A scientific explanation of near death experiences is not good news for believers in an afterlife.
On the other hand, does a scientific explanation for “near death experiences” mean there can’t be an afterlife?
Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System believe they are closer to a scientific explanation to the so-called near death experience.
A near death experience is the term for a person’s extraordinarily profound experience following clinical death (heart stops beating, no longer breathing): an experience they report at some point following resuscitation.
Skeptics including some scientists believe these are merely hallucinations or dreams, generated by dying brain cells, or, to put it another way, brain cells as they are being starved of oxygen.
There are some big holes in this theory, which I’ll cover in just a moment.
What have scientists discovered about the near death experience?
The study involved rats. Cardiac death/clinical death was induced in nine rats.
Then the animals were given an electroencephalogram to measure brain activity.
The recorded brain activity in each “dead” rat was characteristic of conscious perception.
“This study, performed in animals, is the first dealing with what happens to the neurophysiological state of the dying brain,” explains Jimo Borjigin, PhD, lead study author.
Dr. Borjigin adds that this study is the foundation for future studies in humans that will investigate cognitive experiences occurring in a dying brain.
Unfortunately, a resuscitated rat can’t report what it experienced during cardiac arrest.
The researchers can only speculate what those patterns of conscious perception meant to the rats.
Within half a minute following the cardiac arrest, the rats showed a widespread, temporary spike of highly synchronized brain activity that had characteristics of a highly aroused brain.
This data, says Dr. Borjigin, confirms signs of conscious activity in the rats’ brains during cardiac arrest.
What was surprising was the high level of this activy, says George Mashour, MD, senior study author. “In fact, at near-death, many known electrical signatures of consciousness exceeded levels found in the waking state,” says Dr. Mashour.
This suggests that the brain can conduct “well-organized electrical activity during the early stage of clinical death.”
Dr. Borjigin notes that this study shows that oxygen depletion during cardiac arrest “can stimulate brain activity characteristic of conscious processing.”
The researches believe that this study provides the first scientific foundation for peoples’ near death experiences.
Loophole in this Study
It’s a gigantic leap to go from a rat’s (or even if it can be shown in humans) EEG patterns during cardiac arrest to the conclusion that a near death experience happens only inside a person’s brain.
Holes in the Theory that Oxygen-Starved Brain Cells Conjure up Vivid Hallucinations
#1. Many who’ve had a near death experience (NDE) have verified sights and sounds that occurred outside the room their body was in, or in some way have provided feedback of perception that could only be explained by an out-of-body experience.
An example, according to Dr. Raymond Moody’s research, is of a woman who was blind since childhood (not birth), who when elderly, had an NDE during resuscitation of her body.
She accurately described who entered and exited the room, their clothes and colors, and the instruments they used.
#2. Skeptics like to point out that during clinical death, a person can still hear.
Their brain then conjures up visual images to “match” what they are hearing.
If the patient hears, “Hand me the scalpel” and then reports later, “I saw the nurse hand the doctor the scalpel,” that’s one thing.
But when the patient hears “double action Rongeur” or “Richardson retractor,” how the heck would the patient be able to accurately describe these instruments (as well as other fine details that are NOT verbalized, such as the hair styles and body builds of the medical team)?
#3. If oxygen-depleted brain cells can produce the most vivid experiences that a patient has ever had, then why doesn’t this phenomenon occur when muscle cells are starved of oxygen?
According to skeptics’ theory, a marathon runner, with two miles left to the marathon, should suddenly be able to explode to the finish line with their fastest sprint, nonstop.
Or, a weight lifter, struggling to complete the tenth repetition of a 225-pound bench press, should then suddenly be able to press twice that amount without a problem!
After all, when cells are starved of oxygen, shouldn’t they then become exceptionally aroused?
#4. People in vegetative states from asphyxiation have brain cells damaged from oxygen depletion. Yet their electroencephalogram readings show no “patterns of consciousness.”
People can’t imagine something they heard or saw outside the room their body was in during a near death experience. Science is a long, long way off (if ever) from explaining NDEs. Of course, we will all find out eventually what really happens!
