Is There Life after Death? Fifty Years of Research at UVA

February 22, 2017
Jim B. Tucker
Bruce Greyson
Edward F. Kelly
J. Kim Penberthy

Does some aspect of our personality survive bodily death? Long a philosophical and theological question, in the 20th century this became the subject of scientific research. Fifty years ago, in 1967, Ian Stevenson, then chair of UVA's Department of Psychiatry, created a research unit—now named the Division of Perceptual Studies—to study what, if anything, of the human personality survives after death. Dr. Stevenson's own research investigated hundreds of accounts of young children who claimed to recall past lives.

In this Medical Center Hour, faculty from the Division of Perceptual Studies highlight the unit's work since its founding, including studies of purported past lives, near-death experiences, and mind-brain interactions in phenomena such as deep meditation, veridical out-of-body experiences, deathbed visions, apparent communication from deceased persons, altered states of consciousness, and terminal lucidity in persons with irreversible brain damage. As the division enters its second half-century, what are its research priorities and partnerships?

History of the Health Sciences Lecture
Co-presented with Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library and the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, UVA

[ezrc]

all I know, is I miss my mom - and I hope she is living in love and joy with god. Amen

[barbarachipley]

I never want to come back here. once is enough thanks.

[donlunn]

For what it is worth.My Wife was absolutely fine, And was ready to go and meet her friends to go to a WI Carol concert.Four minutes later she died in my arms.I said to her I’m calling 999, (This is the UK.)The last words she said was “NO” and tried to snatch the phone from my hand.The paramedics arrived and could do nothing.I honestly believe that she did not want to come back.It was her time.And she was in that place where she wanted to be.Despite the love that we had for each other.This is the first time I have shared this on the internet.but this site is absolutely right.

[LeonardoRicardoSanto]

I am a retired, male, U.S.A. citizen living in Guatemala. I just watched YouTube presentation given by the Davision of Perpetual Studies, University of Virginia. I remembered my own experience when watching the panel. I will be 75 years old soon. I can't remember the year exactly at the moment but I had a surgery at Cedar Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles (probably mid-80's). I went in early in the morning to have a lump removed on my left tricep. It was not to be a very serious operation but I had to wait (on a gurney and in a gown, non-premedicated) until around noon when they wheeled me in. I was very nerous and I way laying on my stomach with my left arm up cluting a guide rail connected to the gurney. I believe the surgeon used a local and it did NOT deaden the area. He proceeded to cut away and instructed the nurse to "get the blood here"...I had a terrible pain that felt searing and I was hot...the surgeon impatient. I passed out (later I found out it was code blue and I went into convultions and died)...what I felt, knew and saw was the following: Immediately I was released into a cool atmosphere with no pain and I was glad and free...it was odd, I felt very good, almost refreshed as I was going doward, free floating, into what looked like a gray freight elevator shaft (without the elevator) at some point a looming black male shadow appeared slightly above me and repeated said, strongly, not friendly, very male and I had never hear that voice before..."Leonard go back" .. repeatedly (maybe three or four times the same. I awoke and there was a special team working on me..several doctors and medical professionals and I was still in the operating room and they took me into the same room I was in before and curtained me off...they kept checking my pulse every few minutes for a couple of hours and then sent me home and to a cardiologist later and my own Doctor right away. That's my "experience" and it was not frightening, it was relief from pain and the cool feeling was something I remember liking very much. If you would like more information I will be happy to contact you directly or email...I now live in a small village at the foot of the Volcan de Fuego (it recently erupted and didn't frighten me, few things do). Leonard R. Clark, santosiempre at yahoo dot com.

[rocioaguilera]

People from the third world DO talk about a tunnel of light. I'm a Mexican cardiologist, and many of my patients who were reanimated (we don't say resuscitate because we're not gods who can resuscitate anything) told me about those experiences . I didn't find any cultural differences. Some of them were Catholic, some Protestant, some athieists. Some were postgraduates, some had difficulty to read and write; All of them had very similar experiences.
I want to congratulate the scientists who gave the lecture because of their open mind. Real scientists are open to study anything without dogmatism

[Elkycreates]

A day after my father died I was awoken by his hand caressing my head. That’s what he used to do when I was a child.

