Dead or Alive

Dead or Alive
by Erika Hayasaki
Kindle Single (e-book)

Only buy this if you cannot wait for the findings of Sam Parnia's study, to be published late this year, of the near-death experiences of the 500 cardiac-arrest survivors he interviewed. Proof, the cardiologist and professor hopes, will be if those patients can describe the images he placed 195cm above the floor in medical centres in England, Canada, Austria and the US. Erika Hayasaki, who talked to Parnia for her book, recounts many near-death stories, such as the one in which a patient said she saw the serial number on top of a ventilator 'while she hovered' over her body. Then there are tales of conversations heard by those whose hearts had stopped and brain activity flat-lined. Many of the accounts involve intense contentment and bright light, leading some to believe the phenomenon can no longer be scientifically ignored. Dead or Alive gives possible explanations, such as that the brain is attempting to make sense of the strange things happening to the body as it dies. The bright lights seen could be explained by the lack of blood and oxygen flowing to the eyes.