I think, as many people have pointed out already, that "We don't have consciousness before our birth" is an absurd notion simply because consciousness and memory are not identical. Linked, but not identical. Just look at dreams, you are what you can call conscious or semi-conscious for most of your dreaming periods, yet you do not remember most of them - if any - shortly after you wake up. Being conscious or not before birth might very well be speculated to be akin to this.

How he said “ I’m not interested in my personal opinion, it does not matter....what I’m able to comment own is on what we have evidence for, for which there is DATA, there have been research studies carried out....” is the energy we need in 2021 to survive.

As a hospice RN for the past 3 years I’ve witnessed many many things that strongly implicate the existence of consciousness post physical death. As a student of Vedanta and meditator for the past 10+plus years I’ve read texts thousands of years old that state consciousness is the fundamental substratum of the cosmos. I’ve had many experiences during meditation that support these claims.

It's a big mistake to say that we have no consciousness before birth. You have no idea about that, because you can't remember. We know for sure that we are conscious when we are born, but we can't remember that either. Do you remember your birth? Just because you don't doesn't mean it didn't happen and that you weren't conscious when it did.

15 years ago, my mother-in-law died at home. A couple of hours before, she sat up in bed and looked forward smiling. My partner asked, "what do you see Mom?" She clearly said that her husband (she called him by name), was there (he had died 3 years before) and "he says he's going to take me for a long drive." She laid back down and passed a couple hours later. My own beautiful Mother passed this past Easter weekend. She was barely conscious. As I stood bedside, holding her right hand, she tried to raise up on her elbows. Her eyes had already lost their color, and she appeared to be squinting and she began to smile. I asked "what do you see Mom," and my Mother who was so very non-religious and rarely ever spoke of any afterlife, clearly said "It's so bright." She laid back down and died 7 hours later. I don't know what's there. I would never be so stupid to claim that I know, but I know there's something there. And whatever it is, it's big. Very, very big.

The takeaway point is not just that people are conscious after their heart and brain cease to function, but their claim that they are infinitely *more* conscious. Perhaps the brain is not a producer of consciousness, but a filter of it to stop us being overwhelmed by reality?

This is arguably one of the most logical discussions on life after death. Parnia was transparent when he said that consciousness does exist after death (based upon his evidence.) But for how long is unknown. If it is tied back to the material state of the human being than it is perhaps finite in its existence. But I was intrigued by his comment when he said that if consciousness can exist after physical death with the brain not functioning, than why does it need to stop at all? Interesting.

Great interview. I love Sam Parnia he has such a calm open manner. Long time fan of his research. Looking at the biggest question of all!

Well, we’re all going to find out what happens so just go with the flow....

Parnia probably gave us the best answer you can possibly ask for. Even though he even explained it himself that consciousness after death is a mystery, Sam wasn’t biased at all.

I’m crippled everyday by the thought of not been here anymore i love life and want to live it as long as possible I’m only young but I think the mind struggles to compute negative thoughts but just wish I could get over my death anxiety and the fear of the unknown

I personally think of it like this; who cares if there's an actual life after death? If there is, fantastic! If there isn't, also fantastic. You will not be worried about it after dying. However, the best way to live is to hope and even believe that there is one. There have been plenty people who act all tough and "cool" in saying that they don't believe and they aren't afraid of dying. However that is ONLY because they are way off from actually dying. At least not going to die from old age or illness anytime soon. However on the deathbed, at nights, that fear creeps in like a hunter on prey. *You are dying. You are going into oblivion. You are terrified* . This is no way to go through the last final days of life.. or even years if it's a slow burner. Allow yourself to believe. What harm can be done? If the conciousness survives for a few minutes or hours after death, maybe that's an opportunity to experience a sort of "Fade to white" moment with a smile. Maybe your mind conjures up images of joy and bliss rather than fear and darkness that it might have from a pessimistics side of view. Maybe you can have an opportunity of fading into oblivion with a smile. Meeting a loved parent, child, grandparent or whatever. It might be your mind playing tricks on you, but still.. I think that's a peaceful way to go and you would not know the difference nor be aware afterwards to be disappointed. Personally I believe. I'm not a person that goes to church because I do not imagine a God as one that truly wants praising and worshipping. I imagine him as someone that just wants to see us grow and prosper. I leave the praising to others. I would not think myself an equal to God, but I think he would enjoy some casual chats with his children.

