AwareofAware

Blink and You Missed It

Well, it appears that I owe Dr. Parnia an apology. It turns out that he was true to his word and did indeed present the preliminary results of the AWARE study in November at the American Heart Association convention in Dallas. The reason I say “blink and you missed it” is because the results were presented in a poster on Sunday 17^th November at 7.00am. In other words, it was not considered a headline grabbing piece of science, and looking at the details of the results, I am inclined to agree. Part of the reason I missed it was the fact I was relying on the Horizon website and the Nour foundation website for reports as I believe that both organizations are closely linked to this project. Neither have reported the results which can be found at the conference website.

Overview of the abstract:

Design: A prospective cohort study in 25 hospitals from the UK, US and Austria to determine the incidence of awareness (auditory and visual) during Cardiac Arrest (CA). The accuracy of these accounts was assessed by installing shelves in various locations with images on them. Also, staff were encouraged to use various auditory cues during resuscitation procedures (this conjures up some potential comedy moments during an otherwise very serious situation – did they suddenly talk about the latest episode of Breaking Bad while they were pumping 300 joules through a defibrillator?).

Results: 2060 cardiac events, 32% (657) survived of whom 23% (152) were interviewed. Of the 152, 37% had auditory or visual recollections from the period of unconsciousness, and 30% of these achieved a Greyson score ≥ 7 (the Greyson score is a composite of different classic elements of an NDE developed by Bruce Greyson, one of the pioneers of research into NDEs). Only two patients remembered actually seeing events, but neither of these were in areas with images. One of the patients accurately described verifiable events during a 3-5 minute period.

These results are very much in line with what Dr. Parnia wrote in his book Erasing Death. There is a little detail added, but most importantly still no fully verified OBEs, the vital smoking gun that is needed to provide hard scientific evidence of the existence of a consciousness (soul) that is able to survive death.

These results are disappointing but also not surprising, for reasons outlined in the book Aware of Aware, and by Dr. Parnia himself. There were limitations in the methods used to verify the OBEs and also in other aspects such as the age of the subjects, and the time between the CA and interview.

Whilst the data itself does not add anything new (previous studies have showed similar results), the fact that the study is ongoing, and that the methods are being refined, suggests that the investigators are hopeful of getting that illusive verified OBE. They believe that NDEs are real, and these are people who have witnessed with their own eyes the numerous inexplicable incidences of those who have returned from death with accounts of events that can only be explained by the fact that the conscious lives beyond death.

So, for those of us who are “believers”, it is very much business as usual…our discussions with others on this subject are still largely based on “faith”.

No News is…No News

So there were no results from the Aware study published in November, contrary to what Sam Parnia had told us earlier in the year. If there had been anything then the Horizon website, or the IANDS website would have referenced it by now. This is obviously very disappointing for anyone, like myself, who has been waiting for the results with great anticipation for a number of years. Depending on your personality type you might react to this in a number of different ways:

•  Optimist: No news is good news…the Aware study team have had a number of verified OBEs recently, and are thoroughly investigating and validating these reports so that they withstand the kind of rigorous scientific scrutiny which they would no doubt be subjected to.
•  Pessimist: No news is bad news…the study team have become so bored by the lack of verified NDEs that they couldn’t be bothered to write the results of the study up.
•  Conspiracy Theorist: No news means the Government/Illimunati/dragon people have got to Dr. Parnia and his colleagues, destroyed all the data proving the existence of the soul so they can continue to turn mankind into debt ridden slaves to the corporate masters that control the world.
•  Scientist: No news is…no news. Without knowledge of the results by being involved with the study or knowing any of the investigators, any attempt at trying to interpret the lack of data is futile.

I am a scientist, first and foremost, but a bit of an optimist too, so I am hoping the delay is due to the fact that they do have something interesting to write up. If you have read Aware of Aware, then you will know that I predicted there should be at least a couple of verified OBEs if the soul does indeed exist…and since I am convinced in myself that our conscious is an entity that will persist beyond our physical deaths, and that our bodies are no more just meat suits, I will be surprised if there are no positive results at all.

 Whatever the reason for the extended delay, it is frustrating, and I do hope that it won’t be too long before Dr. Parnia puts us out of our misery.