Brain Has Electrical Surge Just Before Death

In the moments before death, the human brain surges with activity, which some researchers believe may be related to near-death experiences (NDEs).

Seven patients dying from critical illnesses recently were studied by doctors at George Washington University. Moments before death, the patients experienced a burst in brain wave activity, with the spikes occurring at the same time before death and at comparable intensity and duration.

Writing in the October issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine, the doctors theorize that the brain surges may be tied to widely reported near-death experiences which typically involve spiritual or religious attributes.

According to Discovery News:

At first, doctors thought the electrical surges picked up by electroencephalographs were caused by other machines or cell phones in the rooms of dying patients, lead author Lakhmir Chawla told Discovery News.

"We thought 'Hey, that was odd. What was that?'" Chawla said. "We thought there was a cell phone or a machine on in the room that created this anomaly. But then we started removing things, turning off cell phones and machines, and we saw it was still happening."

The doctors believe they are seeing the brain's neurons discharge as they lose oxygen from lack of blood pressure.

"All the neurons are connected together and when they lose oxygen, their ability to maintain electrical potential goes away," Chawla said. "I think when people lose all their blood flow, their neurons all fire in very close proximity and you get a big domino effect. We think this could explain the spike."

Brain researcher Kevin Nelson at the University of Kentucky, who studies near-death experiences, said it's well known that when the brain is abruptly deprived of blood flow it gives off a burst of high voltage energy. "It's unlikely with conventional brain wave recordings during death that they're going to see something that hasn't been seen already." he said.

Chawla and colleagues want to follow up their case study with a larger pool of patients outfitted with more sophisticated brain activity sensors.

Click here for the Discovery News article.

A Stroke of Insight

Twenty minutes may be asking a lot, but this talk by brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor offers astounding spiritual insights about who we are.

Click here for a previous post on Dr. Taylor, with more information about her journey.

Huge NDE Study Moving Ahead

Ascent into the Empyrean by Hieronymus Bosch, circa 1510.

Following an extensive pilot project, the University of Southampton in England is moving ahead with the largest-ever study of near-death experiences.

The AWARE ~ AWAreness during Resuscitation ~ study is being conducted by an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the human brain, consciousness and clinical death, according to Science Daily.

The study is led by Dr Sam Parnia, an expert in the field of consciousness during clinical death. Following a successful 18-month pilot phase at selected hospitals in the UK, the study now includes other centers within the UK, mainland Europe and North America.

Unique Window of Understanding

"Contrary to popular perception, death is not a specific moment,” Parnia told Science Daily. “It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases functioning ~ a medical condition termed cardiac arrest, which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death.

"During a cardiac arrest, all three criteria of death are present. There then follows a period of time, which may last from a few seconds to an hour or more, in which emergency medical efforts may succeed in restarting the heart and reversing the dying process. What people experience during this period of cardiac arrest provides a unique window of understanding into what we are all likely to experience during the dying process."

Studying Out-of-Body Too

Recent scientific studies have demonstrated that up to 20 per cent of people who go through cardiac arrest and clinical death report lucid, well-structured thought processes, reasoning, memories and sometimes detailed recall of events during their encounter with death.

During the AWARE study, doctors will use sophisticated technology to study the brain and consciousness during cardiac arrest. At the same time, they will test the validity of out of body experiences and claims of being able to 'see' and 'hear' during cardiac arrest.

Click here for the Science Daily article.