I just finished reading a book called "The Science of Near-Death Experiences" published by Missouri University Press in 2017. It consists of several peer-reviewed articles dealing with this phenomenon. Interestingly, 11 of the 12 contributors believe that the evidence from near-death experiences suggests that our consciousness does, in fact, continue to exist after death. To quote the editor of the book, John C. Hagan (also the director of the medical journal, Missouri Medicine): "Most of our ... physician-scientist authors believe we may be nearing the point where science proves that [near-death experiences] are real events occurring in a different, possibly spiritual rather than material, dimension and will ultimately be scientifically validated but are far beyond the powers of evidence-based science to understand and interpret." Wow. I hope we can have an open mind about these things, because the evidence, whether we like it or not, is impressive. I highly recommend the book mentioned above.

In the 80s my father laying in the bed with my mother watching tv It was around 8 pm, next to the bed they had a pile of cassette tapes under the table. And suddenly there was that sound you hear when cassettes tower fall over and my mother says the cassettes just fell, but when my father looked at them they were in place and a few minutes later the same sound but it turned out that the cassettes are fine. They couldn't understand why they hear this sound but cassettes are in place. After about 2 hours a doorbell rings, and when my father opened the door, it turned out that a postman came with a telegram in which it was written that his brother died 2 hours ago.

"We don't have consciousness before our birth" Who knows? Another thing we haven't discovered yet.

I really wish we do have life after death with the same family cause I love my family.

The assumption of knowing can be more dangerous then ignorance itself. We still have many many things to learn, we are still very ignorant despite all what we know today.

I have no beliefs either way here, but I like the panpsychist idea of consciousness as a spectrum: complex brains having higher levels of awareness, from humans to apes to mice to insects to bacteria ... Anecdotal evidence also suggests we can raise consciousness further through meditation, psychedelics, NDEs (early baptism? ), even intense prayer and fasting. Many people who achieve these states return with a life-changing belief in some kind of ineffable, infinite oneness, albeit interpreted via cultural references. Whether this is delusional, we may never know, but it shouldn't be ignored.

After watching 30 hours of videos about near life experiences and after life theories I must say that this interview is the most convincing one. Sam’s eloquence is outstanding.

When my grandmother was aged 90, sleeping and near death ten years ago, my dad had been in the cafeteria near her room for hours, talking to a guy who lived there. He walked back into her room and ten seconds after he came back in, she died. All she needed to know was that her son was there, and she could leave. Nursing home workers are a hardened bunch, but they report these kinds of phenomena all the time. They told me stories like people would visit their sleeping relatives and sit in the room for hours without them waking, then leave, and that evening their relatives would say, "Did you know my son/daughter/grandson etc. visited today?" Yet they hadn't been awake at any point during the visit.

Dr. Parnia was far more impressive in this clip than I was expecting, given his prominent role in conducting The Aware Study (published in the peer reviewed journal Resuscitation). He gave perfectly reasonable and acceptable answers to pointed questions by Dr. Kuhn regarding his current views on 'Life After Death'. In these views Parnia held strictly to scientific standards, yet with a nod to relevance of both philosophy and theology, while fully leaving open the possibility of a state of consciousness after death, and while admitting scientifc proof was presently (maybe forever) impossible to obtain. This suggests that, even in our 21st century, when it comes to the issue of life after death, if you're not already a believer "The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind".

If consciousness is non-local, as Dr Pim Van Lommel suggests based on his NDE research, then it follows that it must be eternal since by definition it is outside of time and space. No time, no end (since an end is a moment in time).

"We don't know everything yet" There is so much in that statement alone where unknown possibilities exist. Energy, vibration, there are many existences that thrive outside of materialism and for that reason, our faith "that there is more" can still logically exist as well.

