What Really Happens To Your Body 5 Minutes After You Die
By ALICE BENNETT
History - Science
Technically speaking, there is more than one way of being "dead." You are dead when your heart stops beating, but you are even deader when your brain has officially "died."
If you die because your heart has given up, your brain is gradually starved of oxygen, resulting in brain stem death. The sudden lack of blood causes the brain stem to die.
At the same time, part of the brain is forced through the base of the skull by the resulting pressure in an unpleasant process known as "coning."
The experience of brain death is poorly understood and is subject to investigation. Some who have died and been revived experienced profound visions in the first five minutes.
During this time between life and death, some scientists believe the brain may be flooded with DMT, an extremely potent psychedelic that exists in the brains of mammals.
Following brain death, rigor mortis sets in, causing the body to stiffen. During this process, muscles can move or twitch as though the person has returned to consciousness.
The relaxation of the muscles can also have the rather undignified side-effect of triggering a forced release of the bowels and bladder after a person dies.
In rare cases, if a person was doing repetitive movements shortly before dying, they could have "cadaveric spasms," which freeze the body in the position of their final actions.