The Science of Death | The Living Feel It Too

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Why Files: Operation Podcast

Episode 638: The Science of Death | The Living Feel It Too

Released: March 27, 2026

Host: AJ (The Why Files) | Sidekick: Co-host/Commentator

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Overview

This episode of “The Why Files” dives into the phenomena of Shared Death Experiences (SDEs)—moments when the living report sensing, witnessing, or even participating in elements typically associated with a dying person’s passage. The show contrasts skeptical scientific explanations with a variety of remarkable witness accounts, emphasizing the cross-cultural and transformative nature of SDEs. Building on decades of research and compelling firsthand stories, the episode explores whether these shared moments suggest a consciousness that survives bodily death, or if they're a trick of the mind.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Shared Death Experiences (SDEs)

• Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) vs. Shared Death Experiences (SDEs):
  • NDEs are experienced by those close to death. SDEs are experienced by healthy people present at or even far removed from the scene of death ([01:45 – 03:00]).
• Classic elements: Tunnel of light, dead relatives, overwhelming peace, transformation of room geometry, life reviews shared with bystanders.
  • “The experience was described as more real than real, a phrase that kept showing up independently in report after report.” (Host, [03:09])

2. Notable Case Studies & Witness Accounts

• Jeff Olson’s accident and hospital SDE ([06:51 – 08:47]):
  • Both a doctor (Jeff O’Driscoll) and a nurse see the spirit of Olson’s deceased wife, paralleling Olson’s own NDE where his wife tells him he must return for their surviving son.
  • “She was almost transparent, but vibrant, more alive than anyone else in that room.” (AJ, [07:26])
• Historical accounts:
  • German soldier Carl Scala’s battle SDE with a friend ([09:01 – 09:55]).
  • William Peters, a hospice worker, is pulled out of body and floats above a dying patient, later confirming the phenomenon when attending a Raymond Moody lecture ([10:54 – 12:37]).
• Remote SDEs ([12:55 – 14:00]):
  • 64% of Peters' collected cases are remote; the experiencer is unaware or not present at the time of death.
  • Example: “Annie Capp was sitting in her London office when she started choking... She called the hospital. Betty died while Annie was on the phone.” (Host, [11:45])
  • Other anecdotes include Mark, who has a telepathic vision of his father’s death while on a plane ([12:52]).

3. Broader Patterns & Cultural Context

• Children’s accounts:
  • Very young children report SDEs with details they could not possibly know ([13:50]).
  • Quote: “A four year old described her dead grandfather down to the scar on his left hand. She’d never met him. She’d never even seen a photo of him.” (Host, [13:58])
• Cultural practices:
  • Tibetan Buddhists’ “pawa” ritual mirrors SDE accounts, as do Aboriginal Australian death rituals ([17:41]).
  • Ancient and modern records consistently describe similar phenomena across religions and geographies.

4. Pet Experiences

• Even animals may be involved:
  • Dogs and cats displaying behavior as if seeing something unseen at the moment of death.
  • “A woman saw her dead cat sitting at the foot of her dying father's bed, purring. The cat had been gone for three years.” (Host, [17:25])

5. Scientific Research and Studies

• Peer-reviewed science on SDEs ([20:06 – 22:47]):
  • William Peters’ 2021 study categorized SDE experiences into four types: knowing the exact moment of death, witnessing phenomena (light, mist, music), feeling pulled into the experience, and actively assisting the dying.
  • Pim van Lommel’s study: “The clarity of consciousness was inversely related to the loss of brain function. That is the opposite of everything neuroscience predicts.” (Host, [21:16])
  • NYU’s AWARE II and University of Michigan studies found organized brain activity and gamma waves associated with higher consciousness post-mortem.
• Cross-cultural deathbed studies:
  • Osis & Haraldsson: 50% of dying patients reported consistent visions, regardless of cultural or religious expectations ([23:49]).

