h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

dont know about actually tracing the soul, but we've been studying near death experiences recently, and one of the criticisms is that they happen just before the body looses consciousness, and therefore the mind is still working and it is just an illusion.
it has been hard to disprove this, as they usually occur when people have sudden cardiac arrests, and if the patient has an out of body experience, when he/she wakes up and describes what he/she saw, there is no way of knowing when it took place, as the doctors were all busy trying to save the patients life (is this making sense?)
however, there was a case recently when a woman was operated on to remove a blood clot from the base of her brain. to do this, they cooled her right down, so her brain was dormant, and not working. but because it wasnt an emergency operation, and was planned, the conditions were being monitored v carefully.
when she woke up, she reported having an out of body experience, and what she reported seeing must have happened while her brain wasnt working...

also, and this is v interesting, people who have been blind from birth, and have never seen anything, reported having near death experiences where they actually saw things. no-one has been able to explain how this could just be an illusion.