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Near Death Experiences & Brainstem

Near Death Experience-Types

Anesthesia

Pam Reynolds

Cardiac Arrest and Pim van Lommel

Light Experience

Seeing Angels

Tunnel Experience

The Blind Can See

Consciousness and Near Death Experiences

© G.M. Woerlee

Near death experiences are wondrous experiences reported by some of those who have recovered from apparent death, or who were near to death. They are truly wondrous experiences. But even though those undergoing near death experiences may appear unconscious to opbservers, they must be conscious, because people must be conscious in order to have conscious experiences such as near death experiences. After all, an unconscious person is just that - unconscious, unable to hear,unable to see, unable to perceive or to experience anything in a conscious manner. This is why the near death experience is a conscious experience.

So even if a person does not move, or even cannot move, is totally unresponsive to speech, does not react to pain, or does not breathe - they may still be conscious and able to perceive all about them. This is the condition in which many people found themselves while undergoing a near death experience - conscious, while not breathing, with no heartbeat, unmoving, and unresponsive - yet not dead. And this is why the statement of Richard Blacher remains as true today as when written in 1980 (1).

However, when a patient hears a physician say that he is dead, we have good reason to find suspect the accuracy of such a diagnosis.

Consciousness is a unique and wondrous property of the mind manifested by the body. Much has been written and philiosphized over the nature of consciousness. The exact nature nature of consciousness, what consciousness is and means, is a fantastically difficult subject. Luckily it is not necessary to know the nature of consciouisness in order to learn more about near death experiences. All people know when consciousness is present and when it is not. For example you can look at a person who is alert and awake next to you - you know that person is conscious. Imagine that the same person is suddenly knocked down by a falling brick or anesthetic drugs - the person falls down - unmoving, unspeaking, unreactive - and very unconscious. So even though the exact nature of consciousness is a complex matter, the differentiation between consciousness and unconsciousness in such situations is evident to all people.

More than fifty years of intensive human and animal research reveal that brain mechanisms are required for consciousness to manifest, and that the upper brainstem must function normally, or reasonably normally, in order for the physical body to manifest consciousness (see reference 2, chapter 2).

• All drugs, and all medicines causing loss of consciousness do so by causing malfunction of the brainstem, or cessation of brainstem nervous activity. Yet apparently unconscious people undergoing near death experiences while under influence of such drugs are still undergoing conscious experiences, because such experiences can only occur during consciousness, albeit a consciousness influenced by these drugs at concentrations insufficient to cause unconsciousness.
• All injuries causing loss of consciousness cause malfunction of the brainstem, or cessation of brainstem nervous activity. Yet apparently unconscious people undergoing near death experiences while under influence of such injuries are still undergoing conscious experiences, because such experiences can only occur during consciousness, albeit a consciousness influenced by the effects of the injuries sustained by these unfortunate people.
• Oxygen starvation, excess carbon dioxide, anesthetic gases all cause loss of consciousness by inducing malfunction of the brainstem, or cessation of brainstem nervous activity. Yet apparently unconscious people undergoing near death experiences while under influence of olxygen sdtarvation are still undergoing conscious experiences, because such experiences can only occur during consciousness, albeit a consciousness influenced by oxygen starvation at a degree sufficient to cause paralysis of voluntary muscles, but not loss of consciousness.

Continuing further on the topic of the fundamental cause of loss of consciousness - it does not matter what the cause of the loss of consciousness is - all drugs, toxing, injuries, or other factors cause loss of consciousness by inducing malfunction of the brainstem, or cessation of brainstem nervous activity.

Anesthesia in all its' several forms provides several wonderful illustrations of the fact that the mind must use the mechanisms of the body to manifest the functioning of the mind. One example is the induction of general anesthesia with the drug Thiopental, a drug commonly used to induce unconsciousness at the beginning of anesthesia. I do this many times each working week. I inject a sufficiently large dose of Thiopental into a vein on the back of a hand, or on the arm of the person to be anesthetized. About 20 to 45 seconds later, that person is unconscious and no longer breathes. Thiopental causes unconsciousness and cessation of breathing by suppressing nervous activity in the brainstem. Some people say to me, "It's hard to believe that I will lose consciousness in a few seconds, so I'm going to stay awake." These people try their best to stay awake, but the Thiopental always wins, causing them to lose consciousness and stop breathing (see reference 2, chapter 6).

• To people who believe the mind is something separate from the gross physical matter of the body, this is a wonderful example of the fact that the mind must use the functioning mechanisms of the body, such as the normally functioning brainstem, to express that property of mind known as consciousness.
• To people who believe that mind is a manifestation of the functioning of the brain, and that consciousness is a manifestation of the functioning of the brainstem, this illustrates that failure of brainstem functioning causes loss of consciousness.

So consciousness requires a functioning brainstem. This is the relationship of consciousness to the body. And this relationship means that two things are evident for people who report undergoing near death experiences:

1. People undergoing near death experiences are undergoing conscious experiences. Regardless of how wondrous the form of consciousness, one fact is absolutely certain - people undergoing near death experiences are undergoing conscious experiences.
2. Furthermore, regardless of whether people have souls, or whether people have no souls - the brainstems of people reporting near death experiences must have been in a functional condition capable of sustaining consciousness at the time of undergoing these near death experiences, otherwise they would not have been conscious at that time.

References:

1. Blacher R, Letter, Journal of the American Medical Association (1980) 244: 30.
2. Mortal Minds, by G.M. Woerlee.