Proof of Life After Death? Maybe Not.

Lots of people are fascinated by accounts of near
death experiences. For example, Proof of Heaven, in which
neurosurgeon Eben Alexander writes of visiting the afterlife during
a near death experience, was a New York Times bestseller
and sold over 2 million copies.

Reports of near death experiences (NDEs) recounted by patients
who have been resuscitated (usually from a heart attack) are
proliferating not only n the popular literature, but in the
scientific literature too. According to
The Independent, a 4-year long study overseen by
emergency medicine physician Sam Parnia found:

There is scientific evidence to suggest that life can continue
after death, according to the largest ever medical study carried
out on the subject.

Life continues after death? Maybe for about 3 minutes. The
results are from the AWARE
study and published in
Resuscitation which reported:

Among 2060 CA [cardiac arrest] events, 140 survivors completed
stage 1 interviews, while 101 of 140 patients completed stage 2
interviews. 46% had memories with 7 major cognitive themes: fear;
animals/plants; bright light; violence/persecution; deja-vu;
family; recalling events post-CA and 9% had NDEs, while 2%
described awareness with explicit recall of ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’
actual events related to their resuscitation. One had a verifiable
period of conscious awareness during which time cerebral function
was not expected.

CA survivors commonly experience a broad range of cognitive
themes, with 2% exhibiting full awareness. This supports other
recent studies that have indicated consciousness may be present
despite clinically undetectable consciousness. This together with
fearful experiences may contribute to PTSD and other cognitive
deficits post CA.

Parnia has long been fascinated with NDEs and has published
before on the subject. In
the journal Medical Hypotheses, Parnia’s 2007 article,
“Do
reports of consciousness during cardiac arrest hold the key to
discovering the nature of consciousness?” speculated:

Should it be demonstrated that human consciousness can continue
to function when there is a lack of brain activity, this would
support the theory that human consciousness may be a subtle type of
undiscovered matter that is similar to electromagnetic
phenomena.

Mysterious, as-yet-undetected electromagnetic-like phenomena?
Back in 1907 Massachusetts physician Duncan MacDougall reported
that his experiments on dying people had found that a
human soul weighed about 21 grams.

Naturally, researchers with more physicalist views have offered
alternative hypotheses to account for NDEs. For example, a
2011 article by British researchers in Trends in Cognitive
Sciences evaluated NDEs and concluded:

Contrary to popular belief, research suggests that there is
nothing paranormal about these experiences. Instead, near-death
experiences are the manifestation of normal brain function gone
awry, during a traumatic, and sometimes harmless, event.

One prospective study of cardiac arrest NDEs found that the
experiences correlated with higher levels
of carbon dioxide and potassium in a patient’s blood. Another
study using EEGs found that electrical
activity spiked in brains suffering from oxygen loss which
might then induce NDEs.

As one of my philosophy professors noted: “I have never
experienced a mind that was not in close proximity to a brain.”
That goes for me, too.

Finally, never forget that other motives might be behind selling
people hope for a life after death. Several of Alexander’s
colleagues now call his account into question, claiming that he

fabricated at least some of the medical details in Proof of
Heaven.