Nurse writes book on near-death

Penny Sartori said some people recalled meeting dead relatives An intensive care nurse from Swansea has published an academic book about near death experiences following 10 years of research. Penny Sartori, who works at Singleton and Morriston Hospitals in Swansea, has 15 accounts, mainly from heart attack patients, of near-death experiences. They include out-of-body occurrences, reports of a tunnel leading to a bright light and meeting dead loved ones. The book, costing £85, is intended for academic study and college libraries. Ms Sartori decided to launch her formal study in 1998 after working closely with critically-ill patients throughout the 1990s and discovering there was very little reference data available for nurses and other healthcare workers. She spent five years compiling the study, three years writing it up and two years preparing it for publication. The book is called Near Death Experiences of Hospitalized Intensive Care Patients, a Five Year Clinical Study. She found that people who went through out-of-body experiences floated above themselves and were able to accurately recount what had happened in the room even though they were unconscious and their eyes were closed. "People also reported travelling down a tunnel towards a bright light," she said. "Some reported meeting a figure who told them their time had not yet come, and others said they met dead relatives and communicated with them by telepathy." Some patients reported having their entire lives flash by them in an instant Penny Sartori In another case a patient reported encountering a dead relative who gave a message to pass on to another member of the family who was still alive. Ms Sartori said the information had stunned the receiver because it had been a secret and it was impossible the patient had prior knowledge of it. Near-death experiences were typically often explained away as the effect of endorphins, abnormal blood gases or low oxygen levels, she said. However, the study measured these and took them into account when researching the patients' reports. "All the current sceptical arguments against near-death experiences were not supported by the research," she said. In one case a critically-ill patient, who also had cerebral palsy, awoke from a near-death experience able to use his right arm normally, even though it had been bent and contracted since birth. "It shouldn't have been possible without an operation to release his tendons, but he could open his arm freely," said Ms Sartori. Some patients reported floating back into their bodies after nearly dying, and for others it was a sudden snap back. "Some patients reported having their entire lives flash by them in an instant," she said. Private theory While she found 15 patients reporting near-death experiences, Ms Sartori believes it could be more common but that some patients' ability to recall the event fails shortly after they pass the critical episode and regain consciousness, like a dreamer forgets a dream. She now intends to continue her research into the phenomenon and is developing a private theory, not included in her book, about what could be happening to these patients. "I don't think it's quite as simple as life after death," she said. "It's what consciousness is and how we define it. We are entering an exciting time researching consciousness. "Current science says it is a by-product of the brain. But it may be that consciousness is around us and the brain might be a mediator, an antenna, instead of controlling consciousness. "It is a fascinating subject and I'm looking forward to continuing my research," she added. Link Source BBC, Wales, 2008 Blogger link   http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science

CNERIC Research in France

21MAY  1213 blog article from Dr Penny Sartori

At the beginning of May, Sonia Barkallah from S17 Productions in France came to visit me along with Corinne Musitelli who is her translator. We discussed ways of working together which I am very excited about. I have a lot to report so I will put a few postings in the coming weeks about my future work with Sonia. I will and also give more details about Sonia’s excellent DVD called Untimely Departure, keep following the blog for more details of this.

Sonia brought a short DVD recording of the CNERIC research protocol which has been conducted in France by Dr Jean-Pierre Postel. I was previously unaware of this research so I thought I’d mention it to the followers of the blog.

The Protocol

An IPAD is placed in a sealed box (there is a small hole big enough for the electric cable to plug in the IPAD). No one can see inside the box and, once sealed, hologram stickers are placed over the sides to ensure that the box is not tampered with thus preventing the possibility of fraud. The box is gift wrapped and the IPAD is plugged into the mains power supply.

Secret messages generated randomly from a database appear on the screen of the IPAD. These messages are displayed for an hour. The message is then deleted and replaced with another message and this is repeated every hour until the experiment is completed. The messages along with the time and date they were displayed are all logged and retrieved from a desktop computer.

All medical and nursing staff present at the time of any resuscitation are asked to complete a questionnaire in order to verify if the report of the NDE / OBE is correct.

The reason that the IPAD is in a sealed box if because, approximately 3 years ago, Dr Jean-Pierre Jourdan, who is president of IANDS, France, encountered a patient in his care who reported an OBE / NDE. The patient reported actually being inside the machine that was at his bedside. The patient believed that he was able to see inside the machine and described the different electrical components he could see from inside.

According to Sonia, computer scientist Remi Andre had the idea for this research protocol.

In previously documented cases of NDEs / OBEs some people have described seeing by transparency. Apparently, it has been reported that approximately 18% of people who had OBEs had reported being able to see through objects in their line of vision (however, I am unsure as to who published this report). This was reported by Patient 10 in my study – he believed that he was higher then the ceiling and it’s as if the ceiling had disappeared. So it is good to see this research exploring another aspect of the OBE.

This research has already been conducted by Dr Postel in one small hospital, with only one resuscitation room. Unfortunately, the research was brought to a premature end as hospital staff were concerned from a health and safety perspective that leaving the IPAD plugged in continuously could have been a fire hazard. There was also a question of funding and more money is needed to proceed with the research and continue with it in more hospitals. There has been no publication from this study so far.

Having looked at the protocol in more depth I was very impressed and believe it is probably the most thorough protocol that I have seen so far. Most importantly, it has taken into account previous research and it has built on the previous prospective studies and made improvements. I particularly like the way the box is sealed and hologram stickers are in place to prevent fraud. It has come a long way from the A4 laminated symbols that were hidden behind cardboard ridges on tops of the cardiac monitors that I used in my research! This is one of the great things about our technological advances, this technology allows the messages to randomly change every hour and no one has to spend lots of time and energy climbing up on ladders to damp dust the hidden images then rotating the images to different monitors every week!

I’m sure there will be further technological advancements that would overcome the issue with keeping the IPAD being plugged in. Let’s hope there is more funding to continue this very important research.

Penny Sartori was a nurse for 17 years in the Intensive Therapy Unit of a major hospital. Early in her career, a connection she made with a dying patient totally changed her life. After undertaking a five year research project into near-death experiences, Penny was awarded a PhD and has written, lectured and broadcast widely, and is now one of the UK's foremost experts on the subject of NDEs.

https://drpennysartori.wordpress.com/about/