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Authored by Angeli-Faez, Bruce Greyson, and Pim van Lommel, and published in the International Review of Psychiatry, the article addresses a fundamental—albeit somewhat delayed—question: can residual brain activity (RBA) following cardiorespiratory arrest explain near-death experiences (NDEs)?
First, the authors examine whether residual brain activity can generate NDEs, or whether consciousness may occur independently of the brain. Conscious experience is understood to depend on activity across multiple brain regions requiring sufficient oxygen and glucose—both of which are drastically disrupted during cardiorespiratory arrest.
If one assumes that the brain produces consciousness, then NDEs must necessarily occur either shortly before or shortly after cardiac arrest. The first possibility can be ruled out, as NDEs occur during respiratory and cardiac arrest—not before, when brain activity remains within normal parameters.
The authors then explore a particularly compelling and rarely addressed aspect of NDEs from a naturalistic perspective: cases in which the content of the experience has been independently verified by physicians, with no possibility of prior knowledge by the individual undergoing the experience.
Such cases present two significant challenges for materialist interpretations of NDEs:
1. The extrasensory, non-hallucinatory nature of the experience.
2. The timing of the experience—occurring at a moment when there is no detectable residual brain activity.
From a naturalist or materialist standpoint, the brain is the source of consciousness. Studies by researchers such as Borgijin, Martial, and Chawla have attempted to correlate residual brain activity with NDEs. However, Angeli-Faez, Greyson, and Van Lommel question whether electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings are adequate measures of conscious activity.
First, EEGs do not capture activity across all brain regions associated with consciousness. Second, EEG recordings during such states show a marked reduction in alpha and beta waves—frequencies commonly associated with conscious mental activity. It is important to note that among the five types of brainwave frequencies measured by EEG (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and theta), alpha and beta waves are most closely linked to conscious experience. Notably, in other studies attempting to connect residual brain activity with NDEs—such as those conducted by Sam Parnia—these frequencies either disappear or are not detected when NDEs are reported. This significantly complicates, if not invalidates, the proposed relationship between residual brain activity and NDEs.
In conclusion, the authors assert what NDE evidence appears to suggest: that these experiences occur in the absence of measurable brain activity, thereby pointing toward a potential independence between brain function and conscious awareness.
Òscar Llorens i Garcia