[EyeOfDestiny]

I was in a head on car crash 18 years ago. Hit by a car on the wrong side of the road. Scull crushed in, one eye destroyed, front of my brain left as scar tissue after a serious traumatic brain injury, collapsed lungs leading to a cardiac arrest, both lower legs crushed with left ankle cut through to free me from the car I was trapped for 40 minutes in. I was resuscitated in the car by a paramedic & then in the ambulance by a doctor at the scene. I was given just 2 hours to live as told by my police inspector that night, my team manager as I was a police officer then in London, but hit in my own car on a day off from work. In a coma for 2 weeks, 4 weeks in intensive care, 3 months in hospital. I have quite a run of memories of the moments after collision and before waking from the coma. With the help of a skilled regression hypnotherapist, I also remember looking down at where the cars came to rest after impact. Today, I'm almost reduced to tears when I relive that moment and more so the incredible experiences of a place I was in before I woke up after being brain dead, physically almost dead and with almost no hint today that ever happened, my scull has been rebuilt, my remaining brain has adapted and I am left pondering the reality of what I touched when I watch well presented cases of such research.

[ingeborgsvensson]

Watching all those people walking around staring at their smart phones all day make me wonder: is there life before death?

[selihter]

My dad died. I'm really looking forward to asking him a trillion questions 😭

[bangeru]

I'm a medical doctor and find the subject of consciousness and death extremely relevant for life and the fundamental health of our civilisation.

[jasonthomas]

Loved every had a NDE when I was 19 I'm now 43, ever since I no Longer fear Death cause I know that there is somewhere Much Better then where we are now.

[emersidehack]

Dr. J. Kim Penberthy;
Hearing you speak of the similarities between NDE and meditation. Is so true. I did a lot of years in prison where I took part in a ten year meditation unit where my life took on a life changing experience. I did not get religious but did have a spiritual change. I must say that self forgiveness only comes from recognizing true change in one's life. And death is only getting to the next level, as in a video game. 😊
Treasure yourself.

[DeborahGregH]

Yes there is life after death. I had a NDE a couple of months ago and it's like so many others have described. A more intense reality, a perfect calm, no and sight, but you don't miss your all are souls and we all have bodies so we can function on Earth. Live a good life, be kind to one another....and believe those of us who tell you, don't be afraid to die....it is wonderful and it is PERFECT!

[poppierosepoppiestoys]

I died in the ambulance and was resuscitated by the ambulance officer, whilst that was going on I rose above my body. I watch the whole thing. It was a life changing experience. I didn't move past being in the ambulance, but I wish I got to see family member that had past but time will come one day.

[SLJR]

There are way too many examples of people who died and then saw their body, other people in the room, people in other rooms, objects on the roof of the building, family members they didn’t know existed, and people they didn’t know died for it to just be a coincidence. People can scream DMT all they want, but that doesn’t explain how a person knows what is going on in the room or in other rooms when they are dead. There appears to be some sort of life after death, but I’m not sure how it works. I don’t know if it’s similar to religious texts where all the good people go to one place and bad people go to another, but something seems to happen when we die. And these experiences are all the ones we know about. There may be some who had similar experiences, but just don’t remember when they woke up. I also find it creepy that there have been experiences where people find out about dead relatives when they die. I heard this story where a kid had a NDE and while he was dead, he experienced what he felt was heaven and saw his sister there. She said something about him having to go back. The parents didn’t know what to think and when they went to call her, they found out she did indeed die. Again, that can’t just be a coincidence or chance that he just happened to dream that. This isn’t even a wishful thinking post or me hoping for some kind of afterlife. I’m looking at documented cases where things don’t add up and seem to point to their being one. I’ve always found it interesting how so many people like to shoot these things down and try to say there is no God or chance of an afterlife. It’s one thing to be skeptical, but it’s another to completely dismiss something just because you can’t see it or don’t want to believe in it. This isn’t even a religious post either. I just think that when there are countless experiences like these, there has to be some truth to it. Call me an idiot all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are things in this world we don’t understand and may never understand.

[alicemorton]

I always treat the deceased with great respect. I talk to them while preparing for the mortuary & always open the window to release the soul. My colleagues do the same. You just never know🤤

[hosseinghanbari]

I am so glad to have clicked on this video to watch. I am so relaxed NOW. I have been concerned about the topic in hand ever since I have known myself.