Robert, I have an answer for you. I speak from empirical experience having endured an NDE. Here is the truth. The soul, which can be understood as the disembodied mobile will, is quite literally the self. Our physical bodies are shells for the soul, like avatars. This life on earth is a simulation of choice and spiritual dignity. How you live here determines the state of the soul hereafter. When you die or have an NDE, there is a very short transition phase out of the body. You essentially burst out over the course of seconds, or not much longer. It feels like your consciousness explodes as you break free from the body. Imagine the feeling of being under water until you can't take it anymore, then suddenly jump up to get air. Kind of like that only you're whacked in the head once you get out of the water. From that point, you have hyper self-awareness, but little to no recollection of your recently evacuated physical earth existence. You then glide through deep space far past the stars and planets and enter a light realm where you are met by giant light beings (approx 10-15 feet tall and very stoic). You will be confronted by the leader/liaison who will communicate with you telepathically by motioning his arms at you and shooting golden beams which themselves are particles of perception which you instantly download. He will deliver the message you need to receive before proceeding into this realm. I know how crazy this sounds, but I am essentially a Deist (the most stoic and rational of all belief systems) and this happened to me during sleep 100% sober. I was given the option to die in my sleep or go back. I've always been discontent with the trajectory of my life, so it was interesting that I was given this choice and more interesting that I instantly chose in fear not to proceed to the light realm. I realized life is a gift literally. We are all on borrowed time to do good and evolve each other before we go. The problem with asking scientists these questions is they are only scientists. They are only supposed to talk about what they can measure and define in the physical sense. The spirit is other-worldly. You cannot find your soul through science or through religion. You must seek within and discover your true being. Having an NDE is very scary but infinitely enlightening. Now I can know there is an afterlife and don't have to believe by faith. In case you haven't gathered this yet, I try to avoid faith with as much as possible, because faith implies lack of certainty. Well now I have certainty. The spirit carries on. I know because I did. I experienced, however briefly, the other side. So remember, you can't unlock truths of the spirit using science so it's very futile asking these people. They don't know. It's their job not to know this. You can't ask 99% of religious people either. They sell dogma, fear, greed, and second-hand values. It's best to find God by studying natural law and seeking within to know and evolve yourself. I hope this helped. Interesting answers though, but these scientists are all blind by profession. They measure the body, and material existence. Not the essence which is spirit.

the out of body experience convinces me we have a separation of consciousness after death. there have been countless people - probably more than we realise - who had cardiac arrest and witnessed their resuscitation whilst suspended from the roof looking down on their physical self. i've heard so many of these stories. why, if you are unconscious and flatlined, would you perceive things from above and then be able to verify what you saw thereafter. doesn't make sense. there is definitely a separation of consciousness/mind after death.

After mu daughter died, I laid down to sleep one night soon afterwards and heard her clear as day, right in my left ear say, "Mom...open the box with a key." I was not yet asleep nor fully awake. I knew immediately she was talking about her coffin. I know her voice. I am completely sane, and I HEARD my daughter say this. If it had been my OWN thought, or mind, I would have "thought" casket, or coffin, not box. She thought she was in a box. Study that.

it always been the unanswered question of what happens we die we never have been able to find out what happens and we never will beable to i would just hope there is something good after this

I believe that the physical limitations of the human mind prevent us from knowing things that are presently beyond our ability to perceive. Maybe we will reach an understanding of it some day- until then, ‘keep the faith’.

2020 and they still don't know! :( i will check again in 2030 ;)

Our bodies are our personal vehicles but when they shut down we are still energy without the vehicle ❤️

The reality of all this is that we truly don’t know anything about human concussions or how it truly works. So, when people ask, “what happens after we die?”, really, the only true correct answer is “I don’t know”, because no one truly knows, it is what it is.

What makes this conversation significant is that conventional science does not allow for ANY EXPERIENCE AT ALL during the moments that these experiences are being reported. People have all sorts of compelling experiences and memories, but these experiences are potentially DISPROVING ASSERTIONS IN THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

I have been aware of spirit most of my life and have no doubt we survive in spirit, once you have spiritual experiences it stays with you all your life. Ask and you will be shown but if you are sincere, but not a thing to be messed with.

