Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (17 page)

Drythelm is then told to return to his body and promised that if he mends his ways he will be “among the joyous band of the blessed spirits” when he dies. When he regains consciousness he tells his wife, “Do not be afraid, for I have truly risen from the dead by which I was held fast, and have been permitted to live again among men; nevertheless, from now on I must live not according to my old habits, but in a much different manner.” Drythelm accordingly distributed his possessions, retired to a Benedictine monastery, and lived a life of austerity, piety, fasting, and cold baths.

Bede was particularly impressed by the story’s conclusion: “It is a greater miracle to convert a sinner than to raise up a dead man…. And it is an even greater miracle yet if the tale of a dead man’s recovery and spiritual transformation change the hearts of its hearers.”

The content of this detailed NDE and Drythelm’s subsequent life changes are remarkably similar to Dante’s
Divine Comedy
and to George Ritchie’s account of his own NDE.
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A Nineteenth-Century NDE Report

In 1849 Admiral Francis Beaufort described the experience he had when, as a young man, he fell into Portsmouth harbor in the south of England and nearly drowned:

Two Nineteenth-Century Medical NDE Reports

Nineteenth-century medical literature also contains reports of near-death experiences. In 1859 Dr. Brierre de Boismont described a woman who was delirious and who appeared to suddenly die. She was revived by those in attendance.

Frederic Myers published an article in 1892 about a doctor who appeared to have died of typhoid fever in 1889. His treating physician declared that “he was actually dead as fully as I ever supposed anyone dead.” He had no perceptible pulse or heartbeat and was not breathing. Nonetheless, this patient and doctor had

Throughout the experience he had the sensation of being in a body that had “perfect health and strength,” and he said that “memory, judgement, and imagination, the three great faculties of mind, were intact and active.”

In conclusion, near-death experiences are by no means exclusive to the past thirty years, although there has of course been much more interest in the phenomenon since the publication of Raymond Moody’s book
Life After Life
. It is astonishing to discover so many identical experiences throughout history. Across all religions and cultures, these experiences have greatly influenced views on death and the possibility of a life after this life. Of course local factors always prompt different interpretations. For example, for some communities, especially some indigenous peoples of Asia, Africa, and America, these experiences hint at the existence of a spirit world where ancestors dwell until their rebirth in another body.

Nowadays more and more questions are asked about how to explain the cause and content of these experiences that have been reported in all times. Many scientists assume that an NDE is caused by oxygen deficiency in the brain. Others believe that psychological reactions such as fear of death play a role, or that a combination of physical and psychological factors can offer an explanation. In the next chapter all existing scientific explanations for an NDE will be reviewed.

In 1969 the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross managed to break the taboo in Western society against talking about death with her book
On Death and Dying.
In 1975 Raymond Moody greatly boosted interest in the topic with his descriptions of near-death experiences in his first and much-read book,
Life After Life.
His research into experiences of a lucid consciousness during a life-threatening situation and the possibility of a life after this life raised a lively debate and critical questions worldwide. Since then, a raft of fascinating but not always scientifically verifiable reports and books has been written on the subject.
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As interest in NDE proliferated, so did the question whether people who have this experience are special and whether an NDE occurs under exceptional circumstances. People began to speculate about a scientific explanation for these experiences. A frequently asked question was how people could have a lucid consciousness and memories during a spell of unconsciousness or coma, when there are objective indications of complete brain dysfunction. The prevailing scientific view that consciousness and memories are produced by the brain began to be called into question.

Most attempts at explaining near-death experience are based on anecdotal evidence of NDE and on retrospective studies involving a self-selected group of patients with a past NDE. This makes it impossible to ascertain the precise medical circumstances surrounding the NDE. Prospective research, meeting stricter scientific criteria and yielding better and more reliable results, is a much more recent trend.

This chapter starts with a brief overview of the history of scientific research into NDEs. This is followed by research data on the incidence of NDEs: who is affected, how often, and under what circumstances. Finally, this chapter reviews a number of theories with which scientists have tried to explain the incidence, the special character, and particular elements of NDEs.

