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Near-Death & Out-Of-Body Experiences

World's Largest-Ever Study Of Near-Death Experiences

Full text at link.

The University of Southampton is launching the world's largest-ever study of near-death experiences this week.

The AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study is to be launched by the Human Consciousness Project of the University of Southampton - an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the human brain, consciousness and clinical death.

The study is led by Dr Sam Parnia, an expert in the field of consciousness during clinical death, together with Dr Peter Fenwick and Professors Stephen Holgate and Robert Peveler of the University of Southampton. Following a successful 18-month pilot phase at selected hospitals in the UK, the study is now being expanded to include other centres within the UK, mainland Europe and North America.

"Contrary to popular perception," Dr Parnia explains, "death is not a specific moment. It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning - a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death.

"During a cardiac arrest, all three criteria of death are present. There then follows a period of time, which may last from a few seconds to an hour or more, in which emergency medical efforts may succeed in restarting the heart and reversing the dying process. What people experience during this period of cardiac arrest provides a unique window of understanding into what we are all likely to experience during the dying process."

A number of recent scientific studies carried out by independent researchers have demonstrated that 10-20 per cent of people who go through cardiac arrest and clinical death report lucid, well structured thought processes, reasoning, memories and sometimes detailed recall of events during their encounter with death.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/121028.php
 
Scientists study 'out of body experiences'

Doctors in hospitals in Britain and the US will study 1,500 heart attack patients to see if people with no heartbeat or brain activity can have "out of body" experiences.

Some people report being able to soar out of their bodies and look down on themselves and medical staff.

The study at 25 UK and US hospitals will include doctors placing images on shelves that are only visible from the ceiling to test the theory.

Dr Sam Parnia, an intensive care doctor who is heading the study, said: "If you can demonstrate that consciousness continues after the brain switches off, it allows for the possibility that the consciousness is a separate entity.

"It is unlikely that we will find many cases where this happens, but we have to be open-minded.

"And if no one sees the pictures, it shows these experiences are illusions or false memories.

"This is a mystery that we can now subject to scientific study."

Dr Parnia said that after a cardiac arrest, where the body is technically dead, doctors restart the heart and reverse the dying process.

He said: "What people experience during this period of cardiac arrest provides a unique window of understanding into what we are all likely to experience during the dying process."

Hospitals involved include Addenbrookes in Cambridge, University Hospital in Birmingham and the Morriston in Swansea, as well as nine hospitals in the US.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2980578/Scientists-study-out-of-body-experiences.html

maximus otter
 
Couldn't find a pre-existant thread on this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7621608.stm

Study into near-death experiences
By Jane Dreaper
Health correspondent, BBC News

Near death experience
Many people report seeing a bright light

A large study is to examine near-death experiences in cardiac arrest patients.

Doctors at 25 UK and US hospitals will study 1,500 survivors to see if people with no heartbeat or brain activity can have "out of body" experiences.

Some people report seeing a tunnel or bright light, others recall looking down from the ceiling at medical staff.

The study, due to take three years and co-ordinated by Southampton University, will include placing on shelves images that could only be seen from above.

This is a mystery that we can now subject to scientific study
Dr Sam Parnia
University of Southampton

To test this, the researchers have set up special shelving in resuscitation areas. The shelves hold pictures - but they're visible only from the ceiling.

Dr Sam Parnia, who is heading the study, said: "If you can demonstrate that consciousness continues after the brain switches off, it allows for the possibility that the consciousness is a separate entity.

"It is unlikely that we will find many cases where this happens, but we have to be open-minded.

"And if no one sees the pictures, it shows these experiences are illusions or false memories.

"This is a mystery that we can now subject to scientific study."

Dr Parnia works as an intensive care doctor, and felt from his daily duties that science had not properly explored the issue of near-death experiences.

Process of death

He said: "Contrary to popular perception, death is not a specific moment.

"It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning - a medical condition termed cardiac arrest.

"During a cardiac arrest, all three criteria of death are present. There then follows a period of time, which may last from a few seconds to an hour or more, in which emergency medical efforts may succeed in restarting the heart and reversing the dying process.

"What people experience during this period of cardiac arrest provides a unique window of understanding into what we are all likely to experience during the dying process."

Dr Parnia and medical colleagues will analyse the brain activity of 1,500 cardiac arrest survivors, and see whether they can recall the images in the pictures.

Hospitals involved include Addenbrookes in Cambridge, University Hospital in Birmingham and the Morriston in Swansea, as well as nine hospitals in the US.

I'm a little weary of this comment;

It is unlikely that we will find many cases where this happens, but we have to be open-minded.

He sounds a little bit hesitant about being open-minded. Surely the words open-minded shouldn't even be in a scientists vocabulary, I thought the default position of science is open-mindedness until proven by empirical evidence.
 
This sounds really good. Should be interesting to hear the results.
 
If no one sees the pictures it could just mean that they were a little too preoccupied with looking at what is going on than looking at a meaningless picture and then remembering it and recalling it later on.

While the experiment sounds interesting there are flaws in its design, will they rule out reflections off light fittings for instance? What if something has been put on top of the pictures obscuring them? If some one can recall a picture how can they rule out telepathy?
 
I heard Dr Parnia discussing this on R4's Today programme this morning - very interesting indeed. He sounds like a sport. :D
 
Several ´Near Death and Out of Body Experience' Threads brought together and merged.

P_M. :)
 
Another article on the new study...

Is it possible to have an 'out-of-body'experience?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 35423.html
....

