‘Clear death’: people with a high level of consciousness and out-of-body sensations when the heart stops beating

What happens when someone dies?

Darkness, the end of pain, going out into the light and then a sense of peace are some of the elements that make up the popular imagination about what happens when someone dies. Religions have their answers, writers explore the theme with creativity.

But what does science say about it?

Recently, a first-of-its-kind scientific study showed that a person’s consciousness does not immediately die when the heart stops beating. Research has proven that experiences such as seeing your life pass before your eyes or having the sensation of leaving your own body are not hallucinations.

The study is being reviewed by other scientists for its full publication, which should occur in 2023.

Lucidity in cardiac arrest

The study, conducted by the Grossmann School of Medicine at New York University, in the United States, concluded that one in five people who survive cardiopulmonary resuscitation after a cardiac arrest can describe experiences of lucidity about death that occurred while they were apparently unconscious and without a heartbeat.

“Throughout history, we’ve looked at death based on the social convention that there was a line between life and death and that once you’ve crossed it, there’s no turning back,” explains Sam Parnia, director of the study presented at recent Sessions Scientific 2022 of the North American Heart Association, in Chicago, in the United States.

“Over the last 60 years, this concept has been questioned because the discovery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation has allowed some people to return to life who, from a biological point of view, had entered death,” he says. “These people have been reporting experiences for over 60 years and there are millions of people around the world who have shared the same experiences.”

But for years, these stories were considered simple hallucinations, tricks of the brain, or drug-like experiences—until current research has shown this comparison to be erroneous.

Researchers studied 567 people who received cardiopulmonary resuscitation after cardiac arrest during their hospitalization between May 2017 and March 2020, in the US and UK. Of these, less than 10% survived.

“You have to understand that cardiac arrest is not a heart problem,” says Parnia. “It’s just a medical term for death.”

Of the analyzed group, 85 people could be studied with optimal brain monitoring —the largest group ever researched to date. The researchers also faced the challenge of installing all the necessary medical mechanisms to monitor the brain.

To conduct this study, they used, on the one hand, cerebral oximetry —a non-invasive technique for monitoring changes in brain oxygen metabolism based on near-infrared spectroscopy technology. In it, near-infrared photons are emitted onto the patient’s frontal skin. And, on the other hand, a portable electroencephalogram device was used.

“Cardiac arrest is an emergency. It happens very suddenly and without warning,” says Parnia. “Usually, teams need to arrive in five minutes, get in the middle of the emergency and put all the devices on. So, collecting the data is actually a challenge.”

Parnia is director of the Parnia Lab, the world’s first research laboratory dedicated to improving resuscitation care and exploring what goes on in the human mind during and after cardiac arrest.

Previous studies in animals have shown that they have waves of electrical activity in the brain at the very moment after cardiac arrest.

Another study presented in February 2022 analyzed the brain activity of a woman at the exact moment of her death. A sudden increase in what is called gamma brain activity — the waves that are activated when a conscious person recalls memories and mentally processes that information — was observed.

With this background, Sam Parnia’s team intended to answer two questions: to know what people’s experiences are when the heart stops beating and they are resuscitated, and whether it is possible to find brain markers that confirm the reports of people who claim to have experienced lucid consciousness .

But above all, they try to distance themselves from the expression “near-death experience”. In the scientist’s opinion, this expression has been misused throughout history to describe countless types of occurrences that have nothing to do with death and do not even show similarity to each other.

“Some people use the expression ‘near-death experience’ to talk about dreams. Others, to talk about drug use”, he indicates. “For us, these are real death experiences. First, because the hearts have stopped beating and, second, because people realize they had died when they return.”

The difference between coma and death memories

Often when people are resuscitated by CPR, they remain in a coma for days or weeks. This lapse of time could cause countless memories and the research tried to differentiate the type of memories that are formed.

“These people can describe all sorts of different things that have been mistakenly called near-death experiences, but they’re probably different,” explains Parnia. Therefore, the researchers separated the two groups.

“We conclude that there are clearly different experiences that occur in the days and weeks after resuscitation, usually when the person is just starting to wake up from the coma, so they have nothing to do with the death experience,” he says.

Even so, the research ruled out that it was about other experiences, such as dreams.

“Everyone has random dreams, which are all different,” according to Parnia. “But with the death experience, people bring up five main themes, even if they don’t know each other, and those themes are wonderfully put together.”

These groups are: evaluation of life, feeling of returning to the body, perception of separation from the body, perception of going to a destination and returning to a place that is perceived as home.

