October 10, 2025 • 9 mins
Dr. Ajmal Zemmar and Kentucky to the World present ECHOES OF LIFE, Thursday, October 16 at the Kentucky Science Center. "Lessons from the Dying Brain" is the topic where neurosurgeon Zemmar discusses brain activity at the time of death.
On WHAS Radio today, Dr. Zemmar and Terry Meiners discuss the "movie of your life" that plays in a person's mind even after the human heart ceases activity. Dr. Zemmar encourages everyone to "be the director of your own movie" in the remaining time you have remaining on earth.
On WHAS Radio today, Dr. Zemmar and Terry Meiners discuss the "movie of your life" that plays in a person's mind even after the human heart ceases activity. Dr. Zemmar encourages everyone to "be the director of your own movie" in the remaining time you have remaining on earth.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're a news radio eight forty whs Terry Miners here.
There's going to be a fascinating conversation next Thursday night
at the Kentucky Science Center on West Main Street. My friend,
I got to call him by his official name, Doctor
AJ Miles Zemmer is with me in the studio, but
I call him Aj. It's good to see again.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Bud, very nice to see him a friend.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, you've always fascinated me. I know what a smart
guy you are. You're a neuroscientist. But this talk you're
going to give on behalf of Kentucky to the world
fascinates me because it has to do with the brain
and dying.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yes, So in twenty twenty two, can't believe it's three
and a half years ago now, we published this article
that showed we have a replay of life at the
time of death. We recorded the brain waves that are
responsible for eliciting memories thirty seconds after the hearts up beating,
(01:01):
and so that suggested that we have a replay of life,
and today we're looking at that from a different angle.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
That's fascinating in that we hear these stories about people
who return, you know, they die on the table, let's say,
and then they come back, and then they start telling
these tales about what they saw or whatever. But you're
talking about someone's own life story.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
So what we know is there's about twelve thousand recorded
and reported cases of so called near death survivors. Those
are people you're referring to. They basically have a near
death experience and then they come back. What these twelve
thousand cases tell us is not twelve thousand different things.
(01:46):
They tell us four or five experiences they had. One
of the hallmarks is a recall of life. So with
that high number being there, I think it's it's it's
kind of established that at the time of death we
do have like a.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Replay, and we you know.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Today what we had at the time is we had
these brain waves that are responsible for a replay. These
played in that patient's head, suggesting that that you know,
these waves they called Gama waves are really happening after.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
The hartstops beating.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
That would like that support these twelve thousand cases having
a replay of life.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
You've known me for a while, and I've told you
the story before about being in an airplane that I
was the pilot. My brother also a pilot was on
the other seat, and we started having trouble over the
Appalachian Mountains. And we're near Hickory, North Carolina. And I
always tell people I've never been to Hickory, North Carolina,
but I almost died there. We had some engine problems
and I started seeing a movie while I was going
(02:55):
through the panic of getting this airplane down, which we
never landed. We wound on, the engine got okay. We
went on to South Carolina, but I saw my wife,
my kids, all their images playing in my brain. Is
this the same sort of thing because I was panicking
thinking I was about to die?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I mean, yeah, you've mentioned that story to me, and
it's remarkable that something we're working on you've actually experienced it.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So I.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Believe had I been there and putting EG on your
head up, probably Cortos waves.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
But all humans. Is what you're finding out through your research,
is that humans collect the info. It goes into somewhere
in your brain, and at the time of death, the
consistency tells you that you're going to see it again,
or see the critical, the high points of the local
whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I like to say, it's probably not just positive memories.
I think I would like to call it memorable memories. Okay,
So whatever it might be, the loss of somebody you
really love, Yeah, that is not positive, but it sticks
in your head. So whatever experience throughout a whole lifetime
sticks in your head, I believe it is going to
play at that time.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So when you give this talk Echoes of Life, Lessons
from the Dying Brain. By the way, that this is
next Thursday, October sixteenth, there's a reception of five thirty
the programs of six thirty. It's at the Kentucky Science Center.
What is the messaging?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
So the question I have been asked pretty much every
way I spoke, everywhere we presented this work, people asked
what does this mean for my life? One, you know,
I'm a neurosurgeon and I unfortunately sometimes have to deliver
not good messages to people like if the car crash
(04:45):
and maybe not make it. It's always hard. One thing
it delivers is, you know, it may make it a
little bit easier in that very very difficult time for
a family who's grieving loss to say your loved one
is in a good place, that right now we're playing
some other memorable events of their life that gives people
(05:11):
some kind of incredible support in a moment. It gives
you some hold rather than you know, just being in
a freefall. That's one thing.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I think.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
The other thing is also death. If you think about death,
it's not something we like to think about. Everybody's scared
about that is this? What do you think about? It's
this black box? Right? So if this research could like
shed some light into this and say it's actually not
a black box, it's a memory replay that you have,
it makes it a little bit easier to live with that.
