Oh, Wow!

            Despite many decades of study by both philosophers and scientists, a good description of consciousness remains an elusive thing. The dictionary defines it as “the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.” That can mean different things to different folks. Consciousness is typically considered to be something that is associated with—if not contained within—the brain. Consciousness, by definition, is a subjective thing—so it’s bound to fall into a zone claimed by both philosophers and scientists, and because they approach the study of the world so contrastingly, they are bound to disagree and argue about what it is.

            So consciousness is a slippery subject, and it will probably remain so for some time. Many articles and books have been written on the topic, but a consensus is still lacking. I recently purchased a book by Daniel Dennett, published a couple of decades ago, audaciously titled Consciousness Explained. It is a 500-page tome that I have yet to summon the courage to begin reading. Maybe soon. The fact that I have not read any science articles that point to Dennett’s book as the definitive explanation of consciousness suggests that it’s still not a closed subject.

            Every now and then a scientific study is published that adds a fascinating facet to consciousness—something that might not fully decode the mystery, but can shed a little more light on it. A recent study published by researchers at the University of Michigan brings us a novel aspect of consciousness. When the brains of lab rats were wired to measure their electrical activity and their deaths were then induced by cardiac arrest, the researchers measured a burst of electrical power in the gamma band. (Don’t try this experiment at home on people!) Gamma band brain oscillations have been considered to be an indication of consciousness in the human brain.

            Rats are used in laboratory tests because their physiology is similar to humans. So this study presents the tantalizing possibility that, at the moment of death, the human brain may experience an explosion of consciousness. There is as yet no real evidence that rats experience consciousness in the same way we do, but these experimental results are fascinating.

            Some researchers think that the strong psychic incidents reported by people who come close to death and survive (those having near-death experiences, or NDEs) may be related to this sudden burst of consciousness. Other researchers are beginning to shed light on the meaning of NDEs—that the commonly-experienced lights, tunnels, and out of body sensations, can be explained by the specific kinds of electrical brain activity that occur, as one’s body begins to shut down.

            This field of research is yielding some fascinating results. I like the idea that our brain engages one grand last hurrah—sending us out with a bang. And I’m wondering if something like this might have happened to Steve Jobs—the creative genius of Apple Computers—who, at the moment of death reportedly exclaimed, “Oh, wow!”