My dad had a moment of terminal lucidity---*by far* his most lucid moment in those last days---when the priest arrived for confession and last rites. It might have started just before the priest arrived. Praise God!
This happened with my dad 3 weeks before he passed. He had Alzheimer’s disease and a recent head injury. I was holding his hand and said “I love you “. To my surprise, he looked me in the eyes and said, “ I love you too. You are a big girl now”. Tears came streaming down my face. Then he asked to see my mom. I brought my mom to his bed. He couldn’t walk any more. It was her birthday. He kissed my mom’s hand and tried to sing Happy Birthday to her. After that , he said he wanted to see Daddy. His dad died when he was only 4 years old.
My mom died from severe chronic alcoholism after years of drugs and drinking. She was in horrible shape when she died, after I made the decision to remove her breathing tubes that were keeping her alive. She never had terminal lucidity and never “woke up”. However, as she died and my aunt played some of her favorite music, her face changed to a sad look and single tear rolled down her cheek. 💔 I miss her everyday despite her faults. She was the best mom she could be with the life she grew up in.
My mom is a doctor and told me about this phenomenon many years ago. I believe she even had personal experience with it. Been known for awhile, I think. Hadn't drawn out the implications for the soul though.
I have heard of this kind of event anecdotally over the years from friends and loved ones. I look forward to this show every week! This episode in no way disappointed. Excellent work, as always, Jimmy and Dom. Praying for grace over Dom in the loss of his mom last year, and for healing there. I also lost my mom to dementia years ago, and there was no terminal lucidity event that I am aware of. May God and His Son the Christ richly bless your work, and the Holy Spirit enfuse you with the power of the Father's will and purpose. (And nothing says you (and we listeners) can't have a great time doing it!)
My uncle was a cancer fighter at a young age. He was only in his 30s when a deep brain tumor took him. We watched as, over a period of a few months, how the tumor shut down his ability to eat, speak, as well as all other basic motor functions. My stepmother stayed with him on the night before his passing. When she was heading for the door my uncle very clearly uttered "I love you" to my stepmother. This was the first time he had spoken in months and the last words he would ever speak before passing later that day. This happened in 1998. And I have heard similar stories since. My grandmother didn't have a mental condition, she was fully lucid to the end, but the last time I saw her in the hospital I gave her one more hug and goodbye before leaving. She said to me that it would be the last time we would see each other. Trying to keep a positive outlook, I said that we don't know that for sure. Later that night she fell into a coma and passed within the next 24 hours. That was in 2019 just before COVID (NOT the cause of her passing). I've always found this topic very interesting and have always felt some sort of divine intervention for this moment of clarity before passing. I've felt that way even years before finding Christ. Truly remarkable and should be appreciated in its fullest when/if it occurs.
Condolences to Dom and his family. I would offer comfort in the possibility that your Mom had said what was needed when needed, and that God knew your faith would sustain you without need of the extraordinary. May she rest in peace in the glory of the Lord. I have two anecdotes that I'll post in separate comments, as both are long.
My grandma’s health started going down and her depression really kicked in when I was in my late teens, which was really hard for me. I loved her, but often felt a bit of anger towards her out of jealously that she couldn’t and sometimes didn’t do things she did with my older brother and cousins. It seems harsh, but it really stunk that a person I loved my whole life suddenly stopped being a part of it while others I knew got to have those memories with her. My parents would bring her to the house, and sometimes she wouldn’t do anything but sit there with a sad expression, ignoring us sometimes, and wait for my aunt to take her back home. I harbored that resentment for a while, hiding it from my family even to this day because I felt like such a jerk for thinking that. Fast forward to her final months where she was placed in a care facility after going through numerous surgeries, treatments, and other health scares. I had seen her after a pretty bad health scare, so didn’t go see her for a while because I wasn’t ready yet to say goodbye. And when I did see her at the center, it just made me more sad because she wasn’t the energetic lady I remember her as. Not sure if she had dementia or Alzheimer's at that time, but I do remember during one of my final visits to her that she seemed to have a positive radiance to her. She still looked pretty bad, but she also seemed more alert and engaged and she smiled at us just the way I remembered. On that visit, all of my negative emotions towards her faded away and I was able to finally be around her without feeling confused and guilty again. She passed away a week or so later, and her funeral mass ended up falling on Valentine’s Day. It was strange timing for sure, but I know by that point I had made my peace with her and was able to get through the service by remembering the good memories and her final smile, rather than dwelling on the dark and terrible moments. Not sure if her children caught her in a TL state or even if I did during my last visit to her, but I hope and pray other people have that chance when their loved one is about to pass. It doesn’t decrease the pain of course, but it does make it easier to bear. And I like to offer a Divine Mercy sometimes for people who didn’t have a TL moment and the loved ones they left behind.
