'The Clouds Cleared': What Terminal Lucidity Teaches Us About Life, Death and Dementia

[jmyrlefuller]

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-clouds-cleared-what-terminal-lucidity-teaches-us-about-life-death-and-dementia

Kay Porterfield believes this was a case of terminal lucidity, a phenomenon in which people whose brains have not functioned properly for significant periods of time – often many years, and mostly because of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia – suddenly regain cognition and interact with coherence. Responses might range from wordless but emotional exchanges to substantial memory recovery. The person then dies within a handful of days, if not hours.

It’s an experience the German biologist Michael Nahm brought to prominence in 2009, after learning about it from 18th- and 19th-century medical case reports. He published an article about it and coined the term “terminal lucidity”. Yet despite growing interest and some research (involving surveys and questionnaires) over the past decade, we’re no closer to knowing what causes it. Now, however, scientists hope a group of studies will change that.

[Wingnut]

Silent Lucidity


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhat-xUQ6dw

[Skull]

Cannot recall the exact source, but in my study of Eastern thought it was mentioned that the body's brain has a auric non-flesh part.  That subtle brain can still function by receiving the equally non-physical mind's thoughts, which had been blocked by the damaged flesh brain. Close to the body's death the lucidity happens, for a few hours or days.

[Ghost Bear]

Bookmarking for now... I may have more to say later.

[BassWrangler]

Fascinating. I had not heard of this.

[mountaineer]

My father's decline from early onset dementia (Lewy body variant) was fairly rapid. He was in a nursing home the last six months of his life, and his utter confusion and helplessness were palpable. He lost the ability to walk, feed himself and converse. He rarely seemed to recognize his wife of 45 years, my mother, but one time looked right at her, called her "sweetie" and told her he loved her. He died a month or two later.

Incidentally, I see many similarities between his behavior and that of our ersatz president.

[goatprairie]

My father's decline from early onset dementia (Lewy body variant) was fairly rapid. He was in a nursing home the last six months of his life, and his utter confusion and helplessness were palpable. He lost the ability to walk, feed himself and converse. He rarely seemed to recognize his wife of 45 years, my mother, but one time looked right at her, called her "sweetie" and told her he loved her. He died a month or two later.

Incidentally, I see many similarities between his behavior and that of our ersatz president.

My mother suffered from dementia the last six months of her life. When my wife and I traveled to Texas to visit her in the nursing home, it was pretty clear she had lost her mind. But she still recognized me and the wife and was able to converse somewhat.
I did not think she was near death or suffering from a some physical problem other than her loss of mental faculties.
The next month she was dead. I don't know the exact cause, but she didn't last long after we saw her.

[jmyrlefuller]

@mountaineer
I know you've been vocal about how people you know have had dementia and how it's affected you, so I figured you'd take an interest in this article.

[mountaineer]

Thanks, J.