A Veridical Near Death Experience:
"The Man with the Dentures"

© G.M. Woerlee

 

Veridical near death experiences are those experiences where the things seen, heard, or undergone by a person reporting such an experience can be verified by external observers and physical evidence. One such experience was reported by Pim van Lommel in his well known article published in the medical journal, The Lancet (click on the link to read copy of this article Lommel 2001). Page 2041 of this article contained a brief summary of the story.

During a night shift an ambulance brings in a 44 year-old cyanotic, comatose man into the coronary care unit. He had been found about an hour before in a meadow by passers-by. After admission, he receives artificial respiration without intubation, while heart massage and defibrillation are also applied. When we want to intubate the patient, he turns out to have dentures in his mouth. I remove these upper dentures and put them onto the 'crash car'. Meanwhile, we continue extensive CPR. After about an hour and a half the patient has sufficient heart rhythm and blood pressure, but he is still ventilated and intubated, and he is still comatose. He is transferred to the intensive care unit to continue the necessary artificial respiration. Only after more than a week do I meet again with the patient, who is by now back on the cardiac ward. I distribute his medication. The moment he sees me he says: 'Oh, that nurse knows where my dentures are'. I am very surprised. Then he elucidates: 'Yes, you were there when I was brought into hospital and you took my dentures out of my mouth and put them onto that car, it had all these bottles on it and there was this sliding drawer underneath and there you put my teeth.' I was especially amazed because I remembered this happening while the man was in deep coma and in the process of CPR. When I asked further, it appeared the man had seen himself lying in bed, that he had perceived from above how nurses and doctors had been busy with CPR. He was also able to describe correctly and in detail the small room in which he had been resuscitated as well as the appearance of those present like myself. At the time that he observed the situation he had been very much afraid that we would stop CPR and that he would die. And it is true that we had been very negative about the patient's prognosis due to his very poor medical condition when admitted. The patient tells me that he desperately and unsuccessfully tried to make it clear to us that he was still alive and that we should continue CPR. He is deeply impressed by his experience and says he is no longer afraid of death. 4 weeks later he left hospital as a healthy man. (Lommel 2001)

The BBC once made a very popular documentary on near death experiences called "The Day I died". The experience of this man was presented on this program, and you can see the video of this experience at the end of the first and following into the second video fragment of this documentary.

 

An astonishing and very romanticized story! This is a story fuelling the hopes and beliefs of all who hope for a life after death! After all, how could this man have perceived all these things while "clinically dead"? It should be carefully noted here that Pim van Lommel was not in any way associated with these events. Pim van Lommel worked as a cardiologist in the Rijnstate Hospital in the city of Arnhem from 1977 to 2003. His knowledge of the "man with the dentures" story came from a very sound interview of the head nurse present during the resuscitation that was conducted during February 1994 by a co-worker of the Dutch NDE association (pages 10-11 in the autumn edition of Terugkeer). This was the source of this story as published by Pim van Lommel in the Lancet in 2001.

On the basis of the very brief story in The Lancet, I wrote an article for The Journal of Near Death Studies in 2004 explaining how it was possible for this man to have perceived all these things while apparently dead (Woerlee 2004). An even more extensive, and less technical explanation, of how this man was able to make such observations can be read in Chapter 12 of my book, The Unholy Legacy of Abraham. Unfortunately, the report of this incident in The Lancet was superficial and incomplete, and did not even mention the year during which this incident occurred. So my explanation was based upon my personal experience resuscitating cardiac arrest patients in the Netherlands during the 1990's. I had no other information as to the case (p19 in Autumn "Terugkeer").

 

A more extensive interview during 2008

For various reasons, some of the co-workers of the Dutch association for studying near death experiences - The Merkawah Foundation - published an extensive transcript of a new and exhaustive interview with the head nurse who was present at the resuscitation (see pages 12-20 in the autumn 2008 edition of Terugkeer). This transcript revealed some amazing new aspects related to near death experiences during resuscitation for cardiac arrest. The transcript in Terugkeer was a literal transcript of the interview conducted between Titus Rivas - a Dutch parapsychologist - and the head nurse of the resuscitation team - called TG in the transcript - who was present during the resuscitation of this unfortunate man. The editor of Terugkeer invited me to write an article explaining my vision of how the facts revealed in this transcript could be explained. I was happy to contribute an article on this subject, because to me this report contained a unique new observation revealing more about the genesis of out-of-body experiences, (see pages 4-7 in the winter 2008 edition of Terugkeer).