Fantastic interview , great job on sharing such experience. This kind of video helps to expand our understanding of life after death and how other smart people understand it.

I believe consciousness is eternal, the only reason we have bodies is so our consciousness can interact with reality of matter. Brain is part of the body, that allows for the control of the rest of the physical body but is not consciousness.

I put this video on Reddit, within an hour it was removed by moderators saying that there's no support for this claim. I googled it and found that indeed there's none, only a few papers from Sam.

Just because you cannot remember having consciousness before birth doesn't mean you didn't have it.

#Sam Parnia = My Favorite! I could listen to him all day ~

This guy is very very very honest. He did not add in anything except telling the truth. At least we know consciousness still exists after the brain shut down. So mind and brain is 2 different thing.

When I listen to humanity describing why this or that doesn't exist... I just look back at ALL the past retractions and additions to it's past claims and am thankful that these folks don't have a clue at the possibilities of what Was and what Is...

My own research, based on NDE accounts, shows that people have a choice to remain in the spiritual world or return to the body, and in the latter case, it happens very quickly for them to return. It indicates the spiritual world exists and that what they are experiencing is real. Of course, we know nothing about those who stay.

I used to be an atheist til I realized no one knows 💩and anything is possible

Believe or don't believe, that's up to the individual. But whether you believe or not, it's certain that death is universal and inevitable, and we must all face it. Personally, I believe in continuation of the soul/spirit. What have I got to lose? 🤗🤗

we have consciousness before birth...we kick and react to music. We just haven't got a developed enough brain to store those memories.

The reason blinking out of consciousness and not existing on any level is so terrifying for people is because we can't fathom it. It's impossible to get your mind around what non-existence would be like, because somewhere deep down we know this isn't real. Just like the universe; we weren't, then we were, and will never not-be.

the feeling you get when you see your loved one for the first time in a year.. the feeling you get when your dog dies.. the feeling you get when your favourite song comes on at your favourite artists concert.. the feeling you get when you watch an amazing movie or read a brilliant book.. the feeling you get when you kiss your crush for the first time.. it's not just the brain we have Souls

This conversation is truly fascinating.

I think belief in an afterlife is rational as long as we maintain that we could be wrong. Evidence can point toward a conclusion without necessarily proving it. In fact, I would argue that the vast vast majority of what most of us believe is just assumption. Concluding that there is an afterlife is reasonable as long as the level of certainty you attach to it does not go beyond the evidence. But it is unreasonable to demand that people withhold belief until they are in possession of absolute proof.

The evidence is pretty clear that consciousness not only transcends the brain/body, it transcends the entirety of this material "dimension." We live in a nested reality, where the physical universe is a subset of a larger reality. We are therefore "spiritual beings" having serial material experiences in order to raise the level of our consciousness quality through a process of consciousness evolution. So not only does our consciousness continue after death, it existed before our birth (all of our births and deaths). Consciousness is immortal.

Eastern philosophy such as Hinduism always tell 1. What you call as me is not my body even not my mind 2. There is nothing called your consciousness and my consciousness. there is a universal consciousness and we all are part of same consciousness. 3. There is nothing called as my life and your life, we all share same life captured in small bubble giving us a sense of individuality. Whereas as a matter of fact we can’t live individually but in constant interaction with the cosmos. “What we inhale trees exhale in other worlds half of our lung is hanging out there open in wild”.

I wonder what happens to our perception of time when we die since time is relative.

One thing I do know for sure is that it is pointless to worry over things that can't be controlled or answered. If this is our only life, enjoy it and stop ruining it with obsession over death.

Our conscience was there before we were birthed, we just don’t remember because our brain is what gives us the ability to remember things

Good questions asked to some brilliant ppl; thanks for that.

Maybe the "beyond" or whatever we call it is not bound by the same restrictions that we have here, namely restrictions like "time". This would make it plausible that consciousness is here and not here simultaneously which could help explain how consciousness arrive when we are "born" and leaves when we "die", but then also can comeback when we resuscitate someone since it never left but also never was here. This creates a paradox, pretty much like a hurdle that does not allow us to see and/or even imagine what actually happens after death, and maybe there is a reason for that.

