According to our current medical concepts, it is not possible to be conscious during cardiac arrest, when circulation and respiration have stopped. Nevertheless, during the period of loss of consciousness due to a potentially fatal seizure, like a cardiac arrest, patients may report a paradoxical incident of heightened consciousness occurring in a dimension without conventional concepts of time and space, with cognitive functions, with emotions, with self-identity, with childhood memories and sometimes the perception out and about his lifeless body.
In four possible studies with a total of 562 cardiac arrest survivors, between 11% and the 18% of patients reported near-death experiences (NDE) in these studies it was not possible to demonstrate which physiological factors, psychological, pharmacological or demographic factors could explain the cause and content of these experiences. How come a clear conscience, out of body, it can be felt when there is no brain function during a clinical death, with a flat line on the electroencephalogram (EEG)? Today there are good reasons to assume that our consciousness does not always coincide with the function of our brain.; sometimes we can have heightened awareness separate from the body.
I have come to the unavoidable conclusion that surely the brain has a facilitating and not a productive function to live consciousness. By making a scientific case for consciousness as non-local and thus a ubiquitous phenomenon, we have to question the purely materialist paradigm of science. Also, Recent NDE studies seem to be a source of new perspectives towards the possibility of the continuity of our consciousness after physical death..
Dr. Pim van Lommel, graduated in medicine from the University of Utrecht in 1971. He is specialized in cardiology and worked as a cardiologist at the Rijnstate Hospital, a University Hospital in Arnhem, Netherlands from 1977 until 2003. He is now researching near-death experiences full-time. (NDE).
In 1986, Dr. Lommel began his research on near-death experiences, posting on 2001 in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, together with his colleagues, the work “The near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands.. In his latest works, He goes on to write about his concept of the continuity of our "non-local" consciousness and the mind-brain relationship.. In the year 2007 He achieved public recognition with his work, which was a Dutch best seller., “Endless Consciousness: a scientific view on the Near-Death Experience”, translated into several languages including English, French, German, polish and spanish. In 2010 translated into English as, “Consciousness Beyond Life, The Science of the Near-Death Experience”, (Consciousness Beyond Life, the Science of the Near-Death Experience).
In 2005 was awarded the "Bruce Greyson Research Award" by the IANDS Association (International Association for Near-Death Studies) In U.S.A, and in the year 2006 He was presented with the Life Time Achievement Award by the President of India at the World Congress of Clinical Preventive Cardiology, in New Delhi. He has recently received the "2010 Book Award" from the Scientific and Medical Network of England..