On a more light-hearted note: the opening segment about where ideas and thoughts come from had me thinking of a scene from the movie “The Croods” 😂 “Where do you get these ideas?” ‘I’m calling it… a brain. I’m pretty sure this is where ideas come from.’ 😁 ‘’… Dad, I don’t have a brain.’’ 😨
Thank you for doing this episode. I think it's important to know. I'm an EMHC at my parish and take communion once a month to a nursing home. (Other EMHC's alternate to have coverage every Sunday). On the list I am given there are often a few people that have a "prayer only" note next to their name. Indicating they are not able to receive communion for various reasons. There are sometimes a couple of those who are in a comma or not able to speak. They might not appear to even be aware when I am there. I still say an audible prayer before checking the list and moving on. I do this because I believe in the power of prayer but assume they have no idea that I am there or prayer was said. Perhaps I am wrong, maybe they know and it matters more than I thought.
My grandmother who passed at the age of 99 was lucid until a few short years before breaking a hip and slowly declined. Towards the end a bit of dementia also set in. A couple days before she passed she related how her husband (who had died early in life) had come and sat in the chair beside her. She quickly stated “but we didn’t do anything” as in an intimate event. She also told of wild stories and one was of how the church bishop gave her a black box filled with money. My sister said quietly that when she passes, she going looking for that black box! Lol. No black box was ever found. LOVE your videos Jimmy!
# 2 of 2 anecdotes that I'm posting separately. This one is, I think, the paradoxical lucidity variety. Background: Dad had worked with a certain man whose nephew then worked with my brother, all at the same company. The nephew had guardianship of his mother who had dementia (I'm not sure if she's still alive). His Mom and Dad had retired to Arizona, but after his Dad died and his Mom's dementia grew worse, he and his wife brought her to live with them. The dementia continued to worsen until at the time this anecdote occurred, she was unable to speak more than 2 words at a time. My Dad died in a nursing home in 2021. My brother held Dad in his arms as Dad took his final breath. My brother said that upon exhaling his last breath, Dad opened his eyes, looking at my brother, smiling, and Dad's eyes were "so blue, so bright." Then my brother saw Dad leap up out of the bed, transformed into a vibrant young, healthy man... and then Dad was gone. My brother was still holding Dad's remains in his arms. Our sister was holding Dad's hand on the other side of the bed, but didn't see the vision. So my brother was confused and perplexed. He didn't know what to make of it. (Incidentally, at the time of the vision, I was home, heading to the door to go be with Dad, when I was compelled to stop and pray to St. Joseph on Dad's behalf, the prayer that describes St. Joseph holding the sleeping Holy Infant in his arms, and ends with the request, "Kiss his fine head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath." I didn't know Dad died at that moment, but the next text I sent right after praying that was time stamped one minute after the time of death, my text of course saying I was on my way). My brother continued to be puzzled, confused, and perplexed by what he had seen. He told everybody about it through the next weeks. When he returned to work, he told his coworker, the nephew of the man who had worked with Dad. The nephew was stunned, and reported that at the very moment our Dad died, his mother was suddenly perfectly lucid, and began talking to him and his wife about the moment of her husband's death. He hadn't made it in time to see his Dad alive one last time, he was on his way in hopes of saying goodbye. And his Mom had never told him about his Dad's final moments. She was alone with her husband when he died, and she saw him transformed into a vibrant, young, healthy and beautiful man. He smiled at her, leapt out of the bed, and then he was gone, leaving only his remains. After recounting this experience, his Mom became nonverbal again, and he and his wife didn't know what to make of it. They didn't know if she was hallucinating or what. But when my brother shared the same experience, they both knew there was a connection. That's just a really bizarre coincidence if it's just a coincidence. It could happen to be just coincidence, and one day an apple could fly off a tree just naturally, going up instead of down.