This website is an extended English reworking of the article published on pages 4-7 in the winter 2008 edition of Terugkeer. My first task was a piece by piece analysis of the transcript published in Terugkeer to establish a timeline of the events, observations, and perceptions. A good timeline often reveals relationships that otherwise may remain hidden, or even overwhelmed by the detail present in an extensive transcript. First, an analysis of the quality of the interview.

1. Titus Rivas, the interviewer, made an accurate and careful transcript of his interview. I am sure this transcript is an honest and careful rendition of this interview.
2. TG, the head nurse made a true and accurate report of his memories of his actions, observations, and the verifiable occurrences. This incident must have made a deep impression on this man.
3. TG gave a true and accurate account of his memories of the perceptions and experiences reported to him by the patient. Note that the patient concerned died a year or two after discharge from hospital, and was therefore not available for cross-examination.

The next part is a summary of the events as observed and perceived by the nurse, TG, together with my remarks on these observations in italics.

1. The event took place late in 1979, which is why the weather was cold at the time (p12 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008).
2. The man was discovered apparently unconscious in a field near the village of Ooij. NOTE. This village is in the area of Ubbingen near the city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands (p12 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008).
3. The surname of the resuscitated man was Beekhuizen. He was 44 years of age at the time, and by profession a manual laborer who placed steel reinforcement in concrete constructions (p12 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008).
4. Someone called the ambulance service when he/she saw the man lying in a field (p13 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008). NOTE. There were no mobile telephone services in 1979. They simply did not exist during 1979. So somebody actually had to go to a house or a telephone booth in order to call the ambulance.
5. The ambulance personnel found an ice-cold, unconscious middle-aged man lying on the grass in a field, and commenced cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The ambulance personnel had an electrocardiogram device and a defibrillator with them, connected it to the man, and discovered he had a wild and irregular heart rhythm called "ventricular fibrillation" (p13 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008). The ambulance personnel defibrillated him, but to no avail. His heart continued in ventricular fibrillation. So they commenced CPR with manual cardiac massage and artificial respiration with a mask (p13 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008). NOTE. A heart in ventricular fibrillation just twitches in an irregular and uncoordinated fashion, and pumps no blood, which is a situation equivalent to when the heart stops beating altogether. In other words, deadly, because a person in ventricular fibrillation will simply die unless resuscitated.
6. They loaded him in the ambulance, and drove him to the hospital in Nijmegen while still continuing with manual cardiac massage and artificial respiration (p13 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008).
7. Upon admission to the emergency room of the hospital, the hospital staff took over the CPR (p14 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008). At that he appeared unconscious, was ice-cold to the touch, had blue-colored lips and fingernails indicating severe oxygen starvation, the blotchy skin of a corpse, and the wide open non-reacting pupils of someone who was either severely oxygen starved, or dead. His heart rhythm was still the deadly ventricular fibrillation (p13, p15 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008). As TG said: "No effective heart rhythm." (p14 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008)
8. The man was placed under a heart massage machine, and the machine was activated (p14 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008). NOTE. This is a machine with a large piston which performs cardiac massage by regular compression of the chest in the same way as cardiac massage is done by hand, only a heart massage machine does not get exhausted like a human, and delivers consistent, powerful, chest compressions. An example of such a machine is the so-called "Thumper", made and sold by Michigan Instruments since 1961. This apparatus is used in many hospitals to provide mechanical CPR (click on link to see history of, and articles on Thumpers cardiac resuscitation). It should be noted that these machines were not in common use in Europe during 1979, so this hospital was quite unique in that it had one of these machines, as well as a good emergency resuscitation protocol. I will use the term "Thumper" for the cardiac massage machine used during this man's resuscitation, because it is both shorter, and it was very likely that this was the machine used.
9. This man's dentures were removed to prevent them being swallowed and blocking his windpipe, and an oral airway introduced to make artificial respiration with a mask easier. The dentures were placed on a sliding wooden shelf of the crash car (p14 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008).
10. Unfortunately, TG gives two stories regarding the timing of removal of this man's dentures. In the first report, TG states that the dentures were removed after starting the Thumper (p14-15 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008). This is a logical time, as the Thumper would be started as soon as possible. However, in a second statement TG states that the dentures were removed after positioning the man under the Thumper, and only after the mask for artificial respiration was positioned on the man's face was the Thumper started (p8 in Winter "Terugkeer" 2008). NOTE. This later explanation makes little medical sense, as it means the patient would receive no heart massage for a while. So there is some uncertainty as to the exact time of removal of the dentures. However, I will assume the medically more logical action, that the Thumper was turned on as fast as possible, after which the man's dentures were removed.
11. The dentures of the man were placed on a wooden shelf of the trolley used to contain the apparatus and drugs used for cardiac resuscitation (the "crash-cart") (p14 Autumn "Terugkeer").
12. During the subsequent resuscitation procedure, there were several episodes of ventricular fibrillation with defibrillation. Drugs were also administered to improve his condition and to try and improve his rhythm (p15 in Autumn "Terugkeer").
13. TG was present during the whole resuscitation in his capacity as head nurse, and was assisted by two female student nurses. TG looked regularly in the eyes of the man being resuscitated to check to pupil size, as well as to test for pupil reactions to light (p16 in Autumn "Terugkeer"). At the same time, he responded to orders from the doctors in charge of the resuscitation, and was himself assisted by the two student nurses. This means there were regular dialogues, requests, and orders (p14, p17 in Autumn "Terugkeer").
14. TG says himself that he has an unusual and very distinctive voice, a fact confirmed by Titus Rivas in his transcript (p18 in Autumn "Terugkeer").
15. TG stated clearly in this transcript that the Thumper was so efficient, that people were sometimes awake during CPR with this machine despite having no heartbeat (p19 in Autumn "Terugkeer").
16. About 90 minutes after admission to hospital, and intensive resuscitative efforts, an effective heart rhythm was restored. Heart massage was stopped, and the man was transported to the intensive care unit. He was still unconscious, and still was not breathing adequately when transported to the intensive care (p15, p17 in Autumn "Terugkeer").
17. On the intensive care unit he was intubated, (a tube placed in his windpipe), and given artificial respiration with a machine. While in the intensive care unit, it became evident that his cardiac condition had been caused by a major heart attack (myocardial infarction) (p15 in Autumn "Terugkeer").
18. A week later, after being transferred to the cardiology ward, TG entered his room during a drug administration round. The man immediately recognized TG as the man who had removed his dentures, and who knew where they were to be found (p16 in Autumn "Terugkeer").