Mainstream scientific thinking generally describes out-of-body experiences as a "false memory" dreamt up by the brain during resuscitation. But survivors' testimonies and a number of recent studies have shown that 10 to 20 per cent of people who go through cardiac arrest and clinical death report lucid thought processes, reasoning, memories and even detailed recall of events.

The research may help explain how patients have given accurate testimonies of what was happening to them while they were technically brain dead.

"The study aims to settle this debate once and for all," says Dr Parnia. "It may be that out-of-body experiences are false memories but until that has been scientifically tested we can't say for sure."

For Heather Sloan, a former nurse from Southampton, the research may help her understand her sensation of leaving her body and entering a white tunnel as she lay in intensive care. "I've met so many people who had similar experiences," she says. "I have no doubt we are more than flesh and blood. If science could prove that, it would be marvellous."

Heather Sloan from Southampton suffered an internal bleed and says she had an out-of-body experience.

"The last thing I remembered was being rushed to the hospital. Then I passed out. When I came to I was standing next to my bed and, being a nurse, I started checking temperature and blood pressure. It was only after a while that I noticed I was looking at myself. Then I felt myself leaving my body and heading towards this light where hundreds of people were waiting for me. I started to get a bit distressed as I had an 18-month-old daughter at home. I asked these voices why I was there and they told me I had lost my baby. I didn't even realise I was pregnant.

Eventually I felt like I was allowed to return and began making my way back to my body. The next thing I remembered was being conscious and surrounded by nurses. They told me that I'd lost a baby but of course I already knew."
 
"once and for all" might be going it, some.

Going on past experience of these sort of tests and experiments, I expect just enough of an ambiguous statistical positive, just above, or below, chance, to keep the controversy raging, for many years yet.

For one thing, the medics won't be able to forewarn the patients of what to look for and most people's experiences will be so emotionally subjective, they probably wouldn't be able to focus on much in any sort of focussed way, anyway. They might see doctor J. drop a scalpel, in the next room and still completely miss the lovely picture of fluffy kittens, on the shelf near the ceiling.

Those few survivors who already know of the experiment, might well be more likely to give false positives, too. And therefore could quickly be discarded by the more sceptical researchers.

Finally, based on some of the results that the Koestler parapsychology mob have been getting, results may well depend on whether the researchers running the tests believe in 'Out of Body Experiences,' or not, as well.
 
Back from the grave
Research on near-death experiences is unlikely to find evidence that human consciousness can survive without a brain
Sue Blackmore
guardian.co.uk, Friday September 19 2008 16:42 BST

I was surprised to hear on the news that Sam Parnia has been awarded a big grant to find out whether the human spirit leaves the body at death – whether consciousness can survive when the brain is no longer working. He, and colleagues around the world, will place an image on a platform suspended from the ceiling of hospital wards and resuscitation areas, so that the image cannot be seen from below but could be seen if – during a near-death experience – the patient's consciousness left his body.

I was surprised, not that he has been awarded the grant, but that this made the news. But I assumed that this topic is of sufficient popular interest that, of all the thousands of research grants awarded, this one was worth reporting. Then I heard people saying it was a total waste of time and money. Surely we should be spending scarce research resources on improving patient care or developing new drugs shouldn't we? Well should we? Is this a good use of research money?

I long ago became fascinated with near-death experiences (NDE). In 1970, before the term was even invented, I had an extraordinary drug-induced experience (this was the time of hippy enthusiasm for old-fashioned mild cannabis). This life-changing experience included the tunnels, lights, out-of-body experience and meeting other beings that occur in the classic NDE. I was convinced that my spirit had left my body, and that is why I went on to become a parapsychologist, trying to prove this was true. I found it was not.

If there is any survival, I now think it's more likely to be through technological advances – you can hear me discussing this with musician Peter Gabriel, who is building the first "social networking site for the dead"!

I learned a lot about the experience though. In 1975, physician Raymond Moody coined the term NDE in his book Life After Life. Since then, research has shown that something like 10% of people who come close to death and survive report some kind of memory.

Most seem to rush down dark tunnels towards a bright light, many seem to fly out of their body to watch events as though from above, some go on into "other worlds" where they meet dead loved ones or angels or gods, and a very few reach a barrier from which they decide to return to life. Many are changed by their experiences, often becoming less fearful of death and less materialistic. All of this is well explained by what we know about how brain function changes as it approaches death, or even when in shock or severe stress. This "dying brain hypothesis" tells us a lot about what we can expect of our own deaths.

What could not be explained – if indeed it were true – is people actually seeing things that were happening at the time when they could not possibly have seen them with their physical eyes (or heard them described, or inferred them from what they already knew).

There are many claims of this kind, but in my long decades of research into out-of-body and near-death experiences I never met any convincing evidence that this is true. There is the famous case of the woman in Seattle who apparently saw a shoe on a high ledge and her social worker later found it there. This story, like so many others, relies on the testimony of just one person, in this case the social worker. The woman herself never told anyone else and is now dead, and there is no one else who reported seeing it. The testimony of one person, however sincere, is not sufficient to overturn much of science. And this is what would be entailed.

If human consciousness can really leave the body and operate without a brain then everything we know in neuroscience has to be questioned. If people could really gain paranormal knowledge then much of physics needs to be rewritten. This is what is at stake. Add to that the fact that most people in the population believe in some kind of life after death, and many desperately want it to be true, then you have a strong case for this research – even if the chances of success are vanishingly small.

