Death the word is enough to make any living thing afraid despite being one of the most unavoidable characteristics of living things. Researches have shown that humans are not afraid of the word death itself but rather the many rising questions that accompany which includes if it's painful to die and what really happens after we die.
Both science and religion have failed success at trying to solve the mystery of death
The physical aspect of death
Science has done a good job of explaining what happens to the body after we die. Death doesn't happen when the heart stops rather, the heart stopping is the first process of death as the rest of the body starts to die soon after.
The body becomes pale due to the lack of blood circulation as the heart stops beating, this is known as "Livor Mortis" and this continues till about 12 hours after death as the blood settles to the parts of the body exposed to pressure, this causes discolouration .
A second stage known as "Algor Mortis" where the body's temperature starts to get cold depending on room temperature due to its inability to regulate it's internal temperature, this usually starts about 30 minutes after death.
This is followed by "Rigor Mortis"a process whereby the muscles become tense and stiff. This is caused by chemical changes in the muscles after death. This starts about 2 hours after death and last for about 48 hours.
After the stage of Rigor Mortis the process of decomposition starts which includes putrefaction and liquefication. These takes months to years depending on the body's location which can also lead to natural mummification.
What happens to the consciousness/soul
There are many religious views and myths about what happens to the consciousness after death. Most religions believe there will be a paradise or hell after death, some also believe there will be a purgatory. Despite having the same view on paradise and hell, some religions believe a person's soul also sleeps or roams as a ghost and goes to paradise or hell at the last day while others believes it happens immediately after death.
Due to the recent studies which shows that a person can be conscious for certain minutes after death, some have been made to believe that after death, the consciousness of a person will be trapped in the body (this would be scary).
Some others believes such as reincarnation which means that after death a person's soul could come back in form of another person or animal widely exists though mainly by Hindus and Buddhists.
Many also believe that death is the ultimate end of a person's consciousness.
Despite the many beliefs on what happens to the consciousness after we die, it remains unknown what really happens. The mystery of life after death is one that we can never know until we ourselves have a taste of death.
