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Sam Parnia is an Assistant professor of medicine at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received his medical degree from the Guy's and St Thomas’ Hospitals (UMDS) of the University of London in 1995 and his PhD in cell biology from the University of Southampton in the UK in 2006. He is director of resuscitation research at the State University of New York in Stony Brook and an honorary fellow at Southampton University Hospital.

Education

Parnia graduated from Guys and St. Thomas' medical schools in London (1995), completed his medical residency at the University of Southampton, UK and Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, USA and completed a Ph.D in cell and molecular biology at the University of Southampton in 2006.

Career

Parnia has been actively involved in cardiac arrest resuscitation since the late 90s, when he was a member of the Southampton University Trust Hospitals resuscitation committee. One of his areas of concentration has been in the incorporation of cerebral oximetry during cardiac arrest care as a marker of the quality of oxygen delivery to the brain during resuscitation. His research also focuses on the study of the human mind and consciousness during the period after cardiac arrest. This research has included investigation of near-death experiences.

Near-death research

In 2003, Parnia and Peter Fenwick appeared in the BBC documentary "The Day I Died". In the documentary Parnia and Fenwick discussed their belief that research from near-death experiences (NDEs) indicates the mind is independent of the brain. According to Susan Blackmore the documentary mislead viewers with beliefs that are rejected by the majority of scientists. Blackmore criticized the documentary for biased and "dishonest reporting".

In his book Erasing Death and a series of interviews, Parnia has explained that although most people view death as irreversible, he claims that resuscitation research shows it may be reversible.

Parnia has said he is uncertain the brain produces the mind and has suggested that memory is not neuronal. He has claimed that research from NDEs may show the "mind is still there after the brain is dead". The neurologist Michael O'Brien has written "most people would not find it necessary to postulate such a separation between mind and brain to explain the events," and suggested that further research is likely to provide a physical explanation for near-death experiences.

In 2001, Parnia and colleagues investigated out of body claims by placing figures on suspended boards facing the ceiling, not visible from the floor. Parnia wrote "anybody who claimed to have left their body and be near the ceiling during resuscitation attempts would be expected to identify those targets. If, however, such perceptions are psychological, then one would obviously not expect the targets to be identified." The philosopher Keith Augustine, who examined Parnia's study, has written that all paranormal target identification experiments have produced negative results. Psychologist Chris French wrote regarding the study "unfortunately, and somewhat atypically, none of the survivors in this sample experienced an OBE."

AWARE

Parnia is the principal investigator of the AWARE study (AWAreness during REsuscitation), which was launched in 2008. AWARE is a multidisciplinary multicenter international collaboration of scientists, physicians and nurses. This study incorporates testing of awareness and near-death experiences (NDE) during cardiac arrest with methods aimed at measuring the quality of oxygen delivery to the brain. Critics have expressed concern with the NDE research as it presents difficulty in the realm of informed consent.

As part of the AWARE study Parnia and colleagues have investigated out of body claims by using hidden targets placed on shelves that could only be seen from above. Parnia has written "if no one sees the pictures, it shows these experiences are illusions or false memories". Parnia issued a statement indicating that the first phase of the project has been completed and the results are undergoing peer review for publication in a medical journal. No subjects saw the images mounted out of sight according to Parnia's early report of the results of the study at an American Heart Association meeting in November 2013 but that is not surprising as no one had an OBE in a research area. Οnly two out of the 152 patients reported any visual experiences, and one of them described events that could be verified.

Selected bibliography

• What Happens When We Die (Hay House, 2006)
• Erasing Death: The Science That is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death (Harper Collins, 2013)
• The Lazarus Effect: The Science That is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death (Ebury Publishing, 2013)

References

1. "Donnad | University of Southampton". Southampton.ac.uk. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
2. USA (2013-08-12). "parnia s, - PubMed - NCBI". Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
3. Susan Blackmore. (2004). "Near-Death Experiences on TV". Sceptic Magazine 17. pp. 8-10. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
4. Sam Parnia (2013-02-20). "'Erasing Death' Explores The Science Of Resuscitation". NPR. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
5. Back from the Dead: Resuscitation Expert Says End Is Reversible Der Spiegel, 29 July 2013.
6. Tim Adams. (2013). "Sam Parnia – the man who could bring you back from the dead". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
7. Michael O'Brien. (2003)."The Day I Died". British Medical Journal. 326(7383): 288. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
8. Parnia, S; Waller, D. G; Yeates, R; Fenwick, P. (2001). A Qualitative and Quantitative Study of the Incidence, Features and Aetiology of Near-Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest Survivors. Resuscitation 48: 149–156.
9. Keith Augustine. (2008). "Hallucinatory Near-Death Experiences". Internet Infidels. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
10. French, Chris. (2005). Near-Death Experiences in Cardiac Arrest Survivors. Progress in Brain Research 150: 351-367.
11. "University of Southampton". Southampton.ac.uk. 2008-09-10. Retrieved 2013-12-16.
12. Sebastian Dieguez. (2009). "NDE Experiment: Ethical Concerns". Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
13. ^ Jane Dreaper. (2008). "Study into near-death experiences". BBC News. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
14. AWARE Study Update 2014. Published online at Horizon Research Foundation.
15. Bowman, Lee (December 20, 2013). "Scientists looking closer at what happens when body dies; edge closer to new understanding". WEWS-TV. Scripps Howard News Service. Retrieved 2014-05-24.

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• Living people
• Alumni of the University of Southampton
• Near-death experiences