For a number of years, Dr Sam Parnia and Dr Peter Fenwick have been working on an experiment to test for awareness after the point of death. Their investigation has now been expanded into a larger study called AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), to be launched by the Human Consciousness Project of the University of Southampton – “an international collaboration of scientists and physicians who have joined forces to study the human brain, consciousness and clinical death.”:
A number of recent scientific studies carried out by independent researchers have demonstrated that 10-20 per cent of people who go through cardiac arrest and clinical death report lucid, well structured thought processes, reasoning, memories and sometimes detailed recall of events during their encounter with death.
During the AWARE study, doctors will use sophisticated technology to study the brain and consciousness during cardiac arrest. At the same time, they will test the validity of out of body experiences and claims of being able to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ during cardiac arrest.
Apart from anecdotal stories and some testing back in the 1970s (perhaps most notably, Charles Tart’s experiments with ‘Miss Z’, as well as tests on Robert Monroe), there has been little solid scientific examination of claims of veridical perception during OBEs and NDEs. Should be interesting to see how it all goes.
