An Introduction to the Eidetic Afterlife Hypothesis

1. The passage of time is malleable. American neuroscientist Hudson Hoagland (born: 1899 CE, died: 1982 CE) discovered that time is more than just relative to position and momentum—there is a completely different gauge of time inherent to each individual: interoceptive temporality, or psychophysiological time. Interoceptive temporality is a subjective underlying feeling of time based on physiological factors (such as temperature) and psychological factors (such as stress). Each of us views life through an individualized psychophysiological time-lens controlled by our body’s internal chemistry. This time-sense can be distorted and even manipulated by altering the body’s temperature or its ability to utilize oxygen. The brain relies on its own autonomic rhythms to measure the duration of a moment and the span of events. Mr. Hoagland, studying sick patients, determined that the heightened temperature arising from fever causes a subsequent acceleration of the sense of temporal sequences. Higher temperatures make our cerebral clocks run faster, thereby shortening our perception of time’s passage. Hoagland later realized that restricting the brain’s oxygen flow also has the effect of speeding up the sensation of time. As people grow older and become less capable of taking in and processing oxygen, many of them begin to experience the years passing more rapidly. Our minds actually do observe time to move at a faster rate during the elderly stage of life due to oxygen depletion. The perception of time can be shortened to the feeling that every moment is flying by, or it can be elongated to feel as if every moment is crawling in slow motion—the data-processors of our brains can be sped up or slowed down by various biological, chemical, and psychosocial factors. Bottom line, the perception of time can be altered.

2. There is a hyper-dilation of time that occurs during the dying process, when certain regions of the brain responsible for our perception of temporal sequences begin to manage information differently while shutting down. Most of us have never seen a ghost or alien. Most of us have never conversed with an angel or been tempted by a devil (in the literal sense), and none of us has ever breathed underwater or levitated… except in our dreams.

3. Life is the wavering flame of the candle, and eternity lies within the brief moments of a dream. Each human spends their lifetime—their waking lifetime—being conditioned as to what they will experience during their final living moments. Will this be a dream or hallucination? No, not technically. It is an augmented consciousness experience, or ACE, which involves different processes than dreams and hallucinations, though all such states share common ground. Triggered by overwhelmingly traumatic events (such as dying), the eternity of heaven, hell, nirvana, or anyplace else may be the product of a powerful ACE that occurs hours, minutes, or even seconds before death.

4. If time is relative (which indeed it is), and the perception of time were altered enough, could a second be made to feel like a hundred years? And if a hundred years, why not the possibility of stretching the feeling to a thousand years, or even a million? The duration of any given moment is eidetic. Could a perceived eternity be hammered out of any moment if the perception of time were made malleable enough? Everyone knows a dream can seem just as real as our experience of waking reality (for example: wet dreams and nightmares). Our sense of time is recalibrated, re-temporalized, every morning upon awakening back into the world of schedules, sunsets, and seasons, but what if we never awoke? What would happen if the waking world’s influence of clock time and mortal linearity were completely unavailable to us as reference points from which to arrange the order of our perceived moments?

5. Thus, it is within the quick spark of living that the groundwork for infinity is laid, and without running afoul of paradox, eternity could exist in the shallow span of a millisecond.

6. Q: What happens when oxygen is restricted to the brain? A: An alteration of the experience of time, feelings of euphoria, visions of tunnels and other hallucinatory images.

Near-death visions of a tunnel of light and feelings of euphoria can be attributed to carbon dioxide retention, known as hypoxia (reduced oxygen to the brain) or anoxia (complete absence of oxygen in the brain). In the 2002 British Broadcasting Corporation documentary, The Day I Died: The Mind, the Brain, and Near-Death Experiences, British psychophysiologist Susan Blackmore explains: “The tunnel, for example, seems very clear how and why you get these dark tunnels with the bright light at the end. We know how the cells in the visual system are laid out. Right from the retina and the back of the eye, all the way through the visual system to the visual cortex at the back of your brain here [pointing], there are lots of cells devoted to the middle of the visual field—what you are looking at—and very few devoted towards the outside. Now, what happens when you go into severe shock, when you have lack of oxygen, is all the cells start firing randomly. Now, what’s that going to look like? With lots of cells devoted towards the middle and very few towards the outside, it’s going to look like bright light in the middle, dark towards the outside. Now, you are nearly unconscious with your eyes shut, and this is all you can see, so it feels like going forwards through a tunnel into a bright light.”

“Another thing that we understand pretty well is the emotional effects [of oxygen deprivation],” continues Susan, “because under stress and with shock and lack of oxygen (such as in a state of hypoxia or anoxia), you get a massive flood of endorphins, the brain’s own morphine-like chemicals, especially dopamine, which has the effect of taking away pain, making you feel everything is absolutely fine, giving you a very positive attitude towards everything.”

