A group of doctors yesterday called for more scientific research into near-death experiences, admitting they defied medical explanation.

Stories told by people who have been close to death of finding themselves out of their body, looking on as doctors tried to resuscitate them, are loved by the spiritual and hated by sceptics.

The group of Dutch doctors attempted a scientific approach to establish what, if anything, people who were technically dead were experiencing in the minutes while their brain was inactive and they were undergoing resuscitation, the medical journal Lancet reported.

They interviewed 344 patients who were resuscitated after a cardiac arrest in 10 Dutch hospitals, asking them whether they had a near-death experience and if so, what it was like.

They interviewed them again, two and eight years later, to find out whether their attitudes to life and death had changed.

Pim van Lommel, of the division of cardiology at the Hospital Rijnstate in Arnhem, and colleagues say they found that only 62 patients told of a near-death experience. Of those, 41 described it as a deep experience. This mystified the doctors, who said that if there was a purely physiological or medical reason for the experience, "most patients who have been clinically dead should report one".

Half of those who reported a near-death experience said they had been aware of being dead. Fifty-six per cent experienced positive emotions. A third said they met deceased relatives, 31% said they were aware of moving through a tunnel, and 29% said they observed a celestial landscape. Fifteen had an out of body experience and eight saw their life reviewed.

In one hospital, a patient who arrived in a comatose state told a nurse where his dentures had been placed. The doctors say the near-death experiences were not related to medication. Younger patients and those with a good memory were more likely to report an experience than older ones. The follow-up interviews show that those who had an experience had more belief in the afterlife and less fear of death.

The paper suggests the concept of consciousness and memories being localised in the brain may need re-examination.