Its amazing how consciousness can continue after death I think if you want my Opinion that If Consciousness can continue for hours without brain function why would it disappear afterwards I believe it will last forever and this is when people can have Near death Experience's...

"I can only comment on the evidence" How true, and how difficult it is to get good evidence. I will personally vouch for consciousness beyond the physical body because of a limited number of (remembered) out-of-body experiences. It is plausible that consciousness carries on even as the host is dying. Not too much unlike rats leaving a sinking ship. We are not the body. There is no doubt (and it is a blessing I have been given these experiences) that individual awareness leaves the body and that this process has been going on a very, very, long time. These events are trans-religious, although you can get some insight from religion if you turn the gain way down and try to find common perspectives.

In short: Consciousness does last for several hours after death but it’s uncertain if it continues beyond that..

Fantastic Reply and soo very true. We are disassociated from our true self, our consciousness. It’s sad and to me unbelievable that so many scientists are completely against this (still) theory about consciousness and the fact it’s separate from our “physical” body with all this empirical proof scientists like Sam Parnia are providing!

Consciousness continues as its eternal😎Physical vessel is only matter and soul is energy,frequency and vibration🙌

What I am interested in is the relationship of consciousness to the rest of the body. If consciousness is fully embodied in the entire human body, and not just the brain, could it be possible that once the rest of the cells die off (they have not yet, as the good Doctor explains) that consciousness ultimately vanishes? I don’t believe this to be the case, but there is still so much we don’t know. My own personal opinion is that consciousness is fundamental and the material is emergent. This makes more sense to me, seeing as how any reductionist view of consciousness ends in abject failure to explain consciousness. With that being said, it’s much more comforting to take this view and I sometimes fear my own inherent biases corrupt my view. Everyone wants this to be true and that can be problematic when trying to be objective.

Please remember that "we have limited minds"... so it's beyond our abilities to prove that there's life after death or not. But logically there's life after death. I believe in that. All People who came back after death told us that there's something after death. And there's no specific area or cells in our brains that control consciousness... it's not intangible. Consciousness =soul

Human consciousness is just a part of universal consciousness. More and more science is accepting theories that consciousness could be in all matter at some level, or even that consciousness is the very foundation of matter. So until we have a better understanding of what consciousness even is, we will have a really hard time understanding what happens to human consciousness beyond that hour or so he's talking about or the before birth question. However, so much has been discovered over the last 20 years or so. The fact we're able to study consciousness to the point we have is really encouraging. And it will just continue to progress.

Brilliant, Important bits of information. Thanks for sharing.

Dr. Parnia was my doctor when he was at Stony Brook University Medical Center. He saved my life. He is a great doctor. He did ask me if I had a life after death experience. I was so frightened at the time that I couldn't tell. But I did see a special with him and Sanjay Gupta on A & E where people had experienced it. I live in Delaware now and I wish I could reach out to him and ask about this coronavirus. It scares me as I still have respiratory problems. I think he might be in NYC, NY but I'm not sure.

My belief is that your soul, electrical impulses, whatever, leaves your body and travels through space and time until it is reborn not necessarily human but another being.

Please make more videos on this subject. There are so many videos on KZfaq about NDEs, but I don't trust they are objective. Somehow I trust this channel and I like Robert's approach to these kinds of deep questions.

Realest answer yet. short and straight to the point

Yes it is I've had people I never met tell me things it was impossible for me to know otherwise.

Simply Fascinating. Chills down my spine knowing that consciousness survives after death.

We can all speculate and debate about what happens to us after our body dies. There is one thing for sure...all of us will eventually experience it for ourselves.

I’m glad to be alive to just think about all this stuff. Fascinating

Throughout the history of theoretical physics there have been great minds on both sides of the materialists vs non materialists debate. Brain Green, Einstein, and Hawking on the materialists side vs Max Plank, David Bohm, and Heisenberg on the non materialists side.

