visions or feeling like they are outside their bodies.

Dr. George Mashour, one of the researchers, says that it is a mystery how the brain can create such clear experiences while it is shutting down. This study helps us understand the brain activity that happens in the final moments of life.

[sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/…]Image
Scientists studied brain activity in four coma patients who had little chance of recovery after a heart attack. These patients were kept alive with ventilators, but in 2014, their families decided to let them pass away.

Before removing life support, doctors placed EEG cap on their heads to measure brain activity.

In two of the patients, their brains suddenly showed strong bursts of activity for up to two minutes. This activity happened in a specific part of the brain called the TPO junction, which helps process visual information. The signals also spread to other parts of the brain.

Scientists believe this area might play a key role in how the brain creates consciousness. Similar results have been seen in animal studies. The findings suggest that even during cardiac arrest, the human brain can still be active.
Dr. Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon who co-authored the 2022 study but wasn’t involved in 2023 study, said that if researchers continue to see the same brain activity in dying people, it could help pinpoint where consciousness comes from in the brain.

[scientificamerican.com/article/surges…]

Not everyone is convinced. Dr. Daniel Kondziella from the University of Copenhagen said the results aren’t surprising because brain activity can become chaotic in the moments after the heart stops.

One interesting finding is that the two patients who showed strong brain activity had a history of mild epilepsy, though they hadn’t had seizures in the 24 hours before the study. It’s possible that hidden seizures deep in the brain triggered the gamma waves, but the electrodes on their scalps may not have detected them.

Scientists also don’t know if these brain waves are linked to near-death experiences. However, the findings offer a new way to study hidden consciousness in dying people.Image

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More from @AlchemyAmerican

May 28
This Man found that the brain might actually block or filter out psi (psychic or extrasensory abilities). He and his team of researchers have uncovered evidence suggesting that the human mind may possess latent abilities to influence seemingly random events—abilities that are typically suppressed by the brain itself.

Dr. Morris Freedman, Head of Neurology at Baycrest and Professor of Neurology at the University of Toronto, along with Malcolm A. Binns, Jed A. Meltzer, Rohila Hashimi, and Robert Chen, authored a research paper titled "Enhanced Mind-Matter Interactions Following rTMS-Induced Frontal Lobe Inhibition" in 2023.

[sciencedirect.com/science/articl…]

In this study, they tested healthy people by using a technique called rTMS, which temporarily weakens or shuts down a small area of the brain. When they used rTMS on the left middle frontal area, they saw a noticeable increase in psi-related effects, just like they had predicted. They analyzed the results in a way that matched their main theory and found clear evidence to support it.

Their earlier research on people with brain damage in the frontal lobe showed that a specific part of the brain: the left middle frontal area, might be involved in this blocking.

This suggests that the brain may normally stop psi from happening, and when that blocking area is weakened, either by injury or temporarily through rTMS, psi effects become easier to detect.Image
One big reason people don’t accept psychic abilities is because the effects are usually very small and hard to repeat in experiments.

Psi is a group of mysterious mental abilities like telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis. While some researchers have found evidence supporting these abilities, others argue that the effects are too small or too hard to prove in scientific tests.

There are also no solid scientific theories explaining how psi might work. Still, if these abilities are real, they could be very important, so scientists believe more well-designed studies are needed to understand them better.

One theory suggests that the human brain may actually block these psi abilities. If psi were real and useful, evolution should have made them stronger over time.

But since that hasn’t happened, it’s possible that the brain evolved to suppress them. This may have helped people survive by stopping distractions from overwhelming psychic information like random thoughts or future visions.

The idea goes back to the philosopher Henri Bergson, who suggested over 100 years ago that nervous system may have evolved to inhibit psi as a protective mechanism to screen individuals from stimuli that are of no interest or benefit to them.

Based on this idea, the researchers created a model suggesting that the frontal lobes of the brain, especially a part called the left medial middle frontal area, may act as a filter to block psi abilities.

They found support for this in two patients with brain damage in that exact area. Both patients showed unusual ability to mentally affect a computer-generated arrow on a screen—something called micro-psychokinesis, or micro-PK—which means influencing small random events with the mind.Image
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May 17
This is Ingo Swann. He worked with the CIA. He claimed he could see Jupiter while sitting millions of miles away in a room. In 1973, he saw rings around Jupiter — a detail later confirmed in 1979 by the Voyager space probe, which discovered the Jovian ring system.

Ingo Swann was an American artist who had special psychic abilities, which means he could do things like extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis or moving objects with his mind.

Because of his abilities, he took part in experiments in 1970s that showed these powers might be real. He played an important role in the study of remote viewing.

He was involved in remote viewing experiments established by the U.S. Army and the CIA in collaboration with the Stanford Research Institute.

