Consciousness Beyond Life

As a cardiologist Pim van Lommel was struck by the number of his patients who claimed to have neardeath experiences as a result of their heart attacks. As a scientist this was difficult for him to accept Wouldnt it be scientifically irresponsible of him to ignore the evidence of these stories Faced with this dilemma van Lommel decided to design a research study to investigate the phenomenon under the controlled environment of a cluster of hospitals with a medically trained staff. For more than twenty years van Lommel systematically studied such neardeath experiences in a wide variety of hospital patients who survived a cardiac arrest. In 2001 he and his fellow researchers published his study on neardeath experiences in the renowned medical journal The Lancet. The article caused an international sensation as it was the first scientifically rigorous study of this phenomenon. Now available for the first time in English van Lommel offers an indepth presentation of his results and theories in this book that has already sold over 125000 copies in Europe. Van Lommel provides scientific evidence that the neardeath phenomenon is an authentic experience that cannot be attributed to imagination psychosis or oxygen deprivation. He further reveals that after such a profound experience most patients personalities undergo a permanent change. In van Lommels opinion the current views on the relationship between the brain and consciousness held by most physicians philosophers and psychologists are too narrow for a proper understanding of the phenomenon. In Consciousness Beyond Life van Lommel shows that our consciousness does not always coincide with brain functions and that remarkably and significantly consciousness can even be experienced separate from the body.