6. Skeptical Explanations

• Psychological explanations:
  • Shared psychosis, memory reconstruction, confirmation or expectation bias ([25:58 – 27:15]).
    • “Shared psychosis is a real thing, where people in high stress situations can unconsciously mirror each other's experiences.” (Host, [25:59])
• Biochemical explanations:
  • Natural production of DMT, likening NDEs and SDEs to psychedelic experiences ([27:41]).
• Notable Critics:
  • Physicist Sean Carroll argues consciousness cannot survive death.
  • Joe Nichols posits SDEs are psychological defense mechanisms.

7. Arguments Against Pure Skepticism

• “These explanations don’t cover remote SDEs... They don’t explain multiple witness cases where people in the same room saw the same things. They don’t explain children.” (Host, [28:00 – 29:00])
• The cross-cultural similarity and cases with multiple, independent witnesses defy many skeptical models.

8. What Remains Unanswered

• Mechanism is unknown:
  • Science has not yet explained how or why SDEs happen, who will have them, or how to measure them ([29:41]).
  • The experiences are transformative regardless of the explanation.

9. Final Reflections & Thematic Message

• On grief and connection:
  • “Maybe SDEs are an elegant defense mechanism built into all of us. Or maybe when someone dies, something actually happens.” (Host, [30:52])
• Memorable closing quote:
  • “The body dies, but the connection continues. When it's time to go, someone's already there, waiting to walk us home.” (Host, [31:02])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The experience was described as more real than real, a phrase that kept showing up independently in report after report.” (Host, [03:09])
• “She was almost transparent, but vibrant, more alive than anyone else in that room.” (AJ, on Tamara’s apparition, [07:26])
• “A four year old described her dead grandfather down to the scar on his left hand. She’d never met him. She’d never even seen a photo of him.” (Host, [13:58])
• “The clarity of consciousness was inversely related to the loss of brain function. That is the opposite of everything neuroscience predicts.” (Host, [21:16])
• “If STEs were purely psychological, they'd vary across religions. But Hindu and Christian patients describe the same experience the same way.” (Host, [28:55])
• “The body dies, but the connection continues. When it's time to go, someone's already there, waiting to walk us home.” (Host, [31:02])

Comic Moments:

• Co-host jokes about STDs instead of SDEs ([05:28]; [08:50])
• Pop culture banter:
  • “So that means the Incredible Hulk, the best Avenger, operates on a higher level.” (Co-host, [22:59])
  • “Bruce Banner was exposed to gamma radiation, not waves.” (Host, [23:04])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Shared Death Experiences Introduction & Definitions: [00:31 – 03:00]
• Dramatic Hospital and NDE Accounts: [06:51 – 08:47]
• William Peters, Remote SDEs, and Cross-continental Witnessing: [10:54 – 14:00]
• Children and Pet Cases: [13:40 – 17:30]
• Ancient Rituals and Cultural Parallels: [17:41 – 18:55]
• Scientific Studies (Peters, Van Lommel, AWARE II, culture studies): [20:06 – 24:50]
• Skeptical Arguments & Their Limitations: [25:58 – 29:40]
• Concluding Reflections & Big Picture: [29:41 – 31:02]

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Conclusion

The episode presents compelling narrative evidence and research that challenge a purely materialist perspective on death, suggesting that SDEs may point toward a deeper, possibly non-local consciousness. The host acknowledges the strength and limitations of skeptical explanations but emphasizes that the sheer consistency and transformative impact of these experiences—on believers, skeptics, adults, children, and even pets—imply something profound and universal. Whether SDEs are artifacts of grief-stricken brains or a glimpse into continuity beyond death, they reveal that, at the threshold of life and death, our connections transcend biology.

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If you’re intrigued by questions at the edge of science and the mysteries that bind us, this episode is an engaging, emotional, and thought-provoking journey.

