香港深圳地铁:“濒死经历”不再是超自然现象

任者：Benjamin Radford

Do you believe in life after death?

你相信死后有来生吗？

Many people believe in ghosts and heaven, and about three in 100 Americans report actually having near-death experiences. These typically include an awareness of being dead, out-of-body experiences, meeting dead people, entering tunnels of light, and so on.

许多人深信这个世界上存在鬼魂和上帝。100个美国人中约有3个人说自己曾经有濒死的经历。典型特征包括意识到自己即将离世、魂不附体、遇见了已故之人、穿梭于时光隧道等等。

But these are stories and anecdotes; what does science have to say?

但这些只是一些故事和传闻，从科学角度是如何解释的呢？

A new article published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences by neuroscientist Dean Mobbs, of the University of Cambridge's Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, and Caroline Watt, of the University of Edinburgh, finds that "contrary to popular belief, research suggests that there is nothing paranormal about these experiences. Instead, near-death experiences are the manifestation of normal brain function gone awry, during a traumatic, and sometimes harmless, event."

最近发表在《认知科学进展》上的一项研究表明“与现今流行的超自然观相悖的是，濒死经历可以被科学解释。当人们精神上受到非常不愉快的打击并且又不致损伤时，濒死经历往往是正常大脑工作出错的表现。”这项研究由剑桥大学医学研究所认知和脑科学中心神经系统科学家Mobbs和爱丁堡大学的Caroline Watt合作而成。

Mobbs and Watt noted that many classic NDE symptoms are actually reported by people who were never in danger of dying in the first place. This suggests that the perception that one is near death is traumatic and disturbing enough to cause some of the experiences.

Mobbs和Watt指出事实上许多典型濒死经历的症状是来自于那些从未有过濒死经历的人们的描述。这意味着人在面临死亡时自身造成的恐惧与不安就有可能产生类似的幻想。

Researcher Susan Blackmore, author of Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences (Prometheus Books, 1993), notes that many NDEs (such as euphoria and the feeling of moving toward a tunnel of white light) are common symptoms of oxygen deprivation in the brain.

《垂死的挣扎：濒死经历》的作者Susan Blackmore在书中指出许多濒死经历（诸如过度兴奋，感到自己穿梭于时光隧道等）都是大脑缺氧的普遍征兆。

The new paper also discussed something called "walking corpse" syndrome, named after French neurologist Jules Cotard. Co-author Watt told Discovery News, "The sufferer feels that he or she is dead, even though not actually near death. It can be associated with trauma and some illnesses. It's not fully understood why individuals suffer from Cotard syndrome, but one possibility is that it's the brain's attempt to make sense of the strange experiences that the patient is having.

这篇文章还探论了“灵魂出窍”症状，以法国神经病学家Jules Cotard的名字命名。作者Watt告诉记者说“产生这种症状的人感觉到自己已经死了，而事实上还未到死亡边缘。这可能与创伤或某些疾病相关。目前还不清楚为什么人们会产生这样的症状，但是有一种解释是大脑在试图去了解病人的这些奇特经历。”

"This is relevant to NDEs because the near-death experience may also arise out of an attempt to interpret unusual physiological and psychological experiences, and the NDE includes the perception that one is not alive in the normal sense of the word."

“这也适用于解释濒死经历，因为试图去理解非正常的生理和心灵现象也会产生濒死经历；并且濒死经历包含着从一般意义上来说，人并不是存活的观念”。

Watt's research also busts another myth: that people have "returned from the dead" -- if by dead you mean clinical brain death.

Watt的研究还打破了人类会“起死回生”的说法。

No one has survived true clinical death (which is why the experiences are called near-death). Many people have been revived after their heart stopped for short periods of time -- around 20 minutes or more -- but anyone revived from brain death would be permanently and irreparably brain damaged and certainly unable to report their experiences.

没有人会在临床死亡（从身体状况判断为死亡的）后还能存活下来的（这就是为什么我们称之为濒死经历）。虽然有人在心跳停止大约20分钟左右后还会复苏，但对于经历了大脑死亡后又存活过来的人们来说，他们的大脑已经遭到了无法弥补的伤害，因而也很难描述自己的经历。

"The idea of surviving clinical brain death is mythical," Watt said. "NDEs are sometimes reported after a person experiences some of the preliminary 'stages' of death -- for instance, when the heart stops beating for a while and the person is then revived. I think it's curious, however, that a survey has shown that 82 percent of individuals who have survived being actually near death do not report a near-death experience. That would seem to undermine the idea that these experiences give a glimpse into life after death."

“临床大脑死亡后仍继续存活的想法是无法实现的，”Watt说。“濒死经历有时是由人们经历了一些所谓的“死亡前期征兆”后才作出的描述，例如，当某人心跳停止跳动了一会儿后又复苏了。但一项调查显示，82%的曾经临近死亡的而继续存活的人们没有过上述的濒死经历。这似乎会彻底打消死后还会产生一些奇特经历的观点。”

Watt believes that near-death experiences hold an enduring fascination for people because they like the idea that humans survive bodily death.

他坚信这些濒死经历对人们有持久的吸引力，因为人们津津乐道于人类死后灵魂不灭之说。

"Some people find this a comforting idea," Watt said, "because it suggests we are not simply like other biological organisms on our planet."

“这个观点会让人们感到欣慰”，Watt说道，“它意味着人类没有像其他物种一样只是简单

的生活在这个地球上。”

The fact that near-death experiences can be chemically induced and explained by neurological mechanisms suggests a natural -- instead of supernatural -- cause.

濒死经历可能由化学引起，并且可以从神经病学理论来解释。由此看来这只是一个自然的缘故，而非超自然的现象。