My grandfather was brain dead in last week of life due to internal bleeding from a fall (he was on blood thinners). After having his last rites administered we allowed the medical staff to pull the plug. I always thought that meant immediate death. They told us that they would keep him comfortable but not give him any food or water, and that he would likely die from kidney failure in a short time. Days past while the hospital chaplain visited and prayed with him every so often. Eventually, those who were watching over him decided to leave him alone for a few minutes to go and get a coffee. When they came back he was departed. And it was not from kidney failure. He died peacefully. It was as if he was waiting for his loved ones to leave so that he wouldn't upset them in that moment of departure. I was so happy to hear about that and very grateful to the visiting priest.
My grandmother suffered from Alzheimers for many years before she passed. I'm unsure if she ever had any moments of terminal lucidity as she lived in Poland, but I'll have to ask my mother about it. Thank you for this episode Jimmy, I can see how special this would be for the families of loved ones suffering this awful disease.
As a CNA and an RN I have seen this multiple times in long term care facilities and memory care units. This is a commonly known phenomenon in those settings. It was also interesting to see how memory was affected in interesting ways allowing patients relive past experiences. I have seen this so many times.
Interesting discussion about the mind/body connection. And as the daughter of a woman with late stage dementia, this was particularly relevant to my current life. Thanks Dom and Jimmy
Thanks for the great episode, I was always curious about Terminal Lucidity. As a side note Conciousness is definetly a first principle and the best philosophical view is substance monism, which is that everything is mind. Everything is an image or experience had by your mind includeing your brain. What you call "matter" are images had by consciousness, to which we attach descriptions and concepts to explain them. This is an obvious point and the best person battling materialism today is Bernardo Kastrup, he has tons of videos and interviews on youtube.
Related to terminal lucidity, it sounds like people can get a sudden surge in energy at the end of life. Their cognitive ability never neccesarily diminished just their energy level and/or physical abilities. I was listening to anecedotes from hospice nurses and apperently things like obtaining basically superhuman hearing after hearing loss is known to occur. I believe my husbands cousin had this energy level surge before she passed. On a separate note, I spent some time with a few Alzheimer's/dementia patients over the course of a few months. One lady had a very poor memory. On her good days she could get along ok. On her bad days she would get very angry and try to hit people. She could walk, but not very well and she would try to get away without her walker. The only way to calm her down was to sing songs with her. At the snap of fingers she would cheer up and sing along with the song and as soon as the song ended she would get angry again. It was quite an interesting phenomenon. I've also witnessed how songs can help you remember things or help sooth people with autism. David from the bible enjoyed his music and music plays a role in our church service. I'd think an episode of the effects of music on the brain would be pretty interesting.
It sounds like a lot of people who work with the dying are familiar with terminal lucidity. I knew an RN who worked at a nursing home/assisted living, but he was only familiar with paradoxical lucidity. I think it would be interesting to include both kinds in a study and try to determine whether there is a greater chance of lucidity near death or if it is just a coincidence/confirmation bias that many happen near death.
"I do not know what her attitude toward paralyzed or disabled people was, but i assume that she surely had empathy with them and certainly no desire to beat them up" What an odd thing to say...
Howdy Jimmy. Are you guys trying something new with audio for this episode? The reading of the passages sounded off, other than Dom. Thanks again for another great episode.
Imagine if people were led to believe that their identity lies in their pencil and use of it and further imagine if people were tricked into believing that their human rights should be tied to their ability to use that pencil…
Watching him run for President gave me PTSD of when I had to take legal guardianship of my own father. It was traumatic, and fresh, having occurred in 2019.
Jimmy, there's this thing going around more and more on the internet, about ancient Chinese records from 2,000 years ago that detail Jesus's crucifixion and also the eclipse that happened at that hour. it all sounds like a big hoax to me, but the thing is gaining a lot of traction. i'd love an episode on that to once and for all determine whether it's true or a hoax.
