Near Death Experiences
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A near-death experience (NDE), refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light, which some people interpret as a deity.
Some see NDEs as a paranormal and spiritual glimpse into the afterlife.
These phenomena are usually reported after an individual has been pronounced clinically dead, or otherwise in a situation very close to death (hence the entitlement near-death experience).
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With recent developments in cardiac resuscitation techniques, the number of NDEs reported has increased. Many in the scientific community regard such experiences as hallucinatory, while paranormal specialists and a few mainstream scientists claim them to be evidence of an afterlife.
Researchers have identified the common elements that define the Near-death experience. Among the general features of the experience we may find: subjective impressions of being outside the physical body, visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, and transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries.
The most intense NDEs are reported to have an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time, and some of these observations are said to have been evidential.
The traits of a classical NDE are as follows:
- The notice of a very unpleasant sound or noise.
- A sense / awareness of being dead.
- A sense of peace, well-being and painlessness.
- Positive emotions.
- A feeling of being removed from the world.
- An out-of-body experience. (A perception of one’s body from an outside position. Sometimes observing doctors and nurses performing medical resuscitation efforts.)
- A "tunnel experience". A sense of moving up, or through, a passageway or staircase.
- A rapid movement toward and / or sudden immersion in a powerful light.
- Communication with the light.
- An intense feeling of unconditional love.
- Encountering "Beings of Light", "Beings dressed in white", or other spiritual beings. Also, the possibility of being reunited with deceased loved ones
- Being given a life review.
- Being presented with knowledge about one's life and the nature of the Universe.
- A decision by oneself or others to return to one’s body, often accompanied by a reluctance to return.
- Approaching a border.
Many NDEs occur after a crucial experience (e.g. when a patient can hear that he or she is declared to be dead by a doctor or nurse), or when a person has the subjective impression to be in a fatal situation (e.g. during a close call car accident)
Contributions to the research on near-death experiences have come from several academic disciplines, among these the disciplines of medicine, psychology and psychiatry. The International Association for Near-death Studies, (IANDS) was formed in 1981. IANDS is an international organization that encourages scientific research and education on the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual nature and ramifications of near-death experiences.
The medical community has been somewhat reluctant to address the phenomenon of NDEs, and grant money for research has been scarce.
In a new theory devised by Kinseher in 2006, the knowledge of the Sensory Autonomic System is applied in the NDE phenomenon. His theory states that the experience of looming death is an extremely strange paradox to a living organism - and therefore it will start the NDE: during the NDE, the individual becomes capable of "seeing" the brain performing a scan of the whole episodic memory (even prenatal experiences), in order to find a stored experience which is comparable to the input information of death. All these scanned and retrieved bits of information are permanently evaluated by the actual mind, as it is searching for a coping mechanism out of the potentially fatal situation. Kinseher feels this is the reason why a near-death experience is so unusual.
The theory also states that out-of-body experiences, accompanied with NDEs, are an attempt by the brain to create a mental overview of the situation and the surrounding world. The brain then transforms the input from sense organs and stored experience (knowledge) into a dream-like idea about oneself and the surrounding area.
The Near Death website profiles the most profound near-death experiences ever documented along with supporting scientific, metaphysical, and religious material.
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The Effects of Having a NDE
Near-death experiences can have a major impact on the people who have them, and they may produce a variety of after-effects. Many of these effects are associated with changes in personality and outlook on life.
Kenneth Ring has identified a consistent set of value and belief changes associated with people who have had a Near-death experience. Among these changes we find: a greater appreciation for life, higher self-esteem, greater compassion for others, a heightened sense of purpose and self-understanding, desire to learn, elevated spirituality, greater ecological sensitivity and planetary concern, a feeling of being more intuitive (sometimes psychic).
Changes may also include: increased physical sensitivity; diminished tolerance to light, alcohol, and drugs; a feeling that the brain has been "altered" to encompass more; and a feeling that one is now using the "whole brain" rather than just a small part.
However, not all after-effects are beneficial and Greyson describes circumstances where changes in attitudes and behavior can lead to psychosocial and psychospiritual problems. Often the problems have to do with the adjustment to ordinary life in the wake of the NDE.
Many view the NDE as the precursor to an afterlife experience, claiming that the NDE cannot be adequately explained by physiological or psychological causes, and that the phenomenon conclusively demonstrates that human consciousness can function independently of brain activity.
Many NDE-accounts seem to include elements which, according to several theorists, can only be explained by an out-of-body consciousness. For example, in one account, a woman accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as a conversation that occurred while she was under general anesthesia.
In another account, from a prospective Dutch NDE study, a nurse removed the dentures of an unconscious heart attack victim, and was asked by him after his recovery to return them. It might be difficult to explain in conventional terms how an unconscious patient could later have recognized the nurse.
Dr. Michael Sabom reports a case about a woman who underwent surgery for an aneurysm. The woman reported an out-of-body experience that she claimed continued through a brief period of the absence of any EEG activity. If true, this would seem to challenge the belief held by many that consciousness is situated entirely within the brain.
Many individuals who experience an NDE see it as a verification of the existence of an afterlife. This includes those with agnostic / atheist inclinations before the experience.
The NDE is often cited as evidence for the existence of the human soul, the afterlife, heaven and hell, ideas that appear in many religious traditions. On the other hand, skeptical commentators view NDEs as purely neurological and chemical phenomena occurring in the brain. From this perspective NDEs are the result of purely physiological and neurobiological mechanisms.