I've watched this particular video quite a few times and it always bothers me how the interviewer so quickly snickers at his question being answered at 4:32 . I'm glad there's people like Parnia doing this work, despite criticism from the mainstream. Maybe he won't find proof of non-local consciousness, but being able to resuscitate his patients after longer and longer periods of time is an amazing thing to try and achieve, him and his team are really doing impressive work.

I think most of us do have the memories, but they are blocked off. There are people who as children can remember, but the memories fade as they get older, like the boy who knew he was a pilot who had died

RK, I criticized you at one time and I take all that back, you're doing a fantastic job in searching, you are on the right track keep it up.

Parniamakes great points in this video. You can see Kuhn's frustration but Parnia has data on his side not personal opinion. I was just watching an interview with an ex atheist Dr. who didn't believe in anything. She drowned in a boating accident and was under water for close to 30 minutes until people pulled her body out of the water The thing is, she was still conscious. She was watching them work on her body and she encountered a being of light. So, Parnia is correct. It has been shown scientifically through his research and others that consciousness exist after death. How long does it exist after death or does it reincarnate are questions science can't answer but again, it can say consciousness survives death.

I've had so many experiences in our house (turns out there was a mass killing within a few hundred feet of here in the 1800's) and I wasnt dead. I was wide awake so maybe there is something.

Excellent discussion. Thanks

My grandfather died in the hospital in the 1930's... He was 13 years old at the time. He was dead for over 30 minutes... so is the brain dead by then? How long does someone have to be dead before being considered dead? He was dead so long they were filling out his obituary for the news paper. Is this long enough? and why did my grandfather experience what he did on this day at this precise hour? He lived 94 years.... Why on that day was the out of body experience? These people fail to take into account allllll them stories of people floating into other rooms and out the hospital and seeing relatives in their homes... They also sit and try to decide what is truly a miracle with stories like " Miracle on highway 6" and of course they must all be liars... It used to really frustrate me being a Christian and believing in Jesus Christ... and I just had to understand they simply hate God and any thought of life being divine takes them into debate mode.... and it is what it is..... My grandfather was floating in total heavenly bliss up in the ceiling looking down at himself as they were operating on him. and then he said... "BAM!!!!, I was back in my COLD body!" Why cold? So again the non believer says well it must be this and oh it could be that as he walks outside breathing the air the trees are making and the ants are cleaning the ground at his or her feet... That is so silly its hard to even talk about atheism...

I have had an alteration in time perception and time ceased to exist when I exited my body. I was hovering a few yards above, looking down on my body. Before I exited the body, I went from panicking and looping of the same scenarios over and over and over again and it felt like hell, like it was going to continue for eternity because I could not sense any time at all. Time did not exist anymore, and the same things were repeating in loops. It was each person I was with saying a particular thing. It would go from one person to the next to the next saying or doing the same thing and then like a rewind button it would happen again and again. It felt like hundreds of times this happened and that it would never end, while in reality I was only "out" for 5-10 minutes. Anyways, after this hell I experienced which felt like it was never going to end, I basically had no choice but to beg God to help me and that is when I found myself out of my body, looking down, frozen in time. What was different was that it was completely silent and peaceful all of a sudden. It was like I was in a waiting room to determine whether or not I will be dead or not. Fascinatingly, I had so much clarity in my thoughts when right before I was freaking out thinking I was dying and stuck in time repeating itself. So it went from that eternal hell to *snap* I'm in the air, thinking clearly, asking myself if I am dead without the panic, looking down on my body, and seeing my horizon in a much higher field of view. curiosity P.s. I just ordered two of Dr. Sam Parnia's books and I am very excited to read them!

If conciseness survives death, how could it simply disappear shortly after? That doesn't make sense.

SUCH a beautifully, eloquently 'painting of the picture'. After all, all we THINK we know is truly 'what limited things we know'. And how interesting that we 'know' that we are limited in our current state of understanding. Meaning: we might not comprehend KEY elements which are MISSING from our 'previously thought to be correct' assumptions... ...which are based off of (some) laws & axioms which we STILL aren't absolutely, 100% certain about. Especially as quantum physics/tech and understanding keeps on peeling back the many layers from the veil... 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

If there is one thing I have found about life is the arrogance of man ! Usually the more successful and intelligent the more this is true !

