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experiences has discovered that some awareness may continue even after
the brain has shut down completely.
It is a controversial subject which has, until recently, been treated
with widespread scepticism.
But scientists at the University of Southampton have spent four years
examining more than 2,000 people who suffered cardiac arrests at 15
hospitals in the UK, US and Austria.
And they found that nearly 40 per cent of people who survived
described some kind of 'awareness' during the time when they were
clinically dead before their hearts were restarted.
One man even recalled leaving his body entirely and watching his
resuscitation from the corner of the room.
Despite being unconscious and 'dead' for three minutes, the
57-year-old social worker from Southampton, recounted the actions of
the nursing staff in detail and described the sound of the machines.
"We know the brain can't function when the heart has stopped beating,"
said Dr Sam Parnia, a former research fellow at Southampton
University, now at the State University of New York, who led the
study.
"But in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for
up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn't beating,
even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after
the heart has stopped.
"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."
Of 2060 cardiac arrest patients studied, 330 survived and 140 said
they had experienced some kind of awareness while being resuscitated.
Although many could not recall specific details, some themes emerged.
One in five said they had felt an unusual sense of peacefulness while
nearly one third said time had slowed down or speeded up.
Some recalled seeing a bright light; a golden flash or the Sun
shining. Others recounted feelings of fear or drowning or being
dragged through deep water. 13 per cent said they had felt separated
from their bodies and the same number said their sensed had been
heightened.
Dr Parnia believes many more people may have experiences when they are
close to death but drugs or sedatives used in the process of
rescuitation may stop them remembering.
"Estimates have suggested that millions of people have had vivid
experiences in relation to death but the scientific evidence has been
ambiguous at best.
"Many people have assumed that these were hallucinations or illusions
but they do seem to corresponded to actual events.
"And a higher proportion of people may have vivid death experiences,
but do not recall them due to the effects of brain injury or sedative
drugs on memory circuits.
"These experiences warrant further investigation. "
Dr David Wilde, a research psychologist and Nottingham Trent
University, is currently compiling data on out-of-body experiences in
an attempt to discover a pattern which links each episode.
He hopes the latest research will encourage new studies into the
controversial topic.
"Most studies look retrospectively, 10 or 20 years ago, but the
researchers went out looking for examples and used a really large
sample size, so this gives the work a lot of validity.
"There is some very good evidence here that these experiences are
actually happening after people have medically died.
"We just don't know what is going on. We are still very much in the
dark about what happens when you die and hopefully this study will
help shine a scientific lens onto that."
The study was published in the journal Resuscitation.
Dr Jerry Nolan, Editor-in-Chief at Resuscitation said: "Dr Parnia and
his colleagues are to be congratulated on the completion of a
fascinating study that will open the door to more extensive research
into what happens when we die."
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/11144442/First-hint-of-life-after-death-in-biggest-ever-scientific-study.html)
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