What happens when You die?

What happens when you eventually pass away, so to speak? Despite our primarily scientifically based views on mortality these days, it appears that many of us believe in life after death.

The Telegraph interviewed UK citizens in 2014, and just under 60% of respondents stated they believe some part of us lives on. In the United States, which is still predominantly Christian, Pew Research questioned individuals in 2015 what happens when you die. According to the survey, 72 percent of Americans believe in heaven, which is described as a place "where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded." 54 percent of adults in the United States said they believed in hell, which was defined as a place "where people who have led bad lives and die without being sorry are eternally punished." With that in mind, please join us for this edition of the Infographics Show.

What happens after you pass away? Many people seem to believe that after death, we will be ensconced in some cloud-strewn paradise, or that if we haven't followed the ethics prescribed to us by our chosen religion or denomination of that religion, we will be faced with eternal hellfire and the prospect of groveling to a bearded red man who never puts down his pitchfork. But first, some empirical realities about what happens to our bodies when we die. Doctors can tell you're dead because your heart stops beating and there's no electrical activity in your brain. Brain death is the same as death, albeit machines can keep you alive for a little while longer. You can potentially die from cardiac arrest, which occurs when your heart stops beating and no blood flows through your body. The weird, even amazing, part is that people who have died from cardiac arrest but have been resurrected have stated that they were aware of what was going on around them. Others have spoken of heading towards a light after having a near-death experience. You can be brought back from what is known as clinical death, but only for around 4-6 minutes. But suppose you get to the light and pass through; this is what we call biological death - the final whistle, dead as a dodo. This is where things becomes a little unsanitary, but who cares, you're dead. When you're no longer with us, your muscles relax, and your sphincter relaxes as well, causing the triple Whopper and large fires you had for lunch to stream out of you - the gas you're carrying may also leak out and produce a stink. The same is true for the urine in your bladder, therefore dying is, predictably, a nasty process. Men, you may even ejaculate. If you were pregnant when you died, you could give birth after you died, which is known as "coffin birth." It doesn't happen very often, however. Instead of pushing, the infant is brought into the world by the gases in the abdomen. Noises may be made from your mouth as air exits as your body expels what is trapped inside. Nurses and others who work around dead bodies have frequently reported hearing very alive-sounding moans and groans coming from them. You may twitch, but this does not indicate that you are alive; they are simply muscular contractions. If you died lying on your stomach and the blood ran down there, you might acquire an erection rather quickly. All of your blood will congregate in one place of your body. This is known as "livor mortis," and it is the cause of the dark purple tint you've seen on TV. These are the wonderful things that can happen quickly after you leave. When there is no blood circulating through your body, it begins to cool, a condition known as "algor mortis," or simply "death chill." It will continue to cool until it reaches the temperature of your surroundings. Within 2-6 hours, you will become stiff, which is known as "rigor mortis." This is due to calcium entering your muscle cells. Without blood flow, cells degrade, allowing bacteria to proliferate and causing you to decay. You may appear to have grown your hair or nails, but this is not the case. What's going on is that your skin is receding, providing the appearance of growth. The skin will also loosen, and blisters will form on the body.

Putrefaction occurs next, when bacteria and germs begin to feast on you. You'll soon smell as terrible as anything you could have imagined while living. "Rotten eggs, feces, and a used toilet left out for a month x 1000," one individual said. It is sinful." Everything soft quickly liquefies, except bones, cartilage, and hair, which remain firm. You're already well on your way to decomposing by the time you're buried. However, if the body is embalmed and buried, decomposition may take a long time. If you're left above ground for a month, you'll be a liquid mess devoured by insects, maggots, plants, and animals. Some specialists believe it will take 8-12 years underground until you are reduced to nothing more than a skeleton. Even your bones will become a part of the Earth after about 50 years. We should add that the pace of decomposition is affected by a variety of factors, far too numerous to discuss here. While some people claim that their near-death experience was spectacular, this is not always the case. One Reddit user described his experience as follows: "It was just black emptiness." "There are no thoughts, no consciousness, nothing." As many religions will tell you, French philosopher Rene Descartes (Renee Day-cart) felt the soul was separate from the body and that when we die, something remains on. Friedrich Nietzsche discussed the concept of endless recurrence, or eternal return, which means that all existence or energy in the universe has and will continue to repeat itself indefinitely. You live the same life over and over again indefinitely. Doesn't that make you want to live a good life? We can draw parallels with the Buddhist notion of the "Wheel of Samsara," in which all souls, lives, will begin a cycle again after death, but not the same exact existence. Some individuals believe that reincarnation is related to what we sometimes refer to as deja vu. Buddhists believe that only by being genuinely enlightened, and so gaining nirvana, can we break the cycle. Or do we make our way to heaven after our bodies cease working, tipping our hats to St. Peter at the Pearly Gates and hoping he doesn't turn us away for stealing that candy bar on a school trip to Niagara Falls? Will we be transported to paradise, a place brimming with delicious meals and attractive maidens who make your lifeless knees weak? Or will we merely seed the Earth, our souls nothing more than a worldly fantasy that diverted our attention away from our cosmic insignificance and the sense of futility that we occasionally feel here on Tera-firma? We can't tell you anything, but we'd love to hear your thoughts.