If Parnia does the experiments properly, and his patients really can see those images, then I will change my mind about the paranormal. I don't think it's going to happen but I do think it's worth him making the attempt.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... ntalhealth
 
This bit is interesting -

Peter Gabriel, who is building the first "social networking site for the dead"

Wassat about then, I wonder? :D
 
escargot1 said:
Wassat about then, I wonder? :D

Seems a bit off topic:

Remember, Remember
Listen (Duration: 45 mins)
6 days left to listen Last on:
21 Sep 2008 21:30 BBC Radio 3

Psychologist Susan Blackmore investigates how we are outsourcing the memory of our lives to digital devices and asks whether that is changing the nature of human memory. She hears from a 'lifelogger' who is recording every detail of his daily life - and from an academic who has taped 220,000 hours of audio and video of his infant son. She asks whether we will all end up doing the same and how this will affect the way we remember our own lives.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dkvqw
 
from the BBC: Journey to unlock 'out of body' mysteries

I thought this was interesting

In September, medical teams at 25 hospitals across the world revealed they were undertaking the largest study of its kind into near death experiences (NDE).

Researchers want to know if there is any truth in so called "out-of-body" incidents reported by gravely ill people.

One of the hospitals taking part in the research is Morriston Hospital in Swansea, where Dr Penny Sartori has become a leading expert on the phenomenon.

She gives her own personal insight into why the research is so important - and the impact it has had on her own life.


I was caring for the man on the night shift prior to his death. He communicated to me how he was feeling and that he wanted to die.

He looked into my eyes and the connection we made was something that profoundly affected me. I was very upset by the way the patient had died and became so depressed that I almost gave up nursing.

I looked for support by doing a nursing course that may give me a greater understanding of death but found that there were no suitable courses available. The only courses concerning death were palliative care courses which have a very different approach to caring for dying patients in intensive care units. So I read all that I could about death and came across NDEs.

I was instantly intrigued because people who had undergone a NDE were saying that death is nothing to be afraid of and that it is a wonderful thing.

This didn't mean that these people wanted to die but they knew that when it was their time to die they would not be afraid.

They described leaving their body and looking down from above then moving through darkness towards a bright light, some report watching the whole of their life flash before their eyes in a matter of seconds, they feel very peaceful and comfortable where they are.

Many meet deceased relatives who tell them that it is not their time and they have to go back, some may see a religious figure or a 'Being of Light'. Following the experience the person is usually profoundly transformed.

My scientific training as a nurse told me that these experiences couldn't possibly be more than an overactive imagination or some kind of wishful thinking or hallucination as the brain was shutting down as death approached.

How could it be possible for people to report clear, lucid experiences with great clarity of thought during a time when their hearts had stopped beating and blood is not being effectively pumped to the brain?

My curiosity got the better of me and as I was working in the ideal place in which to study these experiences I decided to undertake my own research project.

I wanted to investigate if these experiences could be attributed to the drugs that we gave the patients, to abnormal levels of oxygen or carbon dioxide in the blood and was there a way of verifying the out of body component?

So I hid symbols on top of the cardiac monitors at each patient's bedside which could only be viewed from an out of body perspective.

I began the research, which is the UK's largest clinical study to date, in 1997 and completed the data collection in 2003. The project was written up and the results analysed and in 2005 I was awarded a PhD by the University of Wales, Lampeter.

In June 2008 my book, an academic monograph, The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive care Patients: A Five Year Clinical Study was published by The Edwin Mellen Press. The reason that I chose to publish an academic book is because I believe these experiences need to be taken seriously.

Previous research into NDEs has been retrospective so there was no way of verifying if what the person was saying was correct or if indeed the person was near death at the time of their experience.

Important information was extracted from the medical and nursing notes such as oxygen / carbon dioxide levels in the blood during the time of the experience, the drugs administered during the emergency situation as well as people present in case an out of body experience was also reported.

The aim of the study was to have a greater understanding of death and therefore benefit future patients. Aspects learned from the study can make the last few weeks/days of a dying patient more comfortable and ensure heightened awareness of the patient's needs.

It also proved to be very helpful when counselling the relatives of patients who were critically ill. In appropriate situations it was useful to mention the experiences that some people reported as it had a very positive effect on the relatives and gave them great comfort.

Another great benefit of this study is to raise public awareness of these experiences.

People who have an NDE are initially overwhelmed and do not understand what has happened. They have just undergone the most profound experience that has totally transcended anything else they have experienced.

Very often words are not adequate to describe it and recall of the experience can evoke great emotion. If a patient plucks up the courage to talk about the experience then the response they get is of the utmost importance.

If they are met with a dismissive attitude that it is just a side effect of the drugs or a hallucination then this can be detrimental to the way in which they integrate the experience into their life. The patient may withdraw and never speak about it again but be left with lots of unanswered questions.

Hence it is important that the subject of NDEs becomes a very important aspect of the education of all healthcare professionals. This will ensure the best psychological aftercare of patients who have a NDE.

As our technology is becoming more advanced so it seems most likely that the incidence of NDEs will increase.

Accounts of NDEs have also been shown to be very helpful to people undergoing bereavement.

On a wider scale, the transformational aspect exhibited by many people who have had a NDE can greatly influence society. These people are usually more compassionate, tolerant and caring and this usually has a knock on effect to those around them.

Undertaking the study has not only enhanced the way I care for the patients in intensive care units but it has also given me a greater understanding of life. I believe that it is only when we start to learn about death that we really start to learn about life.

Current reductionist explanations for these experiences such as side effects of drugs, low levels of oxygen or that they are simply hallucinations are not supported by the clinical research so far.

It is therefore very important that this study is conducted on a large global scale as the more patients recruited the greater our understanding of these experiences, and indeed consciousness. Ultimately this will be of benefit to all future patients.

