Does Consciousness Continue after Death?

Scientists in the US have started a huge 3-year project to explore the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. They want to find out exactly what happens in the brain and the consciousness after the body dies (so-called ‘clinical death’). The Human Consciousness Project will examine around 1,500 people all over the world who survived after their hearts stopped functioning.

When the heart stops beating no blood gets to your brain, and after about 10 seconds brain activity ceases. That is normally the official death point. Yet around 10% or 20% of people who are brought back to life from that point, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, report having consciousness. They all report being able to see what is happening after that point, as if they were floating on the ceiling. The scientists want to confirm whether these are real experiences or hallucinations, by cross-checking what the patients’ report that they saw happening from above, with the doctors and nurses who were present. So far, hundreds of cases have been confirmed as accurate, to the amazement of the medical staff.

Research

Contributions to the research on near-death experiences have come from several academic disciplines, among these the disciplines of medicine, psychology and psychiatry. Interest in this field of study was originally spurred by the research of such pioneers as Jess Weiss, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, George Ritchie, and Raymond Moody Jr. Moody's book Life After Life, which was released in 1975, brought public attention to the topic of NDEs.[20] This was soon to be followed by the establishment of the International Association for Near-death Studies (IANDS) in 1981. IANDS is an international organization that encourages scientific research and education on the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual nature and ramifications of near-death experiences. Among its publications are the peer-reviewed Journal of Near-Death Studies and the quarterly newsletter Vital Signs.[11]

Later researchers, such as Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring, and Michael Sabom, helped to launch the field of Near-Death Studies and introduced the study of near-death experiences to the academic setting. The medical community has been reluctant to address the phenomenon of NDEs, and grant money for research has been scarce.[11] Nevertheless, both Greyson and Ring developed tools usable in a clinical setting. Major contributions to the field include Ring's construction of a "Weighted Core Experience Index"[32] to measure the depth of the near-death experience, and Greyson's construction of the "Near-death experience scale"[33] to differentiate between subjects that are more or less likely to have experienced an NDE. The latter scale is also, according to its author, clinically useful in differentiating NDEs from organic brain syndromes and nonspecific stress responses.[33] The NDE-scale was later found to fit the Rasch rating scale model.[14] Greyson[34] has also brought attention to the near-death experience as a focus of clinical attention, while Melvin Morse and colleagues[24][35] have investigated near-death experiences in a pediatric population.