What causes Near-Death Experiences

More Than Mortal · January 05, 2015, 09:33:03 AM

For those of you that don't know, Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) are a phenomenon in which people still experience and continuation of awareness and identity even while clinically dead. So, having an out-of-body experience while flat-lining, entering a tunnel of light, having a panoramic life "review", communicating with a non-physical yet substantial entity (God, essentially).

The term was coined by Raymond Moody in his book Life After Life, in which he retells the subjects' experiences while clinically dead. Moody was heavily criticised for his research method and his personal bias towards the paranormal, but subsequent studies by the likes of Bruce Greyson, Kenneth Ring and and P.M.H. Atwater have confirmed Moody's initial findings and conclusions.

And of course, there was the instance of Colton Burpo's NDE, which was recounted in the 2003 book Heaven is for Real, which was heavily Christian, unreasonable and has a whole load of problems with its consistency in relation to Christian eschatology. But, nonetheless, there's no question that these experiences do occur.

The idea of some sort of transcendent or spiritual substance which exists apart from the material has myriad philosophical problems (if you want to know more, it has to do with Hume's bundle theory vs various substance theories like Plato's Theory of Forms and Aristotelian Hylomorphism), but first and foremost it should be noted that empirical evidence for these experiences isn't evidence for the transcendent, merely that we can say such experiences exist. It's an unjustified leap to just assume resurrection or reincarnation.

However, most of the scientific challenges that have sought to meet and explain these phenomena have fallen flat on their faces. We know it isn't simply a matter of hallucinations, because hallucinations aren't so similar between people, and explanations like cerebral anoxia and an endorphin rush have been resoundingly disproved by the work of Melvin Morse. However, Morse's hypothesis of a "God spot" in the right temporal lobe has, in turn, been disproved by the University of Montreal.

If I had to choose an explanation--there was a study conducted by the University of Michigan on dying rats which found that, thirty seconds prior to death, there was a sharp increase in neurological activity across the brain (supporting the work done in Montreal) which would be experientially similar to take psilocybin, the key psychedelic in Magic Mushrooms. If it holds true that dying people have similar such neurological spikes, it could explain the existence of NDEs.

Sandtrap · January 05, 2015, 09:42:50 AM

This reminds me of something discussed in school a really long damn time ago. I can't even legitimately remember where the discussion came from or what it was about. But, back in the fun days when guillotines were still around, some of the thinking type people had some fun with execution victims by running simple experiments.

I don't remember who it was, but he asked the participants to try and blink rapidly as long as they could and sure enough even after some people got their heads lobbed off they managed it for a short period.

It could be a load of bullshit because I don't remember the context of the discussion and personally if I was under a guillotine I'd probably spit on the shoes of somebody who asked me to blink real fast as I got my head lobbed off.

But then again, our nervous system does have death throe twitches when beheading is involved. If our body has those last second pulses then it's reasonable to think that our brain does as well, no?

Mr. Psychologist · January 05, 2015, 09:48:14 AM

Quote

What causes Near-Death Experiences?

~~Women Drivers~~ I'm not sure really.

It's not really something I've looked into/studied a whole lot (See: at all) but the neurological activity spike and death throes explanation/ideas (OP and Sandtrap's posts respectively) seem to make the most sense in my mind.

Super Irish · January 05, 2015, 11:06:51 AM

I've only got anecdotes to discuss, so here goes...

Spoiler

Technically, my mother died for a short period when giving birth to me. Despite receiving some pain relievers that supposedly knocked her out cold, she remembers hearing nurses saying something along the lines of "Shit, do CPR", and feeling them pushing on her chest to restart her heart (she doesn't recall the pain, though after recovering later she was covered in bruises by this). She also recalls being given last rites by a Catholic Priest which was pretty traumatising for her, especially seeing as when my father was asked about this prior, he refused it for this exact reason (that she possibly could be still alive and would know they essentially "gave-up"). She was otherwise calm throughout this experience (though fully aware that she was pretty much declared dead), no physical feelings, and no "light at the end of a tunnel" - just darkness.

But that's the confusing bit. Technically, she was supposed to be dead at this point, and even if alive, was also inoculated... the presence of a priest was confirmed later on when my mother told my father afterwards and he confronted the hospital about it. I dunno, perhaps the Dr. fucked up on the dose on the knock-out drugs, and also fucked up on the death diagnosis, but it seems unlikely that both could have happened.

I don't know why we have near-death experiences, though these hypotheses make sense, almost as if the brain was doing a last-ditch attempt at remaining alive, sort of how before going unconscious from strangulation or drowning people can suddenly gain a "boost" to fight for their survival.

Ender · January 05, 2015, 11:21:01 AM

The only person that i know to ever get close to death was my brother who got hit by a car, and it wasn't just like "oh he got tapped and walked away" he was in the hospital for 2 months and this happened around when he was 13. he almost died like 10 times in that hospital and one of them he did suffer a NDE.

BrenMan 94 · January 05, 2015, 01:24:05 PM

I subscribe to the theory that there's a surge of neurological activity; an effort by the brain to keep the person alive. I also believe that what people see in NDEs is based largely on what they think happens when you die. Many people see Heaven (or Hell) and God (or Satan) because the vast majority of the world is Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Catholic, and that is what the afterlife is portrayed as in mass media. I'd be interested to see more data gathered about NDEs in societies where the predominant religion isn't Abrahamic.

Dustin · January 05, 2015, 02:36:41 PM

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More Than Mortal · January 05, 2015, 02:40:37 PM

Quote from: Dustin xLilD on January 05, 2015, 02:36:41 PM

Just because there's a Ted video doesn't mean the speaker isn't complete retard who doesn't know what they're talking about.

The fuck are you talking about?

Dustin · January 05, 2015, 02:44:44 PM

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aREALgod · January 05, 2015, 03:54:04 PM

What interests me more is when people have out-of-body NDEs and see things they shouldn't be seeing. I was watching a show on this and one of the cases was a girl of about 18 who was born blind and was in a severe car accident. While in the ER she fell into asystole, but upon coming back was able to describe the room in detail and the ER technicians working on her and what they looked like and what they did. She was accurate.

Now that is much more interesting and thought provoking that your run-of-the-mill NDE, because it's something that isn't nearly as explainable.

Dan · January 05, 2015, 09:09:26 PM

It's possible that a flood of Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) released from the pineal gland causes a NDE.

TheOneTrueDesticle · January 05, 2015, 09:16:00 PM

I read about an Air Force pilot who would regularly experience NDEs (or rather the sensation of them) brought on by intense G-forces while flying. The oxygen deprivation experienced under such forces can cause a person to see the sort of hallucinations one might see in a NDE.

I'm curious to see if I could locate the actual story somewhere.