Transcript

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for storewide deals that earn four times a points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Lindor, Chips Ahoy, Gatorade, Host, Ziplock, and Zoa. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pick up or delivery restrictions apply. See website for full terms and conditions.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Jeff was on the operating table. A car accident a few hours earlier killed his wife and son. Now Jeff was fighting for his life. While doctors and nurses scrambled, a woman floated above the table. She was almost transparent, but glowing. It was Tamara, Jeff's wife. Tamara was smiling. She looked peaceful, grateful. Now, you've heard this story before. A dead relative showing up at the moment of death. Skeptics say this is just a hallucination caused by the brain shutting down. But that theory doesn't apply here, because Jeff didn't see his wife floating in the room. The doctor did. In 1975, Raymond Moody published Life After Life. He coined the term near death experience. The book sold 13 million copies. Moody had interviewed more than 100 people who'd been clinically dead and came back. Their stories were almost identical. A tunnel, an overwhelming light. Deceased relatives waiting for them. A sense of peace so deep it changed their lives. Skeptics had answers for all of it. Oxygen deprivation caused tunnel vision. Endorphins flood the brain, creating a sense of peace. The temporal lobe, under stress, creates visions of dead relatives. For decades, those answers held. But over the next 30 years, Moody kept hearing from a different kind of witness. These weren't people who died and come back. These were people who'd been sitting at someone's bedside when the person passed and experienced the exact same thing. The tunnel, the light, the deceased relatives. And they were healthy and fully conscious. Moody called this an ste shared death experience.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Ah, that makes more sense.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

The elements were consistent across hundreds of reports. Witnesses described a mist, something like golden gray smoke, rising from the dying person's body. Researcher Peter Fenwick collected collected similar accounts from healthcare workers across the uk. They described it as smoke, a gray mist, or a very wispy white shape leaving the body, usually from the chest or through the head. Some saw the mist form into a transparent shape of the person. Others described music, not hospital sounds. Something unearthly, beautiful and complex in ways they couldn't put into words.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Oh, like Enya?

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

No, not like.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Sorry, sorry. Go, go. Go ahead.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

So they heard music. Then there was the light. It was overwhelming and came from everywhere. A brilliance that witnesses said felt like love. The experience was described as more real than real, a phrase that kept showing up independently in report after report. Something else witnesses consistently described. The shape of the room changed. Walls that no longer met at right angles. The space collapsed and expanded at the same time. One woman describ witnessing an alternative geometry. A hospital room, small, rectangular and ordinary, took on the shape of a funnel hundreds of feet long. Some bystanders got pulled into something even stranger. The dying person's life review. They saw memories that weren't theirs. Episodes from the dying person's past playing out like a movie. Multiple witnesses in the same room later confirmed they saw the same scenes. A woman watched her husband's childhood unfold before her eyes. Memories she'd never heard before. Another family watched their dying father share serving in a war, complete with faces and names of soldiers they'd never known. No skeptical model explains how healthy people access someone else's memories. Moody knew this sounded impossible. Then it happened to him. On May 9, 1994, Moody's mother was dying of cancer. Six family members gathered around her bed. As they held hands, four of the six felt themselves lifting off the ground. The room morphed into an hourglass. Moody described a pull, like a riptide, but upward. Then the light changed. One of his sisters pointed and said, look, Dad's here. He's come back to get her. Their father had been dead for almost two years. All six had an experience that night. Moody described it in one of his books. The room changed shape. The light was soft, fuzzy, like looking at a pool at night. And then it hit all of us at the same time. The fabric of the universe had torn. And for just a moment, we felt the energy of that place called heaven. After 50 years of research, Raymond Moody said it was shared death experiences that finally convinced him the afterlife is real. Not the thousands of NDEs, the SDEs. The most convincing cases weren't the ones where the experience was shared by family, friends, and other people close to the dying. The most convincing cases were the experiences shared by complete strangers.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Are you sure we're not talking about STDs? This sounds like a retirement community in Florida.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

You stepped on my cliffhanger.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

But I was trying to get a little clarity. Jeez.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Look, I don't need any of that. I need you to stick to the script, look at the prompter, and no one don't just jump in.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock up savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for store wide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Hunts, Nerds, Pillsbury, Lowry's, Breyers, Quaker and Culture Pop. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pick up or delivery restrictions apply. See website for full terms and conditions.

