- The first scientific study of "near-death"
experiences has found new evidence to suggest that consciousness or the
"soul" can continue to exist after the brain has ceased to function.
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- The findings by two eminent doctors, based on a year-long
study of heart attack survivors, could provoke fresh controversy over that
most profound of questions: is there life after death?
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- Reports of "near-death" experiences, in which
people close to death have vivid encounters with bright lights and heavenly
beings, date back centuries, but the phenomenon has been treated with scepticism
by most academics.
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- The new study concludes, however, that a number of people
have almost certainly had these experiences after they were pronounced
clinically dead. This would suggest that the mind or consciousness can
survive the death of the brain - a conclusion that was hailed by clerics
last night as supporting religious faith.
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- Bishop Stephen Sykes, the professor of theology at Durham
University and chairman of the Church of England's Doctrine Commission,
said the findings were "absolutely fascinating". He added: "I
do not find them surprising, however, as I believe life is much more mysterious
than we usually think it is. For theologians, the soul is far more than
consciousness or the mind. But these findings challenge the crude idea
that when a person's brain dies, that, as far as the person's existence
is concerned, is that."
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- The Bishop of Basingstoke, the Rt Rev Geoffrey Rowell,
another commission member, said: "These near-death experiences counter
the materialist view that we are nothing more than computers made of meat."
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- Based on interviews with survivors of heart attacks at
Southampton General Hospital's cardiac unit, the new study is to be published
in the respected medical journal Resuscitation next year.
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- The study's authors, Dr Peter Fenwick, a consultant neuropsychiatrist
at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, and Dr Sam Parnia, a clinical
research fellow and registrar at Southampton hospital, stress that more
research is needed.
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- Dr Parnia said: "These people were having these
experiences when we wouldn't expect them to happen, when the brain shouldn't
be able to sustain lucid processes or allow them to form memories that
would last. So it might hold an answer to the question of whether mind
or consciousness is actually produced by the brain or whether the brain
is a kind of intermediary for the mind, which exists independently."
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- Dr Fenwick said: "If the mind and brain can be independent,
then that raises questions about the continuation of consciousness after
death. It also raises the question about a spiritual component to humans
and about a meaningful universe with a purpose rather than a random universe."
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- During the study period, 63 cardiac arrest patients survived
and were interviewed within a week. Of those, 56 had no recollection of
their period of unconsciousness, a result that might have been expected
in all cases.
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- Seven survivors, however, had memories, although only
four passed the Grayson scale, the strict medical criteria for assessing
near-death experiences.
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- These four recounted feelings of peace and joy, time
speeded up, heightened senses, lost awareness of body, seeing a bright
light, entering another world, encountering a mystical being and coming
to a "point of no return". Three of them described themselves
as non-practising Anglicans while the fourth was a lapsed Roman Catholic.
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- By examining medical records, the researchers said the
contention of many critics that near-death experiences were the result
of a collapse of brain functions caused by lack of oxygen were highly unlikely.
None of those who underwent the experiences had low levels of oxygen.
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- Researchers were also able to rule out claims that unusual
combinations of drugs were to blame because the resuscitation procedure
in the hospital unit was the same in every case.
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- Dr Parnia, who was trained at the Guys and St Thomas'
medical school, University of London, said: "I started off as a sceptic
but, having weighed up all the evidence, I now think that there is something
going on. Essentially, it comes back to the question of whether the mind
or consciousness is produced from the brain. If we can prove that the mind
is produced by the brain, I don't think there is anything after we die
because essentially we are conscious beings.
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- "If, on the contrary, the brain is like an intermediary
which manifests the mind, like a television will act as an intermediary
to manifest waves in the air into a picture or a sound, we can show that
the mind is still there after the brain is dead. And that is what I think
these near-death experiences indicate."
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- Christopher French, a reader in psychology at Goldsmiths
College, University of London, said he had not seen the new study but remained
sceptical. "Near-death experiences could be pointing towards the soul
or the mind leaving the body, but they could just be the brain trying to
make sense of what is a very unusual event," he said.
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