Does it really take days for the soul to leave? This is what studies reveal about consciousness after death

The idea that the soul remains in the body for three days after death is an ancient belief, present in different cultures and religions. Some spiritual traditions claim that during this time, the soul adjusts to its departure, observes what is happening around it, and bids farewell to its loved ones. But what does science say about this? Is there any evidence of consciousness after death?

Below, we explore both the spiritual perspective and the latest scientific findings about what happens in the moments after death.

The belief of the “3 days”: a spiritual transit

Many traditions hold that the soul needs a period of transition to completely detach itself from the physical body:

• In Tibetan Buddhism, we speak of the bardo, an intermediate state that can last up to 49 days, but where the first days are crucial for the soul to understand that it has died.
• In Judaism, the soul is believed to haunt the body for three days before beginning its journey to the afterlife.
• In some Latin American folk beliefs, it is said that “the soul does not know that it has died” and remains close to the living for a short time, especially if there was a sudden death.

These interpretations, although symbolic, have one thing in common: the soul needs time to detach and accept its new state.

And what does science say about consciousness after death?

Science cannot speak of the “soul” as a spiritual entity, but it has begun to study what happens to consciousness and brain activity after cardiac arrest. What they have discovered is surprising:

1.

Recent studies have shown that some people who have suffered cardiac arrest and were resuscitated clearly remember what happened during those minutes. They report seeing their body from the outside, hearing voices or feeling great peace. Science has begun to refer to this as near-death experiences (NDEs).

2.

In hospital research, flashes of brain activity have been detected even minutes after the heartbeat stops. This indicates that consciousness, or at least some kind of perception, could be maintained beyond the point at which a person is considered clinically dead.

A 2023 study published in Resuscitation looked at cases of cardiac arrest and concluded that, in some patients, a “brain signature associated with conscious perception” was recorded, suggesting that something is happening in the brain that is not yet fully understood.

How does this relate to the idea of the soul?

Although science cannot affirm that there is a “soul”, the aforementioned findings allow us to reflect on the possibility that consciousness is not immediately extinguished. This fits symbolically with the belief that the soul needs time to depart.

The idea of the 3 days could be interpreted as a cultural or spiritual framework that expresses a real, as yet unknown, process of disconnection between the body and consciousness.

Between faith and science

The belief that it takes 3 days for the soul to leave is part of an ancestral wisdom that tries to make sense of what happens after death. Science, for its part, is beginning to discover that human consciousness is much more complex than previously thought, and that it may not disappear instantly.

Although there are still no definitive answers, the dialogue between spirituality and science is still open. Both paths, far from contradicting each other, could be observing the same phenomenon from different perspectives.

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