Reveals what happens to the human body after his death

Director Milda Augustaitytė’s short documentary prof. DH Pauza opens the door to a little -known science world and reveals what is happening to the human body after his death. Kaunas residents will be able to see the film on April 24. In the latest Lithuanian short film program « Short Cinema. Subtle Things », and in this conversation, we go into the vocation of a scientist, the fading love for bats and insights as to recognize empathy in the heart of the deceased.

– a comic film on death. How did it happen?

– The creator’s team wanted to make a movie about people who encounter deaths every day and their emotions. From the beginning, I tried to dissuade because this topic is very difficult. However, they kept coming, filming for two months, and occasionally warning me to the corner because they wanted horrendous shots. We start studying anatomy from the skeleton, then the muscles, and slowly fly deeper. However, for example, when the anatomy of the eye begins, it should be removed from the eyelid and grab the eyeball itself – it is not easy for some. But the final result of the movie – we seemed to have avoided horror, surprised me that the short came out so inclusive and even fun.

– Did you choose the specialty of anatomy lecturer deliberately planning that it is needed and rare?

– Everything was very simple: after the rest of the Lithuanian state, my grandparents, my parents, and later my family, without any hesitation, we left to live in Kaunas, and we did not consider constant life elsewhere. After graduating from Vilnius University, where I acquired the specialty of a biologist (zoologist), I started working at Kaunas Zoo, but I realized that it was not my place because I was dominated by veterinary and zootechnics, and I wanted meaningful research. I always say that a scientific lecturer is quite different from a lecturer only. The scientist must always have his own opinion, and must find out how what is there. I start teaching to students as a scientist as a scientist.

Our job is not only to give students as much anatomy knowledge as possible, but also to prepare students psychologically in their future profession. Let’s say to give them the dignity of people’s self -determination – those who donate their remains to the progress of medical science in our country. The first American Lithuanian, whose remains after death came to university, was determined to do so. Only after a while, the locals began to sacrifice their remains more often after death for this noble purpose. I was wondering how the integration of such a cooperation with science is going on in the world, with a normalization of the burial of remains due to their use in high medical studies. It turned out that such a process could take up to 30 years. And yet – I don’t like to call the corpses of the remains. People’s corpses are encountered by cops, and we are studying anatomy using human remains.

A shot from the movie « Subtle Affairs »

– The movie « Subtle Affairs » reflected that it seems that we have been able to create a great balance of work and leisure / university and nature. How do you succeed?

– Then you understood me badly! I go to the family homestead on weekends with a whole hump in university affairs. It is impossible to distance himself from it when doing such a job. However, the homestead cannot be made to make mandatory rustic works, such as firing furnaces, and thus forcibly creates a distance from work. After all, if I was constantly thinking about work, I would forget to pull out the damper and chill the room, so I always need to be vigilant.

– In the film we see your caring pigeons, you are also the most famous bats in the country. Tell us about your pets.

– I am accompanied by zoology for life, I feel nature and I am interested in living. Particularly likes birds – they are perfect. In my youth, I tried to hold them and failed many times. Now we are raising childhood pigeons in the homestead. I’m just not a perfect breeder – I don’t want to dismantle unexpected couples, I like their natural relationships. I see that nothing good will come out of it, but I let it stay together. We also get guests at the homestead: hawks and marten ones come to a pigeon. I do not intervene, I allow the process to go because we live in nature. Even today, before leaving for the weekend, I already know that badgers are looking for caterpillars: the meadows will be so removed that the leg can get away.

With other « pets », bats, my whole life is associated with. Back in my childhood, the teacher sent me to a zoo specialist, and this area was very quickly involved and interested. My magistor’s work, the monographs were also the topic of bats. It used to be that some mentioned the « bat », and the association with Pauza immediately came up. I know that the research, deep cognition, education about these mammals I call my love will certainly be needed in the future.