I have worked as a nurse in Morriston Hospital since 1989 and am very proud to say that I work there. It is great that Morriston is involved with this study as it will get world recognition for being the centre of excellence that it is.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7639798.stm
 
RE:NDE

I read a topic quite a while ago on NDE and i am sure it was on this board
Tho i cannot be 100%.
It involved a doctor who (with the patients permission), placed the bed of patients who were at deaths door on a VERY sensitive scale.When said patients
actualy expired, the scales recorded a drop of weight.... it was very small BUT it was there!...is this the soul leaving the body? who knows ..but im sure it could add some weight to NDE.
 
21 grams

"Enter Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts. The doctor postulated the soul was material and therefore had mass, ergo a measurable drop in the weight of the deceased would be noted at the moment this essence parted ways with the physical remains. The belief that human beings are possessed of souls which depart their bodies after death and that these souls have detectable physical presences were around well before the 20th century, but claims that souls have measurable mass which falls within a specific range of weights can be traced to experiments conducted by Dr. MacDougall in 1907."
 
Full text and comments at link.

The First Few Minutes After Death A three-year study will explore the nature of death and consciousness
www.popsci.com/sam-barrett/article/2008 ... ter-death#
By Sam Barrett Posted 10.31.2008 at 9:31 am 8 Comments

After countless accounts of near-death experiences, dating as far back as ancient Greece, science is now taking serious steps forward to explore the nature of the phenomenon. A new project aims to determine whether the experience is a physiological event or evidence that the human consciousness is far more complicated than we ever believed.

The Human Consciousness Project sets out to explore the nature of human consciousness and the brain. The first step of the project is the "Awareness During Resuscitation" study, a collaboration among more than 25 medical centers throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

With the expectation of recruiting 1,500 patients during a 36-month time frame, the study will examine everything that happens to the human brain during cardiac arrest, from oxygen levels to the ability to recall images. The participating hospitals will be outfitted with equipment to monitor any patient who goes into cardiac arrest. While the person is in arrest, resulting in a flat line, doctors will monitor oxygen levels and blood flow into the brain. If patients consent to additional testing after recovery, they will be asked to recall any memories they can from the time while they were in cardiac arrest. Regardless of the recollection, each experience is useful to the study. "If they have no memories, they're useful because we'll use them as a control group," says Dr. Sam Parnia, director of the Human Consciousness Project and leader of the study.

But the most intriguing aspect of the study is its attempt to study consciousness during clinical death. According to Parnia, the science of these "consciousness events" may be somewhat similar to the relation between Newtonian physics and quantum physics. Scientists once believed that Newtonian physics could answer all the questions in the universe. When they ventured into the sub-atomic realm, though, Newtonian physics no longer applied. But quantum physics did. Similarly, the near-death experience could be another state of consciousness with a different set of rules than what we currently understand, and beyond the limits of what current scientific methods can explain.
 
Near-death experiences: Heaven can wait
Tunnels, bright lights, visions of the deceased. Do near-death experiences really offer a glimpse of the afterlife – or is there a more rational explanation? Roger Dobson reports
Tuesday, 31 March 2009

When doctors returned to check on the patient who had almost died and been in a deep coma before being resuscitated, he thanked them for all the work they had done. He had, he told the surprised team of medics, been very impressed and had watched everything they had done. He had heard all that had been said, too, and, at one point, had been concerned when resuscitation was about to be abandoned. He then went on to describe in detail the room where he had been treated – although he had never been conscious in there.

That near-death experience is one of a number recorded by Dutch doctors and one of thousands of similar cases that have now been documented in a major worldwide study.

New research shows that many critically ill kidney dialysis patients have similar experiences, and that almost one in 10 heart-arrest survivors also report near-death experiences whose features include out of body sensations, bright lights, dark tunnels, and images of life events and spiritual entities.

But there's no consensus on what lies behind near-death experiences, even though they are being increasingly reported. Are they, as some people are convinced, signs of the soul leaving the body? Or are they, as others suggest, the last, dreamlike act put on by a dying brain?

Near-death experiences are surprisingly common. In the latest study, researchers quizzed 710 kidney dialysis patients and found that, out of 70 patients who had suffered a life-threatening event, 45 had gone though a near-death experience. And research by Virginia University shows that 10 per cent of heart-arrest patients, and 1 per cent of other cardiac patients, had reported having a near-death experience.

Near-death experiences occur in both sexes, in every culture, and at all ages. Researchers at the University Hospital of Geneva recently reported what they describe as the first case in a child of 12 who had undergone elective, uncomplicated surgery that had run into difficulties. But, in spite of considerable differences in ages, cultures and diseases, many features of near-death experiences are remarkably similar.

The spiritual theorists have it that this is the immediate prelude to death itself, and that it establishes that there is life after death. These theories take what the individual sees, hears and feels as being a report of exactly what happened. One suggestion is that, at the time of death, the body and soul separate and near-death experiences are a glimpse of the first part of that process.

A range of psychological theories have been put forward to explain the phenomenon. One suggests that it is a defence mechanism in the face of impending death. Another floats the idea that the working of the brain is somehow altered by changes in chemicals that occur shortly before death. Other explanations include false memories, a reaction to acute stress, and anoxia, or lack of oxygen, resulting in sensory disturbances.

A newer theory suggests the arousal system is implicated, and that the near-death experience is triggered by the crisis. The idea is that rapid eye movement (or REM sleep, where most dreaming occurs, and where the sleeper is paralysed, with only the heart, diaphragm, eye muscles and the smooth muscles active) is involved. At the root of the theory is the notion that some people are more prone to a condition called REM intrusion, where sleep paralysis occurs when they are awake. It is found in people with narcolepsy, or excessive sleepiness, and it can be accompanied by hallucinations or delusional experiences that are unusually vivid and often frightening.