Interesting and honest. Thank you doctor.

Well, there're 2 distinctly different possibilities as per what I've understood (so far ...). The first is that the consciousness gets formed by/inside the physical brain with the interpretation of the sensorial input coming all the way from your physical senses to your (physical) brain, so it continues as a stream only as long as your brain remains active/functioning (at least a part of it irrespective of how measurable it is with the technology ...). Before you were born, your stream of conscious didn't exist. After you're dead, it would no longer exist either. It simply exists as long as your brain remains active, and ceases to exist upon your death (the exact time may vary based on for how long your brain cells remain active after your heart stops its circulation for good ...). In its true sense, the 'self' is only an illusion you tend to perceive on top of your stream of consciousness, so there's no such 'self' in reality to begin with. While this is the idea which I firmly held since my childhood, and which had seemed to me the most logical and rationally believable too for decades (I'm currently 41 years of age.), I have to mention the fact that I'm now becoming somewhat more open/tolerant towards the second possibility too, at least more than what had been the case in the past. With it, the stream of consciousness continues to exist as a separate entity irrespective/independent of the function of the brain, the consciousness simply takes only certain inputs from the brain once it's attached/coupled to your brain so that your brain remains your "window" to the outside world as long as it remains attached/coupled. But, strictly speaking, it remains a separate entity, so it continues beyond your brain death too at which point it gets detached/decoupled .... Well, sounds quite crazy and scary too .... I'm not exactly in a position to rationalize this second possibility, but certain seemingly credible (yes, only the seemingly credible ones I mean) reincarnation/rebirth cases/types across the world among different cultures, and especially the out-of-body experiences (OBE) mentioned to have been experienced by some during their near-death situations including certain seemingly accurate/credible explanations of visions accumulated being outside of their physical bodies too amidst such encounters have started to baffle me and really complicated my understanding on the topic. I don't say that there exists this heaven and hell thing being taught by most of the religious doctrines out there, no, but sometimes there might be another dimension/plane which is beyond the scope of our current understanding on what the consciousness and life truly is making any completely objective explanation infeasible, at least at this stage ....

Quantum Physics has shown that Reality is based on Probabilities. A statistical impossibility is defined as “a probability that is so low as to not be worthy of mentioning. Sometimes it is quoted as 1/10^50 although the cutoff is inherently arbitrary. Although not truly impossible the probability is low enough so as to not bear mention in a Rational, Reasonable argument." The probability of finding one particular atom out of all of the atoms in the universe has been estimated to be 1/10^80. The probability of a functional 150 amino acid protein chain forming by chance is 1/10^164. It has been calculated that the probability of DNA forming by chance is 1/10^119,000. The probability of random chance protein-protein linkages in a cell is 1/10^79,000,000,000. Based on just these three cellular components, it would be far more Rational and Reasonable to conclude that the cell was not formed by undirected random natural processes. Note: Abiogenesis Hypothesis posits that un-directed random natural processes, i.e. random chance formation, of molecules led to living organisms. Natural selection has no effect on individual atoms and molecules on the micro scale in a prebiotic environment. (*For reference, peptides/proteins can vary in size from 3 amino acid chains to 34,000 amino acid chains. Some scientists consider 300-400 amino acid protein chains to be the average size. There are 42,000,000 protein molecules in just one (1) simple cell, each protein requiring precise assembly. There are approx. 30,000,000,000,000 cells in the human body.) Furthermore, of all the physical laws and constants, just the Cosmological Constant alone is tuned to a level of 1/10^120; not to mention the fine-tuning of the Mass-Energy distribution of early universe which is 1/ 10^10^123. Therefore, in the fine-tuning argument, it would be more Rational and Reasonable to conclude that the multi-verse is not the correct answer while trying to determine the origin of the universe. A "Miracle" is considered to be an event with a probability of occurrence of 1/10^6. Abiogenesis, RNA World Hypothesis, and Multiverse would all far, far, far exceed any "Miracle". Yet, these extremely Irrational and Unreasonable hypotheses are what many of the world’s top scientists ‘must’ believe in and promote because of a prior commitment to a strictly arbitrary, subjective, biased, narrow, limiting, materialistic ideology / worldview. Every idea, number, concept, thought, theory, mathematical equation, abstraction, qualia, Information, etc. existing within and expressed by anyone is "Immaterial" or "Non-material". The very idea or concept of "Materialism" is an immaterial entity and by it's own definition does not exist. Modern science seems to be stuck in archaic, subjective, biased ideologies that have inadequately attempted to define the "nature of reality" or the "reality of nature" for millenia. A Paradigm Shift in ‘Science’ is needed for humanity to advance. A major part of this Science Paradigm Shift would be the formal acknowledgment by the scientific community of the existence of "Immaterial" or "Non-material" entities as verified and confirmed by discoveries in Quantum Physics.