During the course of the cardiac resuscitation, the man being resuscitated made several observations. These observations were reported at the time to TG. But the patient died one to two years after resuscitation in 1979, and the interview of TG was conducted in 2008, a period of 29 years later. However, the content of this interview differed in no way from that of the interview conducted in 1994, so I will assume the memory of TG is accurate as to what he remembers. Yet it should be noted, that the observations reported by the patient, are the memories of TG of what the patient told him at the time during 1979. They are unconfirmed by cross-examination of the patient concerned, simply because the man died one to two years after discharge from hospital during 1979.

1. TG reported that the patient, (named Beekhuizen), described actually seeing and feeling TG removing his dentures, saying that TG placed them in a drawer of a cart on which were many small bottles or ampoules. He also described hearing the sound of glass ampoules or small bottles rattling against each other (p16 in Autumn "Terugkeer"). However, TG stated that this was not actually a drawer, but a small wooden shelf among the ampoules and syringes filled with drugs used for CPR (p14, p16, p19 in Autumn "Terugkeer"). NOTE. This difference between what TG told what he did, and his memory of what Beekhuizen told him is a source of confusion in this story. However, TG did tell us his memory of what Beekhuizen told him. And Beekhuizen told him it was a drawer, and not a shelf which is what actually happened. This is a difference between the perception of the experience and the observer.
2. TG reported that Beekhuizen told him he heard the doctors discussing whether they should proceed with the resuscitation. Beekhuizen tried telling them that he was alive, and to continue, but nobody observed this attempt at communication (p17 in Autumn "Terugkeer").
3. Beekhuizen told TG that at the same time as he was undergoing an out-of-body experience, he also felt the pain of the heart massage due to the Thumper (p17, p19 in Autumn "Terugkeer").
4. Beekhuizen also told TG that he observed and heard everything occurring in the resuscitation room from a vantage point high in a corner of the room. He described the resuscitation, the presence of the two female student nurses, and saw himself under the Thumper (p16, p17, p19 in Autumn "Terugkeer").