Another interesting fact in the animal theme is that when I am asked what kind of animal’s heart is closest to the human heart, I always correct that there are apparently people who have a pig’s heart but most similar to dogs. Maybe the latter are our most loyal satellites.

– Do scientists still find something new in anatomy?

– I seem to explore all my life, discovering something new. Here, three weeks ago, we discovered a whole new fact of our science about the nervous regulation of our science, which we have been studying for almost 40 years. I like to say that there are as many letters in the alphabet, but their endless combinations are new opportunities that open up other roads. I don’t like planning in scientific work because of this. If I follow a project written, I will go where I wanted, but many important new things can be lost in the process. I do not think that discoveries will someday get out, like words or sentences, consisting of well -known letters or words. No scientific article is printed if something new is written there. In order to inspire my students for serious work, I always tell them that what you see in front of you is the first, because no one you see now, you haven’t seen you.

A shot from the movie « Subtle Affairs »

– Today, by all means, we try to delay death: the cult of youth, the pursuit of longevity. Do you try to stay as long as possible for young people as possible?

– We have long been a long time for nature and its evolution. People are like this: first you have to do badly to understand how you didn’t have to do. About the cult of beauty and youth: there is demand and there is supply. It takes a very good education to distinguish the truth from deception. The more educated a person is, the harder it is to include in lies. Why is the old man not afraid of death? It is as if everything in itself arranges, as if you feel that street called old age. I’m angry not because my memory is getting worse, but that I understand it is getting worse! This is the greatest difficulty. Everything looks good in youth, we do not pay attention, because everything is easier, narrower interests, less information to the brain needs to be accommodated. Later, nerve cells begin to bother, eventually die and occur in mental dysfunction, nerve disease.

– Do you agree that stress is one of the main causes of mortality?

– Today we use the concept of stress too easily and widely. Stress is a limited period when you either kill or adapt. However, I agree – there are too many tension. If you are not a very public person, it should not be. We are in the standards of behavior, we think too much what others will say. I also stress myself, after lectures I go out like a good performance, really tired, but I want my students to be interested, so I don’t regret myself.

Tip for stressing? We need to try to be freer. Indeed, I like when people have a good sense of humor. They are always positive, I am aware of such types. You don’t have to be a joke, but let’s go to the people who are independent who stimulate our creativity. It all depends on the leaders: if they press, it creates tension, but if there is freedom, then the person is revealed. Sometimes people themselves choose certain situations and suffer from them, but they are their own solution.

Photo by organizers

– The scientist’s look at death. Is there a place for faith and the concept of the soul?

– It is said that there is no one in the front trenches to believe. It all depends on the conditions, sometimes it is necessary to believe something because it helps a lot. However, sometimes this necessity is forgotten. I am not a practicing Catholic, but I am constantly in contact with the Supreme and we are trying to find consensus. Death is just a signal that we are temporary. We invest so much in ourselves and finally realize that we are not immortal.

I will try to answer a deep question about the soul. At the University, we study the nerve structures of the heart because they are controlled by the heart itself. The expression « understand the mind, feel with the heart » is about what we have long been exploring at the Institute of Anatomy at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. Cardiac nerve cells – primarily the senses of the heart that, when lost, the heart or part of it becomes insensitive. So it turns out that we, anatomy scientists, study the senses with the heart. Opening human remains and highlighting nerve cells in the heart in special ways, I sometimes find my heart full of nerve cells, but in other times they need to be well searched. At least theoretically, one person’s heart is more sensitive to this quantitative criterion. So the soul is the whole of our nervous activity: one individual seems to have more empathy and sensitivity, and the other has been sorry. I know who is a man with the soul and without the soul, and I have no doubt that we lose it when we die.

Who? Recent Lithuanian Short Film Program « Short Cinema. Subtle Things ». After the session – meeting with film director M. Augustaityte and prof. Dh piva.

Where? Romuva cinema.

Where? April 24 6 p.m.