[pauladowning]

I have been working off and on with Dr Greyson regarding the several NDE's I have had. This is serious research. I am so glad he is studying this phenomenon because it is so very important! There truly is Life after Life!

[pureenergy]

I had a NDE but I don't remember leaving my body. I remember a raging, grieving parent that made me run and hide and cry all the time. She believed in death and racism and enemies and God. I did not believe in death, racism or enemies. I heard and felt invisible beings around a lot of the time. I know these beings listened to me because they responded to my fears with comforting voices.
I told others about these beings and I was bullied for it. I did not believe in death and I was bullied for it. I became super anti social because of this. And still, today, this society bullies others constantly if they know death is a lie, including me. I know that i am eternal, but there is no space on forms for the word "eternal" as age. My race I list as energy.
It is not only that invisible beings became my family when I was a child, but I have read around 200 books on the subject over the years. When I found quantum physics I was stunned that there is no wave/particle duality after all. Yet many people still teach this. What is called solidity is actually waves that bunch up into frequencies. That is it. Waves saturated within waves, all spinning from points of light called consciousness. Waves of energy/consciousness don't just exist out of no where. There as to be a center, a singularity and that is a point of light, an awareness.
"The Quantum World" is a book written by the physicist Ford. In my words, he wrote: 'magically bursting forth are quarks spinning billions of times a second as 3 points of light, forming what are called protons and neutrons.' That is 6 points of light for each hydrogen atom plus 1 point of light for the electron. 7 points of light spinning billions of times a second as a hydrogen atom. There are 7, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 atoms spinning as a "human body". But the "human body" spins also as carbon and oxygen atoms which spin as many more points of light.
What am I to do with this? Nobody I know anywhere considers this real. How can we believe we are solid, and yet still spinning light? In the book "Hands of Light" written by the NASA physicist Barbara Brennan is the word "hologram". In my words, she has written that people are holograms existing/pulsating as 12 frequency bands all at the same time. That makes people multidimensional holographic eternal energy/light/love beings. Right now. This means that we are never dead. Around 10 of these frequency bands leave a body at what is called "death". The other 2 frequency bands where energy has bunched up so tightly into frequencies, stay to be buried.
I have found huge numbers in several books that describe these super fast pulsations that are people. In the book "The Hidden Messages in Water" by Emoto I found the number 570 trillion times a second that describes how fast "humans" pulsate. In the book "The Quantum World" quarks spin billions of times a second as light. In Seth books channeled by Jane Roberts I find the word "millions" that describes how fast "people" as light forms are refreshed. That sounds like a hologram to me. All of this sounds like constant creation to me.
So, is there life after death? My opinion from experiences and reading is that there is no death anywhere at anytime. What is called the Unified Field or God or consciousness is always pulsating as a huge number of frequency bands/realities/dimensions. And we as holographic "people" are constantly connected/refreshed/saturated within this/these dimensions. This is God's consciousness that we breathe, eat, walk with, sit down with, think with. God is the short word for everything pulsating everywhere all the time. WOW.
I channeled these invisible beings as a child. I know this because I was really smart and people hated me. Nobody appreciated it. Now days, unless a person can know something that is not evident, then these invisible beings are called a sham.
When I was praying/wishing the best for others in my 20's earth time, I made myself known for the times I hugged people and their pains disappeared. I felt energy flow in and out of me. I felt these invisible beings fly though me, walk in to me, and lie next to me. I learned to heal myself really fast just by changing my thoughts, since thoughts are imagery and imagery is the holographic body itself. Are we magic? YES. Would you know where to start spinning quarks into protons and neutrons?

[anapriscilarodriguez]

Thank you for sharing this. Amazing video! I lost my dad 16months ago and I have been since then doing a lot of research on the after life. I am absolutely agnostic although raised Protestant in a Catholic country, I have concluded by what I have heard from different sources and philosophies, that there is definitely something after we passed. We don't know anything for a fact (-as a good agnostic) but I am very pleased to know that science is asking the same questions... and it gives me peace of mind to believe that my dad "maybe" didn't just go into thin air and into the nothing.