Real research on near-death experiences

[nogodsforme]

There are people who think that NDE's are evidence of life after death, heaven or gods. As a science-minded person, I think that people are experiencing some naturally-caused brain thing rather than seeing into heaven. NDE's happen people's hearts stop and they experience some strange phenomena while they are unconscious, then they are revived.

We have a hard time studying scientifically this in people, as opposed to just collecting anecdotes about what they saw or felt while "clinically dead". Obviously, the brain has to continue to function or else the person is not just near death, they are dead! A researcher would have to know someone was  about to have a cardiac event and hook them up to brain monitors instead of trying to save their lives!  Not cool.

Here is an NPR article on what happens in the brains of rats just as they are dying. There is a burst of activity in the brain right after the heart stops. Scientists think that may be the cause of the things people say they experience during cardiac arrest.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/08/12/211324316/brains-of-dying-rats-yield-clues-about-near-death-experiences

[Nick]

Chemicals all firing as death takes place sounds logical.  It is the body closing down.  In a way its kind of comforting knowing the body is designed to do this for us in our last moments of life.  I imagine it does not always happen depending on what kind of death you experience.  Like an airplane crash or such.

[nogodsforme]

Imagine all the thousands of years before we had life-saving methods and technology-- basically before the 20th century. There would not be very many NDE's because once the heart shut down, the person was dead. There was no revival from heart-stoppage "clinical death", because dead was dead. Nobody came back to report on the peaceful feeling, the long-lost relatives and the tunnel with a bright light leading to the afterlife of the person's religious persuasion.

It seems clear that the experiences are produced by stuff happening in the brain, since all experiences are. You would not be able to experience anything that your brain could not produce. If you had never heard of the Hindu pantheon, or never knew your grandparents, you would not "see" them in your NDE. I wonder what kind of NDE's blind people would have....

[neopagan]

^^^^not only that, but pre20th century, cable sucked and you couldn't see a good late night flick on NDEs or have 230 religious channels at your disposal - prayer towels and healing stones included. 

[epidemic]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57599821/dead-ohio-man-tony-yahle-comes-back-to-life-after-45-minutes-with-no-heartbeat-stumping-doctors/

Dead for 45 minutes.  hey not three days but a good fraction of one day:)

[epidemic]

of course there is the magical answer that it was a miracle or

Scientific answer that he was only mostly dead:)  Magic max probably gave him one of his chocolate covered pills.

[neopagan]

^^^^ yep, clearly dead is dead.  If he is still wandering around giving jeezus all the credit for half killing him, he is not dead

[nogodsforme]

Dead = no brain activity. Nowadays, we can keep someone's heart beating and lungs working with machines or even CPR. We have not yet figured out how to restart a brain.  So, real death is more than just someone not breathing or having their heart stop. Of course, if the heart or lungs stop for long enough, that will lead to no oxygen to the brain. The we get brain death and that's really death!

People have had their hearts stop and been revived. People have had their breathing stop and been revived, although brain damage is a real possibility. But I don't think there has been a single documented case of someone having their brain stop and been revived. Brain dead is dead dead.

And can we stop with the "doctors can't understand it" already? People throw that phrase around as if that automatically means something magical happened. Doctors are people with years of training giving them skills and knowledge. That training does not also make them keepers of the secrets of the universe. 

[jaimehlers]

That's amazing, that he came back to life after 45 minutes.

Now let's figure out how it worked so we can keep other people from dying.

[Mrjason]

Imagine all the thousands of years before we had life-saving methods and technology-- basically before the 20th century. There would not be very many NDE's because once the heart shut down, the person was dead. There was no revival from heart-stoppage "clinical death", because dead was dead. Nobody came back to report on the peaceful feeling, the long-lost relatives and the tunnel with a bright light leading to the afterlife of the person's religious persuasion.

Maybe this is how the religion thing got started. Or at least certain aspects of religion. An NDE without a scientific explanation would certainly appear miraculous and on occasion people do just "get better" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2121643/