Scientists to study near-death experiences
An international study, Awareness during Resuscitation experiment (Aware), will examine near-death experiences involving 1,500 cardiac arrest survivors in about 25 centers in the US and Britain. The study is coordinated by the Human Consciousness Project at the University of Southampton, which specializes in studying the human brain, consciousness and death.
The research, expected to take three years, will analyze whether people with no heartbeat or brain activity can have “out of body” experiences. Some people report seeing a tunnel or bright light, recall looking down from the ceiling at medical staff, hearing voices telling them to return to the living world and others feel a tremendous sense of peace and well-being.
During the study, doctors will use technology to study the brain and consciousness during cardiac arrest. To test whether such experiences involve the mind leaving the body, pictures will be placed around the areas of the hospital where heart attacks occur most frequently, such as accident and emergency and intensive care units. The pictures will only be visible from above. If patients are able to describe these pictures, project leaders argue that scientists will have to rethink how they understand the mind.
“There could be great benefits from this research for the future,” said Penny Satori, a Intensive care nurse, who leads the project at Morriston Hospital. “As well as helping surviving patients psychologically after a trauma, it can give peace of mind to grieving families.
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September 23rd, 2008 at 3:57 am
I once hosted Dr Kenneth Ring on a tour of Australia, Dr Ring was at the time a noted authority on NDE.
He recounted to me a tale of a Mexican lady who was visiting her daughter in some city (I disremember which) in the USA to which she had travelled by train. It was her first time out of Mexico.
As her train pulled in she suffered a heart attack; an ambulance was summoned and she was taken to a hospital some distance away. She was unconscious on her rushed journey to the ER where shortly after arrival she ‘died’ for a few minutes. She was given the ‘paddles’ and revived and taken to a recovery ward where she was settled for the rest of the day.
She was unable to speak English but told a spanish-speaking nurse that she had heard the conversations in the ER and had seen herself from a position near the ceiling. She described the Doctors and nurses and the procedure that revived her. She also said that she had risen through the ceiling, through two further floors and above the hospital.
A Dr asked the nurse what it was she was saying and was told. She also said thtt on a window ledge on the top floor at the corner of the building facing a lake there was a red shoe; a child’s shoe.
The hospital was a three storey building and there was a lake behind it. The Doctor went to the top floot corner rooms and looked. There was a red child’s shoe on a window ledge just out of sight from inside the room.
It was not possible to establish just how she knew this, not having seen any part of the hospital but the room she was in and the short, internal trolly ride from the ER which was on the same ground floor.
She could have guessed the procedure, possibly, and possibly remembered some details about the staff present as she revived. But she could not have known of the number of floors or about the shoe which no one else had noticed as it could not be seen from inside without leaning out of a window that was usually closed.
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I definitely believe in near death experiences. I have one just about every time I ride my dirt bike. Today I wiped out and heard my ribs crack. Ouch.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
My mother died while in an ambulance to give birth to my sister who was born feet first. She lifted above the ambulance and said to God, “I have to raise my children”.
This was the 5th and she had a 6th. She died when the 5th turned 18. She didn’t want to die and she was given 3 days to live over breast cancer but lived 1.5 years to love the last child.
My mother was a staunch Catholic and so were all of us yet I grew up in a house full of spirits.
One time in my life my mother visited me. But what people don’t get is that you have to be empty minded to see the dead. It is not easy to do. At the pit of dispair it can happen.
My friends growing up had parents who hated my family for their children apparently went through unusual experiences and they were consequently drugged.
A house salesman told us our house would not sell because they walls wouldn’t allow it. That seemed weird to us children but he meant the spirits wouldn’t allow it. And it couldn’t sell no matter what we did. It only sold when the last child had moved on.
I grew up with glasses smashing in cupboards for no reason and venetian blinds opening from the inside as the windows were shut. No-one was there. I have known the black spirit and I have know the cold air and cold surfaces.
Spirits are real. There is on doubt in my mind.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Just want to add that I had the greatest family. No psycho family. These occurrences were rare. We never felt threatened. God was in our home 24/7 yet we were not like Jehovah witnesses.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
It is a bit embarrassing that anyone who reads this post sees my comment after comment. But I have to say something about my comments.
I hadn’t realised how I have fabricated truth to romance my childhood.
The story of my mother dying in the ambulance was real and so was the ghosts in our house and a few friends experience and the way their parents dealt with the situation.
But I romanced the idea that my mother lived till her child was 18. That was not possible for that is almost how old I was. It was terrible for me and my siblings to not only be fatherless but lose the only parent/adult we had.
My younger siblings were in my care and I did a terrible job being the parent. They may not say so but I can only perceive what I think now that I am an adult and a parent.
Not only was I the adult in the house but I had a baby myself. They were very tough days and romancing them helps me to cope.
The power of the mind is incredible. Sorry for the dishonesty BTW.