(1)  NDEs occur while patients are brain dead.

Cardiologist Michael Sabom described a near-death experience that occurred while its experiencer - a woman who was having an unusual surgical procedure for the safe excision and repair of a large basilar artery aneurysm - met all of the accepted criteria for brain death. The unusual medical procedure involved the induction of hypothermic cardiac arrest, in order to insure that the aneurysm at the base of the brain would not rupture during the operation. The patient's body temperature was lowered to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, her heartbeat and breathing ceased, her brain waves flattened, and the blood was completely drained from her head. Her electroencephalogram was totally flat (indicating no cerebral electrical activity) and auditory evoked potentials (normally elicited by clicks presented through molded earplugs that had been inserted into her ears) ceased (indicating cessation of brainstem functioning). Ordinarily - at regular body temperature - the brain cannot function without its oxygen supply for more than a few minutes. Lowering the body and brain temperature to 60 degrees F. - by chilling the blood in a bypass machine before returning it to the body and brain - however, can reduce cellular metabolism so that the brain can tolerate complete cerebral blood flow for the 45 minutes or so required for the brain operation. The patient later reported that, apparently while under these “brain death” conditions, she had a near-death experience (NDE) in which she was able to observe and hear details of objects and happenings in the operating room with accuracy. She also experienced classic components of the NDE, including a tunnel vortex, a bright light, and different figures in the light (many deceased family members, including a distant cousin of whose death she had been unaware).

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(2)  Out-of-body perception during NDEs have been verified.

Dr. Bruce Greyson documented perhaps one of the most compelling examples of a person who had a NDE and observed events while outside of his body which were later verified by others. The only way that these events could have been observed by the experiencer was if in fact he was outside of his body. Al Sullivan was a 55 year old truck driver who was undergoing triple by-pass surgery when he had a powerful NDE that included an encounter with his deceased mother and brother-in-law, who told Al to go back to his to tell one of his neighbors that their son with lymphoma will be OK. Furthermore, during the NDE, Al accurately noticed that the surgeon operating on him was flapping his arms in an unusual fashion, with his hands in his armpits. When he came back to his body after the surgery was over, the surgeon was startled that Al could describe his own arm flapping, which was his idiosyncratic method of keeping his hands sterile.

Addressing the frequent rejoinder that such events can be accounted for as hallucinations, Dr. Greyson notes that if NDEs are hallucinations, then how is it that such incredibly accurate and verifiable information is resulting from the NDEs? People on drugs who have NDEs see fewer deceased relatives when they travel out of body. This suggests that people who do see relatives are clear-minded, not hallucinating. In some cases of children, they see dead relatives whom they had never met or seen pictures of. This begs the following question: How could they hallucinate accurately the visual images of someone they have never met? When assessing the surmounting data as a whole, Greyson said that the survival hypothesis is the most parsimonious explanation for the growing database of NDEs.

The author Maggie Callanan in her 1993 book, Final Gifts, wrote about an elderly Chinese woman who had an NDE in which she saw her deceased husband and her sister. She was puzzled since her sister wasn't dead, or so she thought. In actuality, her family had hid her sister's recent death from her for fear of upsetting her already fragile health.

On Dec. 9, 2001, Ananova News reported: "Study Proves the Soul Exists" concerning the NDE study by Dr. Pim van Lommel published in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet providing verified evidence of out-of-body perception. Then on Jan. 8, 2002, ABC News reported "Brushes With Death: Scientists Validate Near-Death Experiences" about the same study. Dr. Michael Sabom, an Atlanta cardiologist, found that 43% of cardiac arrest patients had NDEs. Patients with long complicated resuscitations were more likely to have NDEs. He also found that patients who had NDEs frequently could accurately describe their own resuscitation in detail. In contrast, control group of patients who had cardiac arrests but no NDEs could not describe their own resuscitation with any accuracy.

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(3)  People born blind can see during an NDE.

Dr. Kenneth Ring and Sharon Cooper completed a two-year study into the NDEs of the blind. They published their findings in a book entitled "Mindsight" in which they documented the solid evidence of 31 cases in which blind people report visually accurate information obtained during an NDE. Perhaps the best example in his study is that of a forty-five year old blind woman by the name of Vicki Umipeg. Vicki was born blind, her optic nerve having been completely destroyed at birth because of an excess of oxygen she received in the incubator. Yet, she appears to have been able to see during her NDE. Her story is a particularly clear instance of how NDEs of the congenitally blind can unfold in precisely the same way as do those of sighted persons.

