Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Meanwhile, Back in the Department of Death Science

I wondered what happened to this study. Now I know. And knowing is half the battle.

"There is scientific evidence to suggest that life can continue after death, according to the largest ever medical study carried out on the subject.

A team based in the UK has spent the last four years seeking out cardiac arrest patients to analyse their experiences, and found that almost 40 per cent of survivors described having some form of “awareness” at a time when they were declared clinically dead.

Experts currently believe that the brain shuts down within 20 to 30 seconds of the heart stopping beating – and that it is not possible to be aware of anything at all once that has happened.

But scientists in the new study said they heard compelling evidence that patients experienced real events for up to three minutes after this had happened – and could recall them accurately once they had been resuscitated.

Dr Sam Parnia, an assistant professor at the State University of New York and a former research fellow at the University of Southampton who led the research, said that he previously that patients who described near-death experiences were only relating hallucinatory events.

One man, however, gave a “very credible” account of what was going on while doctors and nurses tried to bring him back to life – and says that he felt he was observing his resuscitation from the corner of the room.

Speaking to The Telegraph about the evidence provided by a 57-year-old social worker Southampton, Dr Parnia said: “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.

“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.

“He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...iences-may-actually-be-real-9780195.html

Consciousness is a truly amazing topic and one I find fascinating. It is difficult to investigate. There have been a number of studies with cardiac arrest patients with mixed results.

I would disagree with the line "We know the brain can't function when the heart stops beating". We know no such thing. It is rare that a patient would be connected to an EEG at the moment of arrest but even that is no true indicator. fMRI isn't really an option to investigate brain function at time of death...yet.

My dad arrested for over 23 minutes with no cardiac output other than wonderful CPR. He suffered no permanent damage. He has no memory of the event. He was also ventilated and sedated for several days. That is another confounder for studying intra arrest awareness....it is not uncommon for patients to require sedation and support post arrest and that can affect memory.

oh man, I'm counting on there being no afterlife.

Mahagogo5 you made me laugh.....which is good as I was in the midst of a bad moment. Thank you

happy to be of service, I myself had a giggle at the very harry potter like title of the thread.

Me, too!!