The Human Consciousness Project is a professional organization, located at the
University of Southampton
, mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour
, type = Public research university
, established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...
, set up to study the nature of consciousness, the human brain and clinical death.
[ Palchik, G. Conference Report: The Nour Foundation Georgetown University & Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University Symposium Series Technology, Neuroscience & the Nature of Being: Considerations of Meaning, Morality and Transcendence Part I: The Paradox of Neurotechnology, 8 May 2009. ''Philos Ethics Humanit Med'' 4, 9 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-5341-4-9][ University of Southampton. "World's Largest-ever Study Of Near-Death Experiences." ScienceDaily, 10 September 2008. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080910090829.htm. Accessed 19 June, 2022] The project is multidisciplinary
[United Nations. Press conference on opening of UN/NGO Symposioum 'Beyond the Mind-Body Problem': New Paradigms in the Science of Consciousness, 11 september 2008. https://www.un.org/press/en/2008/080911_NGOSymposium.doc.htm] and involves scientists and physicians worldwide.
Sam Parnia
Sam Parnia is a British associate professor of Medicine at the NYU Langone Medical Center where he is also director of research into cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In the United Kingdom, he is director of the Human Consciousness Project at the Un ...
serves as director of the project.
History
The organization was founded by Sam Parnia.
[ Sam Parnia. Writers Directory. 2018, June 15.] In 2008 the project announced that it was undertaking a collaboration with 25 medical centers across Europe and America in preparation for a study called AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation). More than 1000 cardiac arrest survivors were recruited for the study.
[Holden, Constance. Random Samples: Probing Near-Death. ''Science'', Vol 321, sept. 2008 https://www.jstor.org/stable/20144858 ][Stephey, M.J. What Happens When We Die? ''TIME magazine'', Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008]
www.time.com
retrieved January 2, 2023[Agrillo, Christian. Near-Death Experience: Out-of-Body and Out-of-Brain? ''Review of General Psychology'', 2011, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1–10][Bókkon, István; Mallick, Birendra N.; Tuszynski, Jack. Near death experiences: a multidisciplinary hypothesis. ''Frontiers in Human Neuroscience'', September 2013, Volume7, Article 533 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2013.00533] The study was to introduce a multi-disciplinary perspective, cerebral monitoring techniques, and innovative tests.
Among the innovative research designs was the placement of images in resuscitation areas. The images were placed on shelves below the ceiling and could only be seen from above. The design was constructed in order to verify the possibility of out-of-body experiences.
[Weintraub, Pamela. Seeing the light. ''Psychology Today'', September 02, 2014]
www.psychologytoday.com
retrieved January 3, 2023[Orlando, A. (2021). Death Defying. ''Discover'', 42(6), 50–58.]
AWARE-study
The first results from the AWARE-study were published in the medical journal
Resuscitation
Resuscitation is the process of correcting physiological disorders (such as lack of breathing or heartbeat) in an acutely ill patient. It is an important part of intensive care medicine, anesthesiology, trauma surgery and emergency medicine. W ...
in 2014,
[Parnia S, et al. AWARE—AWAreness during REsuscitation—A prospective study. ''Resuscitation'', Vol. 85, Issue 12, P 1799-1805, December 01, 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2014.09.004] and attracted the attention of the media.
[Engmann, Birk. Does research on near-death experiences fulfil the quality criteria of medical studies? ''Advanced Studies in Medical Sciences'', Vol. 8, 2020, no. 1, 1 –7] The study was led by Parnia together with
Peter Fenwick,
Stephen Holgate
Stephen Holgate (15 December 1971 – 16 November 2021) was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played at representative level for England and Cumbria, and at club level for Hensingham ARLFC (i ...
and Robert Peveler.
The article was a multi-author text.
The authors reported that 101 out of 140 patients completed stage 2 interviews. They found that 9 out of 101 cardiac arrest survivors had experiences that could be classified as near-death experiences. 46% could retrieve memories from their cardiac arrest, and the memories could be subdivided into the following categories: fear; animals/plants; bright light; violence/persecution; deja-vu; family; recalling events post-CA. Of these 46%, 2% fulfilled the criteria of the
Greyson NDE scale and reported an out-of-body experience with awareness of the resuscitation situation. Of these, 1 person described details related to technical resuscitation equipment. None of the patients reported seeing the test design with upward facing images.
[Olvera-Lopeza, Edgardo & Varona, Joseph. Editorial: “AWAREness during CPR: Be careful with what you say!” ''Resuscitation'' 85 (2014) A5–A6, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2014.09.023][Robb, Alice. The Scientists Studying Life After Death Are Not Total Frauds. ''The New Republic'', October 8, 2014]
www.newrepublic.com
retrieved January 3, 2023[Tassell-Matamua, Natasha A. & Lindsay, Nicole (2016) “I’m not afraid to die”: the loss of the fear of death after a near-death experience, ''Mortality'', 21:1, 71-87, DOI: 10.1080/13576275.2015.1043252][Rice, DT, Nudell, NG, Habrat, DA, Smith, JE and Ernest, EV. CPR induced consciousness: sedation protocols for this special population. ''British Paramedic Journal'' 2016, vol. 1(2) 24–29][Lichfield, Gideon. The Science of Near-Death Experiences. Empirically investigating brushes with the afterlife. ''The Atlantic'', April 2015]
www.theatlantic.com
retrieved January 9, 2023
AWARE II
A follow-up study, the AWARE II, is currently being conducted,
[Orlando, A. (2021). Death Defying. ''Discover'', 42(6), 50–58.] and results have started to appear.
[ Parnia et al. Awareness and Cognitive Activity During Cardiac Arrest. ''Circulation'', Vol. 140, No. Suppl 2, 19 November 2019 https://doi.org/10.1161/circ.140.suppl_2.387]
References
{{Reflist, 30em
Organizations established in 2008