Resurrecting the Dead: Strange True Stories from Science.

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AI generated image of scientists trying to bring back to life dead organisms

Some people have tried to bring the dead back into the world of the living by fascinating ways.

These people, were  were not magicians or spiritual healers but scientists.

Athough their experiments were controversial, they helped to shape lots of things from heart surgery to our modern understanding of what it means by "death."

Below are three true stories on early attempts of resurrection in the field of science.


1. Giovanni Aldini: The Showman of the Dead.

In 1803, a crowd gathered outside Newgate Prison in London to witness a miracle. A dead man was being brought back to life.

The person to be ressurrected was George Forster, a recently executed murderer. The scientist was Giovanni Aldini, the man who had discovered "animal electricity." Aldini believed that if electricity could make a frog’s legs twitch, it could also revive the dead.

He connected Forster’s corpse to a crude battery and let the current flow.

Many people were suprised, The corpse's hands and jaw twitched. His eyes seemed to flick open. The dead man’s body shivered violently, as if trying to rise.

But in reality Aldini didn't raise the dead, he shook the dying nerves in dead body. 

However, his experiments gave birth to the field of electrophysiology.


 2. Sergei Bryukhonenko and the Living Head.

Sergei Sergeyevich Bryukhonenko (1890-1960) was a Soviet physician and biomedical scientist.

He invented the Autojektor. The autojektor was a mechanical device that circulated and oxygenated blood outside the body essentially an artificial blood pump and oxygenator.

It used mechanical pumps to function like the heart, and air pushing device like lungs to oxygenate the blood.

He anesthetized a living dog and its head surgically severed from the body.

When the autojektor was connected to the carotid artery and jugular vein to circulate oxygenated blood through the brain, the severed head showed signs of life;

Eyes blinked in response to light, Ears twitched at sounds and the tongue licked when citric acid was placed on it.

Bryukhonenko extended his work to whole-animal revival through the following procedures;

1. A dog was bled to clinical death, meaning the heart stopped and all signs of life ceased.

2.After 10 minutes, the autojektor pumped oxygenated blood back into the body.

3. In some cases, the dogs revived, stood up, and resumed normal behavior.

Several dogs were reported to survive for days or weeks after the procedure.

These experiments were shown in the 1940 documentary “Experiments in the Revival of Organisms” (produced by the Soviet Union).


Today it is difficult because animal research is governed by strict institutional review boards (IRBs), which requires humane treatment, anesthesia, and justification for procedures.

Therefore these experiments would violate modern ethical standards for animal research, because of;

Lack of anesthesia during responses, extreme suffering and lack of consent as well as poor consideration of neurological consciousness.

However, Bryukhonenko’s work contributed very much to the development of open-heart surgery techniques, which rely on heart-lung machines, modern resuscitation science, including CPR, ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), and emergency trauma care and the understanding of brain ischemia and time limits for clinical death.


3. Robert Cornish and the Lazarus Dogs.

In California during the 1930s, another young scientist Robert E. Cornish, was trying to revive the clinically dead dogs.

Cornish believed that death was reversible if you acted fast enough. His method was, use a see-saw-like device (to simulate circulation), inject adrenaline and anticoagulants, and deliver oxygen.

He started with dogs, specifically, a series of fox terriers he called Lazarus I to V.

According to Cornish two of them, were successfully brought back to life. They breathed and moved, but they were blind, weak, and mentally impaired.

Cornish also attempted to resurrect a death-row inmate, after the man gave him full permission. The state of California denied his request. The idea of bringing a legally dead man back to life was forbidden by the law.

Cornish attempts on human was not welcomed, but his experiments projected the modern CPR, defibrillation, and brain revival studies. 

Today, we have machines that keep hearts beating and lungs breathing for a long period of time, after the body would have stopped. 

We can also cool brains to buy time, transplant hearts, grow tissue, and maybe one day preserve consciousness, because of early work from old realm of science.


Related articles;

Near death experiences

The Scientist who shook the world,



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