Customer Reviews

What Happens When We Die?: A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This book should be read by anyone who expects to die sometime. Others have no need for it. We do not know when, or how, but no sane person denies the inevitability of their eventual demise. We are (probably) the only species to posses this bit of information about our collective future. Knowledge of death comes in bits and pieces when we are children. It undergoes a period of stout denial in adolescence and young adulthood, when we are well aware that others might die, but not necessarily us. For millennia governments have sent people in such a state of denial to fight to the death against other youth, from other countries, who are equally or more deluded that their own youngsters. Ever so slowly the idea of our own death makes an occasional appearance into our consciousness as young people, and then such appearances accelerate in frequency as we age, to the point that old people think about death on a daily, or even hourly, basis; and yet we know little about the process itself, and even less about what happens afterwards, if anything. This book does not have all the answers, but it certainly poses these questions very nicely.

Sam Parnia belongs to a group of physicians who have studied the reports made by patients after having been technically dead, but who have recovered and told takes of wondrous events that took place during that apparent period of no oxygen, no heartbeat, and no life: many patients report floating above the frantic medics who are trying to resuscitate them, they tell about conversations that happened while they we unconscious, and speak about experiencing a great calm as they float through a tunnel towards a marvelous light; they mention being greeted by long dead relatives, and then about being informed that it is not yet their time, that they must go back. They suddenly awake in a hospital bed, reluctant to tell about their adventures lest they be called crazy. These experiences were first studied methodically by Dr. Ray Moody, who published a book about them in the late 70's. Dr. Parnia acknowledges Dr. Moody's contributions, but takes his studies further; after all, medical technology has advanced dramatically since then, and at present there are machines that detect brain activities as a functions of oxygen usage or glucose consumption. Visualization of the brain, a rarity in the 70's, is commonplace with new computerized scanning devices.

Dr. Parnia is a modest but extremely well informed man, and his book contains both dramatic anecdotes of people in Near Death Experiences (NDE), and meticulous accounts of the anatomical and neurological changes that take place during the process of dying. As a good scientist he is neutral about the religious implications of possible continued existence following the physical death of the body; his interest is trying to study methodically the questions raised by NDE. Surely lack of nutrients and oxygen will result in the death of neurons and consequent brain damage. Yet he narrates the case of a young man was declared dead after a long period of resuscitation attempts by a hospital team. His brain and heart monitors showed flat lines, indicative of no activity and ultimately of death. He remained in this dead state for about fifteen minutes while the doctor wrote his chart notes in the nursing station; but unsure of the total number of vials of adrenaline that had been used, he returned to the man's room and found him to be slightly pinker than when he had left him. He called the resuscitation team back, and they managed to bring the patient to normal functions and to stabilize him. Surely, they all believed, this person would have suffered massive brain damage after such a long deprivation of brain oxygen; but on the contrary, when the man returned a week later to thank the staff he was fully recovered and not obviously damaged in any way.

The book is written in simple language that will not stump an averagely intelligent reader. It is free from intellectually insulting logical faults, such as those offered by religions. It loses one star for not having a unified bibliography, but rather offers its references on a chapter by chapter basis: an unnecessary (an uncomfortable for the reader) way of presenting source material in these days of computers. The substance of this book is important to all of us, and therefore WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE is highly recommended.

What Happens When We Die by SAM PARNIA, MD, is quite different from other books about near death experiences (NDE's.) Sam, as a young critical care doctor in Great Britain, decided to study cardiac arrest patients who survived, to learn if they had NDE's, or out of body experiences. He developed a strictly scientific study by which patients were asked simply if they remembered anything from the time they were in a coma. He compared results testing brain chemistry, brain waves, medications, and many other scientific conditions to see if there were any similarities which might induce the brain to create the experience. Convinced that there was no explainable cause for NDE's from these studies he delved more deeply than others writing about NDE's. This book not only cites various NDE's of patients who consistently found the light, benevolent beings, and a peaceful happy experience and returned to a life more benevolent, but the book also details his very thorough scientific studies from other approaches heretofore never considered. He has approached the question what happens when we die from the physiological aspects, the brain chemistry aspects, the patients' personal beliefs about death or religion, as well as considering it from scientific knowledge, quantum physics, psychology, and neuroscience. The book gets very technical in some chapters but gives easy to understand examples in non-medical terms. I found most fascinating that he considers the NDE's from the philosophical aspects of what do we consider real? And what is human consciousness? And where is the mind or consciousness located? His conclusions are fascinating, sticking to the scientific method, and proposing theories that may lead to future scientific discoveries that will forever alter our concepts of human life and science, just as discoveries by Newton, Galileo, Descartes, Einstein and others have changed mankind's knowledge forever. A really fascinating book and proposal for a larger study when it is funded in the future. He has concluded that human consciousness does travel outside the body and continues to exist when the brain is dead.This is a groundbreaking study into the nature of life and death

I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who has ever thought about the ultimate question of what happens when we die... Especially those who want answers based upon the objectivity of science.