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[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

It was Easter weekend, 1997. Jeff Olson fell asleep at the wheel driving home. The car rolled eight times at 75 miles an hour. His wife, Tamara, and their 14 month old son Griffin, died at the scene. His seven year old son, Spencer, survived. Olson's legs were crushed. His back was broken. His stomach was torn open by the seatbelt. Doctors amputated his left leg above the knee. He spent six months in the hospital. 18 surgeries. Dr. Jeff O' Driscoll was working the ER the night Olson was airlifted in. He wasn't assigned to the case. A nurse named Rachel grabbed his arm and told him to come to the trauma room. She said Olson's wife was there. O' Driscoll knew what Rachel meant. They discovered something about each other months earlier. They both saw things they couldn't explain. O' Driscoll walked into the trauma bay. He looked at the gurney and saw a woman floating above Jeff Olson. She had curly blonde hair, flowing white clothes. She was almost transparent, but vibrant, more alive than anyone else in that room. She looked directly at me and smiled. Not a stranger's smile. She looked at me like she'd known me forever. Rachel saw her too. She said the woman radiated peace. While his body was on that gurney, Olson's consciousness was somewhere else. He was floating above the accident scene in what he later described as a bubble of light. His wife, Tamara, was floating next to him. She was calm. She was beautiful. She told him he couldn't stay. Olsen didn't want to go back. His wife was dead. His son was dead. His body was broken, but Tamara insisted he had to go back. Spencer needed him. Jeff o' Driscoll wrote the book not yet about his experience. Jeff Olsen wrote his own book knowing the two. Jeffs became lifelong friends and told their story together at conferences for years. Even though shared death experiences is a new term, STDs have been happening for a long time. What?

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

You said STDs.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

No, I said STDs.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

No, you didn't. Rewind the tape. I'm living in your head. Rent free, human rent free.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Carl Scala was a German soldier in World War I. He was crouched in a foxhole with his best friend when an artillery shell hit. Shrapnel everywhere. His friends slumped into to Scala's arms, dead. Then Scala felt his consciousness pull up and out of his body. He was floating above the battlefield, over the trenches. He saw the mud, the smoke, the bodies. His friend was floating next to him. They rose together toward a brilliant light. At some point, Scala stopped. He didn't know why, but his friend continued and disappeared into the light. Scala woke up in the foxhole, alive, holding the body of a man he'd just helped leave this world. There have been hundreds of cases of shared death experiences where people see an apparition, they hear music, they see light, they feel love. But you don't have to be in the same place as the dying to have this experience. You can have a shared death experience with someone thousands of miles away.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock up savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Lindor, Chips Ahoy, Gatorade, Host, Ziploc and Zoa. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pick up or delivery restrictions apply. See website for full terms and conditions

[Grainger or VRBoCare Commercial Voice]

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[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

In 2000, volunteer hospice worker William Peters sat beside a dying man named Ron. Ron was a former merchant marine, tough guy, quiet. Not many friends or families came to visit. Peters had been reading to him for weeks. One day, Peters was mid sentence when he felt something grab him. Not physically. His awareness was yanked upward and out of his body. Suddenly he was floating Above Ron's bed, looking down at the scene below, he saw himself sitting in the chair. Then he realized Ron was there too, floating next to him. Ron looked at Peters, completely at peace. Then Peters heard Ron speak. Check this out. Pretty amazing, right? Bet you didn't see this coming. Well, sorry, pal. Time for me to go. See you around. Then Peters awareness dropped back into his body. Ron died minutes later. Peters didn't tell anybody about this experience. He didn't know if it was his imagination or. Or if he was going crazy. Years later, he attended a lecture by Raymond Moody on shared death experiences. And for the first time, he heard someone describe exactly what he'd been through. It had a name. Other people had experienced it. He wasn't losing his mind. Peters founded the Shared crossing project in 2013 and started collecting cases. He now has more than 800. And here's what made the data genuinely strange. 64% of the STE's Peters collected were remote. The person having the experience wasn't at the bedside. They weren't even in the same state. Annie Capp was sitting in her London office when she started choking. She couldn't breathe for 25 minutes. She struggled for air with a growing sense of dread about her mother, Betty, who was in a hospital in Portland, Oregon, 5,000 miles away. She called the hospital. Betty died while Annie was on the phone. Annie had been sharing her mother's death from across the Atlantic Ocean. Then there's Mark. He was on a plane.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Let me guess. He was on a Spirit Airlines flight and wished for death.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

