Spike in end-of-life brain activity could be evidence of ‘soul’ leaving the body, expert says
By
Richard Pollina
Published Feb. 19, 2025, 2:37 a.m. ET
A flair of energy in the brain in a dying patient who had “no blood pressure” or “heart rate” could be evidence of the “soul leaving the body” after death, according to an expert.
Dr. Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist and professor of anesthesiology and psychology, said a recent study monitoring a clinically dead patient’s brain with sensors from an electroencephalogram (EEG) captured the strange burst of energy after death.
“They saw everything go away and then [psh] you got this activity when there was no blood pressure, no heart rate,” Hameroff told
Project Unity in an interview Tuesday.
Anesthesiologist and professor of anesthesiology and psychology Dr. Stuart Hameroff.@TheProjectUnity/X
“So that could be the near-death experience, or it could be the soul leaving the body, perhaps.”
The anesthesiologist said the burst of activity called gamma synchrony — a type of brain wave pattern linked to conscious thought, awareness, and perception — was picked up on the EEG and sometimes lasts “30 to 90 seconds” before it’s gone when the patient is already clinically dead.
While the University of Arizona professor said that skeptics have argued that it’s the “last gasp” of neurons firing off after death or simply an “illusion,” he argues that it could be consciousness leaving the body.
He speculates that consciousness may not need the same amount of “energy consumption” other activities in the brain require and is found at a “deeper level,” making it “the last thing to go” during the dying process.
“The point is it shows that consciousness is actually, probably, a very low energy process,” he said.
Hameroff said a recent study monitoring a clinically dead patient’s brain with sensors from an electroencephalogram (EEG) captured the strange burst of energy after death.@TheProjectUnity/X
Hameroff speculates that consciousness may not need the same amount of “energy consumption” other activities in the brain require and is found at a “deeper level,” making it “the last thing to go” during the dying process.samunella – stock.adobe.com
Hameroff claims Dr. Lakhmir Chawla first pioneered this monitoring in a study, and anesthesiologists have regularly used EEG to monitor brain-dead patients giving organs to ensure there is no brain activity before the process.
“This has been a fairly reproducible event, not 100% like 50% of patients show this when you measure it,” he said.
Hameroff also
cited a study by Dr. Robin Lester Carhart-Harris — a researcher who studies how drugs affect mental health and behavior — where he had volunteers go into MRI machines or be monitored by EEGs and gave them a drip of the psychoactive compound psilocybin.
Hameroff explained that Carhart-Harris instructed the volunteers to close their eyes, stay quiet, do nothing, and tell them what the experience was like after the test.
The subjects later told Carhart-Harris that they were experiencing “vivid hallucinations” and “basically tripping,” but the MRI was “cold and dark as if they were comatose” and showed no brain activity.
“I think they were expecting the MRI to light up like a pinball machine when they gave them the psilocybin because all this stuff would be going on,” Hameroff said.
“They were at a loss to explain this.”
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Hameroff said the activity “could be the soul leaving the body, perhaps.”
While Hameroff said that skeptics have argued that it’s the “last gasp” of neurons firing off after death or simply an “illusion,” he argues that it could be consciousness leaving the body.Nomad_Soul – stock.adobe.com
Hameroff — who said he was chairing one of the sessions — asked if it could be because consciousness is happening at “a deeper quantum level.”
“Quantum level brain activity” is a theory that specific brain functions may operate on a small scale within neurons, beyond traditional information processing through classical neural pathways, according to
Neuroscience News.
Research into the theory investigates the possibility that the brain might utilize quantum mechanical processes, suggesting that consciousness could be a collective quantum vibration within neurons.
Hameroff believes Carhart-Harris’s study could also point to why it could be the same reason “end-of-life” brain activity spikes after a patient dies.
“I think consciousness is actually low energy,” he said.
But you're also right. Hospice caregivers would agree.
