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Pim van Lommel

4 papers in the library · 239 citations · publishing 2006-2025

Papers

Near‐death experiences: the experience of the self as real and not as an illusion

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences October 1, 2011 Pim van Lommel 124 citations

Near-death experiences (NDEs) in survivors of cardiac arrest are authentic phenomena that cannot be dismissed as imagination, fear of death, hallucination, psychosis, drug effects, or oxygen deficiency. Patients often undergo lasting changes after an NDE lasting only minutes during cardiac arrest. The experience includes clear and enhanced consciousness with memories, self-identity, cognition, and emotions during apparent coma. The prevailing materialistic view of consciousness as solely dependent on brain function is too limited to explain NDEs. Evidence suggests consciousness and a continuous sense of self can occur independently of a functioning brain, possibly as enhanced or nonlocal consciousness experienced apart from the lifeless body. People report that the self they encountered during an NDE feels real, not illusory.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06080.x

Near-Death Experience, Consciousness, and the Brain: A New Concept about the Continuity of Our Consciousness Based on Recent Scientific Research on Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest

World Futures January 1, 2006 Pim van Lommel 65 citations

Near-death experiences (NDEs) in cardiac arrest survivors cannot be explained by physiological, psychological, or pharmacological factors, according to a prospective study in the Netherlands. The article discusses general aspects of NDEs, questions about consciousness and its relation to brain function, and details from the 2001 Lancet study. It explains neurophysiology during cardiac arrest and in a normally functioning brain, and explores implications for consciousness studies, including how continuity of consciousness might be possible. The scientific study of NDEs challenges medical and neurophysiological ideas about the range of human consciousness and the mind-brain relationship.

DOI: 10.1080/02604020500412808

Near-death experience during cardiac arrest and consciousness beyond the brain: a narrative review.

International review of psychiatry (Abingdon, England) January 1, 2025 Bruno Angeli-Faez, Bruce Greyson, Pim van Lommel 3 citations

Near-death experiences (NDEs) during cardiac arrest likely occur when the patient is unresponsive and the brain is severely compromised, not in early arrest or after resuscitation. There is no evidence that cortical electrical activity recorded during dying or CPR is linked to NDEs; such recordings may be artifacts. Cardiac arrest halts blood flow to the brain, causing loss of cortical electrical activity within 10–30 seconds. During CPR, brain activity may remain absent or severely disturbed. Because NDEs appear at the moment the brain is severely compromised, this may support the idea that consciousness can persist beyond the brain.

DOI: 10.1080/09540261.2025.2503729 Full text Cardiac arrest Cortical electrical activity Unresponsiveness Near-death experiences +6