I admire scientists and theologians who are both open to possibilities and willing to distinguish between facts versus opinions, and Parnia pulls it off perfectly here. I also love Kuhn’s dogged insistence on facts here as well as all the other CtoT videos.

We dont have consciousness before our birth???

what about a person who is so called "brain dead" and then comes back years later- if the consciousness continues even when brain is "dead" and it repairs itself & comes back ten years later then that also shows it surviving right?

In other words, consciousness is not dependent on brain function. Therefore, there is no reason to believe it would not continue indefinetely after death.

Can’t wait for January 6, “A new Netflix docuseries, Surviving Death, will feature interviews from scientists, mediums, paranormal experts and child psychiatrists to explore near-death experiences, seances and other after-death communications, and past-life recollections.” “the series will include some familiar IANDS faces- Dr. Bruce Greyson, Kim Clark Sharp, Jose Hernandez, Dr. Mary Neal and Stephanie Arnold!”

My intuition tells me when we die consciousness continues as seamlessly as it seems to when we wake from sleep and we may be born again as an intergalactic equivalent to Julius Caesar (think Xenu) or we may be the equivalent of the wildebeest calf that sticks his head out the womb to be greeted and eaten alive by a pack of wild dogs.

I hope I’ll come back but this time I’ll stay in school . Chose the career that I actually like and finally marry the right person and feel love for a change I know I’ll get it right if given the chance

Our lives are bounded by birth and death. That is from the perspective of seeing things in a passage of time. But what if there is another perspective which is timeless? What if our lives, and all events, can be seen in a timeless perspective as always existing and never passing away? People who have near death experiences often speak of this. 😐

we can't even remember what we have for lunch when we were 1 year olds, yet, we certainly did. The fact we don't remember nothing before birth is by no means evidence of non existence.

Yes, I think that you are one of the smarter ones. Peace, love and happiness. G.

Sam is completely right about doctors who believe in something greater. There has been research on it and it’s more than not

None of this is any evidence at all of life after death. All I'm hearing is that the cells in the brain are capable of sustaining consciousness for a few hours after death. And that makes perfect sense because a lot of nature is like that. A plant may have a scent and if you cut it from its root it will continue to have a scent for a period afterwards. If you bring it back by replanting it, then it will once more produce that scent (as when a human is resuscitated), but if you allow it to wither away, then it can never produce that scent again. So just because it retained the scent for a while does not mean the scent is eternal. All respect to Sam though. We used to go to school together. Lovely guy 😊

The answer is easy. Once the brain ceases to function, that will be the end of the activity it produces (consciousness). You must also consider because of the enormity of the entire universe. Time is moving extremely slowly for us. But on a scale that is of the same as the entire universe. The whole birth and death of the universe is happening in an instant. So therefore, everything happens naturally (no god), and it will conclude leaving behind absolutely nothing, just like how it will be when you die. I know this is a rather bitter pill to swallow. But just remember how truly amazing it is to be alive and be able to comprehend this. Enjoy a life born into the 20th century as the physical embodiment of a Human, not a dog, or a cat, a goat or a fish. Considering how truly remarkable and slim those odds are of being born into the life of a human, it is also a true gift to enjoy the time we have while suspended in the travelling explosion of the universe.