Interesting that Mrs D was only described by people who knew her socially or professionally, not children or siblings or a spouse. I've known several cultured, well-mannered, "lovely" people who were absolute hell to the people who lived with them. You know the stereotype of the pillar of the church and community who turns out to be a horrific abuser behind closed doors? Maybe the REAL Mrs D finally came out in public when dementia turned off her filters. Maybe she was a violent abuser in private life and a lovely lady in public life. It has been known to happen. It would be interesting to know if someone who was really toxic and nasty before a brain disruption has a terminal lucidity moment of being his/her old evil self, instead of it being a touching encounter with a loving and beloved person.
I wondered that myself from experience. My aunt who was my guardian after my parents death was a horrible and physically abusive person to myself and my sister at home yet an angel in church and public. Suffering from dementia and in a nursing home whenever my sister and I would visit and often times feed her, as no other family members would because of their past history of her, she would always greet us with “go to h-ll”. For some reason the night before her death I was compelled to go to the nursing home after work around 9pm and they let me in. She was non responsive. I talked to her and reminded her that it was her birthday the next day, tucked her in and checked if her feet were warm enough and might need another blanket and found that they cold were becoming purple as a sign of her body shutting down. The next morning I told my sister of her feet and that we should go see her right off. We did and she died a short time later. She never had the lucid moment and remained non responsive but I hope there was possible internal lucidity that was given to her soul and that we forgave her for how we were treated growing up.
I have learned about the different theories/theologies of the soul, particularly the bipartite concept of the human person as body + soul/spirit (see Augustine and Aquinas), versus tripartite concept of the human person as body+soul+spirit (many Early Church Fathers, and St. John of the Cross). I think the tripartite concept is more accurate, as the soul is thought to contain the powers of the individual human mind, that which makes each person a unique and unrepeatable creation. In this, then yes, the brain filters information from the bodily senses that is fed to the mind. Sense information does get stored in neurological memory, and it is stored in multiple ways. Strangely, this redundancy actually helps speed up cognitive processing power, and damage to one or more of this stored information slows down or shuts down access to that information, but there is still information stored in the faculty of the soul called the memory. The other two faculties are the intellect and the will. So I suppose that the brain does "generate" some aspects of consciousness, but its not the only thing that does. Simultaneously, the spirit, pneuma or living breath of the person is feeding languageless spiritual informational into the mind, information that allows some communication with God. The spirit has its own spiritual senses, like imagination, intuition, etc. But of course, the ability for human language is limited to memory of the senses. Trying to convey spiritual information into human language is incredibly difficult without God's revealing Himself through the Church He established. Just think how much this understand allows us to see what injustice sin is to be able to sever the body from the soul and spirit with the knife of death. And how much we need the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ to heal this rift! So what I think is happening with terminal lucidity is that last firestorm of activity pumps up cognitive activity just enough to temporarily have access to the mind contained in the soul, allowing access to memories that were stored in a spiritual manner. It also has be thinking that there is a developmental process to faith. Yes, its a gift made possible by grace, but there could be impediments in the soul and brain that prevent an assent to faith. And sometimes it takes a special moment of professing belief or a miraculous conversion to heal this impediment. And certain patterns of thinking and sinful behaviors exacerbate disbelief and lack of faith. So sometimes people may not be able to believe except by their spirit part of themselves that they've lost connection to in their mind, but it is possible for that connection to be restored. And some people do choose to cut off that ability to believe and have faith. Just some of my thoughts on the subject.
My dad had a moment of terminal lucidity---*by far* his most lucid moment in those last days---when the priest arrived for confession and last rites. It might have started just before the priest arrived. Praise God!
This happened with my dad 3 weeks before he passed. He had Alzheimer’s disease and a recent head injury. I was holding his hand and said “I love you “. To my surprise, he looked me in the eyes and said, “ I love you too. You are a big girl now”. Tears came streaming down my face. Then he asked to see my mom. I brought my mom to his bed. He couldn’t walk any more. It was her birthday. He kissed my mom’s hand and tried to sing Happy Birthday to her. After that , he said he wanted to see Daddy. His dad died when he was only 4 years old.
My mom died from severe chronic alcoholism after years of drugs and drinking.
She was in horrible shape when she died, after I made the decision to remove her breathing tubes that were keeping her alive. She never had terminal lucidity and never “woke up”. However, as she died and my aunt played some of her favorite music, her face changed to a sad look and single tear rolled down her cheek. 💔
I miss her everyday despite her faults. She was the best mom she could be with the life she grew up in.
