According to the authors, in a press release by the University of Southampton, "The recalled experience surrounding death merits a genuine investigation without prejudice."
Dr. Sam Parnia, the lead author of the study who is now a professor of Medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center explains,
“We know the brain can’t function when the heart has stopped beating, but in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn’t beating, even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart has stopped. The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at three minute intervals. So we could time how long the experienced lasted for. He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened."
He goes on to explain the significance,
"This is significant, since it has often been assumed that experiences in relation to death are likely hallucinations or illusions, occurring either before the heart stops or after the heart has been successfully restarted, but not an experience corresponding with ‘real’ events when the heart isn’t beating.”
Many people describe very specific details of what happened to them during cardiac arrest. They describe conversations people had, clothes people wore, events that went on 10 or 20 minutes into resuscitation, where certain people are located in a room for example and what they are doing. This is not compatible with brain activity.
It may be that some people receive better-quality resuscitation, and that, though there's no evidence to support it, they did have brain activity. Or it could indicate that human consciousness, the psyche, the soul, the self, continued to function. ...<<<Read More>>>...