This clandestine initiative — code-named Project Stargate — later became the basis for the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney and Jeff Bridges.

[cia.gov/readingroom/se…]Image
In July 1971, Ingo Swann took part in an experiment during a party where people were trying to photograph signs of psychic powers in a dark room.

In Swann's photo, a ball of light appeared above his head. This event, along with other experiences, helped him realize that he had psychic abilities, which he had first noticed when he was a child.

This led him to become involved in the study of psychic phenomena.

One researcher, Gertrude Schmeidler, tested him at the American Society for Psychical Research. Swann was able to change the temperature of graphite samples without touching them. The setup was carefully controlled to avoid outside influence.

For example, the temperature sensor was kept in a thermos 25 feet away. Instructions were given in a strict, pre-planned order, alternating between trying to make things hotter or colder.

Results showed that Swann could change the temperature near the target and also cause the opposite effect in a faraway area. These changes weren’t based on physical factors like distance, but rather on mental or psychological ones.Image
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Apr 29
This woman researched alien abductions and found that aliens manipulate perception, control consciousness, cause unexplained illnesses and mental decline, and engage in gruesome activities in underground facilities.

Her work showed that alien encounters could cause serious physical, emotional, and spiritual harm, making people question what aliens really want.

Dr. Turner was a brave activist for human rights and an investigator of alien abductions. She had a background in Old English studies and used to teach at a college. She wrote three books about alien abductions: Into the Fringe (1992), Taken (1994), and Masquerade of Angels (1994), which she co-wrote with a psychic named Ted Rice. Through her work, she asked important questions about whether aliens were truly friendly.

She started studying alien abductions in 1988. In her books Into the Fringe and Taken, she shared her own experiences and those of others who had been abducted, showing how frightening these events were.

In Masquerade of Angels, she wrote about Ted Rice’s experiences. At first, Rice thought the aliens were good, but he later realized they were dangerous. One disturbing story he told was about seeing his dead grandfather turn into a reptile-like creature who behaved in a threatening way. This event was followed by the sudden death of Rice’s grandmother.

Sadly, Dr. Turner died from breast cancer in 1996. After her death, more of her work was published, including stories about her own family’s encounters with aliens. She also believed that people who were abducted were targeted on purpose, not randomly chosen. Dr. Turner thought the military was secretly involved, targeting people who reported alien experiences.

So let's dive into Dr Karla Turner's research...Image
In her 1995 lecture at the MUFON Convention, Dr. Karla Turner introduced herself as an abductee, using that term because she had been taken and controlled by non-human entities.

She explained that this was a form of alien abduction, something that she and her family had experienced, and she had documented these events in her book Into the Fringe, published in 1992.

Her book focuses on the period between 1987 and 1990, when she and her family became consciously aware of their alien encounters, which had been happening since childhood.

In her view, the nature of alien activity is deliberately designed to prevent humans from collecting solid proof.

According to Dr. Turner, this makes it difficult to feel confident about many of the "facts" in the field. She explained that, based on everything she had learned, there were very few things she felt comfortable calling facts, and that list was very short. Instead of presenting case reports, photos, body markings, or drawings of aliens and spacecraft, as she had done in the past, she chose to take a different approach in this lecture.

youtu.be/4Cbxhk2lhdc?t=…Image
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Apr 15
This Man's model for Consciousness used by the CIA believed that consciousness and physical reality are deeply connected through vibration. His main idea was that everything in the universe—from atoms to humans to the entire cosmos—is vibrating, and these vibrations are what create and shape reality.

Dr Itzhak Bentov was born in Czechoslovakia during World War II. He lost his parents and siblings in a Nazi concentration camp. After escaping to Israel, he joined the army’s scientific division and helped invent their first rocket—despite not having formal science training. Later, he moved to the U.S. and invented a steerable medical catheter. He was considered a brilliant mind.

His idea of consciousness starts with the smallest particles: atoms. He believed everything in the universe is vibrating or resonating. From atoms to molecules to human beings, everything vibrates. Even things like sound waves, light waves, and gravity waves all follow patterns of harmony (called coherence) and disharmony (decoherence). Reality, according to Bentov, is made up of these vibrations.

He believed that for a tiny moment, when vibrations cancel out to zero (a node), our reality "switches" into a different, higher-frequency state. Most of the time, we experience normal reality, but in those tiny moments, we may be connected to a deeper, more refined level of existence.Image
Itzhak Bentov’s work played a crucial role in shaping the theoretical foundation of the CIA’s Gateway Process. Bentov, known not only for his inventions like a remote-controlled cardiac catheter and diet spaghetti, also wrote extensively about human consciousness.

