Medical researchers studying the brain during clinical death have found people experience consciousness for up to three minutes after their heart stops beating.

The Awareness during Resuscitation (AWARE) study of 2000 patients around the world found 46 per cent of patients who survived cardiac arrest reported mental recollections of their death.

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Two per cent of people experienced full awareness with explicit memory of seeing and hearing the events of their clinical death.

Lead researcher Dr Sam Parnia, director of resuscitation research at the State University of New York, said the research challenged the idea that people only had ‘out of body’ experiences before their heart stopped beating.

“In this case, consciousness and awareness appeared to occur during a three-minute period when there was no heartbeat,” Dr Parnia said.