Scientific Evidence for Near-Death Experiences
What happens when we die? For centuries, this has been one of humanity’s most haunting questions. Philosophers debated it. Religions described it. And skeptics dismissed it as unknowable.
Yet now, in a surprising twist, science is beginning to peer through the doorway. Modern studies are capturing brain activity and personal accounts from patients who were clinically dead—sometimes for minutes or longer. The results are deeply unsettling for those who believe death is simply “lights out.”
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). For believers, these words offer hope. But for many, such claims have felt impossible to verify—until recently.
Over the last ten years, studies like AWARE II have brought new evidence into the conversation. Near-death experiences (NDEs) are no longer just personal testimonies whispered in hospital rooms. They are data points, recorded by EEG machines, documented by medical teams, and increasingly hard to ignore.
This isn’t about speculation anymore. This is about evidence.
AWARE II: When Science Met the Edge of Life
Between 2017 and 2020, Dr. Sam Parnia led one of the most ambitious studies on NDEs ever conducted. Known as AWARE II, the study involved 25 hospitals across the U.S. and U.K. and included 567 cardiac-arrest patients. Eighty-five of these patients were fitted with EEG brain monitors and cerebral oximetry during resuscitation. Twenty-eight survivors were later interviewed using validated NDE scales.
The findings were profound. Six survivors described vivid and structured experiences during periods when they were clinically dead. One patient even recalled a specific word played through headphones during CPR—a time when their EEG readings showed minimal to no activity. Additionally, brainwave patterns, including delta, theta, and alpha waves, continued up to 60 minutes after clinical death was declared.
For the first time in medical history, we had simultaneous brain data and patient testimonies from the edge of life.
The Banana Story: A Veridical Perception That Defied Logic
As part of AWARE II, researchers ran a unique test for out-of-body perception. A monitor placed high above the patients’ heads displayed random images—a red apple, a green pear, or a yellow banana—during resuscitation. The screen was invisible from the patient’s position on the bed.
After being revived, one woman described watching her resuscitation from above. “I saw them working. And there was a yellow fruit—like a banana—on a screen above me,” she said.
When the team checked the logs, the screen had indeed displayed a banana during her arrest. She had no physical way of seeing it. She had been unconscious. And yet she reported it accurately.
Skeptics call this coincidence or confabulation, but the specificity of her observation—and the fact that it matched an unspoken, unseen visual detail—makes it one of the most compelling NDE cases in recent years.
Real Memories from the Flatline
AWARE II wasn’t the only source of striking accounts. In the original AWARE study (2014), a man who flatlined recalled hearing a machine clicking at regular intervals during his resuscitation. He described the sound as a “mechanical beep” that occurred every few minutes. Later, medical staff confirmed a defibrillator made precisely that sound—three times per minute—during his CPR.
In another case from AWARE II, a woman noticed a nurse’s distinctive socks. “They had pink flamingos on them,” she recalled. Shown multiple pairs later, she immediately picked the flamingo socks. At the time she saw them, her heart had stopped.
These aren’t fuzzy memories or general impressions. They’re specific, verifiable details.
Gamma Fireworks in the Dying Brain
The past decade also brought surprising findings about brain activity at death.
In 2023, University of Michigan researchers recorded gamma wave surges in two of four patients after ventilator support was removed. Gamma waves are associated with memory, sensory processing, and higher-level consciousness.
That same year, a PNAS paper documented a 30-second burst of synchronized gamma activity during cardiac arrest, suggesting a brief but connected brain state.
In 2025, an elderly epileptic patient’s EEG showed “life-review” wave patterns starting 30 seconds before and continuing 30 seconds after death. This echoed countless NDE reports of reliving memories in vivid detail.
Dr. Stuart Hameroff’s study of seven terminal patients found nearly half exhibited gamma synchrony for up to 90 seconds post-flatline. Hameroff suggested this could represent consciousness detaching from the body—a statement that drew both fascination and criticism.
Why Skeptical Explanations Fall Short
Skeptics often attribute NDEs to hypoxia, anesthesia awareness, or the brain’s “dying gasp.” But these explanations have major flaws.
Hypoxia-induced hallucinations don’t account for patients accurately describing specific events or objects they couldn’t see. Anesthesia awareness happens during surgery, not when there’s flat EEG activity. And while gamma surges are intriguing, random neural firing doesn’t explain structured, vivid, and often veridical memories.
As Dr. Parnia notes, “When the brain is severely impaired or nonfunctional, these reports shouldn’t be possible—yet they are.”
What Patients Say
“I was floating above my body. I heard them say, ‘shock.’ I saw the nurse’s face clearly.”
“There was a calm hush, almost like pressing pause. My life unfolded like a movie reel.”
“It was strange. I saw my feet and the socks of someone helping me—pink, with birds on them. Flamingos.”
“I saw them working. And on a screen high above, a yellow fruit appeared. A banana.”
The Road Ahead
AWARE III is already underway. It aims to refine testing methods and gather even more EEG data during resuscitation. Researchers are asking: Could these experiences be brain-based phenomena? Or do they point to something beyond the physical?
The answers may redefine how we think about life, death, and consciousness.
Final Thoughts
In just ten years, near-death research has gone from whispers in hospital hallways to data-backed science. Doctors have recorded EEGs during CPR. Dying brains have shown organized gamma surges. Patients have reported precise details from periods when they were clinically dead.
Perhaps death is not the silence we feared, but the threshold of a reality science is only beginning to glimpse.
As Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminds us, “He has set eternity in the human heart.” Maybe, deep down, we’ve always known. And maybe these scientific glimpses are hints of a Creator whispering, “This is not the end.”
References
- AWARE II Study – Resuscitation Journal (2023)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37423492/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300957223002162 - NYU Langone – Patients Recall Death Experiences After Cardiac Arrest
https://nyulangone.org/news/patients-recall-death-experiences-after-cardiac-arrest - Michigan Medicine – Evidence of Conscious-Like Activity in the Dying Brain (2023)
https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/evidence-conscious-activity-dying-brain - PNAS (2023) – Surge of Neurophysiological Coupling and Gamma Oscillations
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2216268120
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10235956/ - Borjigin Lab – Bursts of Brain Activity: A Rare Look At Dying Brains (2023)
https://borjigin.lab.medicine.umich.edu/news/2023-near-death-consciousness/bursts-of-brain-activity-a-rare-look-at-dying-brains-could-finally-explain - ScienceDaily – Evidence of Conscious-Like Activity in the Dying Brain (2023)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230501163628.htm - Freethink – CPR Patients Recall Near-Death Experiences (2023)
https://www.freethink.com/science/cpr-near-death-experiences - The Guardian – The New Science of Death: ‘There’s Something Happening in the Brain’ (2024)
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/02/new-science-of-death-brain-activity-consciousness-near-death-experience - New York Post – Spike in End-of-Life Brain Activity Could Be Evidence of ‘Soul’ Leaving the Body (2025)
https://nypost.com/2025/02/19/lifestyle/spike-in-end-of-life-brain-activity-could-be-evidence-of-the-soul-leaving-the-body-expert-says/ - Singularity Hub – A Mysterious Surge of Brain Activity During Death (2023)
https://singularityhub.com/2023/05/09/a-surge-of-brain-activity-during-death-probes-the-edges-of-consciousness/
Tom's Theology Blog 
Leave a reply to Between Body and Elsewhere: How 2025 Is Rewriting What We Think We Know About Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences – Paranormal Country Cancel reply