The History of Scientific NDE Research

The first systematic study of near-death experience was written in 1892 by the Swiss geologist Albert von Sankt Gallen Heim. In the
Yearbook of the Swiss Alpine Club,
under the heading “The Experience of Dying from Falls,” Heim described a total of thirty cases that were told to him in person; among them are the stories of Alpine mountaineers who survived near-fatal falls, including his own experience. He also included accounts of soldiers who sustained life-threatening injuries during war, of workers who fell off scaffolding, and of people who nearly drowned or died in accidents. He was the first to describe the experiences of people, such as soldiers, who actually nearly died of their serious injuries, and of those who merely expected to die, such as mountaineers. He concluded that people close to death or who were considered to be dead reported that “no grief was felt, nor was there paralyzing fright of the sort that can happen in instances of lesser danger…. There was no anxiety, no trace of despair, nor pain; but rather calm seriousness, profound acceptance, and a dominant mental quickness and sense of surety.”
²

Doctor examining a near-death experience. © Steve Michiels / ComicHouse.nl

Between 1975 and 2005 a total of forty-two studies covering more than 2,500 patients with an NDE were published in scientific journals and in some monographs.
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Many of these studies considered only a limited number of patients or drew on only letters instead of personal interviews. Yet despite the different designs, medical indications for the experience, and selection criteria for the interviewees, these studies produced remarkably similar results and conclusions about the content and consequences of an NDE.

Until 2000 most of the studies were retrospective, with participants coming forward in response to newspaper and magazine advertisements or appeals on radio and television. Retrospective studies thus lack a scientifically sound selection procedure. Because participation is random and voluntary (participants are self-selected), retrospective research can include people whose experience dates back ten to twenty years and whose medical and other circumstances can no longer be ascertained. Out-of-body experiences, for example, can no longer be verified.

It is not known why people do or do not volunteer. Those who are afraid or unwilling to come forward may have made earlier attempts at sharing their NDE with a doctor or relative but elicited negative reactions. The same is true for people who are unable to put their experience into words. It is equally likely that people who do not recognize their experience as an NDE will not come forward for research either. And finally, people may not be aware of the research project.

While these factors render the results of retrospective research less reliable, the studies have produced useful data on NDE, which will be presented below. Yet these results often fail to answer certain questions about the cause or content of an NDE or how a lucid consciousness can be experienced during a cardiac arrest.

In recent years a few prospective studies that address these problems have been initiated and published in medical journals, and in the next chapter I will look more closely at the content and conclusions of these studies. Prospective research is possible only in patients with a clearly diagnosed and critical medical condition. In a prospective study all participating patients are approached within a few days of their coma or cardiac arrest with the question whether they have any memory of their period of unconsciousness. All medical and other data can be carefully documented. The content and moment of any reported event during an out-of-body experience can also later be verified by doctors, nurses, and bystanders who were involved in the resuscitation procedure. A control group can be set up to establish if there are any differences compared to cardiac arrest or coma survivors without an NDE. All this gives a prospective study much greater scientific value.

The Incidence of NDEs

A representative Gallup poll in 1982 concluded that about 5 percent of the U.S. population may have had a near-death experience. A more recent survey in Germany, carried out in 1998, found a comparable figure of 4.2 percent.
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The number of reported NDEs has probably risen in recent years because of growing media interest and also because professionals in the health, mental health, and social care sectors have become more interested in NDEs. And since coronary care units, intensive care units, and well-run emergency departments have been fitted with proper resuscitation equipment, patients have better chances of surviving a critical illness and experiencing an NDE. The fact that perhaps as many as one in ten people now report an NDE after a life-threatening medical crisis has made it easier to examine this phenomenon.

The different designs of the studies hinder efforts to determine the incidence of NDE in life-threatening circumstances. The more careful the design, the lower the percentage of reported NDEs. In retrospective studies the percentage of reported NDEs fluctuates greatly: between 14 and 80 percent or more of patients report an NDE. In studies among patients who were resuscitated at some point in the past, 27 to 43 percent of these (usually somewhat older) people report an NDE. Bruce Greyson’s 1998 article offers a good overview of the figures. Three recent prospective studies among cardiac arrest survivors find figures ranging from 11 to 18 percent.
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The considerable differences between the percentages found in retrospective and prospective studies are due in part to the fact that the prospective studies ruled out self-selection of patients. But even the results of prospective studies cannot always be compared. For example, the Dutch study found that people who required several resuscitations after a cardiac arrest had a greater chance of experiencing an NDE. And people who had spent days or weeks in a coma after a complicated resuscitation and who required artificial respiration for a prolonged period of time were found to report significantly fewer NDEs. A good short-term memory appears to be essential for recalling the experience.
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The Effect of Age

