Trying hard to understand NDEs

I left off in my previous post by mentioning that I would raise some of the physiological aspects occurring simultaneously with the near-death experience (NDE).


To set the stage, a review of the medical literature shows that there are no particular disease states or events predominantly associated with NDEs. Among the many clinical circumstances reported to be associated with NDEs are cardiac arrest in myocardial infarction, shock in postpartum loss of blood or in perioperative complications, anaphylactic and septic shock, electrocution, coma resulting from traumatic brain injury, intracerebral hemorrhage or cerebral infarction, attempted suicide, near-drowning or asphyxia, apnea, and serious depression.

Several retrospective analyses have been conducted which have identified a number of interesting physiological correlates of NDEs. According to a 2001 study, the physiology of an NDE in patients with cardiac arrest usually includes elevated partial O2 pressure relative to other patients with cardiac arrest.

In September 2008 it was announced that an international study conducted in 25 UK and US hospitals would examine near-death events in 1,500 patient-survivors of heart attacks. The 3-year AWARE study — a follow-up to an earlier 18-month pilot study — is being coordinated by Dr.Sam Parnia of Southampton University. The goal of the study is to determine whether individuals can have an OBE with veridical (ie, real-world) visual perceptions in the absence of a heartbeat and brain activity. (As a side note, one of the simple but quite elegant fine points of the study is the inclusion of pictures visible only from the ceiling on shelves in the hospital rooms. Thus, if a patient’s spirit truly leaves the body and ascends toward the ceiling, they may be able to describe these heretofore unseen items.)

Some researchers and commentators tend to emphasize a naturalistic, neurobiological basis for the experience, while not necessarily trying to debunk NDEs. These include Susan Blackmore (1991), Birk Engmann at the Univeristy of Leipzig, and the founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine, Michael Shermer (2010). Among the explanations invoked have been destabilized temporal lobes in the brain creating NDE-prone personalities, psychopathological symptoms secondary to severe brain malfunction resulting from the stoppage of cerebral blood circulation, and other concrete scientific explanations awaiting discovery.

In my next post, we’ll take a look at some of the data that don’t fit so neatly into the purely neurobiological “box” of explanations.

Near-death experiences - the real afterlife or just a hallucination?

Coming back to the theme of consciousness that I touched on a few weeks ago, I’ve been looking into the scientific literature on near-death experiences (NDEs) and out of body experiences (OBEs). I find it absolutely fascinating to consider the possibility that a person’s consciousness could exist separately from the body, even for a finite period of time. There are also some intriguing tie-ins with remote viewing, but that’s a topic that will have to wait for a post of its own. Even NDEs and OBEs as individual topics merit much more than a brief post.


An NDE by definition is an experience or any of a collection of experiences by an individual associated with impending physical death. These experiences consist of a range of phenomena which may include separation from the body, a sense of floating or levitating, feelings of calm/security/warmth, and the presence of an all-encompassing light. The majority of these phenomena are reported when the individual in question is either very close to death or once he or she has actually been pronounced clinically dead. Ironically enough, there have been a significant number of NDEs reported by individuals who have not experienced life-threatening circumstances.

Modern interest in NDEs can be traced to the publication of Life After Life by Raymond Moody, MD, PhD in 1975. For many people, this was their first exposure to a broad review and discussion of over 100 cases of clinical deaths and subsequent resuscitations. The interest sparked by this book led to the foundation of the Association for the Scientific Study of Near-Death Phenomena (now the International Association for Near-Death Studies) in 1978 by Moody, John Audette, MS, Ken Ring, PhD, Bruce Greyson, MD, and Michael Sabom, MD. Since that time, these individuals and others with an interest in NDEs have been involved with the founding of a number of similar research groups and programs, including the Near Death Experience Research Foundation and the Human Consciousness Project.

As with most other paranormal phenomena, the scientific community as a whole is divided on the issue of NDEs and what they represent versus what they actually are. Opinions vary from the entire experience being a hallucination brought on by the stress of the NDE at one extreme all the way to the experience being a definitive demonstration of the existence of an afterlife.

In my next post, I’ll examine the physiological correlates of the NDE and some of the pro- and con- afterlife viewpoints.

In the meantime, as always, I welcome your opinions on the subject!