WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE?

A researcher conducting experiments at the limit of life may have come closer to solving the oldest mystery of mankind than anyone to have tried before him.

It was actually quite a strange idea: Around 120,000 years ago, people dug a large pit in the Skhul Cave 20 miles west of Nazareth and very carefully placed 15 dead bodies there. Archeologists who found the remains in 1929 believed this to be the site of the first burial ritual—which marked a turning point in our thinking. There is much to suggest this event helped Homo sapiens confront the earliest mystery to remain unsolved: Is there anything after death?

Now in the 21st century, we haven’t made much progress on determining whether there is any hereafter for us. There are countless reports of neardeath experiences (NDE) such as the “light at the end of the tunnel” and out-of-body experiences (OBE) such as “floating under the ceiling” while watching resuscitation attempts. But there’s nothing more concrete. “Some people become an eyewitness to their own resuscitation efforts,” explains neuropsychologist Peter Brugger. “Against all logic they see themselves and all the things around them from a position far outside their body. The question is, where are the people getting this amazing information?” A scientific answer to this crucial question remains out of reach, for obvious reasons. Emergency physicians seldom have CT scan equipment on hand when resuscitating a person. And naturally there is no ethically justifiable manner to conduct a controlled experiment on those who are struggling for their life—since it could result in death being allowable for research purposes.

One of the few researchers to have found a “workaround” for the problem that has been accepted by experts is pulmonologist and critical care specialist Sam Parnia. In 2008 he launched the AWARE study to examine the brain

and consciousness during times of bodily trauma as well as perceptions that are experienced during an NDE. The goal: to be able to systematically examine near-death and out-of-body experiences during cardiac arrest. For this purpose Parnia and his team prepared hospital emergency rooms, for example by installing pictures and screens on high walls that could only be seen from a bird’s eye view. “We wanted to find out if people actually float to the ceiling during a near-death experience and see something from up there,” explains Parnia. “If many people who claim to have been at the ceiling looking down can describe the images, then we must probably accept that what they say is real.” In total, Parnia has collected data from 2,060 cardiac arrest patients over a period of 4.5 years.

“Unfortunately,” says Parnia, “only 10 to 15 percent of the people who go through resuscitation actually come back and are then able to talk to us. And only about 1 percent of patients who survive a cardiac arrest have any memories that are consistent with an out-of-body experience.” But that still leaves us with an intriguing question: What do the 1 percent see?

When Parnia interviewed a social worker from Southampton, England, the man gave a shockingly detailed description of his resuscitation while he spent three minutes clinically dead. For example, the 57-year-old was able to describe the exact position of his body, the appearance of the medical staff who were not in the room while he was still conscious, and the use of devices. “The detailed memories exactly matched the actual events,” says Parnia. Hospital records verified the man’s descriptions, although he shouldn’t have been able to see what he saw. “In this case, consciousness and awareness appeared to occur during a three-minute period when there was no heartbeat,” says Parnia. “That is paradoxical, because the brain typically ceases functioning within 20 to 30 seconds of the heart stopping.” For many researchers the AWARE study is now considered a first step toward finally clarifying the question of an afterlife—but it’s also a very clear reminder that, even in the 21st century, death doesn’t lend itself to examination. Further investigations are planned, but in the end something unfathomable happens when we die. And perhaps that’s how it should stay.