His biomedical and metaphysical models were central to Lt. Col. Wayne M. McDonnell’s 1983 report for the U.S. Army, which explored methods for transcending spacetime using the mind.

McDonnell’s report pulled ideas from various sources, but Bentov’s theories provided the scientific scaffolding that helped explain how altered states of consciousness—induced through techniques like meditation, biofeedback, hypnosis, and Kundalini yoga—could lead to powerful transformations in perception.

Specifically, Bentov’s ideas helped support the notion that the human body and mind can be tuned like instruments, with vibrational coherence playing a key role in achieving states of deep awareness or even out-of-body experiences. His influence helped lend credibility and structure to the more abstract or esoteric elements of the Gateway Process.

[en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki…]Image
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Apr 3
This billionaire is convinced that non-human intelligent life exists among us and that such entities may exist in other dimensions. He claims that G-LOC makes our consciousness leave the body, allowing us to see beyond the room while being outside the body.

Robert Bigelow has long been fascinated by supernatural phenomena and has invested millions in researching the mystery behind consciousness, UAPs, and extraterrestrials.

He is well-known in the space industry. His company makes special inflatable space modules. Some of these modules have been tested on the International Space Station.

He believes that aliens are already here on Earth. In an interview with CBS in 2017, he said he was “absolutely convinced” of their presence.

He explained that there has always been an extraterrestrial (ET) presence among humans. He also said he had spent millions of dollars researching this topic. According to him, people don’t need to travel far to find aliens because they are already here. However, when asked for details about his own experiences, he refused to share them.Image
Bigelow had already been funding various individual UFO researchers, but in 1995, he decided to set up his own research organization, the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS). He invited several luminaries of UFO research to participate, including Hal Puthoff, Jacques Vallée, and John Mack. Not simply a UFO organization, NIDS also probed the question of whether there is life after death. Its hotline (and later website) would take your reports of mysterious black flying triangles, but it also solicited reports of cattle mutilations and visits from "entities"—essentially ghosts.

In 1996, NIDS started investigating Skinwalker Ranch. This was a cattle ranch owned by the Sherman family, who had reported strange events like UFO sightings, animals being mysteriously harmed, and visits from unknown beings. Bigelow found these stories interesting, so he bought the ranch and set up a team of researchers to study it.

For the first year, nothing unusual happened. However, later reports suggested that something strange did occur, which caught the attention of a U.S. senator named Harry Reid.

Senator Reid had been interested in UFOs for a long time. A journalist told him about NIDS, and since Reid already knew Bigelow, he got involved. Reid even attended a NIDS meeting where experts discussed UFOs and other unexplained events. He became very interested in the topic.

Over the years, Reid continued to follow UFO research, even though his staff thought it might make him look bad. In 2007, Bigelow introduced Reid to James Lacatski, a scientist working for the U.S. government. Lacatski had read a book called Hunt for the Skinwalker, which described strange things happening at the ranch, like UFOs, ghostly lights, and mysterious creatures. He was so fascinated that he shared the book with others in the government.

Lacatski visited Skinwalker Ranch himself. During one visit, he claimed to have seen something floating in the kitchen—an object that looked like the cover of a music album called Tubular Bells. After this experience, he became convinced that the strange events at the ranch needed further investigation.
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Mar 28
This man spent his life searching for the truth behind reincarnation and found compelling evidence suggesting that souls are reborn after death. His research indicates that genetics, environment, and parental nurturing may not solely account for a child's development and behavior. He believed that certain personality traits of deceased individuals might influence children in ways that couldn't be easily explained.

Dr. Ian Stevenson was a Canadian-born American psychiatrist who became interested in studying cases where children seemed to remember past lives. He was very successful in his career and became the head of the psychiatry department at the University of Virginia in 1957. However, his interest in paranormal topics grew stronger over time.

In 1968, a wealthy inventor named Chester Carlson, who created the Xerox copying process, died suddenly. He left a million dollars to the University of Virginia to fund Stevenson’s research into the paranormal. With this money, Stevenson was able to focus completely on studying children who claimed to remember past lives.

Over the next 40 years, Stevenson’s research convinced some skeptics and made his supporters compare him to famous scientists like Charles Darwin and Galileo.Image
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Dr. Stevenson became well known for carefully studying children who claimed to remember past lives. One case involved a young girl in Sri Lanka who suddenly started talking about a past life after hearing her mother mention a town called Kataragama—a place she had never been.

The girl told her mother that she had drowned in Kataragama when her mentally challenged brother pushed her into a river. She also described details about her past family, including a bald father named "Herath" who sold flowers near a Buddhist temple, a house with a skylight, and dogs in the backyard that were tied up and fed meat. She even mentioned that the house was next to a Hindu temple where people broke coconuts on the ground.
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