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(4)  NDEs demonstrate the return of consciousness from death.

An anecdotal example of evidence that a person's consciousness leaves and returns to their body during an NDE comes from the research of Dr. Melvin Morse. Olga Gearhardt was a 63 year old woman who underwent a heart transplant because of a severe virus that attacked her heart tissue. Her entire family awaited at the hospital during the surgery, except for her son-in-law, who stayed home. The transplant was a success, but at exactly 2:15 am, her new heart stopped beating. It took the frantic transplant team three more hours to revive her. Her family was only told in the morning that her operation was a success, without other details. When they called her son-in-law with the good news, he had his own news to tell. He had already learned about the successful surgery. At exactly 2:15 am, while he was sleeping, he awoke to see his Olga, his mother-in-law, at the foot of his bed. She told him not to worry, that she was going to be alright. She asked him to tell her daughter (his wife). He wrote down the message, and the time of day and then fell asleep. Later on at the hospital, Olga regained consciousness. Her first words were "did you get the message?" She was able to confirm that she left her body during her near-death experience and was able to travel to her son-in-law to communicate to him the message. This anecdotal evidence demonstrates that the near-death experience is a return to consciousness at the point of death, when the brain is dying. Dr. Melvin Morse thoroughly researched Olga's testimony and every detail had objective verification including the scribbled note by the son-in-law. Such testimonies have been similarly well-documented for hundreds of years. Fredrick Meyers' classic text entitled "Human Personality and Its Survival After Death" meticulously documents hundreds of these kinds of stories.

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(5)  The NDE study by Raymond Moody has been replicated.

In 1975, Dr. Raymond Moody published a book entitled "Life After Life" which described his findings from his study on near-death experiences. Moody's book became a bestseller and focused public attention on the NDE like never before. Moody recorded and compared the experiences of 150 persons who died, or almost died, and then recovered. Moody outlined nine elements that generally occur during NDEs: (1) hearing strange sounds, (2) feelings of peace, (3) feelings of painlessness, (4) out-of-body experiences, (5) experiencing a tunnel, (6) rising rapidly into the heavens, (7) seeing beings of light, (8) experiencing a life review, (9) a reluctance to return to the body.

Dr. Ken Ring's replicated this NDE study by Dr. Raymond Moody. Ring's research conclusions include:

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(6)  Experimental evidence suggests that NDEs are real.

Science demands verifiable evidence which can be reproduced again and again under experimental situations. Dr. Jim Whinnery, of the National Warfare Institute, thought he was simply studying the effects of G forces on fighter pilots. He had no idea he would revolutionize the field of consciousness studies by providing experimental proof that NDEs are real. The pilots were placed in huge centrifuges and spun at tremendous speeds. After they lost consciousness, after they went into seizures, after they lost all muscle tone, when the blood stopped flowing in their brains, only then would they suddenly have a return to conscious awareness. They had "dreamlets" as Dr. Whinnery calls them. These dreamlets are similar to near-death experiences and they often involved a sense of separation from the physical body. A typical dreamlet involved a pilot leaving his physical body and traveling to a sandy beach, where he looked directly up at the sun. The pilots would remark that death is very pleasant.

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(7)  NDEs can be considered to be an objective experience.

Carl Becker, Ph.D. received his Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii in 1981. He has researched NDEs in Japanese hospitals and literature for 30 years. Dr. Becker has published numerous books on bioethics, death and dying, and NDEs in both Japan and the United States. Currently, Dr. Becker is a Professor of Bioethics and Comparative Religion at Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. Carl Becker examined four ways in which NDEs may be considered objective:

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(8)  NDEs have been validated in scientific studies.

On Oct. 23, 2000, The BBC reported: "Evidence of Life After Death" about a study in the UK conducted by Dr. Sam Parnia and others at the University of Southampton which provided scientific evidence suggesting the survival of consciousness after clinical and brain death. Then on June 29, 2001, ABC News reported: "Study Suggests Life After Death: Brains of Dead Heart Attack Patients Still Function" concerning the same study. These findings support other NDE evidence suggestive of life after death.