(05:44):
And then the purpose of the talk is what does
it mean for us who are here and not at
the time of death. If you know that the movie
of your life is playing at the time of death,
how can you, being here today make the most of
your life to create enough memories for that movie to
(06:07):
play when you go, How can you be the director
of your life?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That's brilliant And of course it redirects someone to think,
I've got to get out of the negative gutter I'm in.
Think positively, be of service. I always say that's the
best thing people can do, right, no matter who they are,
be of service help other people. Yes, that's got to
be a part of your story.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I think if you look back at yourself from the
angle of leave your body today, think you're going forty years,
fifty years. Terry has gone fifty years down the road,
and looking back, how would you want to see yourself today?
You know, if you think about it. We never think
(06:50):
about time per se. We know the average years of
life we have, but you actually have four thousand weeks
to live. On average of four thousand weeks, you sleep
about one and a half thousand. You work about like
one thousand, five hundred or so.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Of those.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
If you take those out, there isn't really a whole
lot of time to make memories. One of the things
we're trying to make people aware of is the little
time you have left to make memories. Don't waste it
being immersed in like social media and TVs, and spend
more time with your family. Spend more time with your kids.
(07:30):
If y'all asked you, Terry, what movies did you watch
last three months, they just get overwritten, you don't know.
But if I asked you, hey, did you spend some
remarkable moment with your kids?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
You'll remember absolutely. Yeah. That's the key to it. And
also if you're burdened by something that happened in the past,
and you're mad and angry and all and carrying that
weight around. Let it go live now for whatever time
you have left to build those memories that you're going
to see. So, as a neurosurgeon, you see brain activity
(08:04):
after the heart stops beating.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
That's right. So our work showed that.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
You know, traditionally you always think that when the heart
stops beating, we.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Die, the life has ceased.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Kind of was what Hollywood shows us.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Right, you see this flicker of EKG and then that
goes flat. Right, that equals or that that concept is.
We thought, now, you know, we saw that when the
heart goes flat, the heart dies, the heart stops.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Working these waves.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
It takes the brain quite a bit of activity to
elicit these ways. It doesn't just come. So there's highly
quota activity going on in the brain after the heart
stops working.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
A minute, two minutes futes.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Our work showed thirty seconds. There was a group from
Michigan who confirmed our work in two more cases. They
saw it out the sixty seconds. And then there's work
from animals that show it goes a little bit longer.
But I would like to say maybe like thirty seconds
or two minutes something in that realm.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Live your life with purpose. That's the best message you
can give.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
A codes of life.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I can't wait to hear what you have to say.
Looking forward to this doctor ashmole Zemmer. He will be
in a conversation with Jenny Laidman and that is next Thursday,
October sixteenth. Reception five thirty, program, six thirty Kentucky Science Center.
The website is Kentucky totheworld dot org. You're part of
that whole serious great see again, Aj.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Thank you very much. Always great to see him my friend.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Website again Kentucky to Theworld dot org.
You're a news radio eight forty whs Terry Miners here.
There's going to be a fascinating conversation next Thursday night
at the Kentucky Science Center on West Main Street. My friend,
I got to call him by his official name, Doctor
AJ Miles Zemmer is with me in the studio, but
I call him Aj. It's good to see again.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Bud, very nice to see him a friend.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, you've always fascinated me. I know what a smart
guy you are. You're a neuroscientist. But this talk you're
going to give on behalf of Kentucky to the world
fascinates me because it has to do with the brain
and dying.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Yes, So in twenty twenty two, can't believe it's three
and a half years ago now, we published this article
that showed we have a replay of life at the
time of death. We recorded the brain waves that are
responsible for eliciting memories thirty seconds after the hearts up beating,
(01:01):
and so that suggested that we have a replay of life,
and today we're looking at that from a different angle.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
That's fascinating in that we hear these stories about people
who return, you know, they die on the table, let's say,
and then they come back, and then they start telling
these tales about what they saw or whatever. But you're
talking about someone's own life story.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
So what we know is there's about twelve thousand recorded
and reported cases of so called near death survivors. Those
are people you're referring to. They basically have a near
death experience and then they come back. What these twelve
thousand cases tell us is not twelve thousand different things.
(01:46):
They tell us four or five experiences they had. One
of the hallmarks is a recall of life. So with
that high number being there, I think it's it's it's
kind of established that at the time of death we
do have like a.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Replay, and we you know.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Today what we had at the time is we had
these brain waves that are responsible for a replay. These
played in that patient's head, suggesting that that you know,
these waves they called Gama waves are really happening after.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
The hartstops beating.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
That would like that support these twelve thousand cases having
a replay of life.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
You've known me for a while, and I've told you
the story before about being in an airplane that I
was the pilot. My brother also a pilot was on
the other seat, and we started having trouble over the
Appalachian Mountains. And we're near Hickory, North Carolina. And I
always tell people I've never been to Hickory, North Carolina,
but I almost died there. We had some engine problems
and I started seeing a movie while I was going
(02:55):
through the panic of getting this airplane down, which we
never landed. We wound on, the engine got okay. We
went on to South Carolina, but I saw my wife,
my kids, all their images playing in my brain. Is
this the same sort of thing because I was panicking
thinking I was about to die?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
I mean, yeah, you've mentioned that story to me, and
it's remarkable that something we're working on you've actually experienced it.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
So I.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
Believe had I been there and putting EG on your
head up, probably Cortos waves.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
But all humans. Is what you're finding out through your research,
is that humans collect the info. It goes into somewhere
in your brain, and at the time of death, the
consistency tells you that you're going to see it again,
or see the critical, the high points of the local
whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
I like to say, it's probably not just positive memories.
