On 28th of July, 1976, at 3:42 in the early hours of the morning, the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century and the third greatest in recorded history, took place in Tangshan, China. Approximately one fifth of the city perished in the calamity, and thousands were rescued from the arms of the death.
A sociological survey was performed with people that were brought back from a state of near-death to find out what they experienced at the most critical moment of their lives.
Surprisingly, many responded that on the threshold of death, they did not feel any pain or regret, but experienced a kind of excitement, as if they had been liberated from their physical bodies. Some said that they had seen a tunnel of light and some reported seeing other beings.
It is likely that many people are familiar with these kinds of stories, known by experts as Near Death Experiences (NDEs).
The existence of NDEs raises a dilemma, as modern science holds that the mind is a product of neuro-chemical reactions, rather than an entity independent of the brain able to separate at times such as death. Scientists have diverse positions with regard to the existence of the soul as an individual entity.
One study by a medical doctor, Dr. Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachussets was made in 1907. MacDougall worked with 6 patients in a critical state, which he weighed at the moment immediately before death, and then directly after.
The results, published in contemporary medical journals, were that the patients lost an average of 21 grams at the precise moment of death. Dr MacDougall reached the conclusion that this was the weight of the human soul.
Nowadays this study is counted as nothing more than an anecdote in scientific circles, since detractors say that measurement errors, caused by several factors, could have been committed. However, so far no one has repeated the experiment, either to confirm or refute it.
The "reductionist" point of view is sceptical of the existence of independent consciousness. Scientist Francis Crick—awarded the Nobel prise along with American James Watson in 1962 for discovering the double-helix structure of DNA—is probably the most well-known contemporary representative for this viewpoint.
Professor Crick affirmed in a study carried out over several years that: "our minds—the behaviour of our brains—can be explained by the interactions of nerve cells (and other cells) and the molecules associated with them."
However, some scientists argue Professor Crick is clinging to an extreme viewpoint. "It is like saying that the cathedral is a pile of stones and glass. It is true, but too simplistic and it misses the point," says Michael Reiss, professor at the University of London who is both a priest and scientist.
The most complete study on NDEs to date was made by Pim van Lommel and a team of Dutch doctors on 344 patients from ten hospitals, who had been resuscitated after a cardiac arrest.
The study, reported in Lancet in 2001, found that 62 of the patients (18 per cent) had some recollection of a near-death experience, while 41 of these described experiencing a "deep" or "very deep" experience.
Half of those who reported having an NDE said they were aware of being dead, while 56 per cent said they experienced positive emotions. Fifteen people (24 per cent) reported having an out-of-body experience, while 31 per cent experienced moving thorough a tunnel. Eighteen said they saw a "celestial landscape". A third said they met with dead relatives and eight said they saw their life reviewed.
Professor Van Lommel says it puts to question, "the concept thus far assumed but never scientifically proven, that consciousness and memories are localized in the brain."
He asks: "How could a clear consciousness outside one's body be experienced at the moment that the brain no longer functions during a period of clinical death with flat EEG? Furthermore, blind people have described (perceptions that agree with reality) during out-of-body experiences at the time of this experience."
Professor Van Lommel says near-death experiences push at the limits of medical ideas about the range of human consciousness and the mind-brain relation.
While the subject will likely remain a contentious issue in scientific circles, further studies may be warranted to probe the eternal question—of whether there is life after death.
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