This is indeed a report with notable elements, of which the most striking was the perception of pain due to cardiac massage during an out-of-body experience. This is an amazing, insightful, and unique element in this story never previously reported.

 

Discovery and the ambulance arrival time

I will begin with the discovery of this man and the ambulance trip. As mentioned, the man was discovered apparently unconscious in a field next to the village of Ooij. Cell-phone, or mobile telephones simply did not exist during 1979, so the person discovering him had to knock at the door of a nearby house to use the telephone, or use a public telephone booth to call the ambulance. The ambulance then came from the nearby city of Nijmegen, and brought him to the Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital there where he was resuscitated. How long would this have taken? Below is a clickable road map of the most likely route (click on the image to go to Google maps.)

The distance between the village of Ooij and the Canisius-Wilhelmina Hospital is about 12 km (a little more than 7 miles). The ambulance could not have travelled faster on these roads than 80-100 km/hr (50-60 mph). So you have time required to call the ambulance, time to get into the ambulance, time required to drive to the place where the man lay, time to walk-run from ambulance to the man, time to assess the situation. All in all, a total of about 15 minutes at least. This delay between discovery and ambulance resuscitation has several important implications.

 

Implication-1 of ambulance delay

he delay between discovery of the apparently unconscious man in the field, and the arrival of the ambulance has far-reaching implications. We do not know from the transcript whether the bystanders commenced cardiac resuscitation of the unconscious man. However, we do know from extensive medical experience, that for people with a normal body temperature, brain damage occurs after 4 minutes of cardiac arrest, and death after 12 minutes (see Meyer 2000). Failure to recognize, and failure to commence resuscitation are two of several reasons why cardiac arrests occurring outside hospitals have a very low success rate varying between 0-17% depending upon the type of heart rhythm causing the cardiac arrest (see excellent review by Grudzen 2006, and also Meyer 2000). So we know from medical fact and experience that he must have had some heart rhythm, otherwise he would have simply have died, or developed severe brain damage while waiting for the ambulance.

 

Implication-2 of ambulance delay

We know the body temperature of this man at the time of discovery and admission was lower than normal. After all, the ambulance personnel found him lying on the grass in a cold open field, ice-cold to the touch. It is well known that people with low body temperature can survive without any circulation for longer periods than those with normal body temperature. This is the well-known fact that cold meat decays more slowly than warm meat. Total circulatory arrest for 45 minutes is possible at temperatures of 12-14 degrees Celsius (Dobelle 1997, Casthely 1985, Ergin 1982). Increasing body temperature, decreases the time for safe cardiac arrest, so at 16 degrees Celsius safe cardiac arrest time is only 37 minutes (Ti 2003), and it is even less as the temperature rises.

This man would have been walking on this field appropriately clothed for the weather, and with a normal body temperature. So when he collapsed, his body temperature would have been normal. Clothing slows body cooling, which is why people wear warm clothing when the weather is cold. So if this man had no heart rhythm pumping blood around his body when he collapsed, he would have developed extensive brain damage and died before his body had a chance to cool. In other words, this man most likely collapsed due to a period of abnormal heart rhythm, but still a heart rhythm that pumped blood around his body. And his clothed body slowly cooled down as he lay there for an undetermined time before discovery (p13 in Autumn "Terugkeer" 2008).