No. He was flying across the United States when he felt a telepathic connection to his father. Dying in a Canadian hospital, he heard his father say he didn't know how to do this. Mark visualized walking up a staircase with his father toward a light. At the top. They were greeted by Mark's grandmother. His father hugged her, turned to Mark, and told him. He didn't know it was this easy. Mark's phone rang minutes later. His brother told him their father had just passed away. But Mark already knew. One woman hadn't spoken to her ex husband in over a decade. One day, she suddenly felt his presence. She heard his voice in her mind. He thanked her for the years they'd shared. She texted her daughter right away. Her daughter said her father had just died. A bond she thought was broken reached across the years and the miles to say thank you and to say goodbye. Peters also collected cases involving children as young as three or four. They had no cultural framework for a shared death experience. But at the moment a grandparent or parent died. They described seeing a light mist come out of the body. Then the mist transformed into a figure. In some cases, the children accurately described dead relatives they'd never met. A four year old described her dead grandfather down to the scar on his left hand. She'd never met him. She'd never even seen a photo of him. Nurses, doctors, hospice workers, the people closest to death were seeing things they couldn't explain. And for decades they kept it to themselves. They didn't realize that shared death experiences happen all the time.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock Up Savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for store wide deals and earn four times the points look for in store tags. Earn on eligible items from Hunts, Nerds, Pillsbury, Lowry's, Breyers, Quaker and Culture Pop, then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pick up or delivery restrictions apply. See website for full terms and conditions. If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H Vac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Penny Sartore was preparing to bathe a dying patient. She touched the edge of his bed. Then everything stopped. The room around her disappeared. She could feel everything the patient was feeling, including his pain. Though he couldn't speak, she heard him leave me alone. I just want to go. Let me die in peace. Please just let me die. She snapped back to reality, and she didn't tell anyone for years. Instead, she spent the next five years conducting her own investigation. She published her findings in a book called the Wisdom of Near Death Experiences. This is more common than people think. In surveys of hospice workers, a high percentage report witnessing unexplained things at the moment of death. Lights, mist presences, temperature changes. Most never say a word because they're worried about losing their job. Julie McFadden is a hospice nurse who's now an educator and advocate for end of life awareness. Her patient, Randy, was a younger man who pushed everyone away. McFadden's team helped him reconnect with distant relatives. He lived nine months longer than anyone expected. On the day Randy died, Julie stopped to see him one last time. He was unconscious. She silently walked to her car and thought, goodbye, Randy. I hope you have a beautiful journey. Then suddenly, she heard him. Oh my gosh, Julie, Wow. I wish you could see this. And she could feel what Randy was feeling. If only I had known how good this was going to be, I wouldn't have been so afraid. It lasted about 30 seconds. Then her phone buzzed. Text from the nurse. Randy just passed away. Julie kept it secret for years until she realized these events were more common than she thought. Even pets show deathbed behavior. Bruce Grayson documented dozens of cases of comatose dogs suddenly sitting up and wagging their tails, smiling at something unseen. A woman saw her dead cat sitting at the foot of her dying father's bed, purring. The cat had been gone for three years.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

How can we kill one of your cats to test this theory?

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Oh, you go before any of the cats. Peters found that many SDE experiencers waited decades to tell anyone. 30 years, 40 years. They thought no one would believe them. Healthcare workers were the most silent of all, and none of this required religion. Peters recorded cases of committed atheists who had SDEs and were shaken. They weren't looking for a spiritual experience. They got one anyway. One culture figured this out a thousand years ago. Tibetan Buddhists have a practice called pawa. This is where the living help guide a dying person through the transition. They report the same the light, the tunnel, the people on the other side. One of the oldest spiritual traditions on earth built an entire practice around something Western science is only now starting to take seriously. And they're not the only ones. There are 8th century records of people witnessing a light while a monk passed away. Aboriginal Australians have traditions around communal dying. Community members gather and report shared spiritual experiences during death. This has been happening for as long as humans have been dying. We just stopped talking about it. But these experiences still won't convince skeptics. They don't want ancient legends or anecdotes. They want hard science. So let's give them that.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for storewide deals that earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Hunts, Nerds, Pillsbury, Lowry's, Breyers, Quaker, and Culture Pop. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pick up or delivery restrictions apply. See website for full terms and conditions.

