Life after death: what research and traditions say, and where doubt remains

In December 2001, The Lancet published a Dutch study of 344 patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest. Eighteen percent said they had clear memories from while they were, clinically, dead. The question this raises is an old one: what happens to consciousness when the body stops?

This overview brings together what some research and traditions say on the topic. The original text takes a tone favorable to the idea of survival after death. The mainstream scientific community remains skeptical, and caveats appear throughout the summary where they belong.

Near-death

Psychiatrist Raymond Moody named the phenomenon in 1975: near-death experience, or NDE. The accounts usually include the sensation of leaving the body, peace, a tunnel toward a light, meeting luminous beings or deceased relatives, a life review, and a boundary not to be crossed. An estimated 4% of the Western population has experienced something like this.

Cardiologist Pim van Lommel, author of the 2001 study, found no relationship between who had the experience and factors such as duration of the arrest, medication, fear of death, or religion. According to him, the data give “good reason to assume that our consciousness does not always coincide with the functioning of the brain,” a hypothesis he defends in later publications. Psychiatrist Bruce Greyson, of the University of Virginia, created a scale to standardize the study of NDEs and recorded that many patients change their values and lose their fear of death afterward.

There are competing explanations: lack of oxygen to the brain, drug effects, the release of chemical substances. Studies with DMT, a powerful psychedelic, reproduced part of the sensations, such as leaving the body and dissolving the ego. But only in true NDEs, according to the original text, do the reunion with the deceased and the point of no return appear. The AWARE study, led by Sam Parnia, tracked 2,060 cases of cardiac arrest across several hospitals: 140 survivors were interviewed, 46% had some kind of memory from the period, 9% described near-death experiences, and 2% reported having “seen” and “heard” real events from the resuscitation. Visual targets hidden in the rooms, according to the original text, were identified by no one, and only one case had a verifiable period of conscious awareness.

Children who remember past lives

Psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, also of the University of Virginia, gathered about 2,500 cases over 40 years of children, usually ages 2 to 5, who said they remembered another life. He interviewed families and witnesses and searched records to identify the person described. Jim Tucker, his successor, went on to study American cases.

The best known is that of James Leininger, who from age 2 spoke of a World War II pilot shot down in the Pacific, giving the name of a carrier and of a colleague that, according to Tucker, matched real people. Stevenson also pointed to birthmarks that would match the deceased person's wounds. Critics cite fraud, information gathered through ordinary means, distorted memory, and telepathy. Stevenson and Tucker themselves say there is no definitive proof, only a viable hypothesis.

Mediumship

Mediumship is the supposed ability to communicate with the dead. In the late 19th century, psychical research societies were already testing mediums such as Leonora Piper. In the 2000s, Gary Schwartz, of the University of Arizona, ran experiments that were criticized for lacking rigor. Researcher Julie Beischel, founder of the Windbridge Research Center, adopted protocols with five levels of blinding and reports that selected mediums get more details right about the correct deceased person than about a control deceased person.

Beischel acknowledges that accuracy doesn't reveal the source of the information: it could be the spirit, or the client's mind, or a supposed “super-psi” on the medium's part. A 2012 Brazilian study compared psychographed texts and ordinary texts from five mediums and found more complexity in the former. Mainstream science remains skeptical.

Out of body, breathing, and psychedelics

Out-of-body experiences also enter the picture. Charles Tart reportedly recorded a participant who described a number placed somewhere high up, visible only from above. Robert Monroe created audio programs to induce these states, and psychiatrist Stanislav Grof developed holotropic breathwork, which combines accelerated breathing and music. Contemplative traditions, such as yoga and shamanism, speak of states in which consciousness seems to detach from the body.

Studies with psilocybin in terminally ill patients indicate that a single session can reduce the fear of death, and many volunteers call the experience “more real than real life,” an expression NDE survivors also use. The original text sees in this a model for what consciousness separated from the body might be like, though it admits this doesn't prove life after death.

What the traditions say

Spiritism, systematized by Allan Kardec starting in 1857, holds that the spirit survives, keeps its identity, lives in different planes of vibration, and reincarnates to evolve. There is no eternal heaven or hell, only transitional states, and mediumship allows contact.

In Tibetan Buddhism, consciousness passes through three bardos, intermediate states lasting up to 49 days: that of death and the Clear Light, that of visions, and that of rebirth. The Bardo Thodol, known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, is read to the dying to guide them. In Hinduism, the Atman reincarnates according to karma until reaching moksha, liberation. According to the Bhagavad Gita, the soul changes bodies as one changes clothes.

Among Indigenous peoples and in ancient Egypt, a world of spirits or ancestors generally appears. The Guarani speak of the Land Without Evil, the Egyptians of judgment and the Fields of Reeds, and African traditions venerate ancestors.

Hypotheses about consciousness

If consciousness survives, how does that fit with science? The filter model, from William James and F. W. H. Myers, says the brain limits a broader consciousness, and van Lommel proposes something similar, with the brain as a receiver. Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander uses this idea to interpret his own NDE. Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff proposed the Orch-OR theory, linking consciousness to quantum processes in neurons. David Chalmers treats consciousness as a possible fundamental element of nature.

None of this is proven, and many of these proposals are viewed with caution by neuroscientists. The original text concludes that the data form an “encouraging” mosaic in favor of continuity. That's one possible reading. The other is that there are intriguing phenomena, still without a consensus explanation, and that the question of what comes next remains open.