Ever since he was a medical student, Parnia MD, PhD was fascinated by what it is that makes us all unique as individuals, in other words what is the relation between the mind and the brain? Later he was touched by the experience of seeing his patients' die and was left with the question of what happens to the human mind and consciousness at the end of life? Disappointed that science had not seriously tried to study this question, he developed a scientific model i.e. cardiac arrest and started research into this field. This was almost 10 years ago...

This book starts with a review of the subject based upon the literature. Although, this is generally where all other books on the subject stop, he however, goes further by describing how novel research was set up and taking us along with answers obtained from the first ever published scientific study to test the different theories of causation of near death experiences. Parnia's study which was published in the medical journal 'Resuscitaton' has been followed by three other independent studies carried out in the US and Holland and published in top journals such as 'The Lancet'. All these researchers including Parnia have concluded (rather significantly) that the occurrence of "lucid well structured thought processes together with reasoning and memory formation when the brain ceases functioning and the clinical criteria of death are met, suggest that the human mind and

consciousness may continue to function at the end of life...!" In this book Parnia then explains how this finding relates to the problem of human consciousness, brain function as well as modern physics.

I have read the other reviews on this site, in which some have been disappointed suggesting there is no study or only a small study in this book and I was frankly very surprised!!! Perhaps they did not read the book very thoroughly or perhaps they were looking for something that is not yet out there. As well as a review of the subject that is based on over one hundred published studies, there are also results from the four newly published scientific studies, including Parnia's own detailed above.

This is a great book and arguably the most complete book examining what happens when we die from a scientific angle. I would thoroughly recommend this to anyone with an interest in this area. Moreover it is an easy and enjoyable read and although in parts it is serious in others it is quite light hearted. I can't wait to get the results of the larger multi center study that he has now started...!

As a person who probably like many others has had to deal with the pain of seperation of a loved one, I too have faced the question of what happens when we die. This is a sad reality that comes to us all and so I found it refreshing that science has attempted to tackle this question.

I found Dr Parnia's book refreshing to read as it is highly informative, yet lighthearted and engaging. More importantly I was excited to see that at least scientific researchers have attempted to tackle the issue of the afterlife, which for so many years has been a taboo. I think there is still a long way to go but this book provides a great introduction. It summarizes and explains current scientfic thoughts regarding this subject. There is a comprehensive summary, based upon the medical literature on the subject of near death experiences at the begining of book. This then sets the tone for what is to follow, which is a mixture of real people's experiences including very young children as well as new and novel scientific research. This combination is very good as it provides a real understanding of what people experience when reaching the point of death and also means that the book is not bogged down with too much science. In the following chapters the rationale and need for further research is explained, as well as the results of Parnia's own small scientific study which tested the theories of causation of near death experiences. This study which seems to have been the first, found little evidence to support the view that these experiences are hallucinations brought on by lack of oxygen or use of drugs. What follows is a summary of other ground breaking research carried out by other notable researchers such as Professor Bruce Greyson and Dr Pim Van Lommel, the results of which in many ways complemented Parnia's own study. Astonishingly to me, Parnia's work was well received by the scientific community with publications and also many invited lectures at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, UCLA and Caltech.

The conclusion of the researchers including Parnia was that thought processes and consciousness may continue at the end of life when brain function has ceased. This creates a scientific dilemma, as it would mean that science would have to re-think its views on the relationship between the mind and brain. This is an area of scientific controversy that I knew very little about, but it is explained very well, and in simple and easy to understand terms in this book. There is also reference to the role of physics and in particular particle physics in understanding the nature of the human mind and consciousness and its relation with the brain.

Dr Parnia admits that there is need for further research and I am disappointed that this hasn't yet been done, however I applaud the fact that he and many others have been courageous enough to bring this to the attention of mainstream science, sometimes under very difficult professional circumstances and at great risk, I would imagine.

As a person who sits on the fence when it comes to near death experiences and other so called paranormal phenomena, I found that this book provided real understanding based upon current scientific research. I really enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to everyone who is interested to know what happens when we die.

I have seldom been so disappointed with a book, which was good enough to read all the way through. Much of the text has as much to do with near death experiences as the ribbon and wrapping paper have to do with the present inside. Much of the discussion is about (1) the author's training to become, a physician from M.D. through residency and Ph.D. with various job descriptions of the entailed steps, (2) experimental design for probing near death experience (rather than research findings!, more on this in a moment), and (3) the mostly futile quest for funding for this research. This book has been published prematurely. The first half, for instance, describes the author's attempt to design an experiment to test the validity of out-of-body experiences associated with cardiac arrest. He and a crew of friends hang from the hospital ceiling message boards whose messages can only be ascertained by a perceiver looking on from above, i.e., floating above the resuscitation attempt on that person's body. But the author reports in the book not one instance of these "messages" being viewed or, for that matter, not viewed! It is as if the first half of the book is a detailed description of an experiment being set up whose findings were completely inconclusive. What bothers me most is the hybridizing in approach to subject: joining the narrative techniques of fiction (i.e., the creating of suspense about the outcome of the experiment) with the prose techniques appropriate for a scientific article in a technical journal (i.e., dispassionate reporting of inconclusive results).

