Life After Death Question Shows New Life
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iStock/Thinkstock(SOUTHAMPTON, England) — Researchers at the University of Southampton in England may have answered mankind’s greatest question, Is there life after death?
Or at the very least, the AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation) study, the largest of its kind, suggests that something akin to life occurs when brain functions stop temporarily.
In reviewing the cases of more than 2,000 patient from hospitals in the U.S, the United Kingdom and Austria, lead author Dr. Sam Parnia maintains, “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.”
Of the 330 patients who survived cardiac arrest, about four in 10 said they experienced some awareness after their heart stopped but of those, half admitted not being able to remember what is normally reported as an out-of-body or near-death experience.
In one particular instance, however, a man spoke of observing his resuscitation that included hearing two beeps at three-minute intervals.
Parnia said that was significant because besides having no heartbeat for three minutes, the brain stops functioning 20 to 30 seconds after the heart stops.
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