The phenomena of Near Death Experiences
updated Feb 27 2013
Books
Cardiologists – not
parapsychologists- have published some of the most widely read studies on near
death experiences (NDEs) Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel published such a
study, interviewing 344 cardiac arrest patients, in the Lancet in 2001. He
marvels at the medical paradox of the cardiac arrest NDE: consciousness,
perception, and memory appear to be functioning during a period when the
patient has lost all functions of the cortex and brain stem. Oxygen
deprivation, medications, fear, religious belief, gender, and educational level
appear to not be factors in these experiences. Van Lommel suggests, in the
Lancet, that the NDE is a “state of consciousness … in which identity, cognition,
and emotion function independently from the body, but retain the possibility of
non-sensory perception. P. 267.
So how do we know
the NDE isn’t a hallmark of dying, not death? What if, several minutes down the
line, the bright light dims and the euphoria fades, and your just dead? We don’t know Bruce Greyson says. Roach asks Greyson, Sabom and van Lommel what
they really think. Greyson believes we may or may not survive death; Sabom and
van Lommel are both convinced that consciousness is independent from the body.
P. 289-290.
Greyson believes
that NDEs are evidence of something we cannot explain with our current
knowledge. P. 294
From:
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
By Mary Roach
The Handbook of Near-Death Experiences: Thirty Years of Investigation
There Is Life After Death: Compelling Reports from Those Who Have Glimpsed the Afterlife
What Happens When We Die?: A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death
Studies
International Association for Near Death Studies
Excellent links to text and videos
http://iands.org/news/news/ndes-in-the-news.html
World's Largest-Ever Study Of
Near-Death Experiences
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/121028.php
2012 Results
of Major NDE Studies:
“For centuries, those brought back from death's door have claimed they had a glimpse of the afterlife.
They speak of seeing a tunnel, a light, dead relatives, or their own lives flashing before their eyes.
Some even recall floating out of their body and watching doctors struggling to revive them.
Medical and scientific experts have maintained these 'near-death experiences'
do not exist and are simply a normal reaction to intolerable stress.
Yet now university researchers claim to have produced compelling scientific evidence that they really do happen.
Others say this may show the mind continues to exist after death….
…The researchers say known medical explanations cannot account for these out-of-body sensations.”
Scientists Discover
‘near death’ evidence Oct 9, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-89926/Scientists-discover-near-death-evidence.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/166227.php
Journal
of Palliative Medicine
Surges
of Electroencephalogram Activity at the Time of Death: A Case Series
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/jpm.2009.0159?prevSearch=allf
Organizations
International Association for Near-Death Studies, Inc