Firefighter here. I was reflecting on a fatality I attended recently. My thoughts wandered to how a body looks like it is ‘just matter’ in a way that a living thing does not, even when sleeping. Previously I assumed this observation was just something to do with traumatic death, but this person seemed to have died peacefully and the same, ‘absence’ of something was obvious.

I’m not a religious person, but it made me wonder if there actually is something that ‘leaves’ when someone dies (beyond the obvious breathing, pulse etc).

I’m not looking for a ‘my holy book says’, kind of discussion here, but rather a reflection on the direct, lived experiences of people who see death regularly.

  • Kalash@feddit.ch
    14·
    1 year ago

    Of course no one knows what happens to the electrical energy in a human upon death… but, it definitely leaves the body.

    Of course we know.

    Cells create electric potential by pumping different kind of ions in or out of the cell. That requires ATP which is produced during metabolism. If you’re dead your cells stop producing ATP and everything, including the ion pumps, stop working. So no more electricity.

    It doesn’t “leave” the body. The body stops generating it.