God bless you all! And may God give her the fullness of his peace!
@@JimmyAkin thank you jimmy 🙏❤️
As a RN of over forty years, I have seen TL many times! I worked in hospice for several years and this is pretty common.
My 95 yr old father has dementia. It is so hard to see the progression. We are fortunate that he still recognizes family.
My mom is a doctor and told me about this phenomenon many years ago. I believe she even had personal experience with it. Been known for awhile, I think. Hadn't drawn out the implications for the soul though.
I have heard of this kind of event anecdotally over the years from friends and loved ones. I look forward to this show every week! This episode in no way disappointed. Excellent work, as always, Jimmy and Dom. Praying for grace over Dom in the loss of his mom last year, and for healing there. I also lost my mom to dementia years ago, and there was no terminal lucidity event that I am aware of. May God and His Son the Christ richly bless your work, and the Holy Spirit enfuse you with the power of the Father's will and purpose. (And nothing says you (and we listeners) can't have a great time doing it!)
This is the best show on the Internet I absolutely love every episode
I agree! I am working my way through past episodes and can't wait for new episode Friday!
My uncle was a cancer fighter at a young age. He was only in his 30s when a deep brain tumor took him. We watched as, over a period of a few months, how the tumor shut down his ability to eat, speak, as well as all other basic motor functions. My stepmother stayed with him on the night before his passing. When she was heading for the door my uncle very clearly uttered "I love you" to my stepmother. This was the first time he had spoken in months and the last words he would ever speak before passing later that day. This happened in 1998. And I have heard similar stories since.
My grandmother didn't have a mental condition, she was fully lucid to the end, but the last time I saw her in the hospital I gave her one more hug and goodbye before leaving. She said to me that it would be the last time we would see each other. Trying to keep a positive outlook, I said that we don't know that for sure. Later that night she fell into a coma and passed within the next 24 hours. That was in 2019 just before COVID (NOT the cause of her passing).
I've always found this topic very interesting and have always felt some sort of divine intervention for this moment of clarity before passing. I've felt that way even years before finding Christ. Truly remarkable and should be appreciated in its fullest when/if it occurs.
Condolences to Dom and his family. I would offer comfort in the possibility that your Mom had said what was needed when needed, and that God knew your faith would sustain you without need of the extraordinary. May she rest in peace in the glory of the Lord.
I have two anecdotes that I'll post in separate comments, as both are long.
My grandma’s health started going down and her depression really kicked in when I was in my late teens, which was really hard for me. I loved her, but often felt a bit of anger towards her out of jealously that she couldn’t and sometimes didn’t do things she did with my older brother and cousins. It seems harsh, but it really stunk that a person I loved my whole life suddenly stopped being a part of it while others I knew got to have those memories with her. My parents would bring her to the house, and sometimes she wouldn’t do anything but sit there with a sad expression, ignoring us sometimes, and wait for my aunt to take her back home. I harbored that resentment for a while, hiding it from my family even to this day because I felt like such a jerk for thinking that.
Fast forward to her final months where she was placed in a care facility after going through numerous surgeries, treatments, and other health scares. I had seen her after a pretty bad health scare, so didn’t go see her for a while because I wasn’t ready yet to say goodbye. And when I did see her at the center, it just made me more sad because she wasn’t the energetic lady I remember her as.
Not sure if she had dementia or Alzheimer's at that time, but I do remember during one of my final visits to her that she seemed to have a positive radiance to her. She still looked pretty bad, but she also seemed more alert and engaged and she smiled at us just the way I remembered. On that visit, all of my negative emotions towards her faded away and I was able to finally be around her without feeling confused and guilty again.
She passed away a week or so later, and her funeral mass ended up falling on Valentine’s Day. It was strange timing for sure, but I know by that point I had made my peace with her and was able to get through the service by remembering the good memories and her final smile, rather than dwelling on the dark and terrible moments.
Not sure if her children caught her in a TL state or even if I did during my last visit to her, but I hope and pray other people have that chance when their loved one is about to pass. It doesn’t decrease the pain of course, but it does make it easier to bear. And I like to offer a Divine Mercy sometimes for people who didn’t have a TL moment and the loved ones they left behind.
On a more light-hearted note: the opening segment about where ideas and thoughts come from had me thinking of a scene from the movie “The Croods” 😂
“Where do you get these ideas?”
