Scientists pinpoint awareness after 'death,' previously thought impossible

A recent study, led by Dr. Sam Parnia at Southampton University in the United Kingdom, levies the liklihood that consciousness continues even after brain function stops.

Until now, it was mostly accepted that when the heart stopped, the brain had about 30 seconds before it completely shuts down and that all near-death experiences occurred within that time frame.  Now, after a study in the Official Journal of European Resuscitation Council, with the title “AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation—A prospective study,” it is believed that consciousness continues after death.

The study is the largest ever undertaken of its kind and involved over 2,000 patients that had suffered cardiac arrest and successfully responded to resuscitation treatment.  The people involved were from the United States, Australia and the UK and the methodology was notably rigorous to exclude cases that were individually worthy, but not scientifically viable.

It was found that 40% of the patients had a level of awareness while they were dead and before their heart was restarted.

Parnia explains "“the evidence thus far suggests that in the first few minutes after death, consciousness is not annihilated. Whether it fades away afterwards, we do not know, but right after death, consciousness is not lost. 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."  He continues "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. Furthermore, the detailed recollections of visual awareness in this case were consistent with verified events”.

People were able to recall what was going on while their bodies were dead.

Parnia highlights the specific instances of recall.  “A total of 2060 cardiac arrest patients were studied. Of that number, 330 survived and 140 said that they had been partly aware at the time of resuscitating”. Of these latter, states Parnia, “thirty-nine per cent […] described a perception of awareness, but did not have any explicit memory of events."  Two percent 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.  Parnia suggests that “more people may have mental activity initially but then lose their memories, either due to the effects of brain injury or sedative drugs on memory recall”.

Though all involved have acknowledged it is just one study, however large, and so much is unknown about the process involved in consciousness, Parnia takes away a new look on death.  "Contrary to perception, death is not a specific moment, but a potentially reversible process that occurs after any severe illness or accident causes the heart, lungs and brain to cease functioning.”

How long do we maintain awareness during this process and how does memory factor in?  Maybe we're always conscious and the brain is how we remember it.