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00:00An old idiom says that there are two inescapable truths in life, death and taxes.
00:06Death is an experience all humans will one day go through, but due to its nature, we
00:10don't know anything about what comes next.
00:12Regardless, our species has spent millennia pondering the topic, but are we coming any
00:17closer to truly knowing?
00:20This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question, will life after
00:24death ever be possible?
00:27Do you need the big questions answered?
00:29Are you constantly curious?
00:31Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?
00:34And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!
00:37The afterlife is one of humanity's oldest concepts.
00:40It is the idea that our consciousness continues to exist after death, independent of our physical
00:45bodies.
00:46Almost all human religions believe in an afterlife.
00:49In Abrahamic religions, this is characterized by the dead going to one of two places, paradise
00:54or hell.
00:55This is determined by God according to how they behaved during life.
00:59Alternatively, reincarnation is a popular belief, especially in Indian religions.
01:04Also, depending on how you acted, it says your soul is transferred to a new living being
01:09after death.
01:10This is a never-ending cycle of rebirth, where how you act in one life determines what you
01:14become in the next.
01:16While interesting, the religious angle for the afterlife is one that's been discussed
01:20extensively.
01:21So, let's instead consider what research is being done into life after death, and if
01:25there is any concrete scientific evidence indicative of an afterlife.
01:30Currently, a real, physical way for your life to continue after death is impossible.
01:35Nevertheless, there's been plenty of speculation, primarily in the realm of science fiction.
01:40For example, mind uploading is the suggestion that the whole brain can be copied into another
01:45vessel.
01:46Essentially, this is when you upload your biological self to a computer.
01:50There are three assumptions central to it, however.
01:52Firstly, the technology must be possible.
01:55Secondly, a simulated brain must be able to hold a real mind.
01:59Finally, the person in this simulated brain must indeed be the real, human you.
02:04Let's look at each of these, one by one.
02:07First, is the technology possible?
02:09It's likely our brains are one of the most complicated creations in all of nature.
02:15One human brain contains roughly one million billion neural connections.
02:20We can, though, create a comprehensive map of these, called a connectome.
02:24It's an extremely difficult task, but in 2023, researchers managed to successfully
02:29create one for the larva of a fruit fly.
02:31A human brain is significantly more complex, but this early research does at least indicate
02:36that it's not impossible to replicate a human's.
02:39It's just exceptionally difficult.
02:41On to the second assumption, that a simulated brain must be able to hold a real mind.
02:47Recent research suggests that a brain's neural arrangement is what creates our consciousness.
02:52This is by no means an unquestionable truth, but most modern mainstream science is tilting
02:56that way.
02:57So, since this is, in theory, independent of our physical bodies, a computer could indeed
03:02replicate a mind.
03:04From some perspectives, all it could ever be is a precise copy of a map from our brains
03:09to a hard drive.
03:10Finally, the third assumption, that the person in a simulated brain must indeed be the real
03:15human you.
03:16This, much more than the previous two, is an area of heavy philosophical debate.
03:21Without our physical selves, would a transplanted brain really be a continuation of the same
03:27person?
03:28Or would it just appear to be the same?
03:30There's no way to know for certain, not without uploading for real to test it out.
03:35And that is fraught with ethical issues.
03:37So, overall, we're still not certain if mind uploading will become a reality.
03:42In stories, it seems simple.
03:44In real life, not so much.
03:46Recreating one million billion neural connections is exceedingly complex.
03:50And even if we could, it's unclear if the result would ever truly behave like a genuine
03:55human brain does.
03:56To then imagine such a technology being applied to all humans alive?
04:00Well, we are clearly a long way away from that.
04:04Interestingly, though, there are some, usually wealthy, individuals who have been so confident
04:09that the technology will become reality that they've had their bodies cryogenically frozen.
04:15The well-worn idea being that they'll one day be awakened in the far future and then
04:19be given immortality.
04:21The somewhat frightening reality, however, is that we aren't actually certain that we
04:25have this kind of cryonic technology to begin with.
04:28Even in the cases when deceased bodies or brains have already been frozen forever.
04:33The first attempts towards this were made in the 1960s, and were almost all catastrophic
04:38failures.
04:39That is, except for one man.
04:41The American professor, Dr. James Bedford, who has seemingly been successfully frozen
04:46since his death in 1967.
04:48In the years and decades after Bedford, the industry has become much larger, with cryonic
04:53companies existing all over the world.
04:55The number of confidently claimed frozen subjects is still quite low, but it's no longer only
05:00humans that are being put on ice.
05:02A Russian company allows for pets to be frozen, too.
05:05But there is a major downside, and one leading reason as to why we shouldn't all rush to
05:10be cryogenically preserved just yet.
05:13Right now, it is completely impossible to revive a frozen body, and we have no idea
05:18if it ever will be.