‘I’m calling it… a brain. I’m pretty sure this is where ideas come from.’ 😁
‘’… Dad, I don’t have a brain.’’ 😨
Thank you for doing this episode. I think it's important to know. I'm an EMHC at my parish and take communion once a month to a nursing home. (Other EMHC's alternate to have coverage every Sunday). On the list I am given there are often a few people that have a "prayer only" note next to their name. Indicating they are not able to receive communion for various reasons. There are sometimes a couple of those who are in a comma or not able to speak. They might not appear to even be aware when I am there. I still say an audible prayer before checking the list and moving on. I do this because I believe in the power of prayer but assume they have no idea that I am there or prayer was said. Perhaps I am wrong, maybe they know and it matters more than I thought.
It definitely matters!! Thank you
My grandmother who passed at the age of 99 was lucid until a few short years before breaking a hip and slowly declined. Towards the end a bit of dementia also set in. A couple days before she passed she related how her husband (who had died early in life) had come and sat in the chair beside her. She quickly stated “but we didn’t do anything” as in an intimate event. She also told of wild stories and one was of how the church bishop gave her a black box filled with money. My sister said quietly that when she passes, she going looking for that black box! Lol. No black box was ever found. LOVE your videos Jimmy!
I've been waiting for Jimmy to cover this one. It's one of the most underrated mysterious phenomonons
This happened with my grandpa. He was like his old self so I am glad I was there for it.
# 2 of 2 anecdotes that I'm posting separately. This one is, I think, the paradoxical lucidity variety. Background: Dad had worked with a certain man whose nephew then worked with my brother, all at the same company. The nephew had guardianship of his mother who had dementia (I'm not sure if she's still alive). His Mom and Dad had retired to Arizona, but after his Dad died and his Mom's dementia grew worse, he and his wife brought her to live with them. The dementia continued to worsen until at the time this anecdote occurred, she was unable to speak more than 2 words at a time.
My Dad died in a nursing home in 2021. My brother held Dad in his arms as Dad took his final breath. My brother said that upon exhaling his last breath, Dad opened his eyes, looking at my brother, smiling, and Dad's eyes were "so blue, so bright." Then my brother saw Dad leap up out of the bed, transformed into a vibrant young, healthy man... and then Dad was gone. My brother was still holding Dad's remains in his arms. Our sister was holding Dad's hand on the other side of the bed, but didn't see the vision. So my brother was confused and perplexed. He didn't know what to make of it. (Incidentally, at the time of the vision, I was home, heading to the door to go be with Dad, when I was compelled to stop and pray to St. Joseph on Dad's behalf, the prayer that describes St. Joseph holding the sleeping Holy Infant in his arms, and ends with the request, "Kiss his fine head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath." I didn't know Dad died at that moment, but the next text I sent right after praying that was time stamped one minute after the time of death, my text of course saying I was on my way).
My brother continued to be puzzled, confused, and perplexed by what he had seen. He told everybody about it through the next weeks. When he returned to work, he told his coworker, the nephew of the man who had worked with Dad. The nephew was stunned, and reported that at the very moment our Dad died, his mother was suddenly perfectly lucid, and began talking to him and his wife about the moment of her husband's death. He hadn't made it in time to see his Dad alive one last time, he was on his way in hopes of saying goodbye. And his Mom had never told him about his Dad's final moments. She was alone with her husband when he died, and she saw him transformed into a vibrant, young, healthy and beautiful man. He smiled at her, leapt out of the bed, and then he was gone, leaving only his remains.
After recounting this experience, his Mom became nonverbal again, and he and his wife didn't know what to make of it. They didn't know if she was hallucinating or what. But when my brother shared the same experience, they both knew there was a connection. That's just a really bizarre coincidence if it's just a coincidence. It could happen to be just coincidence, and one day an apple could fly off a tree just naturally, going up instead of down.
These podcasts are great Thank you
My grandfather was brain dead in last week of life due to internal bleeding from a fall (he was on blood thinners). After having his last rites administered we allowed the medical staff to pull the plug. I always thought that meant immediate death. They told us that they would keep him comfortable but not give him any food or water, and that he would likely die from kidney failure in a short time. Days past while the hospital chaplain visited and prayed with him every so often.
