British and German scientists have confirmed that there is a certain form of life after death. The startling conclusion is based on the results of two separate European studies. The scientists used a new type of medical surveillance near death experience that allows patients to be “clinically dead” for nearly 20 minutes and then return to life.
Consciousness exists after cardiac arrest
In a British study - a large-scale research project involving more than 2,000 people - scientists have confirmed that consciousness does continue to exist after cardiac arrest. It was believed that the brain stops all activities 30 seconds after the heart stops pumping blood throughout the body, and that due to this, awareness also ceases to function.
But what shocked researchers at the University of Southampton the most was the evidence that “clinically dead” people continue to have thoughts. It has also produced the most compelling scientific evidence that out-of-body experiences are real.
Lead Investigator Dr. Sam Parnia said: “Unlike perception, death is not a specific moment, but a potentially reversible process that occurs after some serious illness or accident causes the heart, lungs and brain to stop. function. If attempts are made to reverse this process, as, for example, during "cardiac arrest" and they fail, then they say that "death" has come.
Of the 2,060 heart attack survivors in Austria, the United States and the United Kingdom, surveyed in the study, nearly 40% said they had some form of consciousness after severe clinical death. Dr. Parnia concludes: "This tells us that most people are mentally active initially, but then lose their memories after recovery, or because of the effects of traumatic brain injury or sedatives that affect memory."
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The first scientifically proven experience of life "outside the body"
Perhaps the most important finding of the British study is that a 57-year-old man had the first scientifically proven experience of life outside the body.
The man was able to remember with eerie accuracy what happened around him after he temporarily “died”. Dr. Parnia says: “This is very important as it is often assumed that the death experience is likely hallucinations or illusions, occurring either before the cardiac arrest or after the heart has been successfully restarted. But not an experience corresponding to "real" events, when the heart is not beating. In this case, consciousness and awareness seemed to take place over a three-minute period when the patient had no pulse."
The British study was published in the journal Critical Care Medicine and is now available online for study. The findings of the British scientists are supported by a concurrent study from the Technical University of Berlin.
Detachment from the body, a sense of levitation, complete calmness, safety, warmth and dazzling light
The German study also included medical observation of near-death experiences. The study involved 944 volunteers. The study of the phenomenon has lasted for the last four years. The researchers used a complex mixture of drugs, including epinephrine and dimethyltryptamine, to allow the body to survive "near death" and be resuscitated without injury.
The volunteers were temporarily put into a coma caused by a mixture of other drugs that had to be filtered with ozone during the resuscitation process 18 minutes later.
A team of scientists led by Dr. Berthold Ackermann monitored the activities and collected people's testimonies. Although there have been some minor variations from one person to another, all subjects have some recollection of the period of near death. And the vast majority of them describe very similar sensations.
"Most shared memories include the feeling of being detached from the body, the feeling of levitation, complete calmness, security, warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of blinding light."
Many will be shocked
Scientists say they are well aware that some of their findings can lead to shocks in many people. Mr Ackermann said that different religious beliefs do not seem to make any difference in terms of the sensations and experiences that the patients described at the end of the experiment. The volunteers were members of various Christian denominations, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and atheists.
“I know that our results can destroy the beliefs of many people,” says Mr. Ackerman. “But in a way, we've just answered one of the most important questions in human history. So I hope that these people can forgive us. Yes, there is life after death and that seems to apply to everyone."
Prepared by Sergey TKACH