 

Effects of hypothermia on the body

Reports of severely hypothermic people show us that people are unconscious, and even appear dead at body temperatures below 28 degrees Celsius (normal body temperature is 37 degrees Celsius) (see excellent review in Edelstein 2007). Hypothermia explains why he was unconscious and why he was able to survive a prolonged period of abnormal heart rhythm. And a person with a low body temperature somewhere between 20-30 degrees Celsius may look as if dead, and may occasionally even be conscious (Mallet 2002):

In severe cases it would be common to find loss of consciousness, extreme bradycardia and slow respiration or apnoea, hypotension and impalpable peripheral pulses, along with cold oedematous skin, areflexia, and fixed dilated pupils, which in this situation are not an indication brain death. It must be emphasized, however, that the clinical picture in general does not correlate well with the degree of hypothermia, and there are many reports or situations at variance with this broad picture, and at least one instance of an elderly lady maintaining consciousness (albeit confused) at 24.3 degrees Celsius core temperature. (Mallet 2002)

In other words, the ambulance personnel found a seemingly dead, hypothermic man lying in a field. They found that his heart rhythm was ventricular fibrillation, which is a heart rhythm associated with the best chance of successful resuscitation (Grudzen 2006). The fact that he had measurable electrical activity of his heart was reason for them to continue CPR.

The heart pumps no blood during ventricular fibrillation. But this was clearly not the rhythm this man had before discovery, otherwise he would have developed severe brain damage, or even died. He must have had another heart rhythm before discovery which pumped enough blood around his body to keep him alive. Experience with severely hypothermic persons reveals that the ministrations of the rescuers paradoxically induces ventricular fibrillation (Moser 2005). This is the explanation for the survival and absence of brain damage in this man.

It is clear that the resuscitation of the ambulance personnel during the ride to the hospital in Nijmegen was effective, because this man recovered without any evident brain damage. Upon admission to the hospital he was hypothermic and appeared dead. But, because he was hypothermic, the resuscitation was continued. There is a well-known medical adage regarding hypothermic patients in emergency units:

You're not dead until you're warm and dead.

This explains why TG stated, and was even quite emphatic, that the man was definitely lifeless and dead during the period he observed him undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

 

The resuscitation of this man

This brings us to another aspect of this story. When cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation occur, no blood is pumped around the body - there is no blood circulation. If a normal heart rhythm does not return, or CPR is not administered, that person will rapidly die as a result of brain oxygen starvation. So what does one do with CPR? CPR is a technique involving vigorously pressing on the sternum of a person with a cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation 80-120 times per minute. CPR does not restore normal heart rhythm. CPR restores some pumping action of the heart, pumping oxygen enriched blood around the body, so sustaining the functioning of vital organs function of the heart, sustaining vitality and life until a medication and other treatments restore a normal heart rhythm. So a person without a heartbeat and respiration during a cardiac arrest is not necessarily dead - they are alive because artificial respiration ensures that oxygen enters the lungs, and cardiac massage ensures that oxygen is pumped to the vital organs and tissues of the body. But manual cardiac massage is relatively inefficient, being sufficient to restore partial consciousness in about 10-20% of people with cardiac arrest undergoing cardiac massage for cardiac arrest (Woerlee 2004, Chapter 12 in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham), although some people are fully awake during manual cardiac massage (Bihari 2008).

 

 

This man was placed under a Thumper which generates a pumping action of the heart which is more efficient than that possible with manual cardiac massage (Ward 1993). This is the explanation of why this man rapidly regained consciousness after being placed under the Thumper. As TG himself said in the transcript, the Thumper is so efficient that some people are awake during CPR, despite the fact that they do not have any heartbeat (p19 in Autumn "Terugkeer"). This observation is confirmed by experience with the Thumper in other countries where patients recover consciousness during CPR even though they have no heart rhythm (Lewinter 1989).

But people who are obviously and evidently conscious due to cardiac massage are exceptions. Most people suffering under the impact of a period of severe oxygen starvation remain superficially unconscious for a long time. Tissue oxygen starvation is also present during cardiac massage due to the fact that although their blood is packed with oxygen, there is too little blood is pumped through the body by cardiac massage to prevent oxygen shortage of the brain and other organs. The result is that most people experience the effects of oxygen starvation during cardiac massage administered for cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation.

