Near-death experiences in cardiac arrest: implications for the concept of non-local mind

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Near-death experiences (NDE) are vivid, realistic, and often deeply life-changing experiences occurring to people who have been physiologically or psychologically close to death. NDEs sometimes occur during cardiac arrest, in the absence of recordable brain activity. OBJECTIVE: To review prospective studies of cardiac arrest-induced NDEs and examine the implications of these studies for the concept of non-local mind. METHOD: PubMed was the main database used for this review. Key search terms included "cardiac arrest", "near-death experiences", "physiology of near-death experience", and "veridical out-of-body-experiences". RESULTS: Several prospective studies show an average incidence of cardiac arrest-induced NDE of 10%-20%, irrespective of sociodemographic status, sex, religion, or any consistent medical, physiological, or pharmacological measures. NDErs are more likely than non-NDErs to have positive life changes lasting many years following the experience. DISCUSSION: Physicalist theories of the mind cannot explain how NDErs can experience - while their hearts are stopped and brain activity is seemingly absent - vivid and complex thoughts, and acquire veridical information about objects or events remote from their bodies. NDE in cardiac arrest suggest that mind is non-local, i.e. it is not generated by the brain, and it is not confined to the brain and the body.