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(9)  Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) have been validated in scientific studies.

In 1968, a paper by Dr. Charles Tart was published entitled "Psychophysiological Study of Out of the Body Experiences in a Selected Subject" concerning a woman who successfully read a 5-digit number while having had an out-of-body experience. This is verifiable evidence of out-of-body perception and supports veridical perception in NDEs.

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(10)  Autoscopy during NDEs have been validated in scientific studies.

Pim van Lommel led a study concerning the NDEs of research subjects who had cardiac arrest. The findings of the study suggests that research subjects can experience consciousness, with self-identity, cognitive function and memories, including the possibility of perception outside their body (autoscopy), during a flat EEG. Those research subjects who had NDEs report that their NDE was a bonafide preview of the afterlife.

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(11)  A transcendental "sixth sense" of the human mind has been found.

On September 11, 2003, new research by the Institute of Psychiatry caused British scientists to announce that there is convincing evidence that people are capable of paranormal feats, such as premonitions, telepathy, and out-of-body experiences. The British Association for the Advancement of Science was told an increasing number of experiments support the theory of a human "sixth sense" - an ability which may have its roots in our past, when the ability to sense the presence of a predator was a matter of life or death. The view that people are capable of paranormal feats, such as premonitions, telepathy, and out-of-body experiences, is supported by new research by the Institute of Psychiatry, which suggests the human mind may exist outside the body like an invisible magnetic field. The research is being led by Dr. Peter Fenwick, a neuro-psychiatrist at London University, who has just completed a survey of heart patients claiming to have had "near-death experiences" after their hearts had stopped beating.

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(12)  NDEs support the "holonomic" theory of consciousness.

One particular theory of consciousness which is supported by NDE research involves the concept of consciousness expansion after death. Stanislav Grof, a leading consciousness researcher, explaind this theory in the documentary entitled "Life After Death" by Tom Harpur: "My first idea was that it [consciousness] has to be hard-wired in the brain. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how something like that is possible. Today, I came to the conclusion that it is not coming from the brain. In that sense, it supports what Aldous Huxley believed after he had some powerful psychedelic experiences and was trying to link them to the brain. He came to the conclusion that maybe the brain acts as a kind of reducing valve that actually protects us from too much cosmic input ... I don't think you can locate the source of consciousness. I am quite sure it is not in the brain – not inside of the skull ... It actually, according to my experience, would lie beyond time and space, so it is not localizable. You actually come to the source of consciousness when you dissolve any categories that imply separation, individuality, time, space and so on. You just experience it as a presence."

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(13)  The expansion of consciousness reported in NDEs supports consciousness theories.

The following NDE descriptions of consciousness expansion supports the theory of consciousness described above by Stanislav Grof. It theorizes that the brain acts as a reducing valve of cosmic input to produce consciousness. At death, this reducing-valve function ceases and consciousness is then free to expand. The following NDEs support this:

(14)  The brain's connection to a greater power has been validated by indisputable scientific facts.

Dr. Melvin Morse is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington. He has studied near-death experiences in children for over 15 years and is the author of several outstanding books on the subject. Dr. Morse argues that the study of NDEs provides a starting point for understanding the mysterious link between our brains and the universe. Though sound scientific studies have already identified the existence of "the God Spot" - the right temporal lobe of the brain - Morse takes this concept several steps further. Building on the controversial theory that memory may actually be stored outside the brain, he suggests that the right temporal lobe acts not as a "computer" for our individual minds, but as a transmitter and receiver of the universal mind - and that we can actually learn to stimulate this part of our brains in a number of ways besides near-death or active dying. Dr. Morse claims the following scientific facts validate the brain's connection to a higher power:

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(15)  The replication of NDEs using hallucinogenic drugs satisfies the scientific method.

Dr. Karl Jansen is a Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is the world's leading expert on ketamine. He has studied ketamine at every level. While earning his doctorate in clinical pharmacology at the University of Oxford, he photographed the receptors to which ketamine binds in the human brain. He has published papers on his discovery of the similarities between ketamine's psychoactive effects and the near-death experience during his study of medicine in New Zealand. Because there exists a biological basis for NDEs and a method to replicate NDEs, this satisfies the scientific criteria for being a real, scientific phenomenon. Dr. Karl Jansen's ketamine research findings include:

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(16)  NDEs are different from hallucinations.