We know from the interview with TG that this man had a blue color on admission, typically the color or severe oxygen starvation. So we know that this man was severely oxygen starved on admission. Severe oxygen starvation generates a fairly standard set of experiences and perceptions. For example, if the flow around the body stops such as during cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation, people are first blinded by lack of oxygen in their eyes before they lose consciousness a second or two later (Duane 1966, Rossen 1943). This explains why people say that they first "see black" before they become unconscious as a result of fainting. But even if people are blind because of lack of oxygen, the hearing is sustained, and people blinded by oxygen starvation, but not yet unconscious can still hear speech (pages 306 and 342 in Lier 1963). Moreover, serious lack of oxygen to the brain distorts interpretation of the position of limbs and body (Horak 1990, page 306 in Lier 1963). The result is that people with severe oxygen deficit do not know exactly where their limbs are, and not know exactly where their bodies are in space. Therefore it is common for people who have serious oxygen deficit departures to experience feelings of floating, to perceive the presence of other beings or non-existent people, as well as experience depersonalization (Firth 2004) and out-of-body experiences (Brugger 1999). Even stranger, serious oxygen deficit at a level just insufficient to induce loss of consciousness, also causes total paralysis of the body, which is why some severely oxygen starved, but still conscious people are unable to move or speak, even though they may try to do so (Rossen 1943). This is a manifestation of an oxygen starvation induced "locked-in syndrome" where a person is conscious, but the body fails to respond to the commands given by the brain - the person is trapped inside their body (Laureys 2005). And severe oxygen deficiency is one of known several causes of this syndrome (Cruz-Flores 2007).

These basic facts are confirmed with medical experience and scientific research on humans and animals for nearly 60 years. With this knowledge, the fascinating story of "the man with dentures" can be readily explained.

1. Initially, he was placed under the Thumper, which is an efficient form of cardiac massage, because TG told that occasionally people with cardiac arrest were fully awake during cardiac massage with the Thumper. So in the case of this "man with the dentures", we can assume that he had sufficient consciousness and memory function to remember events occurring shortly after he was placed under the Thumper. Consciousness returned, but he was paralyzed due to the effects of brain oxygen starvation (Rossen 1943, Laureys 2005).
2. He felt and saw TG remove his dentures and place them in a drawer. He thought it was a drawer, but it was actually a wooden shelf. He also heard the rattling of ampoules or small bottles on a cart. This means he did not necessarily see these things, but felt the dentures being removed, and heard them being placed upon a wooden surface on which there were glass ampoules or bottles. After all, the sound of a wooden versus a metal surface is easily distinguished, and this man assumed it was a drawer.
3. He heard the resuscitation team discuss whether they would stop the resuscitation, because hearing was maintained, even though he was paralyzed.
4. He recognized TG later in the cardiology ward. This was possible because we know from TG itself, that he repeatedly looked into the eyes of this man during the resuscitation, and that TG had a very typical and unique voice. In other words he would have known who TG was by seeing and hearing.
5. He had a out-of-body experience during which his consciousness was displaced to an upper corner of the resuscitation room. He could describe the room and the whole situation quite well. But as we know, severe oxygen starvation can generate sensations of displacement out of the body as well as out-of-body experiences (Brugger 1999, Horak 1990, page 306 in Lier 1963). He could hear well, and occasionally his eyes were opened, so he could also occasionally observe his surroundings. And, like blind people who can often give very good descriptions of their surroundings on the basis of information from their remaining senses, he was also able to do the same thing (see extensive description with many research references in Chapter 5, in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham). He also described the presence of two female nurses, but could not describe their appearances. This is strange, because during an out-of-body experience he supposedly would be able to see them. The explanation for all these observations is that he heard the voices of the nurses, and used his remaining senses to describe his situation and that of the room. After all, as explained in the extensive discussion in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham (see Physiology of out-of-body experiences, it is impossible for the supposedly disembodied consciousness of someone undergoing an out-of-body experience to see with light, or to hear sounds. This fact explains the observations of the girls, the room, the placement of his dentures, and the medical discussion.
6. This man felt the cardiac massage as extremely painful, even during his out-of-body experience! This was a unique observation - pain during out-of-body experience. How can this be explained? Firstly, he was conscious otherwise he could not perceive pain. Secondly, and more importantly, his out-of-body experience was the product of a sensation of altered body position generated by the combination of the malfunctioning of his sense organs (see chapter 6 in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham). In other words, he was in his body, his sensory nerves were functioning, so he was able to feel the pain of the Thumper hammering away on his chest. In fact, this unique perception of pain during an out-of-body experience confirms the fact that these experiences are products of the functioning of the body, rather than that they are the result of some immaterial consciousness leaving the body.