Eventually, those who were watching over him decided to leave him alone for a few minutes to go and get a coffee. When they came back he was departed. And it was not from kidney failure. He died peacefully. It was as if he was waiting for his loved ones to leave so that he wouldn't upset them in that moment of departure. I was so happy to hear about that and very grateful to the visiting priest.
My grandmother suffered from Alzheimers for many years before she passed. I'm unsure if she ever had any moments of terminal lucidity as she lived in Poland, but I'll have to ask my mother about it. Thank you for this episode Jimmy, I can see how special this would be for the families of loved ones suffering this awful disease.
As a CNA and an RN I have seen this multiple times in long term care facilities and memory care units. This is a commonly known phenomenon in those settings. It was also interesting to see how memory was affected in interesting ways allowing patients relive past experiences. I have seen this so many times.
Interesting discussion about the mind/body connection. And as the daughter of a woman with late stage dementia, this was particularly relevant to my current life. Thanks Dom and Jimmy
I believe our understanding of this phenomenon will usher in the cure for dementia.
Cue the hospice nurses - we have seen many, many cases of this.
Wonderful episode, the story about Kathe brought tears to my eyes just hearing about it. God bless you both
My wife worked at a long term care facility and she said she has seen it happen she says it happens 24 hrs before they die
Thanks for the great episode, I was always curious about Terminal Lucidity. As a side note Conciousness is definetly a first principle and the best philosophical view is substance monism, which is that everything is mind. Everything is an image or experience had by your mind includeing your brain. What you call "matter" are images had by consciousness, to which we attach descriptions and concepts to explain them. This is an obvious point and the best person battling materialism today is Bernardo Kastrup, he has tons of videos and interviews on youtube.
As an ICU nurse- we do see this- it is not the majority by any means, however, it does occur.
as usual, EXCELLENT episode!
My Grandmother had this experience a few months before she died
Related to terminal lucidity, it sounds like people can get a sudden surge in energy at the end of life. Their cognitive ability never neccesarily diminished just their energy level and/or physical abilities. I was listening to anecedotes from hospice nurses and apperently things like obtaining basically superhuman hearing after hearing loss is known to occur.
I believe my husbands cousin had this energy level surge before she passed.
On a separate note, I spent some time with a few Alzheimer's/dementia patients over the course of a few months. One lady had a very poor memory. On her good days she could get along ok. On her bad days she would get very angry and try to hit people. She could walk, but not very well and she would try to get away without her walker. The only way to calm her down was to sing songs with her. At the snap of fingers she would cheer up and sing along with the song and as soon as the song ended she would get angry again. It was quite an interesting phenomenon.
I've also witnessed how songs can help you remember things or help sooth people with autism. David from the bible enjoyed his music and music plays a role in our church service. I'd think an episode of the effects of music on the brain would be pretty interesting.
Very interesting topic - thank you for the great episode!
Great episode, thanks. I think this and the announcing dream episode are some of the best.
It sounds like a lot of people who work with the dying are familiar with terminal lucidity. I knew an RN who worked at a nursing home/assisted living, but he was only familiar with paradoxical lucidity. I think it would be interesting to include both kinds in a study and try to determine whether there is a greater chance of lucidity near death or if it is just a coincidence/confirmation bias that many happen near death.
Great podcast. TL is such a blessing allowing loved ones to say goodbye. Great VO work! Really made the experiences come through to the listener.
Great episode Jimmy! This is fascinating stuff! Thank you!!
Fascinating subject.
TL is reminiscent of the Canticle of Zacarias: "He shines on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death."
"I do not know what her attitude toward paralyzed or disabled people was, but i assume that she surely had empathy with them and certainly no desire to beat them up"
What an odd thing to say...
Howdy Jimmy. Are you guys trying something new with audio for this episode? The reading of the passages sounded off, other than Dom. Thanks again for another great episode.
We are currently experimenting with additional readers for the voice work on read passages. Thank you for your feedback! God bless you!
Thx nice episode!
I have read one of the biggest problem with substance dualism is the interaction problem.
Imagine if people were led to believe that their identity lies in their pencil and use of it and further imagine if people were tricked into believing that their human rights should be tied to their ability to use that pencil…
Is that "Hide the pain Harold" in the thumbnail?