7. Patients undergoing the final stage of the dying process are known to exhibit greater than normal electrical activity in the brain. A study led by Jimo Borjigin, Ph.D., found that parts of the brain designated as the “hot zone”* for consciousness become extremely active with high-frequency electrical signals called gamma waves moments after taking dying patients off their ventilator. In one patient the signals remained detectable for more than six minutes. “As she died, [the patient’s] brain was functioning in a kind of hyperdrive,” reported Borjigin. “For about two minutes after her oxygen was cut off, there was an intense synchronization of her brain waves, a state associated with many cognitive functions, including heightened attention and memory. The synchronization dampened for about 18 seconds, then intensified again for more than four minutes. It faded for a minute, then came back for a third time.”

*The “hot zone” of consciousness in the brain is located in the junction between the temporal, parietal and occipital lobes. In prior brain studies, this area has been correlated with dreaming, hallucinations, and other altered states of consciousness.

According to Borjigin, “Different parts of [the dying patient’s] brain were suddenly in close communication with each other. The most intense connections started immediately after her oxygen stopped, and lasted for nearly four minutes. There was another burst of connectivity more than five minutes and 20 seconds after she was taken off life support. In particular, areas of her brain associated with processing conscious experience – areas that are active when we move through the waking world, and when we have vivid dreams – were communicating with those involved in memory formation. So were parts of the brain associated with empathy. Even as she slipped irrevocably deeper into death, something that looked astonishingly like life was taking place over several minutes in [the dying patient’s] brain.”

8. Q: If thought and memory processes are connected to neural synapses, what is going on during the hyperactive synaptic activity witnessed during the final moments of the dying process? A: Gamma waves (associated with conscious thought) have been observed during the dying brain process to spike to a level three hundred times more active than in normal (non-dying) brains.

9. Let’s explore the ingredients and properties of the neurochemical elixir that floods the brain with visions of paradise and perdition right before we die. During anoxia, or oxygen deprivation, the brain undergoes a series of changes, including a massive release of endorphins, adrenaline, noradrenaline, glutamate, serotonin, acetylcholine, dopamine, and very likely (according to the latest research) endogenous DMT! Endorphins are an inhibitory type of neurotransmitter that lowers pain signals to the brain while elevating feelings of comfort and happiness. Adrenaline and noradrenaline are both hormones and neurotransmitters, which means they are active in the bloodstream as well as the nervous system. Adrenaline and noradrenaline combined are responsible for your fight-or-flight response, increasing heart rate and blood pressure while also increasing alertness and focus. The surge of adrenaline and noradrenaline released during the dying brain process would result in heightened awareness and the ability to process information more rapidly than usual, contributing to the phenomenon known as “total life recall” or “life review”. Glutamate has an excitatory effect on neurons, aiding in learning and remembering. This would explain why many people claim to gain insight from their near-death experience. Serotonin, in addition to regulating appetite and sexual arousal, suppresses anxiety and increases feelings of wellbeing and happiness. Elevated serotonin levels can lead to altered states of consciousness, including visual and auditory hallucinations, which would explain the vivid imagery and spiritual peace reported by many people during near-death experiences. Acetylcholine is the primary neurotransmitter associated with dreaming and visual processing. Dopamine is known as the “pleasure chemical” due to the feelings of joy and contentment it induces. Dopamine also increases the length and strength of dreams. Researchers have conjectured that endogenous DMT (a powerful psychedelic compound) is released during the dying brain process. This would obviously result in an otherworldly experience. The effects of DMT mirror descriptions of near-death experiences, including transcendent feelings of oneness and encounters with divine entities. Research has proven DMT can be produced in the pineal gland of the mammalian brain. In 2019, experiments showed that a rat’s brain is capable of synthesizing and releasing DMT.

Dean JG, Liu T, Huff S, Sheler B, Barker SA, Strassman RJ, et al. (June 2019). "Biosynthesis and Extracellular Concentrations of N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the Mammalian Brain". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 9333.

10. Q: If certain regions of the brain are responsible for our sense of duration, what happens to our experience of time when those regions start to malfunction and shut down? A: Your sense of the span of a second will significantly change.

11. Q: What sort of experience would arise from all of these things happening at once? A: Something akin to an afterlife. Note: All of these things occur necessarily during the dying brain process. Could all of these things happening simultaneously be construed as a mere dream or hallucination? No. The experience of all these factors occurring at once would be something vastly different from a dream or hallucination.

12. The womb from which all afterlives are born could very well turn out to be a subjective, culturally influenced interpretation of the otherworldly experience produced by the synergistic interplay of A) an oversaturation of carbon dioxide due to oxygen deprivation[a], B) a surge of synaptic activity, particularly in regions of the brain associated with memory[b], C) the shutdown of certain regions of the brain responsible for our sense of duration and the passage of time[c], and D) the bombardment of various neurochemicals associated with dreams and hallucinations during extremely traumatic events such as near-death experiences and the final stage of dying[d].