After the successful resuscitation, followed by a week in the intensive care unit, this man recalled the observations made during his resuscitation. He recognized TG immediately from his appearance and/or his unique voice when TG walked inside his room. TG was the man who had removed his dentures! TG was the man who knew where to find his dentures!

The report of "the man with the dentures" provides us with unique insights in the genesis of the out-of-body-experience. This fact alone makes it a valuable experience well worth studying. Moreover, this story also gives a clear message - not everyone is unconscious during resuscitation due to a cardiac arrest. But despite the wonderful elements in this story, all elements and observations are explained by the workings of the human body during cardiac arrest and resuscitation. Yet this story is not only a "mere" biological phenomenon, it is also a wonderful demonstration of how the human consciousness may be present during even the most harsh and unlikely conditions.

 

Read The Unholy Legacy of Abraham

There is only one absolute certainty in life - each and every person now alive will eventually die. But is death of the body the end of all personal consciousness and being, or is death of the body a transition of some part of the body from this physical, or mortal life, to another life in another invisible realm or universe - a transition into a life after death? Read all about how the functioning of the human body generates all the manifestations of near death experiences in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham

 

 

 

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Mr. Titus Rivas who has performed a remarkable and solid interview of Mr TG so as to make the details of this remarkable account available to us all.

 

References

1. Bihari S, Rajajee V (2008), Prolonged Retention of Awareness During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation for Cardiac Asystolic Arrest. Neurocritical Care, May 16, e-publication.
2. Brugger P, et al, (1999). Hallucinatory experiences in extreme-altitude climbers. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology, 12, 67-71.
3. Cashely PA, et al, (1985), Anesthesia for Aortic arch repair aneurysms: experience with 17 patients. Canadian Anaesthetists Society Journal, 32:73-78.
4. Dobelle ARC, Bailey JS, (1997), Charles Drew and the Origins of Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Judgment. Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 63: 1193-1199.
5. Duane TD, (1966), Experimental blackout and the visual system. Transactions of the American Society Opthalmalogical Society, 64: 488-542.
6. Ergin MA, et al, (1982), Experience with Profound Hypothermia and circulatory arrest in the treatment of aneurysms of the arch Aortic arch replacement for Acute Aortic Dissection arch. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 84: 649-655.
7. Firth PG, Bolay H, (2004), Transient High Altitude Neurological Dysfunction: An Origin in the Temporoparietal Cortex. High Altitude Medicine & Biology, 5: 71-75.
8. Horak FB, et al, (1990), Postural strategies associated with somatosensory and Postural loss. Experimental Brain Research, 82: 167-177.
9. Laureys S, et al, (2005), The locked-in syndrome: what is it like to be conscious but paralyzed and voiceless? Progress in Brain Research, 150: 495-512.
10. Lewinter JR, et al, (1989), CPR, Click here bewustzijn: Evidence for cardiac compression causing forward flow, Annals of Emergency Medicine, 18: 1111-1115.
11. Lier EJ van, Stickney JC, (1963), Hypoxia, published University of Chicago Press, USA.
12. Lommel P, et al, (2001), Near death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective study in the Netherlands. Lancet, 358: 2039-2045.
13. Mallet ML (2002), Pathophysiology of Accidental Hypothermia. Quarterly Journal of Medicine, 95: 775-785.
14. Moser B, et al, (2005), One night in a snowbank: A case report of severe hypothermia and cardiac arrest. Resuscitation, 65, 365-368.
15. Rossen R, et al, (1943), Acute arrest of cerebral circulation in man. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 50: 510-528.
16. Ti lK, et al, (2003), Evaluating the efficacy of newer strategies for improving cerebral outcomes after deep hypothermic circulatory arrest for thoracic aortic surgery, Anesthesia & Analgesia, 96: SCA2
17. Terugkeer is the quarterly publication of the Merkawah Foundation in The Netherlands.
18. Woerlee GM, (2004), Cardiac Case and Near Death Experiences. Journal of Near Death Experiences, 22: 235-249.
19. Woerlee GM, (2005), Mortal Minds. The Biology of the Near Death Experience, Published by Prometheus, USA.
20. Woerlee GM, (2008), The Unholy Legacy of Abraham, Pub. Book Locker, USA, ISBN 978-1-60145-621-2.

 

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This page last modified 10 February 2009

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Website design G.M. Woerlee, December 2008