Studying Recalled Experiences of Death

How do we define experiences of death? What do survivors feel and witness? And how can we study these experiences using the scientific method?
A conference held October 26, 2019 at New York University School of Medicine and following symposium and panel discussion by the New York Academy of Science brought together experts from the fields of resuscitation science, social science, emergency and critical care medicine, neurology, and neuroscience, to discuss the current state of understanding regarding cardiac arrest, as well as what happens when people die. Along with the review of over 1000 cases of recalled experiences of death, these discussions form the foundational context for the Parnia et al. 2022 paper, 'Guidelines and standards for the study of death and recalled experiences of death'.
In this video Tara Keshavarz Shirazi, DO candidate at New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Dr. Sam Parnia, Director of Critical Care and Resuscitation Research at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, discuss the challenges related to the study of consciousness and recalled experience of death (RED), as well as their methodology for identifying key themes and features of REDs that appear to be universal.
2022 Guidelines and standards for the study of death and recalled experiences of death--a multidisciplinary consensus statement and proposed future directions ►med.virginia.e...
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[@EasternTriad]

A wonderful presentation, Parnia Lab. Thank you for posting this and sharing it with the public. Hope to hear from you and what you guys are up to with greater frequency. Take care.

[@TallyRocky]

Thank you Dr Parnia. Fascinating and informative as all of your NDEs discussions are. More of these please, and more often! 👏👏👏

[@GhostJist]

Sam, you're doing great work. I hope you and the team are able to connect with IANDS, NDERF, and UVA DOPs. I'm sure they would appreciate the mutual passion for these patients.

[@EasternTriad]

It should be mentioned, Parnia Lab, in response to the gentleman's comments at 48:03 that Dr. Bruce Greyson stated in a past interview that the University of Virginia has collected NDE (RED) reports that predate Raymond Moody's book Life After Life. Those accounts from the 60s and before report essentially the same thing as NDEs (RED) from the 21st century.

[@tim59ism]

Yes but there are many reports pre dating the sixties, too. This really all began when routine (it wasn't a new idea it dates back to ancient times and also many hundreds of years) modern resuscitation became possible around 1960 (Guy Knickerbocker and co). Then you started to have thousands of people being brought back from death and inevitably some of them 'blurted out' their experience (as some people do, most don't though). What I find highly amusing is that doctors and science or science and doctors inadvertently "dug up" the soul that they thought science had buried forever ! Hilarious ! Scientists with their certainties suddenly confronted with something they really wanted to see the back of.

[@KarenGray-rh5eh]

So fascinating and intriguing. There is an uncanny resemblance to the 12 step program throughout the talk around the life review. Not just step four but all the steps. Recognising our motives, realising harm we have caused, lies we have told ourselves, making amends and committing to becoming better, kinder less selfish human beings. A spiritual awakening during life as this seems to be a spiritual awakening after death. Wonderfully beautiful thought provoking stuff.

[@ginaiosef]

I might think that those steps were set accordingly with people's nde experiences

[@CaptApril123]

Good presentation. My question would be if the brain is no longer functioning where are the memories being stored? For that matter if what we understand about consciousness is correct (emergent from brain activity) then how would someone be conscious without a functioning brain?

[@glasgowtravellers8729]

Gd question

[@ginaiosef]

I think- as Tesla put it - in terms of energy and then frequency. And then I can travel 😊

[@ArlindoPhilosophicalArtist]

Memories are not stored because remembering an experience is a reconstruction of what we think happened in the past. It is always a 'guess' of what happened before, or what we THINK happened-which is never the original state. Also, strong emergence has not been proved at all. All we observed is how mental states appear to correlate with brain states, but correlation isn't necessarily causation. To think so is to commit the cum hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. The voice on the radio correlates with the electromagnetic oscillations in the radio's circuitry, but the radio doesn't synthesise the voice, it receives a signal. You can see where the analogy is going. The voice exists in a different form elsewhere even when the radio is destroyed. So, based on Parnia's observations here and other research, we can conclude that materialism is most certainly wrong. Reality operates in a different way ontologically and death would be an illusion.

[@tim59ism]

Your question highlights the whole crux of the matter. NDE's, especially those that occur during cardiac arrest (when the brain cannot be functioning, or functioning sufficiently--even with CPR) call into question the assumption that the brain produces consciousness. It's always been just an assumption. However, there is no evidence as to how electrical and chemical exchanges between brain nerve cells (neurons) create our sense of self (the mind) which then creates thoughts. They are such vastly different substances, there is little point in even trying to find an answer to the neural composition of a thought. This means that consciousness may be something else, possibly fundamental and indestructible, which seems to fit much better with those patients/people reporting consciousness with reasoning and memory formation (timed to when they were indeed offline) when their brains were not working, with a recorded flat EEG (no brainwaves). Understandably, mainstream science doesn't like this data, but there is so much of it now, it's going to have to deal with it and not just by handwaving it away as nonsense.

[@ginaiosef]

Thank you! ❤

[@cybilbennett1576]

i hope we get a choice to decide if we want to live again or not, otherwise why would some feel the presence of long ago died loved ones when you got no choice.

[@User-kjxklyntrw]

Are NDEs can interlink one with another like if in one ER room there are more than 2 patient die in almost same timeline, after their ressurection will they know that they meet or see or talk each other in their NDE

[@joplaygames666]

BS

[@joplaygames666]

In my Recalled experience of death i saw Doraemon

[@tim59ism]

The hell you say!

[@ginaiosef]

@@tim59ism AI or something...

[@joplaygames666]

I am not AI and it was a good NDE where I met Nobita and Doraemon

[@josipkuljevan5341]

@@joplaygames666 hhah, its crazy but probably true that people actually describe specific details for above them self, or body under c. arrest. but how do we accept that