Based on a report in the medical journal Resuscitation, scientists studied over 2,000 people who went into cardiac arrest. Roughly 40% recalled awareness while they were clinically dead.1
The problem I have with that study is that our definition of clinical death may not be accurate. The best method to determine death keeps changing.2
In an article in a 2010 issue of Time Magazine, Laura Fitzpatrick discusses near-death experience and relates it to being clinically dead. But she goes on to say this is "with an absence of heartbeat and breathing." 3
All too often, patients are declared dead when they merely lack brain activity. We experience all our observations of the physical world through our senses. Our brain interprets what our body sees, feels, and smells.
Recent research indicates that consciousness might be in a more primitive section of the brain that is not recorded by an EEG.4
In a 2012 article in Scientific American, Michael Shermer discusses this concept. He quotes Donald H. Hoffman, a cognitive scientist from the University of California:
Hoffman’s view is that we construct reality in our minds based on the input through our senses.
That leaves me with this thought:
Our consciousness and everything we experience might be a virtual manifestation in our minds. But is that a function of our brain?
The accepted hypothesis among scientists is that consciousness originates in the brain. Therefore, if one is dead and detectable brain activity ceases, they can no longer be aware of their surroundings.
If this is the case, why do we hear of so many reports of out-of-body experiences (OBE) that people have during a near-death experience (NDE)?
Could that be evidence that our consciousness survives our death and we continue with awareness in another realm (what many would call Heaven)?
To answer these questions, let's examine the documented cases available in the medical field.
A well-known neurosurgeon, Dr. Eben Alexander, had an Out-of-Body Experience when his brain was completely shut down while in a coma after contracting bacterial meningitis that attacked his brain. He was declared clinically dead, confirmed by brain activity monitoring equipment.
His consciousness continued to function, although no brain activity was detected. He even experienced what was happening in the world away from his hospital bed.
He lived to write a book, "Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife," where he told his story of what he experienced while declared clinically dead.6
I would tend to dismiss everything Dr. Alexander claimed about his near-death experience if it weren’t for the fact that he is a well-regarded neurosurgeon in the field.
So, that brings me to a deeper discussion of where our consciousness resides.
I had always believed there were good scientific explanations for the out-of-body feelings described by so many people who had a near-death experience.
I found numerous examples of out-of-body experiences where they describe in detail what went on around them during the time they were clinically dead. The medical personnel confirmed that these descriptions were accurate.
There’s that term again, ”clinically dead.” Mistakes have been made in how doctors consider a person dead.
Modern medicine has different definitions of death. For that matter, the definition of death is different in various countries.7
The following three criteria are the most common and acceptable methods practiced to determine death.8
That is all based on theory. One may still be alive when thought to be dead, and we are just using the wrong definition.
In some cases, modern medicine has reached the stage where people are brought back after all hope has been lost. That doesn’t mean doctors can bring a dead person back to life. It means we are still getting it wrong. Our criteria for determining death are still not correct.
Modern neuroscience proves that the brain cannot function without oxygen. That is obvious from the data on cardiac arrest patients. Monitoring equipment detects the absence of cerebral activity when no blood enters the brain.
Without all three criteria to consider one dead, it's incorrect to assume a patient was aware while in a coma if they were not officially dead.
It's possible that those patients who are resuscitated and live to tell about their out-of-body experience were never really dead at all.
One theory that satisfies many scientists is that an out-of-body experience is simply a hallucination.
The problem with this theory is that it doesn't take into account the accurate observations patients reported during a Near-Death Experience, which were documented in hospitals all over the world.9
I have studied many reported cases of NDE where people in a coma were conscious of what was going on around them and even with other people in their lives who were not in their immediate presence while in a coma.
We may be confused about all this because we don't understand what consciousness is. We think we are conscious. But we can also program computers to simulate artificial intelligence with a degree of perceived consciousness.
If our awareness is also merely a simulation, that might change our entire concept of consciousness.
There was a time when doctors would declare a patient dead if they didn't detect any breath. That was not very accurate and caused burials of living people. For that reason, they implemented the following arrangement:
A bell was placed above coffins in the graveyards with a string passing through to the coffin. If the buried person woke up, they could pull the string and ring the bell. A guard would hear the ringing during his "graveyard shift" and order personnel to dig up the coffin quickly.
That's how the term "saved by the bell" originated.
In his book, "Endless Consciousness: A Scientific Approach to the Near-Death Experience," Dr. Pim van Lommel says,
"The issue is not whether there is any immeasurable brain activity of any kind whatsoever, but whether there is any brain activity of the specific form regarded by contemporary neuroscience as essential for the experience of consciousness. And there is no sign whatsoever of those specific forms of cerebral activity in the EEGs of cardiac arrest patients."
What Dr. Pim van Lommel is referring to is that an electroencephalogram (EEG) only monitors brain activity from the cerebral cortex, the outermost section of the brain.
Consciousness may still be possible if maintained by the more primitive sections of the brain that are not recorded by an EEG.10
It is well-documented that using electrodes implanted deep in the brain during prolonged cardiac arrest with a lack of oxygen-rich blood, there is a reduction (or absence) of brain activity in those deep structures as well. Therefore, one cannot expect to sustain consciousness.11
It's difficult to say if consciousness requires a functioning brain. There is much evidence that consciousness exists while in a coma.
Since I have a computer background, I know how flash memory (as in USB memory sticks) can retain data without having a power source. So I thought it could be possible for our brain to continue functioning at a primitive level without the required power source, namely, oxygen-rich blood.
I would suppose that it is possible until the brain begins to decompose. That, of course, would be the mortal ending.
That conclusion is only possible if consciousness is indeed a function of the brain. But what if it's not?
Neuroscientists continue to study this. Hopefully, we will have a definitive answer someday. If the origin of our consciousness is elsewhere, then we might truly experience awareness after death.
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