Near-death experience is something other than hallucination, study finds

What happens during near-death experiences is different from a hallucination, scientists have said.

People have reported having a profound psychological or spiritual experience during a close brush with death - including meeting dead family members, feeling time slow down, or experiencing vivid sensations.

New research has shed light on what could - and could not - be behind this altered state of consciousness.

A team of scientists from US and UK universities have looked at a range of studies and evidence on near-death experiences to advise on this topic of research.

They concluded that what happens is different from hallucinations, illusions, and experiences from psychedelic drug use, all of which it has previously been compared to.

Instead, the scientists said near-death experiences followed a specific narrative arc, which they described as experiencing:

Studies have found gamma activity and electrical spikes in the brains of those who have had close brushes with death, which is a sign of a heightened state of consciousness, according to the team of scientists.

Sam Parnia, from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, who led the research, said: “What has enabled the scientific study of death is that brain cells do not become irreversibly damaged within minutes of oxygen deprivation when the heart stops.

“Instead, they ‘die’ over hours of time. This is allowing scientists to objectively study the physiological and mental events that occur in relation to death.”

In “Guidelines and Standards for the Study of Death and Recalled Experiences of Death”, the researchers also said that near-death experiences can result in a long-term positive psychological shift.

They also estimated that this change in conciousness surrounding death had been experienced by hundreds of millions around the world, in their research published in the scientific journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

One study in 2019 estimated that one in 10 people had had a near-death experience, listing events such as drowning, physical assault and childbirth among the situations that had triggered these experiences. Most of those who reported “true” near-death experiences, as determined on a scale, said the experience had been positive.

The most common experiences reported in the Danish study were a feeling of time slowing down, exceptionally fast thoughts, and senses becoming more vivid.

Earlier this year, a landmark study involving brain scans on a dying patient found activity that suggested a final “recall of life”.