Other
writings
(updated
11/25/11)
Letter to the Editor submitted to
the Journal
of Near-Death Studies
Near-death experiences and EEG
surges at end of life
Robert
G. Mays, B.Sc., and Suzanne B. Mays
Lakhmir Chawla and colleagues (2009) reported that patients who were at
end of life and had life support withdrawn – that is, no medications,
IV infusions, or machine ventilation – exhibited a surge of
electroencephalographic (EEG) activity just prior to complete arrest of
blood flow and death. The researchers speculated that a similar surge
of electrical brain activity may account for the near-death experiences
(NDEs) of patients who suffer cardiac arrest but are revived. The
observed EEG surges appear of sufficient duration and strength as to
account for the vivid experiences reported in NDE. Of course, the
immediate response to this conjecture is that many NDEs occur under
conditions without these clinical circumstances (see Greyson, Kelly
& Kelly, 2009), and, thus, the proposed connection does not
provide a complete explanation of NDEs. Indeed, it is impossible to
tell just what the deceased patient experienced in the final minutes.
Nevertheless, Chawla and colleagues reported that the presence of an
objectively measured electrical signal at the time of death has been a
source of comfort to many of the families of these patients, indicating
that “something” happens at the time of death. We propose an
alternative explanation of this phenomenon.
( PDF,
134K, 6 pages)
Near-death
experience research: History and perspectives
A
Powerpoint presentation
of the history of NDE research, presented as a lecture on May 18, 2011.
(PDF, 2.0 MB, 29 slides)
What do NDEs tell us about
consciousness?
A slide
presentation summarizing our current
theory of the self-conscious mind, presented at the local
IANDS NDE support group and revised on April 18, 2009. ( PDF, 17.4 MB,
44 slides)
- Slides 1-11: what are NDEs,
continuity of consciousness in cardiac arrest, veridical perceptions in
NDE-OBE, phenomenology of NDE-OBE, physical interaction in NDE-OBE,
what is consciousness
- Slides 12-16: what do NDEs tell
us about consciousness, evidence from NDEs, mind and body, mind versus
body, union of mind and body
- Slides 17-28: seven principles of mind-brain
operation:
- Brain electrical activity gives rise to
consciousness
- There is a process of “coming to awareness”
- The mind follows the neural structures of the
body
- The “mind structure” maps to brain structures
and functions
- Cognitive function depends on brain structure
- The mind plays an active role in brain
development
- Memory resides in the mind, not the brain
- Slide 29: a new paradigm with
explanatory and predictive power
- Slides 30-32: explanation: Libet's paradox of
delayed awareness of willed action
- Slides
33-42: prediction: new phantom limb phenomena (3 short video clips
accompany this section).
- Slide 37: "Structure of the phantom fingers" (streaming video, 3 MB, 1'43)
- Slide 39: "Phantom limb interaction 1" (streaming video, 2.2 MB, 1'46)
- Slide 40: "Phantom limb interaction 2" (streaming
video, 3.8 MB, 1'49)
PLEASE NOTE:
These
videos are copyrighted and are presented
here to assist other researchers to analyze our research and provide
comments. The
videos and photographs are not to be copied, saved or republished
without express written permission of the authors.
- Slide 43: summary: the self-conscious
mind
The following letter to the Editor
was published in the Journal
of Near-Death Studies, 27(3), 195-201, Spring 2009.
On
the scope of analysis for the AWARE study
Robert
G. Mays, B.Sc., and Suzanne B. Mays
Regarding the AWARE study (AWAreness during REsuscitation) which will
examine prospectively 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest across 25
participating hospitals in Europe and North America for 36 to 60
months. The study organizers expect as many as 300 of the cardiac
arrest survivors to report a near-death experience (NDE), of whom
perhaps 30 to 60 patients will also report an out-of-body experience
(OBE) with perceptions of the physical surroundings. We recommend that:
- the
study include collection and detailed verification of all NDE OBE
perceptions, using a prescribed investigative protocol (1) to establish
where the patient was “located” in the room, how
long the patient was “present” and where the
patient’s “attention” was focused during
the resuscitation, (2) to record and verify all aspects of
the patient’s perceptions during the OBE portion in detail,
especially purely visual, idiosyncratic perceptions, including the
hidden images, (3) to collect independent detailed accounts from other
relevant witnesses, and (4) to collect ancillary evidence from NDErs
and witnesses.
- the study focus verification on any
idiosyncratic, purely visual perceptions that were out of the
patient’s physical line of sight, but include all perceptions
during the NDE OBE, since verified details of the perceived events of
the resuscitation will help to establish when the
perceptions occurred, which cannot be done from isolated reports of
perceptions. This information can then be correlated with other
information about the patient’s physiological condition.
( PDF,
49K, 4 pages)
A PowerPoint presentation
of our Current Research
Status as of April 2008.
These slides were
presented to the staff of the Division of Perceptual Studies of
the University of Virginia, Bruce Greyson, Division Director, on April
22, 2008. (PDF,
2.4 MB, 28 pages).
Research Request to NDErs who may
have experienced interactions with physical objects or persons during
their NDE:
The following article
was printed in Vital
Signs, the quarterly newsletter of IANDS, first quarter
2008:
Research Request: Details of
Physical Interactions during NDE OBE
Robert
G. Mays, B.Sc., and Suzanne B. Mays
We
are looking for reports from NDErs of physical interactions while
out of the physical body during the NDE. If during an NDE you
experienced any interactions with:
- physical
light (e.g., seeing a source of light like a light bulb or readout
from a medical
monitor)
- physical
sound (e.g., lights humming or monitors beeping)
- physical
smells or tastes
- physical
touch (e.g., sensing the texture of a surface or sensations when
passing through a physical object such as a wall)
- the body
of another person (that is, sensations in touching or passing through a
person)
- the
body of another person where their touch appeared to
be felt
(that is, in touching the person, the person felt
the
interaction in some way), or
- another
person where the NDEr was able to “merge”
with that
person (that is, they could see and hear with their eyes and ears)
please contact us with
details. Similarly if you have read or
heard an account of an NDE with one of these unusual physical
interactions, please contact us. (A more
detailed article, PDF
29K, 2 pages).
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