Are NDEs real? Mays excerpt #3

How can we check that the experiences in an NDE are real? For one thing, we can check the parts of an NDE that relate to events in the physical realm. Do the NDEr’s perceptions of physical events during the NDE match what actually happened, according to other witnesses? Yes, in many NDE cases, the NDEr’s perceptions of physical events were verified as completely accurate. Typically, the NDEr’s brain function at the time was severely compromised by deep anesthesia, coma, or cardiac arrest. In many of these cases, the NDEr’s perceptions were impossible to perceive by ordinary means because the NDEr’s vision was blocked or the events occurred at a distant location.

Dozens of such cases, verified by independent sources, are documented in The Self Does Not Die. Al Sullivan had emergency cardiac bypass surgery, during which his eyes were taped shut and he was anesthetized. A surgical drape over his head blocked any possible physical perception of the surgeon, Dr. Takata. During the surgery, Sullivan experienced floating above his body, looking down on the surgery. He noticed that Takata seemed to be “flapping” his arms as if to fly. Immediately after he had recovered, Sullivan told his cardiologist, Dr. LaSala, of this unusual behavior. Takata had the habit of placing his hands on his chest to avoid contaminating them and pointing with his elbows when he needed to direct his surgical assistants. Both LaSala and Takata could not explain how Sullivan could have known of this behavior, with Sullivan being under deep anesthesia, with his physical eyesight blocked, and Takata’s behavior involving no sound or touch—perceivable only through a visual process.

Sullivan accurately described seeing Dr. Takata’s idiosyncratic movements while he was under total anesthesia, with his eyes taped shut and his head behind a surgical drape. Sullivan immediately told cardiologist LaSala about Takata’s unusual movements whose response was, “Who told you that?” Sullivan responded that he had seen it himself from above his body in the operating room during his NDE. But Sullivan should not have been able to perceive the surgeon’s movements. The doctors have no explanation for this. Takata said in an interview, “Frankly, I don’t know how this case can be accounted for. But since this really happened, I have to accept it as a fact. I think we should always be humble to accept the fact.”

A skeptic can object to the case of Al Sullivan because Sullivan was merely under anesthesia and there are cases of “anesthesia awareness” in which the patient is aware during surgery but cannot move or speak. In Sullivan’s case, Takata’s movements were unusual, purely visual events that could not be seen because Sullivan’s eyes were taped shut and were behind a surgical drape blocking sight of the operating area. There was no way for Sullivan to perceive Takata’s flapping arms, even if Sullivan were completely awake with his eyes open, because his vision would have been blocked by the surgical drape.

Skeptics can also object because Sullivan wasn’t close to death during the operation—his brain was still functioning, even though he was unconscious under anesthesia. They may say there might be some currently unknown brain function that would support such perceptual abilities. However, there are dozens of cases of verified veridical perceptions during an NDE occurring during cardiac arrest when all brain function has ceased.

For instance, cardiac surgeon Lloyd Rudy operated on a patient to replace a heart valve. After the surgery, Rudy could not get the patient off the heart-lung machine and restart his heart. After numerous failed attempts to wean him off the machine, the patient was declared dead. The life-sustaining machines were turned off, except for the heart echo-probe and other monitoring instruments. The patient had no heartbeat, no blood pressure, and no respiration for at least 20–25 minutes. During this time, Rudy and assistant surgeon Roberto Cattaneo stood in the OR doorway in their short-sleeve shirts discussing how they might have done the procedure differently. Then the patient’s heart spontaneously started beating again and developing blood pressure. Rudy called the surgical team back and they eventually resuscitated the patient who remained in a coma for two days in the ICU. The patient recovered with no neurological deficit and later reported having an NDE and floating above the scene in the OR. He recounted several accurate veridical perceptions during this time. In particular, he reported seeing the two surgeons standing and talking in the OR doorway in their shirt sleeves, with their arms folded, and seeing Post-It notes stuck together in a chain on a computer screen. The notes were telephone messages for the doctors that had been added after the surgery started.

Rudy commented, “He described the scene—things that there’s no way he could know. ... So what does that tell you? Was that his soul up there? ... It always makes me very emotional.” Cattaneo also commented, “The patient’s description of his experience is as Dr. Rudy described it word by word. People should interpret this according to their own beliefs, these are the facts.” In a later interview, Cattaneo remarked, “My role was that of assistant surgeon. I was in the case from beginning to end. I did witness the entire case and everything that my partner Dr. Rudy explained. I do not have a rational scientific explanation to explain this phenomenon. I do know that this happened. This patient had close to 20 minutes or more of no life, no physiological life, no heartbeat, no blood pressure, no respiratory function whatsoever and then he came back to life. Moreover, he recovered fully. ... This was not a hoax, no way, this was as real as it gets. ... One can believe what one wants to believe but this in my mind is a miracle unexplainable by current scientific knowledge.”

The evidence is clear that Rudy’s patient had died. There was no heartbeat, no blood pressure, and no respiratory function for 20–25 minutes, as indicated by the monitors which had been left on. The doctors pronounced the patient dead and told his wife that he had died. The patient’s chest was closed up briefly and prepped for postmortem exam.

When the heart stops, there is no blood flow to the brain. The brain electrical activity and brain function that are dependent on this blood flow cease after 10–20 seconds. Yet Lloyd Rudy’s patient experienced a vivid NDE while his heart had completely stopped. Although his eyes were taped shut, he later reported perceiving veridical details of the doctors and the OR that were later verified by the two surgeons. The unusual purely visual events the patient perceived included the two doctors standing in the OR doorway in their shirt sleeves and the Post-It notes stuck to the computer screen. These perceptions occurred from a vantage point near the ceiling during the time there was no brain electrical activity.

How could a patient with no brain function have accurate perceptions from a location outside the physical body? This case and many others similar to it suggest that the perceptual, cognitive and memory aspects of the mind can operate outside the body, independent of brain function.

 

Robert G. Mays, BSc and Suzanne B. Mays, AA,  “There is no death: Near-death experience evidence for survival after permanent bodily death.” An essay written for the 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies addressing the question: “What Is The Best Available Evidence For The Survival Of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death?” Footnotes are omitted from these excerpts but are in the full text available from the Bigelow website at https://bigelowinstitute.org/contest_winners3.php.