Non-local Consciousness: A Concept Based on Scientific Research on Near-Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest
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Plain English Summary
What happens when your heart stops and your brain flatlines, yet you report vivid experiences? Van Lommel explores this using four hospital studies, headlined by his Dutch study of 344 cardiac arrest survivors. About 18% reported near-death experiences featuring out-of-body sensations, tunnels, life reviews, and meeting deceased relatives. The wild part: the brain goes electrically dark within 15 seconds of cardiac arrest, and CPR restores only a fraction of normal blood flow -- far too little for consciousness. No medical or psychological factor predicted who'd have an NDE. Years later, these experiences had permanently transformed people's lives. Van Lommel's bold proposal: the brain doesn't produce consciousness but acts like a radio receiver. Critics call this untestable, but the data remain hard to explain.
Actual Paper Abstract
In this article a concept of non-local consciousness will be described, based on recent scientific research on near-death experiences (NDEs). Since the publication of several prospective studies on NDEs in survivors of cardiac arrest, with strikingly similar results and conclusions, the phenomenon of the NDE can no longer be scientifically ignored. In the last thirty years several theories have been proposed to explain an NDE. The challenge to find a common explanation for the cause and content of an NDE is complicated by the fact that an NDE can be experienced during various circumstances, such as severe injury of the brain as in cardiac arrest to conditions when the brain seems to function normally. The NDE is an authentic experience which cannot be simply reduced to imagination, fear of death, hallucination, psychosis, the use of drugs, or oxygen deficiency. Patients appear to be permanently changed by an NDE during a cardiac arrest of only some minutes duration. According to these aforementioned studies, the current materialistic view of the relationship between consciousness and the brain as held by most physicians, philosophers, and psychologists is too restricted for a proper understanding of this phenomenon. There are good reasons to assume that our consciousness does not always coincide with the functioning of our brain: enhanced or non-local consciousness can sometimes be experienced separately from the body.
Research Notes
Van Lommel's most comprehensive theoretical statement, central to Controversy #7 (NDEs and consciousness survival). Synthesizes his landmark Lancet prospective study with neurophysiological evidence to argue that enhanced consciousness during cardiac arrest challenges the materialist paradigm. The non-local consciousness model is influential but criticized as unfalsifiable. Published in JCS 20(1–2), a special issue on NDEs.
Reviews four prospective NDE studies in cardiac arrest survivors, primarily the Dutch study (344 patients, 10 hospitals, 1988–1992), where 18% reported NDEs including OBE (24%), tunnel (30%), life review (13%), and meeting deceased relatives (30%). Three other prospective studies (Greyson 2003, Parnia et al. 2001, Sartori 2006) found 11–23% NDE incidence with similar conclusions. No physiological, psychological, or pharmacological variable predicted NDE occurrence. EEG flatlines within 15 seconds of cardiac arrest; CPR provides only 5–10% of normal cerebral blood flow, insufficient for conscious experience. Longitudinal follow-up at 2 and 8 years showed lasting life transformation in NDE experiencers vs. controls. Proposes a non-local consciousness model in which the brain functions as a transceiver rather than a producer of consciousness.
Related Papers
Extends
- Near-Death Experience in Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Prospective Study in the Netherlands — van Lommel, Pim (2001)
- 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 — van Lommel, Pim (2006)
Cites
Companion
- AWARE--AWAreness during REsuscitation--A prospective study — Parnia, Sam (2014)
- Near death experiences: a multidisciplinary hypothesis — Bókkon, István (2013)
- Explanation of Near-Death Experiences: A Systematic Analysis of Case Reports and Qualitative Research — Hashemi, Amirhossein (2023)
- The Mystical Experience and Its Neural Correlates — Woollacott, Marjorie (2020)
- DMT Models the Near-Death Experience — Timmermann, Christopher (2018)
- 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)
- Near-Death Experiences Between Science and Prejudice — Facco, Enrico (2012)
- Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blind: A Study of Apparent Eyeless Vision — Ring, Kenneth (1997)
Same Research Program
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📋 Cite this paper
van Lommel, Pim (2013). Non-local Consciousness: A Concept Based on Scientific Research on Near-Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest. Journal of Consciousness Studies.
@article{van_lommel_2013_nonlocal_consciousness,
title = {Non-local Consciousness: A Concept Based on Scientific Research on Near-Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest},
author = {van Lommel, Pim},
year = {2013},
journal = {Journal of Consciousness Studies},
}