#YOUR LIFE FLASHES BEFORE YOUR EYES SERIES#

But modern physics has cast doubt on this simple linear view of time. Our commonsense view of time is as an arrow that moves from the past through the present towards the future, in which we only have direct access to the present. And none of these theories explain how it's possible for such a vast amount of information-in many cases, all the events of a person's life-to manifest themselves in a period of a few seconds, and often far less.Īn alternative explanation is to think of time in a 'spatial' sense. This could be related to ' cortical disinhibition'-a breaking down of the normal regulatory processes of the brain-in highly stressful or dangerous situations, causing a 'cascade' of mental impressions.īut the life review is usually reported as a serene and ordered experience, completely unlike the kind of chaotic cascade of experiences associated with cortical disinhibition. Credit: Richard Kaby/wikimedia, CC BYĪnother theory is that, when we're close to death, our memories suddenly 'unload' themselves, like the contents of a skip being dumped.

#YOUR LIFE FLASHES BEFORE YOUR EYES SERIES#

In some cases, people don't see a review of their whole lives, but a series of past experiences and events that have special significance to them. In the minutes after the accident, she hovered on the brink of death where, as she describes it: 'my life was flashing before my eyes, flickering through every scene, every happy and sad moment, everything I have ever done, said, experienced.' More recently, in July 2005, a young woman called Gill Hicks was sitting near one of the bombs that exploded on the London Underground. In his account of the fall, he wrote is was 'as if on a distant stage, my whole past life playing itself out in numerous scenes.' In 1892, a Swiss geologist named Albert Heim fell from a precipice while mountain climbing. The experience of life flashing before one's eyes has been reported for well over a century. After all, this is where the phrase 'my life flashed before my eyes' comes from.īut what explains this phenomenon? Psychologists have proposed a number of explanations, but I'd argue the key to understanding Tony's experience lies in a different interpretation of time itself. Though Tony's belief that he saw into his future is uncommon, it's by no means uncommon for people to report witnessing multiple scenes from their past during split-second emergency situations.

Now, Tony Kofi is one of the UK's most successful jazz musicians, having won the BBC Jazz awards twice, in 20. He used his compensation money from the accident to buy one. Later, Tony saw a picture of a saxophone and recognized it as the instrument he'd seen himself playing. He felt that he was 'being shown something' and that the images represented his future. Over the following weeks, the images kept flashing back into his mind. When he came to at the hospital, he felt like a different person and didn't want to return to his previous life. The thing that really stuck in my mind was playing an instrument.' Then Tony landed on his head and lost consciousness.

As he described it, 'In my mind's eye I saw many, many things: children that I hadn't even had yet, friends that I had never seen but are now my friends.

Your life flashes before your eyes