Scientific Evidence to Support the Phenomena of Near Death Experiences

Scientific Evidence to Support the Phenomena of NDEs Near Death Experiences (NDEs) are widely recognised phenomena which have been reported by thousands and thousands of people across the world. However, these experiences, such as bright lights, detachment from the body and flashbacks, have traditionally been met with scepticism from the scientific community. However, Dr Parnia and his team of researchers at the University of Southampton, carried out a four-year international study into near-death and out-of body experiences, which has shown that there does appear to be some awareness after patients are declared clinically dead (the time when the heart stops beating). Using over 2000 cardiac arrest patients at 15 hospitals in the UK, US and Austria, Parnia set out to examine claims of awareness and mental experiences associated with cardiac arrest using objective markers. They sought to discover if claims reported corresponded to actual events or whether it could be instead explained by hallucinations or illusions. Of the 2,060 patients enrolled in the study, 39 percent of the 330 survivors described an ‘awareness’ during the time they were clinically dead before their hearts were started again. One in five reported the feeling of unusual peacefulness, whilst nearly a third experienced the speeding up or slowing down of time. Other experiences recorded included seeing a bright light, feeling separated from their bodies and heightened senses. Parnia believes that many more people have these experiences but are unable to to recall specific details as a result of sedative drugs used during resuscitation or brain injury. Whilst some people have previously put these sensations down to hallucinations and illusions, Pania’s study provided scientific evidence that seems to prove that conscious awareness can continue for up to 3 minutes after cardiac arrest. One of his subjects, a 57 year old man from the UK, managed to describe all the activity in the room around him even though he was unconscious and ‘dead’ for three minutes. As Dr Parnia explained, “We know the brain can’t function when the heart has stopped beating, but in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes… even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart has stopped. The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at three minute intervals. So we could time how long the experienced lasted for… everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened.” Whilst we are still very much in dark about what happens after death and how long we can experience consciousness after our hearts have stopped beating, this study does show that science and medicine should not be so quick to dismiss the phenomena and it has opened the door for more extensive research.