Research led by Dr Kevin Nelson, clinical neurophysiologist and Professor of Neurology at the University of Kentucky shows that, out of 55 people who have had near-death experiences, 60 per cent had at least one prior occasion where REM sleep state intruded into wakefulness, compared to only 24 per cent in a control group. "Instead of passing directly between the REM state and wakefulness, the brain switch in those with a near-death experience is more likely to blend the REM state and wakefulness into one another," he says.

Brain regions involved in the REM state are part of the arousal system that regulates different states of consciousness, and are also part of the brain's fight-or-flight survival instinct. The theory, which is gaining support, is that people who have experienced a previous REM-intrusion are more likely to have a near-death experience under circumstances of peril. It has also been shown that stimulating the heart and lung nerve, as occurs during resuscitation, can trigger REM-intrusion.

The theory also has explanations for the common characteristics of near-death experience. The impression of being dead, for example, could be a reaction to the paralysis of REM, while the tunnel of light may be linked to changes in blood flow in the retina and visual activation by the REM system.

The paranormal and spiritual images may result from the fact that the limbic system, which is older than other parts of the brain and which is involved in behaviour, emotion and long-term memory, is strongly active during REM sleep. Out of body experiences – often reported by people under extreme stress – have also been linked to the arousal system.

While it offers explanations for many features of near-death experience, the researchers behind the arousal theory say that it is still work in progress. The problem for them and other researchers looking for more down-to-earth explanations is that they have to find a rationale for their theories, unlike the spiritual theorists who accept everything as reported as evidence of paranormal activity.

Little fieldwork has been carried out to prove or disprove the spiritual theory as a whole, although out-of-body experiences have been examined. These experiences often involve the individual looking down from ceiling height at themselves on the operating table, or in a bed. To test whether these are real, some experimenters have placed labels and objects on the top of equipment that could only been seen from the ceiling. So far, no one has been able to spot them.

Floating away: An out-of-body experience

Thirty-five-year-old Pam Reynolds was being operated on for a potentially fatal rupture when she had a near-death experience. The surgical technique involved stopping her heartbeat and breathing, flattening brainwaves, and draining the blood from her head to remove the aneurysm.

"When she was once again able to speak, she reported that she awoke during the early stages of the operation to the sound of the small pneumatic saw that was being used to open her skull," says Dr Christopher French of Goldsmiths, University of London, who recounts the case in a report.

"She then felt as if she was being pulled out through the top of her head and, during the subsequent out-of-body experience, she was able to watch the proceedings from above the neurosurgeon's shoulder. Her account accords very well with those of the medical staff present at the time, including her description of the pneumatic saw and the fact that the cardiac surgeon expressed surprise that the blood vessels in her right groin were too small to handle the large flow of blood needed to feed the cardiopulmonary bypass machine.

"She reported that, after her heart was stopped and the blood drained from her body, she passed through a black vortex and into a realm of light where she met with deceased relatives. These relatives looked after her, provided her with nourishment, and eventually helped her to return to her physical body. She was able to report the music that was being played in the operating theatre at the point of her return."

Although the case is often presented as one that defies all conventional explanations, there are non-spiritual explanations. It is not uncommon, for example, for patients to awaken during operations and be able to recount what was going on, and a low level of brain activity is difficult to detect in an operating theatre.

Frequency of features experienced by people who have a near-death experience

Preternaturally vivid sensations 86.3%

Tunnel experience 5.9%

Feeling of joy 58.8%

Awareness of being dead 3.9%

Sense of sudden understanding 35.3%

Life review 19.6%

Sense of a mystical entity 33.3%

Feeling of peace 74.5%

Altered sense of time 41.2%

Out-of-body experience 51%

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 57869.html
 
Hi folks.

I think the REM Intrusion theory alone cannot account for a lot of phenomena associated with the NDE. For example:

* the fact that when EEGs are available for some NDErs/OBErs, they are not producing REM (15-30Hz), when they are said to be having the experience. In fact many are flat-lined on an EEG, producing no identifiable brain rhythms at all.

* the hyperreal nature of the experience (ie. more real than real, not just vivid)

* the (almost) universally transformative nature of the experience (most NDErs of all ages are profoundly, life alteringly, affected by the content of their experience - unlike dream states, even vivid dream states)

* the logical, linear narrative of the experience that often includes philosophical discussion and decision-making which continues to make sense once conscious again (unlike highly symbolic dream states)

* the fact that many NDEs are not symbolism-rich, but take the form of 'expanded selfhood' (ie. the feeling that the person is 'one with everything' and has complete knowledge of a 'process greater than themselves')

Furthermore, the studies showing predisposition to REM intrusion are done post-NDE, showing only that NDErs are more likely to experience REM intrusion. No causal deduction can be made. NDErs also have unusual spikes in temporal lobe activity. Nobody knows if the patterns were there before the NDE.


That's enough for now; time for bed. :D
 
End Of Life Spikes In Brain Waves: Physiological Markers For The Often Reported Near Death Experience?
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/166227.php
06 Oct 2009

Critical Care doctors at The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates studied the brain waves of seven dying patients. Each patient had normal brain activity in the moments before they were removed from life support with critical illnesses such as multi-organ failure, metastatic cancer or cardiac arrest. Each subsequently experienced a sudden electrical 'alertness' or spike in brain waves in the moments before they died. The spikes came in the same moments just before each patient's death. They rose to comparable levels and were consistent in duration.

