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17th Feb 2024

Study reveals what people who came back from the dead first saw

Callum Boyle

Near-death experience

Some truly strange experiences

A study published in July, 2023 into people who have survived cardiac arrests has revealed that almost 40 per cent of those experience dreamlike scenarios and memories while unconscious.

The NYU Grossman School of Medicine worked with 25 hospitals found that of the four in 10 patients of the 567 members studied who had survived CPR had seen their brain line activity from “flatline” to normal – even an hour after the procedure.

Dr. Sam Parnia, an associate professor in the department of medicine at NYU Langone Health said: “There’s nothing more extreme than cardiac arrest because they’re literally teetering between life and death, they’re in a deep coma and they don’t respond to us physically at all.

“What we’re able to show is that up to 40% of people actually have a perception of having been conscious to some extent.”

Within the study however, six patients reported near-death experiences which were described by researchers as: “transcendent recalled experiences of death”.

Near-death experience

Parnia added: “They may have had a life review, they may have gone to a place that felt like home, and so on.”

Some patients revealed some of those near-death experiences, with one saying: “I heard my name over and over again. All around me were things like demons and monsters. It felt like they were trying to tear off my body parts. At the upper right corner of wherever I was at, I could see someone.

“There was no face, but it was a male figure. He screamed my name and grabbed my hand before it was too late. I reached out and felt someone pulling me in their direction. I heard, ‘Is she breathing? Is she breathing?'”

Other common memories recalled by patients included being chased by the police or being caught in the rain. 

For all of the negative ones, there were some positive moments recalled by patients, including seeing a light, a tunnel or a family member.

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