[Grainger or VRBoCare Commercial Voice]

When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

In 2021, Peters and his research team published a study in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. It was the first peer reviewed study focused specifically on shared death experiences. They analyzed 164 SDEs from 107 people and found four different ways people experienced them. Some sensed the exact moment where someone died without being told. Others witnessed something strange at the bedside. Mist, light, shapes or music at the moment of death. A third group felt pulled into the experience, dragged into a tunnel or toward a light alongside the dying person. And the fourth, the rarest and most intense, felt. They actively helped guide someone through. They walked them to the other side. The after effects were just as profound. 87% of experiencers became convinced of an afterlife. Not hopeful, convinced. Their grief didn't disappear. But it was put into context. The loss was real, but it was wrapped in something bigger. Their fear of death vanished. But stes didn't come out of nowhere. The broader science of consciousness at death had been building for years. In 2001, cardiologist Pim Van Lommel published a study in the Lancet. He'd spent 13 years studying near death experiences across 10 hospitals. His team tracked 344 cardiac arrest survivors. Every one of them had been clinically dead. Heart stopped, brain flatlined. 18% reported near death experiences. They were detailed and vivid in someone who is supposed to be dead. Van Lommel came to a conclusion. These experiences occurred during a period of clinical death. No heartbeat, no brain activity, no blood flow. The clarity of consciousness was inversely related to the loss of brain function. That is the opposite of everything neuroscience predicts. The less the brain was alive, the clearer the experience. That's the opposite of what neuroscience says should happen. Anna Katerina Ermer proved this. She was a 26 year old woman in a German institution for the severely mentally disabled. She never spoke a single word in her entire life. In the half hour before her death, she spontaneously began singing Multiple staff members witnessed this. Michael Nam and Bruce Grayson published the case study in 2014. A brain that never worked right suddenly worked perfectly fine at the moment of death. In 2023, two studies pushed the science even further. Samparnia's Aware2 study at NYU monitored 567 cardiac arrest patients across 25 hospitals with portable EEG machines during active CPR. Hemogorzian's team at the University of Michigan published in PNAS monitoring brain activity when ventilators were removed from comatose patients. Both studies found organized brain activity where there should be none. Parnia found gamma waves associated with higher consciousness up to an hour after the heart stopped.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

So that means the Incredible Hulk, the best avenger, operates on a higher level.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Bruce Banner was exposed to gamma radiation, not waves.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Oh my sweet summer. Human gamma radiation travels as an electromagnetic wave. So check and mate. I'm smarter than you.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Actually, it's more of a wave particle duality you see in quantum mechanics.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Stop. Just. Just stop. I'm sorry I even said anything. Move on, human.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Borgin found surges of gamma oscillations in the 30 seconds to 2 minutes after ventilator removal. Specifically in the temporoparieto occipital junction. Try saying that twice. The brain region associated with consciousness, dreaming and out of body experiences. These weren't random spikes. The brain was producing organized thought patterns while it was supposed to be dead. And then there was the cross cultural evidence. In the 1970s, researchers Carlos Osis and Erlender Howelsen conducted the biggest deathbed study anyone had ever done, surveying tens of thousands of cases across the United States and India. 50% of dying patients experienced deathbed visions. The visions were consistent across both cultures despite completely different religious expectations. Hindu patients didn't always see Hindu deities. Christian patients didn't always see Jesus. The structure of the experience, the light, the beings, the overwhelming peace. That was the same regardless of what the person believed. If these experiences were just cultural expectation, the content would vary. But it didn't. We disagree on just about everything. Politics, religion, what's worth dying for. But when someone we love is dying, we all go quiet. And we all feel the same thing. And maybe that's the point. Death isn't meant to separate us. It's the one thing we all share. And it's the one thing that brings us all together.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for store wide deals and earn four times the points look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Lindor, Chips Ahoy, Gatorade, post Ziploc and Zoa, then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings. When you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go, pick up or delivery restrictions apply. See website for full terms and conditions.

