Near-Death Experiences

What are  (NDEs)? What is the origin of these experiences? Does everyone who nearly dies have the same experience? Let us look at this from the currently available medical literature.

A study was publish of series of 48 patients who were admitted to a hospital in a deep coma (level III on the III-3 coma scale) due to "cardiac arrest, pulmonary failure, cerebrovascular accident, and/or other life-threatening disease" and recovered. 14 Patients (37%) had a "vivid and undeniably personal experience during their unconscious state". "Among the NDE reported, there were such elements as flying in a dark void space with dim light ahead, encountering dead relatives or friends, standing at the boundary of brook, river or pond, and returning to the world in response to a voice calling from behind". 1 

Most NDEs are described as involving "profound feelings of peace, joy, and cosmic unity," Drs. B. Grayson and N.E. Bush research find that this is not always the case. The have collected much contrary testimony. They classify NDEs into three categories;
(1) Phenomenology similar to peaceful near-death experiences but interpreted as unpleasant,
(2) A sense of nonexistence or eternal void, or,
(3) Graphic hellish landscapes and entities." 2

Hallucinogen ingestion and temporolimbic epilepsy produce a near identical experience as is described by persons having a near-death experiences (NEDs). These brain disturbances produce "depersonalization, derealization, ecstasy, a sense of timelessness and spacelessness, and other experiences that foster religious-numinous interpretation.3

The temporolimbic lobes are believed to be the part of our brain causing emotions. These "out of body experiences" are believed to arise from a disturbance in these areas.3 The persons religious framework interprets these experiences.

These "out-of-body experience" are not uncommon in patient emerging from anesthesia after surgery.4

The  Anesthetic Ketamine has been extensively studied and will reproduce NDEs.  See Using Ketamine to Induce the Near-Death Experience: Mechanism of Action and Therapeutic Potential

Conclusions

1. There is a logical physiologic explanation for these NDEs.
2. They are produced by brain disturbances other than NDEs.
3. They like dreams may be pleasant or unpleasant.
4. NDEs does not prove that there is life after death. It is only an unusual emotional sensation. We must rely on the bible to know about life after death.

1.Yamamura H Department of Medicine and Gerontology, Kyorin University School of Medicine. Nippon Ronen Igakkai Zasshi 1998 Feb;35(2):103-15
2. Grayson, Bruce, and Bush, Nancy Evans; "Distressing Near-Death Experiences,"Psychiatry, 55:95, 1992
3. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1997 Summer;9(3):498-510
4. J Post Anesth Nurs 1995 Feb;10(1):27-8