What's It Like To Die? 5 Creepy Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

It's interesting to know how our body reacts after our heart stops beating and normal bodily functions cease. Within as little as 24 to 48 hours after death, your internal organs will begin to decompose.

Decomposition after death, also known as autolysis takes place. Gases like oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other waste material can’t escape from the body and an acidic environment is created. The cell membranes begin to rupture because it is filled with enzymes, and your body begins to eat itself from inside out.

After that, the body gets doubled in size and gives out a strong odor due to decomposition. Insects that may be present, start to feed on the body. Slowly the organs, muscles, and tissues liquefy, and eventually, a skeleton remains.

You must have come across stories of people who were supposedly dead coming back to life and speaking of their “near-death” experiences. 

Evidence suggests that people who go through near-death experiences are aware when they have had a heart attack and are being resuscitated. This means that even though their heart is not beating, the brain is still conscious. So they can hear what people are saying around them.

From the scientific view, when a person dies and the heart stops beating, it naturally stops pumping blood to the brain. The brain slowly shuts down, but this could take anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours. 

This seems like supernatural forces are preventing dead human bodies from decaying, but surprisingly “corpse wax," or "soap mummy" is a term that is used to describe a natural phenomenon.

This happens when the body cannot decompose because of the lack of oxygen and proper soil. This is exemplified in Germany's problem of corpses that don't decompose. 

When a body is placed in soil that has a lot of moisture, the oxygen that is present in the soil will help the bacteria in the body to break down tissues, skin, and blood. But sometimes, a body is buried in an environment where it can be preserved for hundreds of years. 

This is because of a process known as hydrolysis in which the fat molecules are divided by water molecules and then recombined. Another process, known as hydrogenation aids in the waxy layer over the body. This is when hydrogen combines with fat molecules, making them even harder. These two processes seal off the body and protect it for a long time.

Yep! It’s strange but true. 

Research has shown that right-handed people live much longer lives (as much as nine years longer) than left-handed people. This is mainly because most people in the world are right-handed and man-made things in the world are built for right-handed people. 

For instance, cars are built suited for right-handers and left-handed people are victims of more number of accidents. Other than this studies and research also proves that left-handed people are more susceptible to immunity and neurological problems. 

American scientists, Stanley Coren and Diane Halpern published reports in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature supporting this view.

A creepy but rather accurate way to determine the time of death, or also how the death occurred, is the use of forensic entomology. Forensic scientists and crime scene investigators are experts in evaluating how long a person has died by taking a look at what type of insect settles itself on the body. They will also take a look at the life stages of the insect.

To get a better understanding, consider these examples. Certain insects like blowflies look for decomposing bodies so that they can lay their eggs on them. They will typically look for an open wound or orifices and lay their eggs in that spot. Then the larva, or maggot, feeds on the decomposing corpse. This turns into a pupa and then into an adult.

So, scientists know that at a given temperature, the eggs will take a certain number of hours to develop. By looking at what stage the egg development is at, they can determine the hour of death. However, weather and temperature is a factor that can alter the investigation.