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Soul-searching doctors find life after death

The first scientific study of "near-death" experiences has found new
evidence to suggest that consciousness or the "soul" can continue to
exist after the brain has ceased to function.

The findings by two eminent doctors, based on a year-long study of
heart attack survivors, could provoke fresh controversy over that most
profound of questions: is there life after death?

Reports of "near-death" experiences, in which people close to death
have vivid encounters with bright lights and heavenly beings, date
back centuries, but the phenomenon has been treated with scepticism by
most academics.

The new study concludes, however, that a number of people have almost
certainly had these experiences after they were pronounced clinically
dead. This would suggest that the mind or consciousness can survive
the death of the brain - a conclusion that was hailed by clerics last
night as supporting religious faith.

Bishop Stephen Sykes, the professor of theology at Durham University
and chairman of the Church of England's Doctrine Commission, said the
findings were "absolutely fascinating". He added: "I do not find them
surprising, however, as I believe life is much more mysterious than we
usually think it is. For theologians, the soul is far more than
consciousness or the mind. But these findings challenge the crude idea
that when a person's brain dies, that, as far as the person's
existence is concerned, is that."

The Bishop of Basingstoke, the Rt Rev Geoffrey Rowell, another
commission member, said: "These near-death experiences counter the
materialist view that we are nothing more than computers made of
meat."

Based on interviews with survivors of heart attacks at Southampton
General Hospital's cardiac unit, the new study is to be published in
the respected medical journal Resuscitation next year.

The study's authors, Dr Peter Fenwick, a consultant neuropsychiatrist
at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, and Dr Sam Parnia, a
clinical research fellow and registrar at Southampton hospital, stress
that more research is needed.

Dr Parnia said: "These people were having these experiences when we
wouldn't expect them to happen, when the brain shouldn't be able to
sustain lucid processes or allow them to form memories that would
last. So it might hold an answer to the question of whether mind or
consciousness is actually produced by the brain or whether the brain
is a kind of intermediary for the mind, which exists independently."

Dr Fenwick said: "If the mind and brain can be independent, then that
raises questions about the continuation of consciousness after death.
It also raises the question about a spiritual component to humans and
about a meaningful universe with a purpose rather than a random
universe."

During the study period, 63 cardiac arrest patients survived and were
interviewed within a week. Of those, 56 had no recollection of their
period of unconsciousness, a result that might have been expected in
all cases.

Seven survivors, however, had memories, although only four passed the
Grayson scale, the strict medical criteria for assessing near-death
experiences.

These four recounted feelings of peace and joy, time speeded up,
heightened senses, lost awareness of body, seeing a bright light,
entering another world, encountering a mystical being and coming to a
"point of no return". Three of them described themselves as
non-practising Anglicans while the fourth was a lapsed Roman Catholic.

By examining medical records, the researchers said the contention of
many critics that near-death experiences were the result of a collapse
of brain functions caused by lack of oxygen were highly unlikely. None
of those who underwent the experiences had low levels of oxygen.

Researchers were also able to rule out claims that unusual
combinations of drugs were to blame because the resuscitation
procedure in the hospital unit was the same in every case.

Dr Parnia, who was trained at the Guys and St Thomas' medical school,
University of London, said: "I started off as a sceptic but, having
weighed up all the evidence, I now think that there is something going
on. Essentially, it comes back to the question of whether the mind or
consciousness is produced from the brain. If we can prove that the
mind is produced by the brain, I don't think there is anything after
we die because essentially we are conscious beings.

"If, on the contrary, the brain is like an intermediary which
manifests the mind, like a television will act as an intermediary to
manifest waves in the air into a picture or a sound, we can show that
the mind is still there after the brain is dead. And that is what I
think these near-death experiences indicate."

Christopher French, a reader in psychology at Goldsmiths College,
University of London, said he had not seen the new study but remained
sceptical. "Near-death experiences could be pointing towards the soul
or the mind leaving the body, but they could just be the brain trying
to make sense of what is a very unusual event," he said.