[Grainger or VRBoCare Commercial Voice]

When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

For thousands of years in every culture on Earth, people have been reporting shared death experiences. Some are nothing more than a feeling that their loved one is there in the room. Other experiences involve seeing, hearing, and even floating with someone who's passed away. But are we really seeing someone's soul or spirit? Or is it just a shared hallucination based on expectation and triggered by grief? Well, let's break down what's happening. The skeptical explanations are worth hearing. Shared psychosis is a real thing, where people in high stress situations can unconsciously mirror each other's experiences. There's nothing more stressful than sitting next to someone as they die. Emotions are so overwhelming that the brain tries to make sense of something that can't be explained, something it doesn't want to deal with. Memory reconstruction is an even stronger argument. Every time you remember something, your brain edits the memory. Under extreme emotional stress, those edits get more dramatic. SDE experiencers may be unconsciously reshaping their memories to match patterns they learned about later. Confirmation bias is another problem. If you're sitting at a deathbed hoping for a sign your brain might create one. Physicist Sean Carroll argues that life after death is incompatible with everything we know about modern physics. We're made of atoms, so when we die, it's like a candle being blown out. There's no way for consciousness to survive because there's nothing for it to survive in.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Yet it seems to me you live your life like a candle in your wing. No more atoms to cling to when it rain set in.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

That was pretty good.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Yeah, I just missed Norma Jean. The real Kennedy conspiracy is her death. Chappa did it.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Skeptical investigator Joe Nichols says STEs are psychological coping mechanisms. When people remember the moment of loss. They introduce false memories to make it more bearable. A 2024 study in neuroscience of Consciousness found strong overlap between near death experiences and psychedelic experiences. The closest match was ketamine, then dmt. The human brain naturally produces dmt. Some researchers think the dying brain may release its own dmt. Now, these are reasonable arguments. And for bedside stes involving a single witness, they might be enough. But these explanations don't cover remote stes. Annie Capp didn't know her mother was dying when she started choking. Mark didn't know his father was dying until he felt it. 64% of Peter's cases were remote. No shared grief, no shared room. The skeptical arguments don't explain multiple witness cases where people in the same room saw the same things. They don't explain children. A four year old hasn't been culturally primed about near death experiences. When a child describes a dead relative they've never seen down to physical details, expectation bias isn't enough. Then there is the cross cultural consistency. If STEs were purely psychological, they'd vary across religions. But Hindu and Christian patients describe the same experience the same way. Italian, Mexican, Brazilian and Taiwanese cultures are very different. But again, the reports are almost identical. Van Lommel, Peters, Parnia, Borjan. Their studies are all peer reviewed. They have data, but data doesn't mean proof. We still don't know the mechanism. We don't know how a healthy brain could share the experience of a dying one. We don't know why some people have SDEs and others don't. We can't predict them, induce them, or measure them in real time. What we know is thousands of people, nurses and doctors, friends and strangers, adults and children, atheists and people of faith, all reported experiences during someone else's death that changed them permanently. Most became convinced of an afterlife. Their grief didn't disappear, but it transformed. And they no longer fear death. So maybe SDEs are an elegant defense mechanism built into all of us. Our brains create a shared hallucination so powerful that it rewires grief into peace. Or maybe when someone dies, something actually happens. Something real. Something the person next to them or 5,000 miles away can feel. We can't prove the afterlife exists, but thousands of people have touched it and every one of them came back changed. The evidence points to something more. A connection between the living and the dying across rooms and across oceans. A four year old sees her grandfather's scar. A doctor in Utah sees a dead woman he's never met. A son in London feels his mother dying in Portland. Death may be neurological shutdown, or it may be a spiritual transition, or maybe it's something we haven't imagined yet. Whatever it is, it's not something we go through alone. Thousands of cases tell us that the most isolated death, the most private moment of dying somehow becomes shared. The body dies, but the connection continues. When it's time to go, someone's already there, waiting to walk us home. Thank you so much for hanging out today. My name is aj. That's how Go fish.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Yeah, if you need me, I'll be sitting next to the human's bed waiting to see if anything interesting happens.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Besides, that was creepy. And this has been the why Files. If you had fun or learned something and you're not too depressed, do us a favor and like, subscribe, comment, share. That stuff really helps us out. And like most topics we cover here on the channel, today's was recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to see or learn more about, go to thewildfiles.com tips remember, the wild Files is also a podcast. Twice a week I post deep dives into the stories we cover on the channel. I also post episodes that wouldn't be allowed on the video platforms. And the podcast is called, wait for it, the Y Files Operation Podcast, and it's available everywhere. And if you're listening on an audio platform, do us a favor and click the follow and like and leave. Good review. That really helps. Now, if you need more Y Files in your life, check out our Discord server. We've got over a hundred thousand members, so there's someone on there 24 7. They're into the same weird stuff we are. It's always something going on. It's a great community. It's really supportive. If you're feeling down, it's a lot of fun and it's free to join. Speaking of 24. 7, go check out our 24. 7 stream on Y Files backstage link below. Over there we run episodes back to back with some fun, unique content in between. Actually, the live chat is more entertaining than the videos. If you enjoy the stories I tell on the Y Files, check out my other show on the channel called the Basement. It's a conversation show where I chat with the interesting people behind the episodes. Some of them you know, some you don't. But they're all people I find fascinating. Experts on fun topics like the Knights Templar, the Moon landing hoax, JFK Conspiracy, Karahan Tepe, UFO experiencers. We've covered a lot of stuff so far. If there's someone you want to see on the show, let me know. I'm always looking for good guests. A special thanks to our patrons who made this channel happen and make everything possible. Every episode of the Wildflowers is dedicated to my Patreon members. I couldn't have done any of this without your support. And if you'd to like, like to support the channel, keep us going, join this amazing community. Become a member on Patreon for as little as three bucks a month. You get access to perks like seeing videos early with no commercials, exclusive merch, plus two private live streams every week just for you. And the whole Yfiles team is on the stream. So you're welcome to turn on your webcam, ask a question, or talk about anything you like. It's a great way to get to know us as people. I think it's the best perk there is. Another awesome way to support the channel. Grab something for the WI Fi store.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Oh, one of these fistable coffee mugs you can stick your ghost fist into. Or a hoodie. Set my face on it. Oh, one of these adorable squeezy animals. I'll look it up. Adorable squeezy animal hangers.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