NDEs are not a denial of reality, as is often seen in drug or oxygen deprivation induced hallucinations. There are not the distortions of time, place, body image and disorientations seen in drug induced experiences. They instead typically involve the perception of another reality superimposed over this one. For example, one young boy told Dr. Melvin Morse that the "god took me in his hands and kept me safe" while medics were frantically trying to revived his body after a near drowning. He said and understood everything that happened to him, but simply perceived something we usually don't perceive at other times in our lives. German psychiatrist Michael Schroeter-Kunhardt in his extensive review of all published near death research states there is no reason to believe that NDEs are the result of psychiatric pathology or brain dysfunction.

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(17)  The replication of NDEs using a variety of triggers satisfies the scientific method.

In 2002, Neurologist Professor Olaf Blanke and colleagues at Geneva University Hospital in Switzerland were using electrodes to stimulate the brain of a female patient suffering from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. They found that stimulating one spot - the "God spot" - the angular gyrus in the right cortex - repeatedly caused out-of-body experiences. The doctors did not set out to achieve this out-of-body effect - they were simply treating the women for epilepsy. Apparently the increased electrical activity in the brain resulting from seizure activity (abnormal electrical activity in the brain), makes sufferers more susceptible to having near-death experiences. The doctors believe the angular gyrus plays an important role in matching up visual information and the brain's touch and balance representation of the body. When the two become dissociated, an out-body-experience may result. Writing in the journal Nature, the Swiss team said out-of-body experiences tended to be short-lived, and to disappear when a person attempts to inspect parts of their body (autoscopy). Professor Blanke told BBC News Online that "OBEs have been reported in neurological patients with epilepsy, migraine and after cerebral strokes, but they also appear in healthy subjects. Awareness of a biological basis of OBEs might allow some patients who suffer frequently from OBEs to talk about them more openly. In addition, physicians might take the phenomenon more seriously and carry out necessary investigations such as an EEG, MRI, and neurological examinations."

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(18)  Apparitions of the deceased have been induced under scientific controls.

Dr. Raymond Moody, who became famous for his pioneering studies of NDEs, has been working on ways of inducing facilitated apparitions in a controlled setting. He took as his model classic works from ancient Greece which suggested that when people wished to contact a deceased loved one they consulted with an 'oracle' at a psychomanteum. A psychomanteum is a specially built laboratory using mirrors to help facilitate the psychic process. Part of the actual psychic process includes the sending of telepathic messages, sending vibrations - to the selected recipient in the afterlife. Moody has reconstructed the process with astonishing results — 85% of his clients who go through a full day of preparation do make contact with a deceased loved one — but not necessarily the one that they are seeking to meet. In most cases this occurs in his specially build psychomanteum but in 25% of cases it happens later in their own homes — the client wakes up and sees the apparition at the foot of the bed (Moody 1993:97). According to Dianne Arcangel, an associate of Dr. Moody, in some cases when contact is made with intelligences from the afterlife information is transmitted to reveal something that the person seeking contact does not know (1997). Moody gives full instructions on how to create your own psychomanteum in his book Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones and on his Psychomanteum page.

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(19)  People having NDEs have brought back scientific discoveries.

One example of this phenomenon is documented in Tom Harpur's documentary, Life After Death. Harpur interviews a doctor whose name is Dr. Yvonne Kason who was almost killed in a plane crash into a lake which resulted in a NDE. After she recovered, she began to have strange visions in her mind that she couldn't explain. One of these visions concerned a friend of hers. When Dr. Kason thought of her friend, she would see a vision in her mind of a "brain covered with pus." Dr. Kason knew that this was an excellent symbolic vision referring to the deadly disease meningitis. The problem was that her friend was perfectly healthy at the time, exhibited absolutely no signs of meningitis, and there was no reason to suspect she had it. Dr. Kason begged her friend to get tested for meningitis anyway. After an amount of reluctance, her friend got tested. Surprisingly, the test was positive for meningitis. As a result of Dr. Kason's NDE, her friend was able to get treated for meningitis at its early stage before it had time to become deadly. Dr. Kason continues to have such visions. She now realizes that, as a result of her NDE, that is now psychic. Her story affirms that useful things are indeed brought back from NDEs. There are many other examples of the NDE providing scientific discoveries.