What does this suggest about the workings of our brains as we die? The researchers offer an intriguing theory: could this be physiological evidence of the often reported Out Of Body or Near Death Experience - a cascade of vivid images or memories as patients slipped from consciousness.

"Near death experiences have been documented by a large number of people. Interestingly, these descriptions tend to have a similar theme in that the recollection is vivid and detailed. The nature of these experiences often invokes a spiritual or divine explanation, a topic well beyond the scope of this report. Nonetheless, the end of life is a poorly studied area of clinical medicine and deserves more attention. Whether this observation is meaningful will be determined by future investigation.'

Study investigators are Lakhmir Chawla, M.D.; Seth Akst, M.D., Christopher Junker, M.D.; Barbara Jacobs, R.N., and Michael Seneff, M.D. of The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates. Their research, 'Surges of Electroencephalogram Activity at the Time of Death: A Case Series,' is published in the October Journal of Palliative Medicine to be released on Monday, October 5, 2009.

Source
George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates
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Ghostly granny in NDE and widower's experience - N Ireland

Two rather poignant stories from Northern Ireland...

...What happened next was almost like a flash of light. I had never experienced anything like it before. Everything was bright like a white light. I seemed to be at the bottom of the stairs where I lived with my mum. My granny suddenly appeared. Her name was Maria. There was a visual face on her but her body was like lights. Her body was sparkling like fairy dust. It was bright like glitter. That’s the only way I can describe it. The brightness was unbelievable.

Her face was like I was looking at her in real life. It wasn’t like I was looking at a ghost or a spirit. It was her. It was her face as I knew it. It was her hair as well, silvery-grey and with the wee curls she used to have. She was a wee fat lady and she had these cheeks. I could see them plainly and her colour was perfect. I could also see her hands. ...

...As I approached the bedroom there was this blinding light. I thought, ‘That's very strange. t's only quarter to seven. The sun couldn't be up.' It was also strange to see sunlight at that time of the year. I got one toe in through the doorway and the whole room was white. It was blindingly white. I could just about see Jennifer's face. The coffin was there on a stand and the bed had been taken out. I could see her face but I couldn't see the rest of her. Everything seemed to disappear altogether.

There was a fold-up bed there and a few chairs and some built-in wardrobes behind the door to the right as you walk in. I couldn't see them. It was as if somebody had put a couple of 500-watt halogen lights into your face. ...

For both stories in full go here:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/o...ally-speak-from-beyond-the-grave-14529315.html
 
That was the second part of extracts from a book: the first part is here:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/busin ... 28728.html

The first story is a classic NDE, which ends:
I am certain the experience was real. I knew I had died at some point. The consultant knew too but nobody told me until later.

It’s a unique position I have been in. I still have that inner peace. And I have no fear of death. As a child I would have thought it would be a terrible thing to die. But, now that I’ve been there, it’s alright.

Whenever it comes to me, it will be OK. The only sadness I would have would be leaving people behind that I love. Other than that, it’s fine.”
Next is a sort of OOBE which convinced an ill woman her deceased mother was fine, and last is an apparition of a man's father, who died at the end of WWII.
 
Near-death experiences may be linked to raised carbon dioxide levels
David Rose, Health Correspondent

Commonly reported “near-death experiences”, such as seeing life flash before one’s eyes or having a spiritual experience, may be linked to raised levels of carbon dioxide, researchers say.

A study of 52 patients who were resuscitated after suffering a cardiac arrest found that about one in five (11 patients) reported unusual experiences such as feelings of peace and joy or supernatural encounters.

Those patients were found to have a higher concentration of CO2 in their breath and arteries, suggesting a possible physiological cause for the sensations.

Improvements in cardiac resuscitation techniques have meant that the number of reported near-death experiences (NDEs) has increased, with some survivors believing that their experiences provide evidence for the afterlife.

The Slovenian researchers, writing in the Biomed Central journal Critical Care, said that the link with CO2 had not been made before, and suggested that “some physiological factors or processes might be important in the provoking of NDEs”.

Zalika Klemenc-Ketis, who led the team from the University of Maribor, said that further studies were required, using larger sample sizes to investigate the apparent link.

“Several theories explaining the mechanisms of NDEs exist,” she said. “We found that in those patients who experienced the phenomenon, blood carbon dioxide levels were significantly higher than in those who did not.”

She added that high levels of potassium may also play a role in the brain of a dying patient, but independent experts said that it was not clear whether the chemicals would be a cause of reported sensations or experiences or simply a marker of better resuscitation techniques that could lead to better recall.

Dr Sam Parnia, a senior research fellow at the University of Southampton who is conducting a study on NDEs in cardiac failure patients in Britain and America, said that the research was “quite interesting — albeit a very small study”.

He added that high levels of CO2 were an indicator of getting blood back to the brain due to improved techniques in restarting the heart.

“This may explain why [patients] have better recall of the experience, it doesn’t mean the CO2 was causing the experience,” he said. “These observations may indicate that those patients who had improved resuscitation had better brain recovery and hence better recall and less amnesic effects of brain injury, which seems to be what limits people’s ability to recall their near death experiences.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 091118.ece
 
Boy, 3, tells how he 'saw grandmother in Heaven' before being brought back from the dead after falling into pond
By Allan Hall
Last updated at 7:43 AM on 19th April 2010

A boy of three claims he saw his great grandmother in heaven while he was clinically dead after falling into a pond.
Paul Eicke came back to life more than three hours after his heart stopped beating.

It is believed he was in the pond at his grandparents' house for several minutes before his grandfather saw him and pulled him out.
His father gave him heart massage and mouth-to-mouth during the ten minutes it took a helicopter to arrive.
Paramedics then took over and Paul was taken the ten-minute journey to hospital. Doctors tried to resuscitate him for hours. They had just given up when, three hours and 18 minutes after he was brought in, Paul's heart started beating independently.

