Death and what happens after it have been depicted in countless ways. In cinema, we usually see like a tunnel with a light at the end who attracts the one who is going to die. in the film Ghostits protagonist, Sam, dies and becomes a ghost who walks through walls and cannot communicate with Molly, his wife. It is also discussed on a religious level. Christianity speaks of heaven and hell and Hinduism of reincarnation. When a life ends, that life is reborn in the form of another being. In both cases, and in all types of faith, what happens after death depends on the goodness of the person in question.
Despite dogmas and cultural representations, The question of what happens after a life ends remains unanswered.. This week, Dr. Manuel Sans publishes his book Superconsciousness exists. Life after life (Planet), with which he intends to get closer to this answer. The retired surgeon, who was head of the surgery department at Bellvitge Hospital, has been studying the phenomenon known as near-death experiences (NDEs) for decades. These are lucid events that some clinically dead people experience during their resuscitation.
He discovered them thanks to some of his patients, who assured him that they had experienced them. Today, after years of research, claims to have clarified this mystery. It is not defended that science cannot be limited to the scientific method, which does not explain NDEs. This is why the doctor sought to demonstrate their existence through quantum physics.
[El libro que ha sacudido Francia: “Hemos probado que Dios existe y ser ateo es lo irracional”]
Science is based on evidence. How does this impact the fact that NDEs cannot be reliably proven?
I came to this conclusion [la existencia de las ECM] because there is a series of certified objective tests with a scientific basis. A patient I resuscitated told me in detail what was happening in the emergency room while she was clinically dead. The doubt it aroused in me was so great that I checked the computers and talked to the staff to verify it. After that, I realized that everything he had told me had actually happened at that moment.
Moreover, this is not the only case. The world biography contains hundreds of cases of people who have experienced an NDE and then describe what happened, even over long distances, in other countries. We do not know why this happens, but yes we can objectively assure that it is real. What they say [los enfermos] It’s not a lie, they’re not making it up and it’s not a dream either.
Can you elaborate on this bibliographic evidence?
In one study, patients who had had an NDE underwent an fMRI scan and were asked to explain it in detail during the test. Neuroradiologists found that when they described an object they had seen during that episode, the occipital lobe was activated. This is the area where images, what we see, are interpreted. In other words, there was memory. Therefore, these professionals said that the sick people weren’t kidding, they saw what they were saying.
If the scientific method fails to explain this phenomenon, what is the alternative?
Obviously, if the scientific method cannot explain it, attribute it or illuminate it, we will have to resort to other disciplines. This is where theoretical physics comes in, more precisely quantum mechanics. It contains a series of principles that have great parallels with the phenomena that patients tell us about during NDEs.
For example, the quantum entanglementwhich is the transfer of information independent of space and time between bound subatomic particles. This explains what patients say when they tell what happened elsewhere during resuscitation. The same thing happens with those who claim to have been able to pass through structures, this has a total parallel with the tunnel effect explained by theoretical physics.
Neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists have told you that the NDEs you described were hallucinations. What prompted you to continue your research?
The first thing I thought when patients started telling me about their episodes was what any doctor would think: which were hallucinations resulting from a lack of blood flow to the brain. I still decided to consult psychiatrists and psychologists, who confirmed this to me. However, the characteristics of these people who had an NDE were not clinically similar.
The first ones lack logic, they have nothing to do with one patient and another and they themselves do not want to know anything about the end of the epidemic, it can even embarrass them. My patients, on the other hand, had a completely coherent story and they remember it all their lives. Even those who experience this phenomenon have common characteristics. For example, everyone claims that it changes their perception of life and they stop being afraid of death.
Have you ever been questioned professionally for defending this position/ideas?
I began to study this phenomenon when I was still active and head of the surgery department at Bellvitge Hospital. If I had said it, they would have taken me out of the center or admitted me to a psychiatric ward. That is why I decided to accumulate experience and reveal my results when I retire. At first, logically, I had people who were reluctant to this theory and who criticized me, but what I have are data, goals and certificates. When they tell me that they do not agree with my statements, I ask them to prove to me that mine are false, but no theory refutes them.
At the moment, no one can tell me that what I say is a lie. Instead, what I explain is supported by scientific evidence with great parallels to everything patients tell us.
Do you think the opposition can change?
My experience tells me yes. Now science opens up to these things. Last week, at my hospital, there was a course on palliative care and I was asked to give the closing lecture. Very soon, I will also give the opening speech at an important university in Barcelona.
How has the knowledge of superconsciousness that you talk about in the book improved your profession?
My professional attitude improved in the overall assessment of the patient. When I discovered superconsciousness, I began to look at the human being and my patients in their entirety.beyond physical symptoms. The scientific method considers the patient as a deteriorated machine. I saw the human being and understood him in his existential reality, as a set of body, mind and spirit. I began to study this path and even came to the conclusion that most of the current illnesses in our society have a mental and emotional origin.
In his book he claims that the media, as well as other powers, try to keep the population in ignorance. What do you mean by that and what do you think is your role?
What I really see in today’s society is that there is a lot of fear and that it is the consequence of a great ignorance that reigns. If this feeling is immense, I wonder what the media tells us. What they tell us are deaths, economic crises, wars, etc. If we are afraid and we are increasingly poor, with a little work, more money, they take us where they wantThey fear that we are not free, that we will not discover our superconsciousness.
In the book he assures that to be free, it must be the superconscious that makes the decisions. What does it mean to be free?
Being free means that one is governed by one’s superconsciousness, knowing one’s existence, thoughts and actions. In this sense, what is it authentically flows from its essenceof his true identity.
Who is this book for?
To everyone. I have proof that when I give a lecture in a room, I see young people, old people and very old people. The existential problem, fundamental existential questions, everyone has them with common sense. This, precisely, allows us to answer these questions.
Are you afraid of death?
Not at all. For me, death is getting rid of a case, a body that I have been wearing for a while and when I’ve made my way, I get rid of him.
