There are millions of documented cases of near-death experiences and researchers are taking note.
You have probably heard about near-death experiences (NDEs). You may be familiar with the dark tunnel into light, out-of-body experience, and return to living. But did you know that documented NDEs are now reaching 9 million, and this experience is being taken very seriously by medical science? In the last 10 years, more than 200 NDE studies have been added to the PubMed database at the National Library of Medicine.
NDEs have been described throughout history and across cultures, but the growing number of well-documented and recent NDEs are coming from people who have survived cardiac arrest, a medical emergency in which the heart and the brain flatline. Before cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), cardiac arrest was game over. But with modern CPR, some people can be brought back from the edge of death or beyond, in some cases even hours after flatlining. These people are reporting remarkably similar experiences.
At a recent study presented at the 2023 scientific meeting of the American Heart Association, researchers from NYU School of Medicine reported that 40 percent of patients who have been successfully resuscitated after cardiac arrest reported NDEs.
It is estimated that NDEs are experienced by 10 to 20 percent of people who come very close to death. In children, NDEs are even more common, close to 70 percent. The number may be higher since many people have been reluctant to talk about the experience due to fear of ridicule and disbelief. It is not uncommon for doctors to suggest an evaluation by a brain specialist or a psychiatrist after a reported NDE.
NDEs also have been reported throughout history by people faced with what they believe is imminent death. Examples include strokes, car crashes, and plane crashes. In 1892, a collection of NDEs described by mountain climbers who survived falls that should have been fatal included a slowing of time and a deep sense of peace as vivid memories of their life passed before them, without any sense of hitting the ground.
NDEs can be a life-transforming alteration of consciousness, in which a person near death or believing to be near death switches away from the physical reality to a reality that falls outside physical perception. This switch suggests to the person that consciousness continues to exist with the same or higher intensity after the physically perceived reality ends.
Certain common experiences are remarkably consistent. They include ineffability (difficulty describing in words), hearing oneself pronounced dead, going through a dark tunnel and emerging into light, feelings of peace, being out of the body, a bright light or being of light, a panoramic life review (like the mountain climbers), being in a realm in which all knowledge exists, sensing a border or limit, experiencing a supernatural rescue, and coming back into the body.
Almost all people describe NDEs as life-changing or transformational. They often report a greater sense of purpose, compassion, and appreciation for life. Almost all report no longer fearing death. For those who are religious, the experience may confirm the soul and the afterlife. For those who are less religious or spiritual, the experience almost always leads to an opening of the mind to the possibility of something beyond this worldly existence.
About 50 years ago, a group of cardiologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociologists from America and Europe who were convinced that NDEs were real—and important—formed a study group that would become a new field of research called near-death studies. Over time, two main hypotheses have developed to explain NDEs: dying brain hypothesis and the afterlife hypothesis.
Researchers who support the dying brain explanation, called physicalists, believe there is a physical or scientific explanation. Although they admit they do not know yet what that is, they have offered explanations that include a “storm” of brain chemicals, or the release of an unknown psychedelic brain chemical that causes vivid hallucinations.
The afterlife group includes those who accept a spiritual or religious explanation and many who suspect consciousness is not produced by the brain but exists outside the brain as universal consciousness that the brain can tap into. Universal consciousness is similar to the being of oneness with the universe described throughout history in the mystical traditions of religion and philosophy.
A more philosophical explanation is that all reality is mentally created and the mind or consciousness is the only reality. At the time of brain death, consciousness can simply switch to another phase of existence not extinguished by death.
Both the physicalists and the universal consciousness group have continued to research NDEs and are moving closer together. Many believe they are on the verge of breakthrough.
Almost all religious and spiritual belief systems make room for the experience of mysticism, which is very similar to the concept of universal consciousness. Mysticism comes from the Greek word for mystery. It can be understood as a state of consciousness in which a person makes contact with the infinite universe or oneness of being. For Christians, it could be contact with God through prayer. For Buddhists, it could be the unity of consciousness and oneness through meditation. Mysticism can be seen as an umbrella term into which all these psychic and spiritual experiences exist, including NDEs.
A new take on an ancient mystical experience is using hallucinogenic or psychedelic substances. Throughout human history, searchers have used naturally occurring drugs like psilocybin in mushrooms or mescaline from peyote to expand their consciousness. Today those searchers may be psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscientists doing clinical research at major university centers that is supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Used along with psychotherapy in a carefully controlled environment, called psychedelic therapy, it may include the use of LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, or ayahuasca. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found benefits for major depression, and studies at UCLA suggest a greater sense of peace and less fear for people with terminal illness.
The poet William Blake wrote, “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to a man as it is, infinite.” Many prominent NDE researchers believe that we are on the verge of cracking open those doors. NDEs or other powerful experiences can lead to a deeper understanding of consciousness. If consciousness exists outside of the brain, as many NDE researchers believe, then we can overcome the limits of the brain and glimpse into the infinite possibilities that consciousness may be capable of.
