The study of phase states (lucid dreams, out-of-body experiences, etc.) is generally a challenging field because it is hard to gain access to subjective experience. When it comes to near-death experiences (NDEs), researchers typically analyze the accounts of survivors. Recently, however, scientists from Austria—Sterz, Berger, Ruzicka, and Beisteiner—decided to try a different methodology in an experiment conducted over seven years.
The research team placed a notebook PC above a bed (two meters above the ground) in the emergency department with the screen facing the ceiling. The assumption was that only those who had experienced an out-of-body experience and were looking down at their own body would be able to see the content projected on the screen. The device displayed images that changed randomly every few hours. The pictures were not published anywhere and were not even known to the entire team of researchers. However, the history of the projections was stored on the computer, allowing the date and time of the display of a particular illustration to be determined.
Finally, the researchers selected 126 patients who had experienced cardiac arrest. Of these, only twenty shared a more or less interesting experiences, and only five cases were classified as NDEs in the strict sense of the term. Three individuals reported having met deceased relatives, one had an out-of-body experience, and another entered a colorful tunnel. As the authors note, the faster cardiac pulmonary resuscitation measures were taken, the higher was the probability of detailed memories.
Only once during the entire experiment did the researchers feel that their patience was rewarded, and the patient described one of the random images. A woman reported seeing flowers and realizing at that moment that she would “return.” However, the history of the image projections did not reveal anything in common with the patient’s account. It may seem that the experiment failed, but according to the authors, it actually confirmed that consciousness depends solely upon brain function.
In addition, the authors controlled for self-suggestion. Two-thirds of the respondents were familiar with the concept of NDE, but, according to the researchers, it did not affect their perceptions. The researchers highlighted one woman as a particularly impressive example, as she had never heard of NDEs before her clinical death and only started looking for information about the phenomenon after it.
Do you have any ideas for an experiment to confirm near-death experiences?
The article was published in March 2023 in the journal Clinical Medicine.
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