[a] see Notes Concerning Eternity: Oxygen Deprivation and the Dying Brain Process

[b] see Notes Concerning Eternity: The Light that Shines Within and Notes Concerning Eternity: A Neurocellular Explanation for the Manifestation of the Eidetic Afterlife During the Dying Brain Process

[c] see Notes Concerning Eternity: The Physiology of Temporal Perception and Distortion During the Dying Brain Process

[d] see Notes Concerning Eternity: A Psychopharmacological Explanation for the Manifestation of the Eidetic Afterlife During the Dying Brain Process

13. While the eidetic afterlife hypothesis has intriguing psychological and sociological implications, it also serves as a profound event in rhetorical criticism: a contemporary rearticulation of immortality and the afterlife in a secular framework that does not invalidate religious phenomenology. Indeed, the Notes Concerning Eternity provide detailed and scientifically plausible explanations for every phenomenon associated with near-death experiences and the afterlife, including time dilation, feelings of universal oneness, out-of-body experiences, terminal lucidity, life reviews, reuniting with the deceased, visions of heaven or hell, and encountering the divine light.

14. Heaven is not out there somewhere. Our afterlife hides within each one of us, and through the “perfect storm” of oxygen deprivation, neurosynaptic overload, the bombardment of various neurochemicals, and the shutdown of certain regions of the brain responsible for our sense of duration and time, eternity is conjured in the moments preceding death as opposed to afterward. This is a working hypothesis, not a religion. While the hypothesis attempts to sidestep the debate between atheism, agnosticism, and theism, its transformative effect on each of these standpoints cannot be overlooked.

15. The eidetic afterlife hypothesis is in no way meant to invalidate or replace mainstream systems of spirituality. The eidetic afterlife hypothesis simply avoids metaphysical issues altogether. Inverting the popular conception of life after death into a pre-death experience has many beneficial consequences in the “real” world, not the least of which is cultural unification. The understanding that each of us creates our own specific afterlife promotes fellowship and tolerance among all religions. We are all fellow dreamers, though our dreams may differ.

16. The eidetic afterlife hypothesis leads to a unique system of ethics not reliant on the dictates of a hypothetical otherworldly authority. Instead, each one of us holds ourselves directly accountable. This means total responsibility is assumed in every action of every waking moment. There are no rhetorical stratagems to ease you of the horror, shame, and despair you create during your life’s journey. You are your own judge, and you cannot deceive yourself. No amount of “Hail Marys” will rid you of the guilt that was never honestly resolved. Ego defense mechanisms acquired in the waking world to fool yourself into contentment will be of no use during your last breath. Dreams have a will of their own to dredge up things forgotten or suppressed.

17. The dream variation of the afterlife concept is user friendly and impartial. Its very foundation (your memories and thoughts) demands complete accountability unto yourself. You will definitely die, and quite possibly before this event, you will be subjected to everything you ever felt, sensed, thought, and did—everything your subconscious/unconscious database ever stored—perfect and inescapable justice. “Organic” justice for atheist and theist alike. Be mindful of what you fill your psyche with.

18. We will all become characters in one another’s dreams. How will you be visualized? Interesting moral considerations arise from the eidetic afterlife hypothesis. If you want to dream of a peaceful hereafter, you would be wise to live out your days peacefully in peaceful environments. If you spend your short life in toil, strife, and anxiety, then heaven help you in the nightmarish eternity that awaits. None of us wish to relive painful situations, so we should be careful not to upload painful experiences into one another’s memory banks. Everyone, including the staunchest atheists, will be held accountable to whatever the broadly defined, ingrained sentiments of right and wrong are in their particular sociosphere.

19. Everyone falls short of the manmade notion of perfection. We have all given in to petty and base emotions. We have all harmed, and we have all been harmed. We have all been abused and treated unfairly. Should all of us, victimizers and victims alike, have to forever relive our mistakes and tortures during that last endorphin rush of dreamed eternity? This is where traditional religious institutions may play a role, though not in any conventional sense. Waking-world religions serve a useful purpose in the dreamlife—they provide hope and a way to ease the burden of those who are truly remorseful for their transgressions. Theology fulfills this function through the introduction/establishment of Compassionate Savior Mechanisms. Who or what are these mechanisms? They are whoever you have been sufficiently conditioned to believe they are: white Jesus, black Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Krishna, Vishnu, Kuan Yin, maybe even your “mommy” or “daddy” or great-great-grandfather (in the case of ancestor worship). Compassionate Savior Mechanisms are, in essence, psychological ploys to ease the ego of undeserved suffering. These savior stories (whether based on reality or not) must be learned/programmed in the waking world to have an effective presence in the concentrated eternity of the eidetic afterlife. This would explain why people who claim to have had near-death experiences always see a culturally specific conception of the afterlife they are most familiar/comfortable with. Christians never see the Buddha, and Buddhists never see Jesus, and nobody ever sees almighty Zeus anymore. The only catch with these Compassionate Savior Mechanisms is that you must be truly repentant/worthy of forgiveness in your own honest appraisal, a feat easier said than done.

You can read the full text of The Eidetic Afterlife Hypothesis and all of the corresponding Notes Concerning Eternity for free through several online resources, including The Internet Archive and Figshare.