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

Out-of-Body Experience Recreated

Near-death events have triggered out-of-body experiences Experts have found a way to trigger an out-of-body experience in volunteers. The experiments, described in the Science journal, offer a scientific explanation for a phenomenon experienced by one in 10 people. Two teams used virtual reality goggles to con the brain into thinking the body was located elsewhere. The visual illusion plus the feel of their real bodies being touched made volunteers sense that they had moved outside of their physical bodies. The researchers say their findings could have practical applications, such as helping take video games to the next level of virtuality so the players feel as if they are actually inside the game. Clinically, surgeons might also be able to perform operations on patients thousands of miles away by controlling a robotic virtual self. Teleported For some, out-of-body experiences or OBEs occurs spontaneously, while for others it is linked to dangerous circumstances, a near-death experience, a dream-like state or use of alcohol or drugs. We feel that our self is located where the eyes are UCL researcher Dr Henrik Ehrsson One theory is that it is down to how people perceive their own body - those unhappy or less in touch with their body are more likely to have an OBE. But the two teams, from University College London, UK, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, believe there is a neurological explanation. Their work suggests a disconnection between the brain circuits that process visual and touch sensory information may thus be responsible for some OBEs. In the Swiss experiments, the researchers asked volunteers to stand in front of a camera while wearing video-display goggles. Through these goggles, the volunteers could see a camera view of their own back - a three-dimensional "virtual own body" that appeared to be standing in front of them. When the researchers stroked the back of the volunteer with a pen, the volunteer could see their virtual back being stroked either simultaneously or with a time lag. The volunteers reported that the sensation seemed to be caused by the pen on their virtual back, rather than their real back, making them feel as if the virtual body was their own rather than a hologram. Volunteers Even when the camera was switched to film the back of a mannequin being stroked rather than their own back, the volunteers still reported feeling as if the virtual mannequin body was their own. And when the researchers switched off the goggles, guided the volunteers back a few paces, and then asked them to walk back to where they had been standing, the volunteers overshot the target, returning nearer to the position of their "virtual self". Dr Henrik Ehrsson, who led the UCL research, used a similar set-up in his tests and found volunteers had a physiological response - increased skin sweating - when they felt their virtual self was being threatened - appearing to be hit with a hammer. Dr Ehrsson said: "This experiment suggests that the first-person visual perspective is critically important for the in-body experience. In other words, we feel that our self is located where the eyes are." Dr Susan Blackmore, psychologist and visiting lecturer at the University of the West of England, said: "This has at last brought OBEs into the lab and tested one of the main theories of how they occur. "Scientists have long suspected that the clue to these extraordinary, and sometimes life-changing, experiences lies in disrupting our normal illusion of being a self behind our eyes, and replacing it with a new viewpoint from above or behind." Ref the BBC News/Health/ August 2007 Blogger Reference Link  http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science