No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity After Clinical Declaration of Death Among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in Apparent Tukdam, a Putative Postmortem Meditation State
Dylan Thomas Lott, Tenzin Yeshi, N. Norchung, Sonam Dolma, Nyima Tsering, Ngawang Jinpa, Tenzin Woser, Kunsang Dorjee, Tenzin Desel, Dan Fitch, Anna J Finley, Robin I. Goldman, Ana María Ortiz Bernal, Rachele Ragazzi, Karthik Aroor, John V. Koger, Andy Francis, David M Perlman, Joseph Wielgosz, David R. W. Bachhuber, Tsewang Tamdin, Tsetan Dorji Sadutshang, John D. Dunne, Antoine Lutz, Richard J. Davidson
Frontiers in Psychology January 28, 2021 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599190 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Healthy baseline subjects and postmortem Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in a putative meditative state (tukdam) |
| Topics | Meditation Buddhism |
| Keywords | Mismatch negativity Electroencephalography Audiology Electrophysiology Brainstem |
| Citations | 18 |
| Key findings | Living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, but no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases. |
Abstract
Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and, more specifically, to investigate the possibility of brain activity following the cessation of cardiac and respiratory function. Under the direction of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research was conducted in India on a postmortem meditative state cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For all healthy baseline (HB) and postmortem (PM) subjects presented here, we collected resting state electroencephalographic data, mismatch negativity (MMN), and auditory brainstem response (ABR). In this study, we present HB data to demonstrate the feasibility of a sparse electrode EEG configuration to capture well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions. While living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| AN ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHIC STUDY ON THE ZEN MEDITATION (ZAZEN) Zen priests and disciples of Zen sects of Buddhism | 1966 | Observational study | n = 48 |
| “Thinking about Not-Thinking”: Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation Regular Zen practitioners and matched control subjects | 2008 | Observational cohort | |
| Individual Trait Anxiety Levels Characterizing the Properties of Zen Meditation Healthy adults who had not previously practiced any form of meditation | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 22 |
| Zen meditation, Length of Telomeres, and the Role of Experiential Avoidance and Compassion 20 Zen meditation experts and 20 healthy matched non-meditators | 2016 | Observational cohort | n = 40 |
| EEG dynamics of experienced Zen meditation practitioners probed by complexity index and spectral measure Experienced Zen meditation practitioners and matched controls | 2009 | Observational cohort | n = 46 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 12
- Defining Meditation: Foundations for an Activity-Based Phenomenological Classification System. Frontiers in Psychology 2021
- Training the embodied self in its impermanence: meditators evidence neurophysiological markers of death acceptance. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2025
- Patients with Disorders of Consciousness: Are They Nonconscious, Unconscious, or Subconscious? Expanding the Discussion. Brain Sciences May 17, 2023
- Toward a Unified Model of Advanced Meditation, Human Development, Meditation Maps, and Transtradition Metaphors: Facing Impermanence, Suffering, and Death Mindfulness July 29, 2025
- Electrophysiological correlates of zen meditation: An investigation using in-monastery EEG acquisition Biological Psychology October 1, 2025
and 7 more in the library
Cites 6
- Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 8, 2004
- Differential effects of non-dual and focused attention meditations on the formation of automatic perceptual habits in expert practitioners Neuropsychologia July 21, 2018
- BrainAGE and regional volumetric analysis of a Buddhist monk: a longitudinal MRI case study. Neurocase April 2020
- Surge of neurophysiological coherence and connectivity in the dying brain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences August 27, 2013
- Preserved feedforward but impaired top-down processes in the vegetative state. Science May 13, 2011
and 1 more in the library