By Steffan Rhys
In RedOrbit
LIGHTS at the end of a tunnel, spirits floating above their bodies on the hospital operating table, and lives flashing before your eyes.
They have all been the most commonly described near-death experiences for as long as the often-doubted phenomenon has existed.
But a five-year research project by a Welsh nurse suggests these stories are so common because they actually happen.
Intensive therapy nurse Penny Sartori worked closely with critically-ill patients at Morriston and Singleton Hospitals in Swansea. The setting, experts say, provided well-documented information on near-death experiences (NDEs) which does not fit easily within the parameters of the normal systems of explanation.
One patient reported encountering a dead relative who gave a message to pass on to another member of the family who was still alive, information which stunned the receiver because it had been a secret and was impossible the patient had prior knowledge of it.
In another, a patient who suffered from cerebral palsy awoke from an NDE able to use his right arm normally, even though it had been bent and contracted since birth.
Others reported floating back into their bodies after nearly dying, and others said they had met a figure who had told them their time had not yet come.
In one experiment, Dr Sartori placed playing cards on the top of emergency room cabinets, then asked patients reporting "floating" experiences if they had seen the cards. None had.
Dr Sartori, who has been awarded a PhD for what is the largest study of its kind in the UK, researched 300 intensive care patients and gathered 15 full accounts of NDEs over five years, mainly from heart attack patients.
She spent three years writing up her study and a further two preparing it for publication in her book, Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients: A Five Year Clinical Study, which has just been published.
"All the current sceptical arguments against near-death experiences were not supported by the research," she said, referring to NDEs often being explained away as the effect of endorphins, abnormal blood gases or low oxygen levels, all of which were measured and taken into account during her research.
"I don't think it's quite as simple as life after death. It's what consciousness is and how we define it. We are entering an exciting time researching consciousness.
"Current science says it is a by-product of the brain. But it may be that consciousness is around us and the brain might be a mediator, an antenna, instead of controlling consciousness.
"It is a fascinating subject and I'm looking forward to continuing my research."
Professor Paul Badham, director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Lampeter University, said the phenomenon was relatively rare but the experiences tended to contain similar elements.
"It is very common for people to report going out of their body and looking down on their body," he said.
"Going through a tunnel is also a common experience, as is being surrounded by light. The meeting of deceased relatives or friends is also commonly reported.
"People will also say that they feel they are in the presence of a spiritual reality. A Christian may interpret this as Jesus. One atheist who had an out-of-body experience said that he later realized that this presence was responsible for the governance of the universe."
Professor Badham said the numbers of people experiencing the phenomena are rising, as medicine improves and pulls more people back from the brink.
And he confirmed that people who report a near-death experience sometimes "see" things that it would have been impossible for them to see if they had been unconscious on an operating table.
The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients: A Five Year Clinical Study by Penny Sartori is published by Mellen Press, priced pounds 85.
In RedOrbit
LIGHTS at the end of a tunnel, spirits floating above their bodies on the hospital operating table, and lives flashing before your eyes.They have all been the most commonly described near-death experiences for as long as the often-doubted phenomenon has existed.
But a five-year research project by a Welsh nurse suggests these stories are so common because they actually happen.
Intensive therapy nurse Penny Sartori worked closely with critically-ill patients at Morriston and Singleton Hospitals in Swansea. The setting, experts say, provided well-documented information on near-death experiences (NDEs) which does not fit easily within the parameters of the normal systems of explanation.
One patient reported encountering a dead relative who gave a message to pass on to another member of the family who was still alive, information which stunned the receiver because it had been a secret and was impossible the patient had prior knowledge of it.
In another, a patient who suffered from cerebral palsy awoke from an NDE able to use his right arm normally, even though it had been bent and contracted since birth.
Others reported floating back into their bodies after nearly dying, and others said they had met a figure who had told them their time had not yet come.
In one experiment, Dr Sartori placed playing cards on the top of emergency room cabinets, then asked patients reporting "floating" experiences if they had seen the cards. None had.
Dr Sartori, who has been awarded a PhD for what is the largest study of its kind in the UK, researched 300 intensive care patients and gathered 15 full accounts of NDEs over five years, mainly from heart attack patients.
She spent three years writing up her study and a further two preparing it for publication in her book, Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients: A Five Year Clinical Study, which has just been published.
"All the current sceptical arguments against near-death experiences were not supported by the research," she said, referring to NDEs often being explained away as the effect of endorphins, abnormal blood gases or low oxygen levels, all of which were measured and taken into account during her research.
"I don't think it's quite as simple as life after death. It's what consciousness is and how we define it. We are entering an exciting time researching consciousness.
"Current science says it is a by-product of the brain. But it may be that consciousness is around us and the brain might be a mediator, an antenna, instead of controlling consciousness.
"It is a fascinating subject and I'm looking forward to continuing my research."
Professor Paul Badham, director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre at Lampeter University, said the phenomenon was relatively rare but the experiences tended to contain similar elements.
"It is very common for people to report going out of their body and looking down on their body," he said.
"Going through a tunnel is also a common experience, as is being surrounded by light. The meeting of deceased relatives or friends is also commonly reported.
"People will also say that they feel they are in the presence of a spiritual reality. A Christian may interpret this as Jesus. One atheist who had an out-of-body experience said that he later realized that this presence was responsible for the governance of the universe."
Professor Badham said the numbers of people experiencing the phenomena are rising, as medicine improves and pulls more people back from the brink.
And he confirmed that people who report a near-death experience sometimes "see" things that it would have been impossible for them to see if they had been unconscious on an operating table.
The Near-Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients: A Five Year Clinical Study by Penny Sartori is published by Mellen Press, priced pounds 85.See Related Post:
The Angels Of Death: Do Deathbed Phenomena Prove Life After Death?
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