Near-Death Experiences and Immortality from the Perspective of an Informational Modeling of Consciousness

Near-death experiences, occurring when the heart and brain have ceased activity, provide a tool for investigating whether consciousness continues to exist independently of bodily functions. The abstract raises the fundamental question of whether consciousness persists after the cessation of heartbeat and brain support, drawing on improved investigation methods and successful life-saving interventions that allow analysis of symptoms recorded during such experiences.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The questions concerning “who we are”, “where we go to”, and “where we come from”, preoccupied the humanity from immemorial times. During the last few decades, with the accelerated improvement of the investigation methods and of the advanced successful interventions allowing the life salvation, there have been reported some attempts to correlate the psychic phenomena with the body status by the recuperation, analysis and explanation of the symptoms recorded during the near-death experiences. Such special situations, in which the heart and the brain, the support of mental activities, cease their activity, has become a fundamental tool to investigate the consciousness associated phenomena during the arrest status of the fundamental processes of the life. The fundamental question actually is whether consciousness really continues to exist even if the body has ceased its function by stopping the heartbeat and brain support activities [1,2].