05:20That's the gamble that those who do follow this path have to take.
05:23But if the gamble pays off, and mind-uploading is developed, then perhaps these people really
05:28will live forever one day.
05:30Broadly, though, there is another way to approach death and the potential thereafter.
05:35Because what if there already was a life after death, without the need for technology
05:39to reach it?
05:40A scientifically sound second realm, without the need for religion or faith?
05:45Interestingly, there are a few theories.
05:48Various studies have been done into brain activity during death, and found that it actually
05:52spikes significantly.
05:54Once the heart stops beating, our brains will produce significantly more brainwaves than
05:59in a normal, conscious mind.
06:02This has recently been found to go on for anywhere between thirty seconds and up to
06:06two minutes.
06:07Generally, it's said that the brain enters a state of heightened consciousness in its
06:11final moments.
06:12The catch is that it's really impossible to know what this feels like until it happens
06:16to us… at which point we're likely about to die, and literally fail to live to tell
06:21the tale.
06:23Research into this topic is notoriously difficult, requiring detailed observations of brain activity
06:28during someone's dying moments.
06:31Another ethically complex task.
06:33But the pioneering researcher, Rick Strassman, does claim to have substantial evidence for
06:38what's really going on.
06:40During the 1990s, Strassman became one of the first individuals to research the medical
06:45applications of psychedelic substances.
06:47Initially, his primary focus was on dimethyltryptamine, more commonly known as DMT.
06:54This is a psychoactive substance, and has been commonly used throughout all of human
06:58history by various cultures.
07:00When consumed, it can produce intense hallucinations and psychedelic effects.
07:04While strong in its effects, they last a relatively short amount of time, roughly ten minutes
07:09or so.
07:10In most countries, DMT is a controlled substance, but surprisingly, it's already present in
07:15a great deal of organic life.
07:17And evidence even shows that mammalian brains could be capable of creating DMT.
07:22Multiple studies have found the compound to be present in human fluids, such as spinal
07:26fluid, blood, and even urine.
07:29While also at seeming production centers in our brains, specifically in the pineal gland.
07:34A neural region historically romanticized as the third eye.
07:38Back to Strassman, and this is one of his main areas of research.
07:42He theorizes that the human brain releases DMT when a person is near death.
07:47This stems from research he co-authored in 2013, which found DMT in the pineal gland
07:52of rats.
07:53Further evidence comes from comparing the effects of near-death experiences with the
07:57effects of DMT.
07:59Multiple papers have been published on this topic, and they show strong similarities between
08:03the two.
08:04During a near-death experience, people report a feeling of transcendence, inner peace, and
08:09the sensation of traveling to another realm where they meet sentient beings.
08:13Studies show strong evidence that experimenting a DMT trip can create similar long and short-term
08:18effects to a near-death experience.
08:21In the long term, humans who have taken DMT have brains with increased connectivity.
08:27It's thought that people who have come close to death have the same kind of increased connectivity.
08:32In short, the theory is that upon death, our brain may well release a great deal of DMT.
08:38We also know that brain activity skyrockets near death.
08:42So, combined with this, we can hypothesize that our brains experience what we might describe
08:47as a natural afterlife.
08:49This leads to another notion, the Natural Eternal Consciousness Theory.
08:53Here, advocates claim that a person's last conscious moment is preserved forever, as
08:57if beyond time.
08:59The mechanics behind it are a little sketchy, but it again links back to theories on the
09:03creation and release of DMT.
09:06Elsewhere, and contentious research suggests that near-death experiences prove there is
09:11a supernatural afterlife.
09:13However, some instead believe that an NDE, whatever it is, is more likely an opening
09:18glimpse at a natural afterlife.
09:20The experience is real, it's just not of a supernatural origin.
09:24Rather, it's more a dreamlike condition.
09:27All the research into brain activity during death perhaps supports this idea, with some
09:32concluding that when we die, we enter a dreamlike and timeless state.
09:36Thus, we enter a natural, everlasting afterlife.
09:40For now, we have more than a few angles to approach from.
09:43Conventional neuroscience generally claims that once the human brain dies, consciousness
09:47is lost completely.
09:49Nothing remains, the afterlife doesn't exist.
09:52The technologists are hoping for a solution, however, by effectively prolonging the human
09:57brain in a different vessel, via mind-uploading.
09:59It's a reality that may or may not be possible.
10:02Still, though, this would never be a direct continuation of consciousness.
10:07So, the studies into DMT and the Natural Eternal Consciousness Theory offer one final route.
10:14A route that's paved with the possibility that actually, there's a time-free, maybe
10:18euphoric, possibly higher natural state waiting for us, when the time comes.
10:25What do you think?
10:26Is there anything we missed?
10:27Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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