Summary: Interview with NDE researcher and AWARE Project leader explores limits of experiments on near-death experience. Join Skeptiko host Alex Tsakiris for an interview with the NDE expert and author of, What Happens When We Die?, Dr. Sam Parnia. During the interview Dr. Parnia is asked why he suspects NDE is an “illusion”, and a “trick of the mind”. When pressed, Dr Parnia stated, “…It may well be. You’re pushing and I’m giving you honest answers. I don’t know. If I knew the answers then I don’t think I would have engaged and spent 12 years of my life and so much of my medical reputation to try to do this. Because to appreciate people like me, I risk a lot by doing this sort of experiment. So I’m interested in the answers and I don’t know. Like I said, if I was to base everything on the knowledge that I have currently of neuroscience, then the easiest explanation is that this is probably an illusion.” While Dr. Parnia’s position regarding the validity of the NDE phenomena stands in contrast to most other near death experience researchers he continues to push forward. His AWARE Project asks cardiac arrest patients who experience a NDE to recall hidden pictures placed above their bed. This methodology has been criticized by NDE experts who give it little chance of yielding positive results. Dr. Parnia responds, “I don’t know if [the tests will] be successful or not. That’s an important point to make. As I said, I don’t have a particular stance. It’s possible that these experiences are simply illusionary and it’s possible that they’re real. Science hasn’t got the answers yet. So we have to go fair-minded. Right now what we have is a setup that can at least, we hope, objectively determine an answer to the question.” Dr. Sam Parnia Bio Video lecture at Goldsmiths in London Is Dr. Sam Parnia’s AWARE Study of Near Death Experience Doomed to Fail? Play it: Download MP3 (38:00 min.) Read it: Alex Tsakiris: We’re joined today by the author of What Happens When We Die? He’s a leading expert on NDE research. He’s best known as the lead investigator of the AWARE Project. Dr. Sam Parnia is a Fellow in pulmonary care at Cornell University and he’s a doctor. I mean, in addition to being a researcher, he’s also there in the ICU saving lives. Dr. Parnia, thanks so much for joining me today on Skeptiko. Dr. Sam Parnia: My pleasure. Alex Tsakiris: Well, it’s really my pleasure to have you on. Your work has generated a lot of interest and the little bit of exchange we’ve had has generated a lot of interest. A couple of months ago I did publish a post suggesting that the AWARE study of consciousness during clinical death–I suggested that maybe that was doomed to fail. You are nice enough to join me on this show today and discuss that a little bit. So let me start with this: in replying to my post, you suggested that maybe I had misrepresented the AWARE Project when I said it seeks to verify out-of-body experience after clinical death. Perhaps you’d like to clarify what the AWARE Project is and maybe what that misrepresentation was. Dr. Sam Parnia: One of the things that’s really interesting to me is trying to understand what happens to-as you pointed out, I work in an Intensive Care Unit-and one of the things I find most interesting is trying to understand what happens to patients when they’re critically ill. And then particularly when they have died, which is basically a cardiac arrest. So cardiac arrest and death are synonymous. Most people don’t realize that. We deal with a number of patients who have cardiac arrest in hospitals and what we’ve come to understand is that in order for us to improve the medical care of these patients, I’m not sure that we can bring them back to life again and improve their neurological outcome[...]
