The United States of Esoterica

James Owen

for National Geographic News

Published April 8, 2010

Near-death experiences are tricks of the mind triggered by an overload of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream, a new study suggests.

Many people who have recovered from life-threatening injuries have said they experienced their lives flashing before their eyes, saw bright lights, left their bodies, or encountered angels or dead loved ones.

In the new study, researchers investigated whether different levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide—the main blood gases—play a role in the mysterious phenomenon.

The team studied 52 heart attack patients who had been admitted to three major hospitals and were eventually resuscitated. Eleven of the patients reported near-death experiences.

During cardiac arrest and resuscitation, blood gases such as CO2 rise or fall because of the lack of circulation and breathing.

"We found that in those patients who experienced the phenomenon, blood carbon-dioxide levels were significantly higher than in those who did not," said team member Zalika Klemenc-Ketis, of the University of Maribor in Slovenia.

(Related: "Creepy 'Shadow Person' Effect Conjured by Brain Shocks.")

CO2 Only Common Factor in Near-Death Experiences

Other factors, such a patient's sex, age, or religious beliefs—or the time it took to revive them—had no bearing on whether the patients reported near-death experiences.

The drugs used during initial treatment—a suggested explanation for near-death experiences after heart attacks—also didn't seem to correlate with the sensations, according to the study authors.

(Related: "Ancient Death-Smile Potion Decoded?")

How carbon dioxide might actually interact with the brain to produce near-death sensations was beyond the scope of the study, so for now "the exact pathophysiological mechanism for this is not known," Klemenc-Ketis said.

However, people who have inhaled excess carbon dioxide or have been at high altitudes, which can raise the blood's CO2 concentrations, have been known to have sensations similar to near-death experiences, she said. (Related: "High-Altitude Suits Keep Pressure on Pilots.")

A Glimpse of the Afterlife?

The study is among the first to find a direct link between carbon dioxide in the blood and near-death experiences, or NDEs, said Christopher French, a psychologist at the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit of the University of London, who was not involved in the new research.

The hospital study bolsters previous lab work done in the 1950s that found "the effects of hypercarbia [abnormally high levels of CO2 in the blood] were very similar to what we would now recognise as NDEs," French said in an email.

The research also supports the argument that anything that disinhibits the brain—damages the brain's ability to manage impulses—can produce near-death sensations, he said. Physical brain injury, drugs, and delirium have all been associated with a disinhibited state, and CO2 overload is another potential trigger.

Still, not all scientists are convinced: "The one difficulty in arguing that CO2 is the cause is that in cardiac arrests, everybody has high CO2 but only 10 percent have NDEs," said neuropsychiatrist Peter Fenwick of the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London.

What's more, in heart attack patients, Fenwick said, "there is no coherent cerebral activity which could support consciousness, let alone an experience with the clarity of an NDE."

The main alternative is that near-death experiences are "evidence of consciousness becoming separated from the physical substrate of the brain, possibly even a glimpse of an afterlife," the University of London's French noted.

But for him, at least, "the latest results argue strongly against such a hypothesis."

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When the mob governs, man is ruled by ignorance; when the church governs, he is ruled by superstition; and when the state governs, he is ruled by fear. http://countdowntoapocalypse.com/

"It was just swamp gas."

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"I didn't need to learn what I learned today." -- Jesse Ventura.
"There is but one special interest that we should be working for, and that would solve just about all of our problems, and that is our liberty. " - Ron Paul.

Any time you see the words "a new study says", you can just go ahead and regard whatever you're reading as utter horseshit.

My favorite part:



In other words, "We have no idea how or why this would happen, but because we established a corollary under less than controlled circumstances clearly it's the cause."

Science is broken and the scientific method is dead. Anyone that tells you otherwise is blind.

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Modern Science: Where a crappy answer is better than no answer at all.

I agree. Science as a whole is all whacked out these days. Any asshole can post some 'research' or 'study' online and people will run with it.

I think though, that the scientific method itself is sound, it's the people using it that are messed up. Having said that, the scientific method is utterly useless in studying anything that can not be controlled i.e. the paranormal. Until we come up with a 'scientific method 2.0' or some new way of thinking, these sorts of issues will never be proven one way or another.

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I made a blog cause I was bored. http://hockeyfury.blogspot.com/

I wonder how NDEs occur under other circumstances, such as auto accidents, which I personally experienced (my life flashed before my eyes just before we hit the side of a mountain.)

You would think that, to disprove their hypothesis, they would look for evidence of NDEs under circumstances other than cardiac arrest.

As SF would say, don't bother me with the facts.

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Paranormal Library
"Fear scares, doesn't it? It sure does." - George Noory

True in many cases but science has a fatal flaw, in that it disregards the subjective in favor of objectivity. By definition it cannot address the fundamental quality of the human experience, which is a pretty big limitation.

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Paranormal Library
"Fear scares, doesn't it? It sure does." - George Noory

Exactly. That's what I was getting at, but you explained it way better then I would have lol

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I made a blog cause I was bored. http://hockeyfury.blogspot.com/

Also, what about the cases where they have NDE's and fly around the hospital room and can tell exactly what happened to them during their operation. Maybe another type of gas.

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When the mob governs, man is ruled by ignorance; when the church governs, he is ruled by superstition; and when the state governs, he is ruled by fear. http://countdowntoapocalypse.com/

Scientists sometimes find it more beneficial to their point to ignore certain aspects that don't fit with their hypothesis.

When I was 19 I took a psychology course and one of the assignments was to do a research paper on near-death experiences. I went into the project completely skeptical. In my mind there was nothing outside the realm of what science could prove. Life after death was a superstition. I came out of the project having my entire belief structure altered.

I believe in it !!!! We are more than just flesh and bone ! We have a soul !!!