What happens when you finally kick the bucket?

What happens when you finally kick the bucket?

These days, most of our beliefs about death are based on science, yet it seems that many of us still think there is life after death. The Telegraph conducted a survey of UK residents in 2014, and just under 60% of those surveyed agreed that we are still alive in some form. According to the survey, 72% of Americans think that after death, you go to paradise, which is a place "where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded." According to the description of hell as a place "where people who have led bad lives and die without feeling regret are eternally punished," 54 percent of American adults said they believed in it.

It appears that many people do hold the belief that after death, we may be ensconced in some paradise dotted with clouds, or alternatively, if we haven't followed the morals set forth by our preferred religion or denomination of that religion, we may be faced with eternal hellfire and the prospect of grovelling to a bearded red man who hardly ever puts down his pitchfork. But first, let's be realistic about what actually happens to our bodies when we pass away.

The heart stops beating and there is no longer any electrical activity in the brain, letting doctors know you are dead. Although devices can keep you alive a little while longer, brain death means you are dead. A cardiac death is another possibility, in which case the heart stops pumping and the blood supply to the body is cut off. People who have experienced cardiac death but have been revived have reported that they were conscious of their surroundings, which is a strange and amazing thing. Others have described moving towards a light during such a close call. You only have a grace period of around 4-6 minutes after what we refer to as clinical death, but you can still be revived.

However, if you reach the light and pass through, this is what is referred to as biological death—the end of the game, the final siren, dead as a dodo. This is where things start to become a little undignified, but who cares, you're dead. Your muscles will relax once you are unquestionably gone, which will lead your sphincter to relax as well. As a result, the triple Whopper and big fires you ate for lunch will ooze out of you, and whatever gas you have inside of you could leak out and cause a stench. The same holds true for any remaining urine in your bladder, thus it comes as no surprise that death is a dirty process. You might even ejaculate, men. For women, giving birth after passing away is known as a "coffin birth" and occurs when a woman is pregnant. Though it doesn't happen frequently. The newborn is forced into the world by the gases in the abdomen rather than by pushing. Your mouth may make noises when the body releases what is trapped inside as the air departs.

Nurses and others who frequently come into contact with dead bodies have described hearing very lifelike-sounding moans and groans coming from them. Even though you may twitch, these are only muscle contractions, not signs of life. If you died while resting on your stomach and the blood poured down there, you might also get an erection shortly after. Your whole blood supply will congregate in one part of your body. The term "livor mortis" refers to this, and it explains why some of your body will have the dark purple colour you have seen on television. These are the wonderful things that can occur not long after you leave. Algor mortis, sometimes known as "death chill," is the cooling of the body when there is no blood flow. It will continue to cool until it reaches the same temperature as the environment around you. Within two to six hours, you will become stiff; this condition is known as "rigour mortis". This is a result of calcium entering your muscle cells. Without blood flow, cells deteriorate, which promotes the growth of bacteria, which causes you to begin to decay. Although it may appear that your hair or nails have grown, this is untrue. Your skin is actually regressing while giving the appearance of expansion. Blisters will develop on the body and the skin will loosen as well. When bacteria and other microbes start feasting on you, the next stage is putrefaction. You'll soon begin to smell worse than you ever could have imagined while you were still living. "Rotten eggs, faeces, and a used toilet left out for a month x 1000," was one person's description of the odour. It is impure.

Everything that is squishy will soon liquefy, but bones, cartilage, and hair will still be robust. By the time you are laid to rest, you have already started to decompose.

However, if the body is embalmed and buried, decomposition can take a while. If you're left above ground, you'll turn into a liquid mess within a month and be eaten by plants, animals, maggots, insects, and other creatures. It may take 8 to 12 years underground, according to some specialists, until you are reduced to little more than a skeleton. Even your bones will merge with the Earth after about 50 years. We should also note that there are just too many variables for us to state here that affect how quickly things decompose. But we believe you see the point.

Although some claim that their near-death experience was breathtaking, it isn't always the case. One user described his experience as "just black emptiness" in a Reddit post. Nothing just thoughts and consciousness. As many religions would tell you, French philosopher Rene Descartes (pronounced Ren-ee Day-cart) thought the soul was distinct from the body and that perhaps after death, something lingered on. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, all existence or energy in the cosmos has always repeated itself and will continue to do so indefinitely. This idea is known as everlasting recurrence or eternal return. You continually lead the same life for all of time. Don't you want to live well after hearing that? Here, we might draw comparisons to Buddhism's "Wheel of Samsara" doctrine, which holds that after death, all souls and lives will repeat themselves, albeit not in exactly the same way.

Some claim that the phenomenon known as de ja vu is related to something we call reincarnation. Buddhists think that through obtaining nirvana—true enlightenment—we can break the cycle of suffering. Or do we make our way to heaven once our bodies no longer function, bowing to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, hoping he won't block us from entering because we stole that candy bar on our school trip to Niagara Falls? Will we be transported to a land called paradise, where there are delectable dishes to eat and attractive maidens to make your dead knees weaken? Or will we only scatter seeds over the planet, our souls nothing more than a passing thought that distracted us from our cosmic insignificance and the occasionally felt sense of futility on tera-firma?