But, in fact, the book is overall an account of a weird set of circumstances of which the author himself appears unaware. He set out to design an experiment to probe near-death and particularly out-of-body experiences. The experiment came to naught, but a nurse unwittingly disclosed what was going on with the experiment to another nurse, and word of the experiment went the rumor mill of the hospital and eventually leaked to the press who persuaded the public relations person at the hospital to induce the author to interview. The resultant media coverage then triggered people who had had the experiences to write to the author. Their accounts are in fact the most interesting material in the book. He quotes them, and their prose is much more textured and nuanced than the dispassionate narrative voice of the text. So it was the experiment gone bad--i.e., its design was supposed to be kept from the hospital staff so that they could not affect or influence the accounts of would-be "out-of-bodiers"--that turned up the best evidence for or, at least, best probing of the near-death experience. The author seems unaware of the irony that the flaw in the experimental design led to the best material he has to report in this book. It is almost of if the author's consciousness has yet to grow into consonance with his material.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to die? Have you ever wondered about "near death experiences" or "out of body experiences"? Then this is book is for you.

Sam Parnia, MD, PhD in "What Happens When We Die" covers the history of near-death experiences (NDEs), the results of studies to date on NDEs, conventional and non-conventional theories on what causes NDEs, and implications for future research of NDEs, including his own on-going scientific study.

Near-death experiences are characterized by:

1. An experience of peace, well-being, and an absence of pain.

2. A sense of detachment from the physical body, progressing to and out-of-body experience.

3. Entering darkness, a tunnel experience with panoramic memory, and a predominately positive effect.

4. An experience of light that is bright, warm, and attractive

5. Entering the light; meeting persons or figures

At present, NDEs, and whether they are real of not, depends on the social group that is asked. If we question those people who have had an NDE, they mostly believe that it is real experience, whereas if a group of skeptics is asked, they will say they are not. We do know that a near-death experience has a profoundly religious impact on those who experience it, and many of them perform altruistic acts afterward.

Parnia concludes that at the very least, the dying process is a pleasant experience for the majority. He also concludes that the mind and consciousness may exist separately from the brain and also, during, and at least for some time, after death. This connection or lack thereof has significant implications for ethics, theology, and philosophy.

My father had a NDE several years before he died. I have had a deep interest in this subject ever since. "What Happens When We Die" integrates medicine, science, and first person stories to provide the best overview of the subject to date.

The subtitle is "A Groundbreaking Study into the Nature of Life and Death". The only study in the book is hardly groundbreaking because it yielded no useful results due to insufficient data. The author even admitted that. Then the author talks about another study involving out-of-body experiences, but can't do it because he has no funding, and that's where the research ends. The book is padded with anecdotal accounts of NDEs that the author received in the mail. That's hardly very scientific. There are terse rehashes of other scientists' work, but again it reads like a way to pad the book because the author has nothing new to add. In two different places, the concept of correlation was mentioned, and it was butchered both times. Don't waste your money if you're interested in science.

This has to be one of the most diappointing books I have read on this subject. Basically, it is a bunch of theories by other researchers that are tossed around in a disorganized fashion (peppered by some anecdotal accounts from people who have experienced NDE's, which was somewhat interesting.) There wasn't even a study completed due to lack of funding, so nothing was ever examined. Very misleading and really a waste of time.

The title of this book is "What happens when we die?: A groundbreaking study into the nature of life and death". Anyone who picks up this book and reads the title would think that this is a book about some sort of actual "study" that took place regarding death. Let me save you the suspense, it isn't. The author of this book, Dr. Sam Parnia, leaves you up in the air at the end of the book with more questions than you had before you started reading it in the first place. He starts off writing about people who have had near death experiences and have claimed to have left their body. He decides he wants to conduct experiments to see if that sort of thing actually happens. He goes on and on about the different things that he would need to do to prove that someone actually left their body when they died for a short time. Then he goes on for about a hundred pages on the functions of the brain and all the different things that go on in there, which is interesting, but not why I bought the book. He concludes with how he tried to get money for his research and will need addition funding in order to complete it. Then, nice guy that he is, decides to recap what's happened so far. That's it. There was no experiment conducted, no conclusions except to say that, of course, they need to do more research. No kidding??? Perhaps he should have actually done that before he decided to write a book about it? My opinion is that he wrote half a book and decided to title it with something that would draw people's curiosity and, unfortunately, their money.

I've read the book and was not impressed. Although there was great promise in the pretense of this book, the author never actually got around to conducting the 'large study' he talks about concerning NDEs and what happens when a person dies. He has some anecdotal stories to tell, but he never reports on any factual findings. All in all it was disappointing, and the authors writing style was amateurish and not very captivating. I would not recommend this to anyone.