Neurologists Shine Light On Near-Death Experiences

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Mainstream science has long considered the brain to be inactive during the period known to doctors as clinical death. However, survivors regularly report having powerful experiences when they come close to dying, often saying they had an overwhelming feeling of peace and serenity. Frequently they describe being in a dark tunnel with a bright light at the end, and many report meeting long-lost loved ones. 'Many of them think it's evidence they actually went to heaven — perhaps even spoke with God,' says Jimo Borjigin. Now scientists at the University of Michigan have found that the brain keeps on working for up to 30 seconds after blood flow stops, possibly providing a scientific explanation for the vivid near-death experiences that some people report after surviving a heart attack. In the study, lab rats were anesthetized, then subjected to induced cardiac arrest as part of the experiment while researchers analyzed changes in power density, coherence, directed connectivity, and cross-frequency coupling. In the first 30 seconds after their hearts were stopped, they all showed a surge of brain activity, observed in electroencephalograms (EEGs) that indicated highly aroused mental states. 'We were surprised by the high levels of activity,' says George Mashour. 'In fact, at near-death, many known electrical signatures of consciousness exceeded levels found in the waking state, suggesting that the brain is capable of well-organized electrical activity during the early stage of clinical death.' Borjigan thinks the phenomenon is really just the brain going on hyperalert to survive while at the same time trying to make sense of all those neurons firing and it's like a more intense version of dreaming. 'The near-death experience is perhaps really the byproduct of the brain's attempt to save itself,' says Borjigan" While interesting, it's important to remind ourselves that this research is not conclusive: "Borjigin and Mashour hesitate to state a direct connection between their findings and near-death experiences. The links are merely speculative at this point and provide a framework for a human study, Borjigin said."

Comments

Neurologists Shine Light On Near-Death Experiences

[Darth Snowshoe]

... of rats.

Out of Body?

[kgskgs]

While this can possibly explain the tunnel and the white light, how can this explain people seeing things even when their eyes were closed?

Re:Out of Body?

[Nadaka]

A vivid hallucinatory reconstruction of events based on memory fragments, audible perception and accounts later recounted by other observers. Not much different than an advanced sensation of deja vu. It may even be stimulated by this period of mental hyperactivity.

Re:Out of Body?

[Anonymous Coward]

how can this explain people seeing things even when their eyes were closed?

You can see shit in your dreams with your eyes closed.
Your visual cortex receives impulses which is what you call "sight"... the source of those impulses can be internal or external. Which is also the reason people can hallucinate.

Basically this research is just more evidence which supports what most rational people have known for decades- near-death and other trance experiences are not some kind of supernatural communication, your brain is essentially just short-circuiting itself.

Re:Out of Body?

[camperdave]

I think the parent is referring to veridical experiences.

But what about the horizondical experiences?

Re:Out of Body?

[Immerman]

Don't know how real this is - but I remember a story about a surgeon who got sick of hearing about his patients out-of-body experiences and so put a really vibrant, ridiculous, eye-catching poster on the top of the machinery where you couldn't help but see it if you were really floating near the ceiling looking down on yourself, but couldn't see it at all from the table. When patients started telling about their experience he would ask them what was on the poster, and it shut them up without fail.

Don't know my own opinion on the subject, I'll let you know if/when I've had such an experience. But I have no doubts whatsoever about the human mind's ability to utterly deceive itself.

Re:Guillotine

[Anonymous Coward]

"The brain dies right away" is idiotic nonsense promulgated by people who think the brain is operated by some ephemeral soul that suddenly winks off to heaven/hell dropping the puppet flat.

Any chemical/electrical process will run until the chemistry/electricity runs out.

Re:Hmmm ....

[narcc]

It's interesting that you're willing to draw a significantly stronger conclusion that the authors of the study.

Cool, But...

[CanHasDIY]

I enjoy this kind of research. It's always interesting to further our understanding of the complexity of life, and all the weird, nigh inexplicable stuff it entails.

However, it seems a lot of readers are jumping to conclusions not even the researchers have come to; We still have, essentially, no understanding of what consciousness is, where it come from, or where it goes during these sorts of episodes. Hopefully we'll figure it out one day, and have an even greater understanding of our universe.

I usually try to stay out of these metaphysical-themed debates; having personally experienced a fair amount of strange shit that current scientific knowledge cannot explain, my thoughts in this arena tend to be less than popular... something I've always found ironic, and a bit sad. I mean, if we're supposed to be a community who believes in science, why would anyone dismiss a hypothesis or concept out-of-hand, without proper experimentation and research?

Oh, well, I went and said it anyway. Let fly with the down-mods, Philistines and Hypocrites, as I've broached topics you refuse to even consider, let alone debate intellectually.