Professor Lothar Schweigerer, director of the Helios Clinic where Paul was taken, said: 'I have never experienced anything like it.
'When children have been underwater for a few minutes they mostly don't make it. This is a most extraordinary case.'

The boy said that while unconscious he saw his great grandmother Emmi, who had turned him back from a gate and urged him to go back to his parents.
Paul said: 'There was a lot of light and I was floating. I came to a gate and I saw Grandma Emmi on the other side.
'She said to me, "What are you doing here Paul? You must go back to mummy and daddy. I will wait for you here."
'I knew I was in heaven. But grandma said I had to come home. She said that I should go back very quickly.
'Heaven looked nice. But I am glad I am back with mummy and daddy now.'
Paul is now back at home in Lychen, north of Berlin in Germany, and there appears to be no sign of brain damage.

Statistics from America show the majority of children who survive drownings - 92 per cent - are discovered within two minutes following submersion.
Nearly all who require cardiopulmonary resuscitation die or are left with severe brain injury.
But the water in the pond was very cold and the boy's core temperature was just 28c, compared to the normal of 37c.
Cold temperatures slow the metabolism-which means the body can survive for longer without oxygen.
If the temperature had been higher, the team would have stopped trying to resuscitate after 40 minutes because the boy would definitely have been brain dead.
Instead, they carried on with the chest compressions to stimulate Paul's organs, which had shut down after he breathed in the cold water.

Professor Schweigerer went on: 'My doctors were close to saying "we can do no more" after two hours of thorax compression.
'This was because the chances of survival had gone and the little lad must have been brain dead.
'But then suddenly his heart started to beat again ... it was a fantastic miracle.
'I've been doing this job for 30 years and have never seen anything like this. It goes to show the human body is a very resilient organism and you should never give up.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z0lXJOACuH
 
I remember reading an article (I think it was in FT) where a doctor said he only considered someone to be really dead when they were warm and dead.
 
That’s not the afterlife – it’s a brainstorm
Near-death experiences may be caused by a cascade of electrical activity in the dying brainJonathan Leake

DOCTORS believe they may have found the cause of the powerful spiritual experiences reported by people “brought back from the dead”.

A study of the brainwaves of dying patients showed a surge of electrical activity in the moments before their lives ended.

The researchers suggest this surge may be the cause of near-death experiences, the mysterious medical phenomena in which patients who have been revived when close to death report sensations such as walking towards a bright light or a feeling that they are floating above their body.

Many people experience the sensation as a religious vision and treat it as confirmation of an afterlife. However, the scientists behind the new research believe that is wrong.

“We think the near-death experiences could be caused by a surge of electrical energy released as the brain runs out of oxygen,” said Lakhmir Chawla, an intensive care doctor at George Washington University medical centre in Washington.

“As blood flow slows down and oxygen levels fall, the brain cells fire one last electrical impulse. It starts in one part of the brain and spreads in a cascade and this may give people vivid mental sensations.”

Many revived patients have reported being bathed in bright light or suffused with a sense of peace as they start to walk into a light-filled tunnel. A few even say they experienced visions of religious figures such as Jesus or Muhammad or Krishna, while others describe floating above their own deathbed, observing the scene.

In one of the most famous cases, in 1991, Pam Reynolds, an American singer, reported watching the top of her own skull being removed by surgeons before she moved into a bright glowing realm, including detailed accounts of the surgery and the conversations by her surgeons.

If Chawla is right, however, such experiences have a biological explanation rather than a metaphysical one. In the research he used an electroencephalograph (EEG), a device that measures brain activity, to monitor seven terminally ill people.

The medical purpose of the devices was to make sure that the patients, suffering from conditions such as cancer and heart failure, were sufficiently sedated to be out of pain. However, Chawla noticed that moments before death the patients experienced a burst in brainwave activity lasting from 30 seconds to three minutes.

The activity was similar to that seen in people who are fully conscious, even though the patients appeared asleep and had no blood pressure. Soon after the surge abated, they were pronounced dead.

Chawla’s research, published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, is thought to be the first to suggest that near-death experiences have a particular physiological cause. Although it describes only seven patients, he says he has seen the same things happening “at least 50 times” as people die.

Other scientific studies suggest that 15%-20% of people who go through cardiac arrest and clinical death report lucid, well-structured thought processes, reasoning, memories and sometimes detailed recall of events during their encounter with death.

In Britain, such research has prompted the launch of the Awareness During Resuscitation study, known as Aware, led by Sam Parnia, an intensive care physician at Cornell Medical Center in New York, who is also a researcher at Southampton University's school of medicine.

Parnia believes Chawla’s research is interesting, but treats its conclusions with caution, pointing out that there is no proof that the electrical surge observed by Chawla is linked to a near-death experience.

“Since the patients all died, we cannot tell what they were experiencing,” he said.


Parnia and his colleagues are interviewing 700 Britons who have had cardiac arrests and been brought back to life. The aim is to study all the mental consequences of cardiac arrests, ranging from near-death experiences to long-term cognitive disabilities.

“We see death as a moment, but actually it is a process and one which modern medicine can often reverse,” said Parnia. “Death starts when the heart stops beating, but we can intervene and bring them back to life, sometimes even after 3-4 hours when people are kept very cold.

“It could be that a far higher proportion of people have near-death experiences but just don’t remember them.”

Those who do remember such phenomena, however, can find their lives transformed. One Dutch study, published in 2001 in The Lancet, the medical journal, looked at 344 cardiac arrest victims, finding that 18% of them underwent near-death experiences.