No it's hide the dementia donald
I'm from China, almost everybody knows about TL. I'm surprised it is not widely known in the west.
If Biden ever start making sense again you know what's up
😂 That's wild
LOL.... hilarious
Watching him run for President gave me PTSD of when I had to take legal guardianship of my own father. It was traumatic, and fresh, having occurred in 2019.
Good one! 😂
😂
Jimmy, there's this thing going around more and more on the internet, about ancient Chinese records from 2,000 years ago that detail Jesus's crucifixion and also the eclipse that happened at that hour. it all sounds like a big hoax to me, but the thing is gaining a lot of traction. i'd love an episode on that to once and for all determine whether it's true or a hoax.
What's that?
Interesting that Mrs D was only described by people who knew her socially or professionally, not children or siblings or a spouse. I've known several cultured, well-mannered, "lovely" people who were absolute hell to the people who lived with them. You know the stereotype of the pillar of the church and community who turns out to be a horrific abuser behind closed doors? Maybe the REAL Mrs D finally came out in public when dementia turned off her filters. Maybe she was a violent abuser in private life and a lovely lady in public life. It has been known to happen. It would be interesting to know if someone who was really toxic and nasty before a brain disruption has a terminal lucidity moment of being his/her old evil self, instead of it being a touching encounter with a loving and beloved person.
I wondered that myself from experience. My aunt who was my guardian after my parents death was a horrible and physically abusive person to myself and my sister at home yet an angel in church and public. Suffering from dementia and in a nursing home whenever my sister and I would visit and often times feed her, as no other family members would because of their past history of her, she would always greet us with “go to h-ll”. For some reason the night before her death I was compelled to go to the nursing home after work around 9pm and they let me in. She was non responsive. I talked to her and reminded her that it was her birthday the next day, tucked her in and checked if her feet were warm enough and might need another blanket and found that they cold were becoming purple as a sign of her body shutting down. The next morning I told my sister of her feet and that we should go see her right off. We did and she died a short time later. She never had the lucid moment and remained non responsive but I hope there was possible internal lucidity that was given to her soul and that we forgave her for how we were treated growing up.
It's like God gives some souls the opportunity to "possess" their own body for a time before death.
I have learned about the different theories/theologies of the soul, particularly the bipartite concept of the human person as body + soul/spirit (see Augustine and Aquinas), versus tripartite concept of the human person as body+soul+spirit (many Early Church Fathers, and St. John of the Cross).
I think the tripartite concept is more accurate, as the soul is thought to contain the powers of the individual human mind, that which makes each person a unique and unrepeatable creation. In this, then yes, the brain filters information from the bodily senses that is fed to the mind. Sense information does get stored in neurological memory, and it is stored in multiple ways. Strangely, this redundancy actually helps speed up cognitive processing power, and damage to one or more of this stored information slows down or shuts down access to that information, but there is still information stored in the faculty of the soul called the memory. The other two faculties are the intellect and the will. So I suppose that the brain does "generate" some aspects of consciousness, but its not the only thing that does.
Simultaneously, the spirit, pneuma or living breath of the person is feeding languageless spiritual informational into the mind, information that allows some communication with God. The spirit has its own spiritual senses, like imagination, intuition, etc. But of course, the ability for human language is limited to memory of the senses. Trying to convey spiritual information into human language is incredibly difficult without God's revealing Himself through the Church He established.
Just think how much this understand allows us to see what injustice sin is to be able to sever the body from the soul and spirit with the knife of death. And how much we need the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ to heal this rift!
So what I think is happening with terminal lucidity is that last firestorm of activity pumps up cognitive activity just enough to temporarily have access to the mind contained in the soul, allowing access to memories that were stored in a spiritual manner.
It also has be thinking that there is a developmental process to faith. Yes, its a gift made possible by grace, but there could be impediments in the soul and brain that prevent an assent to faith. And sometimes it takes a special moment of professing belief or a miraculous conversion to heal this impediment. And certain patterns of thinking and sinful behaviors exacerbate disbelief and lack of faith. So sometimes people may not be able to believe except by their spirit part of themselves that they've lost connection to in their mind, but it is possible for that connection to be restored. And some people do choose to cut off that ability to believe and have faith.
Just some of my thoughts on the subject.