All studies identify a link between age and the number of reported NDEs. The younger the patient, the greater the chance of an NDE report. Melvin Morse found a percentage of 67 percent in children. In his study, Kenneth Ring found that 48 percent of patients, with a mean age of thirty-seven, reported an NDE. Cardiologist Michael Sabom found that 43 percent of his patients, with a mean age of forty-nine, remembered an NDE. It must be mentioned here that Sabom’s study included mostly cardiac arrest patients, which is comparable to prospective studies among heart patients with a higher mean age and fewer reported NDEs. In the retrospective NDE studies the life-threatening crisis was rarely caused by a cardiac arrest and the patients were younger. These retrospective studies found a higher percentage of NDEs at a mean age of twenty-two to thirty-two. Greyson and Ring also found more frequent NDEs, and more frequent deep NDEs, at a younger age. The Dutch study, in which the average age of patients was sixty-three, also found evidence of more frequent NDE reports below the age of sixty.
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Who Will Have an NDE?

People from all walks of life from all over the world have NDEs. The various studies found no link between the experience of an NDE and the following markers: social class, race, gender, standard of education, profession, hometown, or marital status. Prior knowledge of the existence and content of an NDE made no difference either. Researchers found no link between religion and the experience of an NDE. It did not matter whether people were Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, agnostic, or atheist. Neither did it matter whether or not people actually practiced their religion through regular church attendance. But because individual, cultural, and religious factors do play a role in coming to terms with the experience, adherents of the different religions describe and interpret the NDE differently.

Few intercultural NDE studies have been published. Brief mention should therefore be made of a prospective study from Japan, which looked at people who had been in a deep coma as a result of a cardiac arrest, an apnea, a brain hemorrhage, or a serious traffic accident. Upon waking from their coma, 37 percent of patients in this study reported an NDE with all the typical elements we know from Western studies. Further analysis found that in Japan too there were no differences between people with and without an NDE in terms of gender, profession, religion, or standard of education.
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Circumstances That May Prompt an NDE

As explained earlier, near-death experiences are reported under extremely diverse circumstances—not only in life-threatening situations, but also in situations without any physical or psychological danger.

Circumstances That May Prompt an NDE

A. Brain function (seriously) impaired

1. Cardiac arrest in patients suffering a myocardial infarction or serious arrhythmia


2. Coma caused by brain damage after a traffic accident or brain hemorrhage


3. Coma caused by near-drowning, especially in children


4. Coma caused by diabetes, asphyxia, or apnea


5. Coma caused by a failed suicide attempt or intoxication


6. Unconsciousness caused by shock (low blood pressure) as a result of:

Severe blood loss during or after a delivery or during surgery


An allergic reaction


A serious infection (sepsis)

7. Under general anesthesia, usually following complications from surgery


8. Electrocution (electric shock)

B. Brain function unimpaired

9. Serious but not immediately life-threatening illnesses with high fever


10. Isolation (such as shipwrecked people), extreme dehydration, or hypothermia


11. Depression or existential crisis


12. Meditation


13. Without a clear medical indication, such as a walk in nature


14. Similar experiences, so-called fear-death experiences, are reported after a seemingly inevitable death, such as almost having a traffic or mountaineering accident.

Although NDEs can occur under extremely diverse physiological and psychological circumstances, they are most frequently reported after severe impairment of brain function. But is there a reason why only a small number of patients, whether or not in a critical condition, report an NDE? Sabom, whose study looked at mostly heart patients, identified no differences that might explain whether or not an NDE occurred. The medical causes of the life-threatening situations, the methods of resuscitation, the estimated duration of unconsciousness, and the passage of time between the medical crisis and the interview all failed to provide an explanation. To our surprise, the Dutch study produced no statistical differences between patients with and without an NDE in terms of the duration of the cardiac arrest, the duration of the period of unconsciousness, or the medication administered. Psychological factors such as fear of death and prior knowledge of NDE, gender, standard of education, and religion played no role either. The study could not explain why some people do but most people do not experience a lucid and enhanced consciousness when there is no sign of brain function during a cardiac arrest.
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