I remember there being a story on ABCNEWS.com  about Near Death
Experiences (NDE's).  There was supposed to be a study done
specifically in which they would place these stickers behind the lamps
of the patients beds who were being rescutitated.  Then they would see
the percentage of people whom, if they had a NDE, would be able to
describe what the stickers were behind the lamp.  That is if they
really had an out of body experience, they should be able to describe
what the stickers were.  Can someone find that article in ABCNEWS.com.
 I've tried but found some other articles in ABCNEWS not that one
though.  The article was there I believe not more than 6months ago. 
But I'm fairly confident that it wasn't more than a year ago. Also I
believe that the study would be done in london or england, and that
the results would be published in a major medical journal (The
Lancet?).
Why do I care?  I want to see if NDE's are true or not, and this study
is the most objective study that I've ever heard of.
Note: If you can come up with more objective scientific studies like
this on this subject, that I haven't read about, I will give you a
tip.  I should also mention that I've already read about four books on
the subject but haven't seen any objective studies on the subject. Oh,
I've also read all the following articles on ABCnews about NDE's
"Brushes with death", "Seeking Meaning Beyond" , "Study suggests life
after death", "Accounting for the afterlife's new appeal".  None of
them were the one that I mentioned-with the stickers behind the
lights.

Hello rockon26 and thank you for your question.

I immediately recognised the story you are referring to as my sister
is a doctor in the Southampton area (where one of the research doctors
is based) in the UK.  I remember her mentioning it to me, and having
quite a lengthy discussion with her on the subject.

"In December 2001, a Dutch neurologist, Dr. Pim van Lommel of Hospital
Rijnstate in Arnhem, Netherlands, led a team that published an article
in The Lancet, the United Kingdom's highly respected journal of
medicine. The study showed that 18 percent of clinically dead
patients, later resuscitated, recalled near-death experiences years
after the event."
"Fenwick and Parnia plan to place cards above the patients' heads that
can only be seen from the ceiling, where those who experience
out-of-body experiences claim to watch their resuscitation."
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,55826,00.html

for further information see:

"Recent Scientific Studies of NDE during Cardiac Arrest"
http://www.datadiwan.de/SciMedNet/library/articlesN75+/N76Parnia_nde.htm

"A lecture given by Drs Sam Parnia and Peter Fenwick at the University
of Southampton, 15th May 2001"
http://www.damaris.org/dcscs/readingroom/2001/neardeathexperiences.htm

"A doctor in Southampton has been given ethical approval for a large
scale trial to investigate what happens when patients have a "near
death experience"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1685311.stm

Thank you for your question, and if you need any clarification of my
answer, do not hesitate to ask for a clarification.

Very best regards (Click on my search strategy below for more information :)

THX1138

Search strategy included:
southampton "near death experience"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&q=southampton+%22near+death+experience%22

---

Clarification of Answer by thx1138-ga on 17 Dec 2003 06:24 PST

Hello again rockon26.

Just to let you know that the author of the article in 'The Lancet'
has a website with the scientific study explained at great length.

I'm sure you will find it fascinating. (it also includes the authors
email should you wish to contact him)

"Near-death experience in survivors of cardiac arrest: a prospective
study in the Netherlands"
http://profezie3m.altervista.org/archivio/TheLancet_NDE.htm

Very best regards

THX1138

---

Clarification of Answer by thx1138-ga on 17 Dec 2003 08:31 PST

And I think the ABC.com article you were looking for is this one:

"Brushes With Death"
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/DrJohnson/GMA020108Near_death_experiences.html

and to be more specific about using the 'hidden cards', it would seem
that this experiment is not yet underway.

"Thursday September 11, 2:47 PM 2003
Quest to unravel the mystery of "out-of-body" experiences" 
http://in.news.yahoo.com/030911/139/27pvp.htmlhttp://in.news.yahoo.com/030911/139/27pvp.html


and an interesting website for you:
http://www.near-death.com/index.html

Very best regards

THX1138

Thorough, and right on the mark! Thank you!

In terms of ABCNEWS.com, here are two articles relating to THX1138's
answer.  These articles, along with the Wired article cited in the
answer, indicate that there were actually two studies: one based in
Southampton (results published in Resuscitation), and the other in the
Netherlands (results published in Lancet):

"Brushes With Death", by Dr. Tim Johnson (Jan. 8, 2002)
ABCNEWS.com
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/gma/drjohnson/gma020108near_death_experiences.html

"Study Suggests Life After Death", by Sarah Tippit (June 29, 2001)
ABCNEWS.com
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/brain_dead010629.html

This site contains all the NDE studies, requests for research
subjects, requests for interviews, and other activities for
experiencers and researchers to participate in:
http://www.near-death.com/studies.html

BEYOND AND BACK by Ralph Wilkerson is a fascinating treatment of this
subject. It might fall short of your "objective experiment" criterion
but describes a number of firsthand observations and discusses the
implications. It might further your knowledge of the subject. The book
spawned a major motion picture of the same name in the late 1970s and
also a sequel. I remember my dad took me to see it and it scared the
bahoozits out of me.