Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “Existence Beyond the Body,” a discussion of studies of consciousness after death, with researchers from the Division of Perceptual Studies in the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine.

There aren’t any easy scientific explanations for “out-of-body” or “near-death” experiences or for memories of past lives. Yet such extraordinary experiences are taken seriously by UVA’s Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), which for nearly 60 years has rigorously examined scientific evidence related to the mind’s relationship to the body and the possibility of consciousness surviving physical death.

Learn about such research and what it has yielded so far at a talk given by four of the division’s researchers from the fields of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences: Assistant Professor Marina Weiler, Assistant Professor David Acunzo, Research Assistant Professor Marieta Pehlivanova, and Research Associate Professor Philip Cozzolino.

In a talk tackling some of the biggest questions facing humankind, the researchers will discuss their scientific approach to making sense of extraordinary human experiences and their impact on individuals. They’ll also present evidence that they have derived from lab-based experiments and other studies.

The researchers will describe the seminal work that led to the creation of DOPS—studies of children who speak at length and in great detail about what appears to be a past life—and they’ll talk about how it continues to this day with the help of new neuroimaging techniques. You’ll learn how DOPS also leads in the study of out-of-body experiences, during which people have the unique sense of feeling disembodied or existing in space away from their physical body.

The researchers also will discuss their thorough investigations of near-death experiences—intensely vivid (and often life-transforming) experiences that occur when individuals are close to death or clinically dead and subsequently resuscitated. These often occur during cardiac arrest, which may lead to the ceasing of brain activity, or under deep general anesthesia—conditions in which no awareness or sensory experiences should be possible.

Some of the most profound experiences that people have are shrouded in mystery. This talk won’t provide all of the answers, but at least will bring you up to speed on some intriguing efforts to find them. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: A 19th-century Luigi Schiavonetti illustration (with tint added) of Robert Blair's poem “The Grave.”