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(20)  NDEs have advanced the field of medical science.

One of the best examples of bringing back scientific discoveries resulting from an NDE is a wonderful man by the name of Mellen-Thomas Benedict. After his NDE, Mellen-Thomas Benedict brought back a great deal of scientific information concerning biophotonics, cellular communication, quantum biology, and DNA research. Mellen-Thomas Benedict currently holds eight U.S. patents and is always working on more. In an interview with Guy Spiro of lightworks.com, Mellen-Thomas discusses this phenomenon:

"One of the things I did that got me a lot of attention was working with the University of Texas. I was brought in with Dr. Ken Ring and not told what it was going to be or any details whatsoever and I didn’t know anything until we entered the room. By the way, this was videotaped and recorded. At that time, I could do almost a self hypnosis and get to the light.

"So, the University of Texas sat me down and they said, 'Today, we are going to be working on something call CNT.' That was all the information that they gave me, that it was a medical problem, and then I did my technique. In those days, the only tools that I brought with me were a big pad of paper and large Crayola crayons. I could sit there, go to the light and still speak to you and draw pictures while seeing.

"With this experiment, I went to the light and asked 'What information can we bring back?' I almost immediately started drawing and I drew something that to me looked like two horse shoes. A big horse shoe facing down on the bottom and a smaller horse shoe facing up on top. I said, 'The answer is in this upper horse shoe and it’s these three segments.' I numbered them exactly and I said, 'That’s where the problem is and the real problem is in this third piecing which is this thing.' I was pointing out a gene, but I didn’t know any of that. And then I drew picture and I said, 'There are two heads on it and one head is normal and the one that isn’t right is overriding the head that is. If we can figure out a way to cleave that head off, I think we can cure this.'

"It turns out that I was exactly right. I helped decode a genetic disease and the information was very accurate. Everybody thanked me and I went away. Then about three months later, I started getting letters and calls saying, 'My God, you hit it right on the head! This is astounding. There is no way you could have had this information in advance.' I did a fair number of projects like that and a fair number of think tanks, all of which you have to sign nondisclosures and promise to never talk about. I worked in a lot of think tanks with some very impressive world class scientists over the next ten years until I retired from all that in 1995."

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(21)  NDEs have advanced the field of psychology.

In a hospital in Switzerland in 1944, the world-renowned psychiatrist Carl G. Jung, had a heart attack and then a near-death experience. His vivid encounter with the light, plus the intensely meaningful insights led Jung to conclude that his experience came from something real and eternal. Jung's experience is unique in that he saw the Earth from a vantage point of about a thousand miles above it. His incredibly accurate view of the Earth from outer space was described about two decades before astronauts in space first described it. Subsequently, as he reflected on life after death, Jung recalled the meditating Hindu from his near-death experience and read it as a parable of the archetypal Higher Self, the God-image within. Carl Jung, who founded analytical psychology, centered on the archetypes of the collective unconscious.

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(22)  NDEs correspond to the "quirky" principles found in quantum physics.

Aspects of quantum physics which supports NDE concepts include the properties of light, a multi-dimensional reality, zero point, quantum interconnectivity, quantum consciousness, quantum synchronicity, space and time interconnectivity, time travel, teleportation, non-locality, singularities and the concept of subjectivity.

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(23)  The transcendental nature of human consciousness during NDEs corresponds to principles found in quantum physics.

New developments in quantum physics shows that we cannot know phenomena apart from the observer. Arlice Davenport challenges the hallucination theory of NDEs as outmoded because the field theories of physics now suggest new paradigm options available to explain NDEs. Mark Woodhouse argues that the traditional materialism/dualism battle over NDEs may be solved by Einstein. Since matter is now seen as a form of energy, an energy body alternative to the material body could explain the NDE. This is supported by Melvin Morse who describes how NDEs are able to realign the charges in the electromagnetic field of the human body so that somehow the brain's wiring is renewed. He reports on patients who have NDEs and who recover from such diseases as pneumonia, cardiac arrest, and cancer (1992, 153-54). Perhaps the brain is like a kind of receiver (such as a television, radio, or cell phone). What is received (i.e., signals, music, voice) is not produced by the receiver, but exists separately as electromagnetic waves that are processed by the receiver to make them visible or audible to the senses.

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