Step into the Light: Have Scientists found Evidence for Life after Death?

Step into the light... Image source: The Independent

The largest study of its kind may have found evidence that consciousness can survive death. A paper published in Resuscitation has concluded that consciousness may be able to linger in dead patients, with "2% (of cardiac arrest survivors) exhibiting full awareness." The report, based on a four year observational study of 2,060 cardiac arrest events, suggests that "this supports other recent studies that have indicated consciousness may be present despite clinically undetectable consciousness."

The report stated that the surviving "2% described awareness with explicit recall of 'seeing' and 'hearing' actual events related to their resuscitation. One had a verifiable period of conscious awareness during which time cerebral function was not expected."

Dr Sam Parnia, who led the study, explained that particular case to The Telegraph:

"We know the brain can't function when the heart has stopped beating. But in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn't beating, even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart has stopped.

"The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at three minute intervals. So we could time how long the experienced lasted for.

"He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened."

Dr David Wilde of Nottingham Trent University is currently researching out-of-body-experiences, as well as other anomalous mental effects, and said of the study: "There is some very good evidence here that these experiences are actually happening after people have medically died."

Professor Robert Lanza is another proponent of the "life after death" theory. In his book, Biocentrism, Lanza argues that understanding consciousness may be key to ascertaining a true description of the universe, and that the nature of intelligent self-awareness may be stranger than science currently recognizes.

Disclaimer: This brief article cannot address all of the issues related to the current research, and the reader is urged to read the articles in the links above, as well as to conduct their own review of existing literature. However, it is clear that consciousness and the exact nature of reality are areas which science is only beginning to explore, and it is scientifically correct to keep an open mind until a body of peer reviewed evidence can credibly support any particular theory.

Rift Valley in the Sky: The History of the Moon is being Rewritten

Rewriting the history of the Moon. Credit: NASA

A new theory explaining the origins of the large, dark rectangular area of the Moon called Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) has been outlined in a new paper published by Nature. Researchers Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna et al. made use of data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission to examine the subsurface construction of the area.

Previously believed to have been created by a massive asteroid strike, Procellarum looks the way it does because of volcanic and tectonic processes, the research suggests.

Lead researcher Andrews-Hanna explained in a NASA press release:

"Our gravity data are opening up a new chapter of lunar history, during which the moon was a more dynamic place than suggested by the cratered landscape that is visible to the naked eye.

"More work is needed to understand the cause of this newfound pattern of gravity anomalies, and the implications for the history of the moon."

The paper, entitled "Structure and evolution of the lunar Procellarum region as revealed by GRAIL gravity data" concludes that "the spatial pattern of magmatic-tectonic structures bounding Procellarum is consistent with their formation in response to thermal stresses produced by the differential cooling of the province relative to its surroundings, coupled with magmatic activity driven by the greater-than-average heat flux in the region."

NASA's press release describes the area as a rift valley, caused by a process similar to the cracking of mud when it dries, although on a much larger scale. The Great Rift Valley of East Africa is a terrestrial example of a similar geological feature which occurred when the outer layer of the Earth split as a result of differential cooling.