The researchers followed surviving patients for several years, finding that those who had had a near-death experience became happier, more altruistic, less afraid of death and less materialistic.

Chawla says the study is an important first step in understanding near-death experiences but is now planning further research using much more advanced EEG machines to see if he can confirm a link between the observed surge in brain activity and patients’ experiences.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/s ... 140165.ece

And maybe the electrical activity is the last action of the dying body as it prepares the soul for release to the afterlife...

In other words, this research proves nothing, but it means different things to different people, depending on their prior beliefs and expectations.
 
Peace of Mind: Near-Death Experiences Now Found to Have Scientific Explanations

By Charles Q. Choi | September 12, 2011 | 1

Near-death experiences are often thought of as mystical phenomena, but research is now revealing scientific explanations for virtually all of their common features. The details of what happens in near-death experiences are now known widely—a sense of being dead, a feeling that one's "soul" has left the body, a voyage toward a bright light, and a departure to another reality where love and bliss are all-encompassing.

Approximately 3 percent of the U.S. population says they have had a near-death experience, according to a Gallup poll. Near-death experiences are reported across cultures, with written records of them dating back to ancient Greece. Not all of these experiences actually coincide with brushes with death—one study of 58 patients who recounted near-death experiences found 30 were not actually in danger of dying, although most of them thought they were.

Recently, a host of studies has revealed potential underpinnings for all the elements of such experiences. "Many of the phenomena associated with near-death experiences can be biologically explained," says neuroscientist Dean Mobbs, at the University of Cambridge's Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Mobbs and Caroline Watt at the University of Edinburgh detailed this research online August 17 in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

For instance, the feeling of being dead is not limited to near-death experiences—patients with Cotard or "walking corpse" syndrome hold the delusional belief that they are deceased. This disorder has occurred following trauma, such as during advanced stages of typhoid and multiple sclerosis, and has been linked with brain regions such as the parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex—"the parietal cortex is typically involved in attentional processes, and the prefrontal cortex is involved in delusions observed in psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia," Mobbs explains. Although the mechanism behind the syndrome remains unknown, one possible explanation is that patients are trying to make sense of the strange experiences they are having.

Out-of-body experiences are also now known to be common during interrupted sleep patterns that immediately precede sleeping or waking. For instance, sleep paralysis, or the experience of feeling paralyzed while still aware of the outside world, is reported in up to 40 percent of all people and is linked with vivid dreamlike hallucinations that can result in the sensation of floating above one's body. A 2005 study found that out-of-body experiences can be artificially triggered by stimulating the right temporoparietal junction in the brain, suggesting that confusion regarding sensory information can radically alter how one experiences one's body.

A variety of explanations might also account for reports by those dying of meeting the deceased. Parkinson's disease patients, for example, have reported visions of ghosts, even monsters. The explanation? Parkinson's involves abnormal functioning of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that can evoke hallucinations. And when it comes to the common experience of reliving moments from one's life, one culprit might be the locus coeruleus, a midbrain region that releases noradrenaline, a stress hormone one would expect to be released in high levels during trauma. The locus coeruleus is highly connected with brain regions that mediate emotion and memory, such as the amygdala and hypothalamus.

In addition, research now shows that a number of medicinal and recreational drugs can mirror the euphoria often felt in near-death experiences, such as the anesthetic ketamine, which can also trigger out-of-body experiences and hallucinations. Ketamine affects the brain's opioid system, which can naturally become active even without drugs when animals are under attack, suggesting trauma might set off this aspect of near-death experiences, Mobbs explains.

Finally, one of the most famous aspects of near-death hallucinations is moving through a tunnel toward a bright light. Although the specific causes of this part of near-death experiences remain unclear, tunnel vision can occur when blood and oxygen flow is depleted to the eye, as can happen with the extreme fear and oxygen loss that are both common to dying.

Altogether, scientific evidence suggests that all features of the near-death experience have some basis in normal brain function gone awry. Moreover, the very knowledge of the lore regarding near-death episodes might play a crucial role in experiencing them—a self-fulfilling prophecy. Such findings "provide scientific evidence for something that has always been in the realm of paranormality," Mobbs says. "I personally believe that understanding the process of dying can help us come to terms with this inevitable part of life."

One potential obstacle to further research on near-death experiences will be analyzing them experimentally, says cognitive neuroscientist Olaf Blanke at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne in Switzerland, who has investigated out-of-body experiences. Still, "our work has shown that this can be done for out-of-body experiences, so why not for near-death-experience-associated sensations?"

SOURCE: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... near-death
 
EnolaGaia said:
Peace of Mind: Near-Death Experiences Now Found to Have Scientific Explanations
SOURCE: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... near-death
A bit of a hand-waving exercise, that article. I counted six uses of the word 'might'.

Not all the research quoted is new, and much of it is there because it 'might' be relevent! ;)
Finally, one of the most famous aspects of near-death hallucinations is moving through a tunnel toward a bright light. Although the specific causes of this part of near-death experiences remain unclear, tunnel vision can occur when blood and oxygen flow is depleted to the eye, as can happen with the extreme fear and oxygen loss that are both common to dying.
This has often been claimed, but counter examples have been reported by people (often aviators) who did experience oxygen starvation, of perfectly clear OOBEs, not the tunnel and light thing. (I'm pretty sure there are such examples on this board.)
 
escargot1 said:
Apparently, after a NDE people can become scarily psychic. :shock:

Pretty high price to pay for superpowers! I hope this information doesn't encourage any Flatliners-esque "experimentation"...
 
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