A research project at medical centres across the UK, US and Europe is examining what happens to consciousness after we “die” (in inverted commas because death is measured by a sliding scale and it’s possible to be brought back, sometimes up to an hour after the heart stops beating). It’s arisen out of numerous reports of Near-Death Experiences, as well as a study that shows 20% of people who have a flatline brain state and are resuscitated, still have lucid memories of what happened around them. Obviously, a lack of brain activity suggests that shouldn’t be the case.
The study could release its findings as early as 2012.
Meanwhile, Critical Care Doctors at the George Washington University Medical Faculty have released a new report which shows that patients “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.”.
Researchers suggest this may be the first scientifically recorded sign of the near-death experience.
Wow. That sounds genuinely fascinating. Nice to see a concerted effort to explore one (the?) of the greatest mysteries left to us…
There is a beautiful book on NDE by Ornella Corazza – basically she uses a paradigm that tries to go beyond the cartesian “body/mind” duality in order to explain them.The better reading on the subject I ever did…
I’ve just checked this out on Amazon, and it definitely looks like my kind of thing. Thanks for the recommendation, Legba – I’ll give it a read.
My pleasure. You’ll like it quite much, I bet…
Can’t help but think of Flatliners (a good film), the real thing is fascinating, especially the brain spikes and what they could mean. I also see the results of the first study could be released in 2012…..