Near Death Experience

Near Death Experiences lead to some very interesting ideas being explored that are at the edge of our currrent ideas of consciousness and notions of mind/body. Two main sites that explore the area are:

• The International Association for Near-Death Studies
• Near-Death Experiences and the Afterlife

A programme that explored this topic was "The Day I Died" which was shown on BBC2 on the 5th February 2003. This programme included research work of the following people.

Visions of a Dying Brain or Visions of a New Science of Consciousness review of a lecture by Drs Sam Parnia and Peter Fenwick. They have a book called "What Happens When We Die"

Dr Michael Sabom's Research of life and death experience in operating theatres.

Horizon research has a section on Near death experiences.

Dr Stuart Hameroff has collaborated with Roger Penrose to produce a quantum level theory of consciousness called "Orchestrated objective reduction" or Orch OR, which is said to occur in the microtubules in the cells of the brain. See the Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR Publications. I personally find this latter particularly exciting as a possible model of consciousness.