Publisher's Synopsis
At the end of 2008 a group of neuroscientists presented under the auspices of the United Nations (NY, USA) The Human Consciousness Project in order to analyze the mind, brain and clinical death. The project includes the AWARE study (AWAreness during REsuscitation study), the first international multicentrum pilot study to analyze the relationship between mind and brain and their interaction. AWARE was presented internationally as the first large-scale research on Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). It was the first study to analyze the cognitive skills associated with cardiac arrest. In the first phase of the project, several North American and European universities participated, as well as 15 hospitals in the USA, United Kingdom and Austria in order to study more than 1,500 patients victims of cardiac arrest. The AWARE study was promoted by the University of Southampton (United Kingdom) and directed by doctors Sam Parnia and Peter Fenwick. The study has sophisticated techniques, such as the indication of oxygen levels or blood circulation in the brain through INVOS Cerebral Oximeter. One of the main purposes of the project was to empirically and objectively validate through objective markers (images) the presumed Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs), informed in a classical way in CPR procedures. The study lasted for 4 years and its results were published in the scientific journal Resuscitation in 2014. Currently, the second phase of the AWARE study is being carried out with new, more advanced technologies in CPR and neuroimaging. In addition, a more up-to-date technique based on LCD Tablets is being implemented to be able to verify out-of-body experiences through a scientific methodology and rigorous protocols, only visible from the ceiling in CPR procedures.The diverse expertise of the team ranges from cardiac arrest, near-death experiences (NDEs), and neuroscience to neuroimaging, critical care, emergency medicine, immunology, molecular biology, mental health, and psychiatry. So, AWARE is a multidiciplinary study covering Neuroscience, Thanatology, Psychology, Human Biology, Health and Medicine, Artificial Intelligence Technology, Physics, Law, Theology and Bioethics.According to those responsible, AWARE will be of great value to the international scientific and medical community by contributing to a better understanding of the mind, the brain and their interaction, as well as the progress of medical care given to patients with cardiac arrest. The study also aims to shed rational light on the surprising phenomenon of Near-Death Experiences (NDE), so that AWARE could have profound implications of universal reach on the human way of understanding the human death process and the mystery of what It really happens to us when we die.