The Lazarus Effect
The Science That is Rewriting the Boundaries Between Life and Death
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
· How many minutes can you survive after cardiac arrest?
· What do new medical techniques teach us about consciousness?
· How will these change our views of who we are?
In 2012, two football stars collapsed while playing. Both were technically dead yet, while Fabrice Muamba received hypothermia treatment and recovered, his counterpart in another country did not. In The Lazarus Effect, Dr Sam Parnia, a critical care physician and one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death, uses fascinating stories, as well as the very latest research, to show what happens to the mind and body during cardiac arrest and death. he also explains how medical advances are revolutionising our chances of survival.
Death is no longer a fixed moment in time. What does that mean? And how can we account for the way the human mind continues to function after death has begun?
These questions hold profound ethical, scientific and philosophical implications for us all, not least the fact that, soon, we will have more power over life and death than ever before.
Customer Reviews
A profoundly important book
Dr Parnia spends his life saving lives and working to disseminate his knowledge of advanced resuscitation techniques to the medical establishment. His broad understanding of the topic makes him one of, if not the most specialised expert in the world. He makes a series of compelling arguments as to why the practices he recommends for resuscitation and post resuscitation need to be implemented as compulsory standards for all hospitals and ambulance services.
The book also explains that death is a process not a moment. Maybe this means we are neither alive nor dead during this phase? Maybe we need a "Parnia's cat"?
This aspect of the book alone is a good enough reason for all medical personnel working in hospitals, all medical administrators and government officials to read this book and implement the recommendations. Millions of lives will be saved and millions will be saved from brain damage as a result. This is beyond argument but it is only one side of the book.
The other side provides a brave look at the implications of post death cognition. All materialists and most scientists argue that consciousness is simply a by product of chemical and electrical function in the brain. Dr Parnia points out that there is a great deal of evidence which suggests this may not be correct. I say he is brave to do this because he risks ridicule at the hands of the Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermers of this world. The materialists like to believe they have all the answers to life, the cosmos and all phenomena and they also believe that others have no right to a different opinion. Further they would ban all universities and institutions from even enquiring in this direction if they had the power to do so.
Depending on your pre-existing point of view this book either contains "smoking gun" evidence of an afterlife, or it just adds to a series of anecdotal stories of false memories produced by the traumatic experience of being brought back from death. Some will accept the testimony of those revived as empirical evidence of out of body experiences and some will hold to the view that they are just illusions.
Whatever your pre-conceptions are you will get something from the book. It is thoughtfully written and whilst it is primarily clinical and scientific, Dr Parnia is writing from the heart. I hope one day he finds the "smoking gun" evidence he is after, for all our sakes, and wins a nobel prize. He deserves it for his bravery alone.
Bravo Dr Parnia, Bravo.