
Instead, they argued that their near-death experience felt more real than life. Though 40% of the cardiac patients who suffered a heart attack recalled feeling strange, afraid, or the sensation of being dragged deep underwater, only 2% actually recalled a near-death experience.īut the weird part? Most of the people who had a legitimate near-death experience claimed that it didn’t feel like a dream, a hallucination, or that it was drug-induced.

One of the most extensive near-death studies involved 2,060 cardiac arrest patients who were observed over a 4-year period. But during these incredibly intense moments, medical patients who recover often report experiencing surreal flashbacks, seeing heaven and hell, and even having out-of-body experiences, including seeing themselves on the operating table surrounded by medical staff.Īttempts at explaining near-death experiences have drawn skepticism as well as genuine interest from researchers. When a person goes through a near-death experience, they may be clinically dead and are brought “back” (resuscitated), or may simply enter into a critical condition such as cardiac arrest, a coma, or reduced brain activity. Can Science Explain Near-Death Experiences? What we do know is that when the brain begins to experience loss of blood flow, our field of vision narrows, and our body begins releasing a potent cocktail of chemicals, too. Yet the same phenomenon has been shown to occur in rats -30 seconds of unusually high brain activity before and after death. Though the patient did have a severe brain condition (epilepsy), experts seem to agree that the idea of life flashing before your eyes when you die isn’t out of the question.Įxactly how the brain continues to function after the heart has stopped working is a mystery. After reviewing the data collected, the doctor’s instruments revealed that during the 30 seconds before and after the man was medically considered “dead,” his brain engaged in an unusually high amount of activity in areas associated with memory recall.

How Can the Brain Continue Functioning After Death?ĭuring a routine brain scan, an 87-year-old man with epilepsy unexpectedly died of a heart attack.