I think I would like to call it memorable memories. Okay,
So whatever it might be, the loss of somebody you
really love, Yeah, that is not positive, but it sticks
in your head. So whatever experience throughout a whole lifetime
sticks in your head, I believe it is going to
play at that time.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So when you give this talk Echoes of Life, Lessons
from the Dying Brain. By the way, that this is
next Thursday, October sixteenth, there's a reception of five thirty
the programs of six thirty. It's at the Kentucky Science Center.
What is the messaging?
Speaker 3 (04:23):
So the question I have been asked pretty much every
way I spoke, everywhere we presented this work, people asked
what does this mean for my life? One, you know,
I'm a neurosurgeon and I unfortunately sometimes have to deliver
not good messages to people like if the car crash
(04:45):
and maybe not make it. It's always hard. One thing
it delivers is, you know, it may make it a
little bit easier in that very very difficult time for
a family who's grieving loss to say your loved one
is in a good place, that right now we're playing
some other memorable events of their life that gives people
(05:11):
some kind of incredible support in a moment. It gives
you some hold rather than you know, just being in
a freefall. That's one thing.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I think.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
The other thing is also death. If you think about death,
it's not something we like to think about. Everybody's scared
about that is this? What do you think about? It's
this black box? Right? So if this research could like
shed some light into this and say it's actually not
a black box, it's a memory replay that you have,
it makes it a little bit easier to live with that.
(05:44):
And then the purpose of the talk is what does
it mean for us who are here and not at
the time of death. If you know that the movie
of your life is playing at the time of death,
how can you, being here today make the most of
your life to create enough memories for that movie to
(06:07):
play when you go, How can you be the director
of your life?
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That's brilliant And of course it redirects someone to think,
I've got to get out of the negative gutter I'm in.
Think positively, be of service. I always say that's the
best thing people can do, right, no matter who they are,
be of service help other people. Yes, that's got to
be a part of your story.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
I think if you look back at yourself from the
angle of leave your body today, think you're going forty years,
fifty years. Terry has gone fifty years down the road,
and looking back, how would you want to see yourself today?
You know, if you think about it. We never think
(06:50):
about time per se. We know the average years of
life we have, but you actually have four thousand weeks
to live. On average of four thousand weeks, you sleep
about one and a half thousand. You work about like
one thousand, five hundred or so.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Of those.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
If you take those out, there isn't really a whole
lot of time to make memories. One of the things
we're trying to make people aware of is the little
time you have left to make memories. Don't waste it
being immersed in like social media and TVs, and spend
more time with your family. Spend more time with your kids.
(07:30):
If y'all asked you, Terry, what movies did you watch
last three months, they just get overwritten, you don't know.
But if I asked you, hey, did you spend some
remarkable moment with your kids?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
You'll remember absolutely. Yeah. That's the key to it. And
also if you're burdened by something that happened in the past,
and you're mad and angry and all and carrying that
weight around. Let it go live now for whatever time
you have left to build those memories that you're going
to see. So, as a neurosurgeon, you see brain activity
(08:04):
after the heart stops beating.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
That's right. So our work showed that.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
You know, traditionally you always think that when the heart
stops beating, we.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Die, the life has ceased.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Kind of was what Hollywood shows us.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Right, you see this flicker of EKG and then that
goes flat. Right, that equals or that that concept is.
We thought, now, you know, we saw that when the
heart goes flat, the heart dies, the heart stops.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Working these waves.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
It takes the brain quite a bit of activity to
elicit these ways. It doesn't just come. So there's highly
quota activity going on in the brain after the heart
stops working.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
A minute, two minutes futes.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Our work showed thirty seconds. There was a group from
Michigan who confirmed our work in two more cases. They
saw it out the sixty seconds. And then there's work
from animals that show it goes a little bit longer.
But I would like to say maybe like thirty seconds
or two minutes something in that realm.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Live your life with purpose. That's the best message you
can give.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
A codes of life.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I can't wait to hear what you have to say.
Looking forward to this doctor ashmole Zemmer. He will be
in a conversation with Jenny Laidman and that is next Thursday,
October sixteenth. Reception five thirty, program, six thirty Kentucky Science Center.
The website is Kentucky totheworld dot org. You're part of
that whole serious great see again, Aj.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Thank you very much. Always great to see him my friend.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Website again Kentucky to Theworld dot org.
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