Dr Pim van Lommel worked as a cardiologist in the Netherlands and in 1986 became interested in Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) in patients who survived a cardiac arrest.
A cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating and is defined as the cessation of effective contraction of the myocardium (the thick middle layer of the heart composed of cardiac muscle). It leads to a sudden loss of consciousness and an absence of a pulse and breathing.
Studies have shown that due to a lack of heart beat and blood flow there is a cessation of brain electrical activity within approximately 10 seconds. This reflects a lack of brain function that is brought about due to a lack of blood flow into the brain. Brain oxygen levels are then depleted within approximately 2 minutes and if the blood flow is not restarted to the brain, the cells start to undergo changes that lead to cell damage and then cell death.
A cardiac arrest is synonymous with death as the point at which we die is when the heart stops beating, the person stops breathing, and the brain shuts down which are exactly the same criteria as a cardiac arrest.
Dr van Lommel became the first medical practitioner to have undertaken a full and systematic study of near-death experiences, which showed that 10 – 20% of cardiac arrest patients studied reported elements of the Near-Death Experience.
After 30 years of extensive NDE studies, Dr. van Lommel believes that consciousness can also exist outside the body. Thus, recent research on NDEs seems to be a source of new insights into the possibility of the continuity of our consciousness after physical death.
In this interview. he discusses in detail what actually happens during a NDE, people’s experiences during a NDE, and how it can dramatically change their lives.
References:
A full list of references is available in the Reference Material section.
- The Horizon Research Foundation. The Brain During Cardiac Arrest.
- Welbourn, C., Efstathiou, N. (2018) How does the length of cardiopulmonary resuscitation affect brain damage in patients surviving cardiac arrest? A systematic review. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med 26 (77).
This article offers a compelling and credible examination of near-death experiences (NDEs) through the pioneering work of cardiologist Pim van Lommel. His landmark prospective study of 344 patients who survived cardiac arrest revealed that 10–20% reported vivid NDEs including out-of-body awareness even though brain activity had ceased within seconds of arrest