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Plain English Summary
What happens to your mind when your heart stops? This landmark four-year study — the largest of its kind — tracked over 2,000 cardiac arrest cases across 15 hospitals in the US, UK, and Austria to find out. Of the 140 survivors who could be interviewed, a surprising 46% reported some kind of mental experience during the time they were clinically dead. About 9% had what matched the classic definition of a near-death experience (think tunnels of light and life reviews), and 2% described full, vivid awareness — actually seeing and hearing the medical team working on them. The showstopper: one patient accurately described specific resuscitation details during a roughly three-minute window when their brain should have had zero function, and staff confirmed the account. That single verified case is a big deal in the debate over whether consciousness can exist independently of brain activity. The findings were compelling enough to launch an even larger follow-up study called AWARE II.
Research Notes
The largest prospective study of awareness during cardiac arrest, extending van Lommel et al. (2001) with more participants across three countries. Central to the NDE-consciousness survival debate, providing one verified case of awareness when brain function should have been absent. Led to the larger AWARE II follow-up study.
A four-year multicenter observational study across 15 US, UK, and Austrian hospitals examined the incidence and nature of cognitive experiences during cardiac arrest (CA). Of 2060 CA events, 140 survivors completed initial interviews and 101 completed detailed follow-ups using a three-stage quantitative and qualitative interview system. Results showed 46% had memories during CA with seven major cognitive themes, 9% had experiences compatible with NDEs on the Greyson Scale, and 2% described full awareness with explicit recall of seeing and hearing resuscitation events. One patient demonstrated verified conscious awareness for approximately 3 minutes during a period when cerebral function was not expected, accurately describing specific details confirmed by medical staff.
Links
Related Papers
Extends
- Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands — van Lommel, Pim (2001)
- Incidence and Correlates of Near-Death Experiences in a Cardiac Care Unit — Greyson, Bruce (2003)
- Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind: A Study of Apparent Eyeless Vision — Ring, Kenneth (1997)
Cited By
- Non-local Consciousness: A Concept Based on Scientific Research on Near-Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest — van Lommel, Pim (2013)
- The Central Clinical Relevance of Near-Death Experiences in Acute Care Contexts — Michael, Pascal (2025)
- The Mystical Experience and Its Neural Correlates — Woollacott, Marjorie (2020)
- Epistemological Implications of Near-Death Experiences and Other Non-Ordinary Mental Expressions: Moving Beyond the Concept of Altered State of Consciousness — Facco, Enrico (2015)
- Neuro-Functional Modeling of Near-Death Experiences in Contexts of Altered States of Consciousness — Romand, Raymond (2023)
Companion
- Consistency of Near-Death Experience Accounts over Two Decades: Are Reports Embellished over Time? — Greyson, Bruce (2007)
- Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories — Thonnard, Marie (2013)
- Explanation of Near-Death Experiences: A Systematic Analysis of Case Reports and Qualitative Research — Hashemi, Amirhossein (2023)
Also by these authors
More in Nde
Which Near-Death Experience Features Are Associated with Reduced Fear of Death?
Advancing the Evidence for Survival of Consciousness
The Near-Death Experience Content (NDE-C) scale: Development and psychometric validation
A systematic analysis of distressing near-death experience accounts
Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences
📋 Cite this paper
Parnia, Sam, Spearpoint, Ken, de Vos, Gabriele, Fenwick, Peter, Goldberg, Diana, Yang, Jie, Zhu, Jiawen, Baker, Katie, Killingback, Hayley, McLean, Paula, Wood, Melanie, Zafari, A. Maziar, Dickert, Neal, Beisteiner, Roland, Sterz, Fritz, Berger, Michael, Warlow, Celia, Bullock, Siobhan, Lovett, Salli, McPara, Russell Metcalfe Smith, Marti-Navarette, Sandra, Cushing, Pam, Wills, Paul, Harris, Kayla, Sutton, Jenny, Walmsley, Anthony, Deakin, Charles D, Little, Paul, Farber, Mark, Greyson, Bruce, Schoenfeld, Elinor R (2014). AWARE--AWAreness during REsuscitation--A prospective study. Resuscitation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2014.09.004
@article{parnia_2014_aware,
title = {AWARE--AWAreness during REsuscitation--A prospective study},
author = {Parnia, Sam and Spearpoint, Ken and de Vos, Gabriele and Fenwick, Peter and Goldberg, Diana and Yang, Jie and Zhu, Jiawen and Baker, Katie and Killingback, Hayley and McLean, Paula and Wood, Melanie and Zafari, A. Maziar and Dickert, Neal and Beisteiner, Roland and Sterz, Fritz and Berger, Michael and Warlow, Celia and Bullock, Siobhan and Lovett, Salli and McPara, Russell Metcalfe Smith and Marti-Navarette, Sandra and Cushing, Pam and Wills, Paul and Harris, Kayla and Sutton, Jenny and Walmsley, Anthony and Deakin, Charles D and Little, Paul and Farber, Mark and Greyson, Bruce and Schoenfeld, Elinor R},
year = {2014},
journal = {Resuscitation},
doi = {10.1016/j.resuscitation.2014.09.004},
}