Scientists were able to confirm the reality of experiences during clinical death. So far, only one patient.
Rumor and mass media are happy to broadcast the stories of people who have returned from a state of clinical death. These stories usually feature a tunnel, a bright light at the end, images of deceased loved ones, “out of the body” and watching what is happening as if from outside. Mystics interpret such evidence as confirmation of their religious and esoteric beliefs, materialists consider it to be hallucinations.
Resuscitators made an attempt to find out how things really are. To do this, they collected and analyzed the stories of patients who survived clinical death in 6 hospitals in the UK, Austria and the USA for 15 years. The work was led by Professor Sam Parnia, who at the time of the launch of the project was working at the British University of Southampton, and now is the head of resuscitation research at Stony Brook University in the US state of New York.
A total of 101 detailed interviews were obtained. Of the 46 narrators, 101 had no recollection of a “post-mortem experience,” even the most vague one. The same number – also 46 people – did not experience “out of the body” during clinical death, but retained memories in which recurring themes and images most often appear: fear; animals and plants; bright light; violence and persecution; deja vu; family.
The brain is thought to stop functioning about 20 to 30 seconds after the heart stops.
Further, 7 people describe sensations similar to what is commonly referred to as “out of body”, but do not recall the actual events associated with resuscitation. Finally, two people reported that they remember what happened to them while they were dead, and in one case they were able to reliably confirm this: a 57-year-old man, whose heart did not beat for 3 minutes, “watched” his own resuscitation, as if looking at her somewhere from the ceiling of the operating room, and from the corner, and correctly described real events, people, sounds and actions.
Here are quotes from his story: “At first, I think I heard my sister say: “Dial 444, cardiac arrest.” I was scared. I looked down from the ceiling. I saw a sister whom I did not know before, but then, after resuscitation, I saw again. I saw my own body and everything that happened. I saw how my blood pressure was measured, and at that time the doctor inserted something down my throat. I saw how my sister presses and presses on my chest, doing chest compressions, and how they take blood tests from me.
From the point of view of modern ideas about physiology, this is impossible: it is believed that the brain ceases to function approximately 20-30 seconds after the heart stops. Of course, one single case is not enough to draw any far-reaching conclusions.
According to Parnia, “Although it has not been possible to prove with absolute certainty the reality or meaningfulness of patients’ claims about the preservation of consciousness at the time of death, it is also impossible to dismiss them, so work in this direction must continue. Undoubtedly, reports of death experiences deserve to be studied further, without succumbing to prejudice.