Pam Reynolds was 35 when she underwent a unique and daring brain surgery. She had a near-death experience, during which she heard the surgeons talk and watched the operation, despite the fact that her brain was not working at that moment.
What she saw and heard was confirmed by notes in a medical journal. This incident in 1991 became one of the most famous near-death experiments. He suggests that the sensation of leaving the body during a near-death experience is not a simple hallucination caused by a malfunction of the brain.
Despite the fact that this is one of the most striking cases, Reynolds is not the only person who, having left his body, saw what was happening around him, and everything had confirmation. This phenomenon is called true perception.
Dr. Sam Parnia is working to collect data and information on such cases. Parnia is an intensive care physician and director of intensive care research at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York. He is the organizer of the AWARE project in hospitals around the world.
In the hospitals participating in the experiment, patients who experienced clinical death, that is, resuscitated after cardiac arrest and brain work, were asked questions about what they felt, heard and saw.
The hospital also placed tags. If the patient, after leaving his body, was able to see these signs, which were outside his usual view, this indicated a genuine NDE.
Yana Holden, a professor at the University of North Texas and a longtime NDE researcher, believes there are significant flaws in the experience. In none of these trials, patients reported visual cues.
Promotional video:
She explains it this way:
“People who have experienced near-death experiences are mainly focused on the emotional and spiritual component. They just might not pay attention to the blue square in the corner with a triangle and the number 1 on it."
Another problem with this study is that these signs could be seen by someone from the stairs. As a result, there is a small chance that the patient could see or hear about them in the usual way.
Holden herself has studied many NDEs. She considers Reynolds' case to be "the most conclusive." Holden sent The Epoch Times a 116-page report containing quotes from near-death survivors. In the Handbook of Near-Death Experiments, she points out that in 92% of cases, the perception of information was correct, in 6% there were some errors, and only in one of 93 cases the information was completely untrue.
Reynolds case
Dr. Robert Spezler, director of the Barrow Institute of Neurology in Phoenix, performed a unique operation to treat Reynolds' brain aneurysm. She was put into hypothermic cardiac arrest: her body temperature was lowered, her heartbeat and breathing stopped, a straight line appeared on her electroencephalogram, and blood was pumped out of her head.
“From the point of view of ordinary people, she was dead. But in the hands of skilled doctors, she was not dead. Or was it all the same? " - writes Michael Sabom in the book "Light and Death: The Amazing Testimony of a Physician to the Near Death Experience."
Reynolds vividly remembers what happened after the anesthesia was administered and the procedure began: “The first thing I remember is the sound. This is the note re. I listened to this sound and felt that it pushes me out of the top of my head. The further I left my body, the more distinct this sound became. I remember seeing several things in the operating room. My mind was as clear as never before in my life."
She heard the surgeon say that her arteries were too narrow, and she knew which surgeon the words belonged to.
In a medical journal, this surgeon made a note that the small size of Reynolds' arteries was discussed. The time indicated exactly coincided with Reynolds's memories.
Could she hear it in the usual way?
“At the beginning of the operation, headphones were placed in her ears to test the reflexes of the brainstem. They completely prevented the possibility of hearing anything from the outside,”writes Sabom. Reynolds' eyes were moist and covered.
Brain activity was constantly monitored, and things like temporal lobe convulsions, which are sometimes thought to be a possible cause of near-death experiences, are unlikely, says Dr. Spezler.
Maria saw a tennis shoe
In one case, Maria, a migrant worker visiting friends in Seattle, suffered a heart attack. Her story was told by Bruce Grayson Charles P. Flynn in Near Death Experience: Problems and Prospects.
During the near-death experience, Maria left her body and saw a place outside of her chamber. She saw a tennis shoe on the third floor step. She described her. The nurse went to the place where, according to Maria, the shoe should have been.
There really was a shoe. The nurse said that such details could be seen if you were very close, she was not visible through the windows.