In 2001, cardiologist Pim van Lommel published in the renowned medical journal The Lancet about his research into near-death experiences. It concerned a study of 344 Dutch patients who had survived a cardiac arrest in the hospital. Of them, 62 were found to have experienced near-death experiences. Van Lommel’s article was world news.
Since then, we can no longer ignore the phenomenon of ‘near-death experience’. It is an authentic experience that cannot be traced back to fantasy, psychosis or oxygen deficiency. A near-death experience permanently changes people.
Endless consciousness
In his book Endless Consciousness, Van Lommel explains step by step how people who are clinically dead can still have such a penetrating experience. He peppers his argument with stories of people who have experienced a near-death experience. Van Lommel has had personal contact with most of them.
According to Van Lommel, the prevailing, materialistic view of doctors, philosophers and psychologists on the relationship between brain and consciousness is too limited to be able to interpret the phenomenon. There are good reasons to believe that our consciousness does not always coincide with the functioning of our brain: it can also be experienced separately from our body.
Near death experiences
In 1986, Van Lommel read Return from the Death of George Ritchie, which did not let him go, so he started researching near-death experiences (NDE) in patients who survived cardiac arrest. He published this research in 2001 in the British medical journal The Lancet. He also wrote more than twenty articles about this and several chapters for books on the subject. In 2007 he published the book Endless Consciousness – A Scientific Vision of the Near-Death Experience. This book has been translated into several languages and more than a hundred thousand copies have been sold.[1][2] This placed the book in the CPNB top ten of books on ‘body and mind’ in 2007.[3]
Pim van Lommel
Pim van Lommel (born March 15, 1943 in Laren) is a Dutch cardiologist, researcher and writer, best known for his book Endless Consciousness (2007) about near-death experiences. Van Lommel attended gymnasium β in Hilversum, after which he studied medicine at Utrecht University. He specialized in cardiology and graduated in 1971. From 1977 to 2003 he worked as a cardiologist at the Rijnstate Hospital in Arnhem. Van Lommel has written several scientific articles on cardiological topics.
Nowadays, Van Lommel is active as a researcher and publicist, and speaks about the relationship between consciousness and the brain.