But if you're gonna buy merch, make sure you become a member on YouTube. YouTube members get 10% off everything in the wildfile store. Forever.

[Co-host or Sidekick (Casual Commentator)]

Yeah, keep that secret close to your girls. Us.

[AJ (Host of The Why Files)]

Boy, those are the plugs. And that's gonna do it. I tried to get through them as quick as I could. Until next time, be safe, be kind and know that you are appreciated.

[Musical or Poetic Interlude Performer]

Inside the Bible said I I was I love my UFOs and paranormal fun as well as music so I'm singing like I should but then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth, my friends and it never ends no, it never ends. I feel the crap Cat and I got stuck inside mel's home with mkotra I'm being only 2 aware did Stanley Kubrick fake the moon landing alone on a film set? Or were the shadow people there? The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man, I'm told and his name was cold I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish Bitch had no fish on Thursday night Swing and the wiping all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth so the waffles on my feet all through the night. The mothman sightings and the solar storm still come to Agatha the secret city underground mysterious number stations Planet Surf 02 Project Stargate and what the dark watchers found in a simulation. Don't you worry though the black knights out of a lot of D so I can't believe I'm dancing with the fish headfish on Thursday nights with AJ when the weapons I bring me all through the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the troops of the weapons I'm a beat up through the night head fish on Thursday nights when they change you and weapons I be off to the. Loves to dance yeah girly love to dance on the dance floor because she is a camel and camels love to dance when the feeling is right Always in time.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Grainger or VRBoCare Commercial Voice]

manage procurement for multiple facilities. Every order matters, but when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.