This was the first part of the study. “Thus, we were able to demonstrate that, essentially, the experience of death is not the same as hallucinations, delusions or dreams”, explains the researcher.

The second step was to install brain monitors on people to look for these brain markers of clear consciousness. That’s how the researchers found that, up to an hour after receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation, there were signs of high-level brain activity – so-called alpha, beta, theta, delta and gamma waves.

“Some of these waves are consistent with what happens when we have conscious thought processes, when we’re analyzing things, reliving life, memories and when we have higher order consciousness,” explains Parnia. “Thus, we were able to demonstrate, for the first time, brain markers of the lucid experience of death. In addition, of course, to the experiences themselves.”

Not everyone has memories

In fact, nobody expects people to remember anything. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t had the experience.

Due to the sedative drugs, the deep coma and the inflammation of the brain, which is the first occurrence when the heart starts pumping blood again, it is normal for people to forget everything.

“We will never get 100% of people to remember everything, which has a lot to do with the effect of the brain and the medications administered”, explains the researcher.

“Thirty-nine percent of people have vague recollections but can’t recall the details, and 20 percent have what we call a kind of transcendent experience. Already 7 percent remember hearing things and 3 percent remember seeing things. something,” he details.

‘I saw my whole life in detail’

Among the group of people who remembered what they experienced during that period in which the heart stopped pumping blood, but their brain continued to register markers of elevated brain activity, the study collected several experiences, with unknown duration. “It could be just a few seconds, I don’t know,” admits Parnia.

Among the statements collected in the study, several patients recalled having made an assessment of their lives and made statements such as:

• “I did a life review, and during that review I saw scenes from my life again.”
• “My whole life flashed before me… at first it was very fast. Then a few moments slowed down. Everything was shown to me, everyone I helped and everyone I hurt.”
• “My life and all its events began to replay in my mind, but in a very clear, real and living way.”

Others claimed to have experienced a separation from the body; others, the feeling of returning to the body:

• “I left my body.”
• “I was told it wasn’t my time and that I needed to return to my body.”
• “I felt like I was thrown back into my body.”
• “I found there was a being beside me… it was a comforting presence, a reassuring presence, but also a presence of magnitude and power.”

Others had the perception of going to a destination and returning to a place that they felt was their home:

• “I looked up and saw my destiny.”
• “It’s not like I was in a tunnel. It was like a tunnel was created around me due to the incredible speed of my travel.”
• “I went through a tunnel with great speed. It was wonderful and I didn’t want to go back.”
• “I knew I was home.”
• “I wanted to go into the light. I wanted to go home.”

For Parnia, what is interesting are the different aspects of the life review. “Usually we remember 1% of our entire lives when we are alive. But somehow it is remarkable that in death people manage to remember everything even though their brains are shutting down.”

“But interestingly, it’s not like a movie, as it is mistakenly portrayed in the media,” he explains. “It’s a very deep, intentional and meaningful reassessment of everything they’ve done and said and thought. They judge themselves, they judge their actions based on their morals and ethics, which is really admirable.”

“And all of this happens when they’re going through death, which again is very interesting. And that’s what makes it impossible for this to be a hallucination,” adds Parnia. “They know they’re spontaneously reliving it, which is amazing.”

How do people feel about these experiences?

Study patients stated that they felt “terribly bad”, for example, when they experienced the pain they caused to other people. But they also felt the same joy and happiness that their actions brought to those close to them.

At this point, Parnia explains that it is important to take into account that, normally, in order to carry out our daily lives, we do not process all aspects of our brain because it would be unbearable.

“Your brain is active in certain parts that are important and others are often inhibited with a kind of break system that serves as a brake,” he explains.

“The interesting thing is, with death, what we’re seeing is that as people go through death, the brain shuts down, it slows down, and when that happens, the disruption systems are knocked out and the inhibition process is suspended”, says Parnia about the process that they were able to prove with the markers that measure the electrical activity of the brain. With it, it was possible to observe activity in parts of the brain to which one normally does not have access.

“Everything that happened in their lives is recorded and people are able to relive it, which is absolutely remarkable,” he said. “This is definitely a real death experience and now we’re understanding it because we’re looking at it from a scientific point of view, but also from an evolutionary perspective.”

“Why, when you die, do all the things that are important to you, like paying the bills, the mortgage, dinner, work, whatever… completely disappear?” asks Parnia.

“They are no longer important. What is evident, what really matters, and what stands out in your mind when you die, is your conduct as a human being. The moral and ethical aspects of your actions and that it’s really fascinating”, concludes the researcher.

This text was originally published here.