Near-death experiences are real – but not an opportunity for doctors to experiment | Opinion

Near-death experiences, also known as NDEs, are extremely common. In fact, as many as 1 in 5 people who almost die in a medical facility report having one — if they are asked. However, only 2% self-report if not asked.

In 2017, Missouri Medicine became the first medical journal to publish a comprehensive physician-oriented study of this well-documented phenomenon. Doctors are generally not trained to recognize or treat these experiences. Consequently, the journal’s articles generated a great deal of international attention — so much so that Missouri University Press subsequently published an expanded version in book form. “The Science of Near-Death Experiences,” which I edited, remains a primary source for educating doctors about NDEs as a frequent and important medical syndrome.

A recent case I know about tells a familiar story: A 48-year-old patient was having an exploratory surgery at North Kansas City Hospital. His liver was inadvertently lacerated, and he went into hemorrhagic shock, complicated by uncontrolled bleeding and cardiac arrest. He was at the point of death for 40 minutes and was defibrillated several times, but he survived. He spent 45 days in the hospital, with more than 10 of them in the intensive care unit.

While in the ICU, he told his physicians and nurses, “When I was dead, I went to heaven.” They told him he imagined that trip, which they said was the result of his brain being deprived of oxygen. They told the patient not to tell anyone about his “hallucination,” warning that others would think he had suffered brain damage.

In a subsequent trip to see relatives in Italy, he told physicians there about his experience. They confirmed he had had a near-death experience — and told him they are common, and that most people lose their fear of death and live better lives after having one.

Later, at a neighborhood picnic back in Kansas City, the patient told me about his NDE. He said he had suddenly felt at peace, left his body and looked down to see surgeons and nurses pumping blood into both his arms. He entered a tunnel of light and “went to heaven,” where he was greeted by his mother. There, he also met and became one with the deity, whom he described as a brilliant ball of loving light.

He had been raised Catholic, telling me: “Heaven is everything I hoped it would be and more. I can’t begin to describe how at peace I was.” During this experience, his mother told him it was not his time, and that he had to go back to Earth — but they would be together again not too far in the future.

This patient said, “We have nothing to fear when we die.” He was upset that his American physicians and nurses did not believe him.

Human beings are not guinea pigs

If physicians and health personnel tell those who have near-death experiences that these life-changing events are imagined and advise them, “Don’t talk about it or people will think you are not of sound mind,” they create consequences that often adversely affect patients and their families for the rest of their lives.

Proper medical treatment is simple and forthright: systematic inquiry about having NDEs in people who return from the brink of irreversible death, sympathetic listening and validation, education of the patient and their family about those experiences, and finally appropriate referral to support groups, national NDE organizations and thoughtful study of the many excellent books on the topic.

I found the news story “Psychedelic drugs may give a glimpse into near-death experiences” in the Aug. 27 Star interesting, especially in its unique and insightful study of individuals who have both had a NDE and used psychedelic drugs. Conversely, disturbing was the story’s mention of the intentional use of psychedelic drugs as “a powerful tool to study near-death experiences” in otherwise healthy people, as proposed by Dinesh Pal, an associate professor at the University of Michigan.

I find this practice dangerous and unethical. As many as 10% of NDEs are “distressing” and like a visit to hell, patients report. They terrify some people for life. It would be tragic and indefensible to induce even one of these upsetting experiences in a healthy human being used as a guinea pig.

Like any medication, psychedelic drugs can have adverse reactions, some serious. While they offer great promise for treatment of a variety of mental disorders, if properly used and studied, their side effects and long-term consequences have not been fully delineated. These risks may be appropriate for people with major psychiatric disorders, but not for researchers with idle curiosity about near-death experiences to experiment on healthy, normal people.

Such research is risky and serves no ethical purpose. Doctors, first do no harm.